Plot Summary
Chapter XVII opens with Miles Hendon searching fruitlessly through Southwark for the young prince, eventually deducing that Edward would head toward Hendon Hall. Meanwhile, Edward has been lured out of safety by a youth named Hugo, who falsely claims that Hendon lies wounded in a nearby wood. When the King arrives at an abandoned barn, he discovers the ruse — John Canty, now calling himself "John Hobbs" to evade the law after killing a priest, has recaptured him. Canty insists Edward play the role of his son "Jack" and demands to know the whereabouts of the rest of the family.
As night falls, the barn fills with a motley gang of roughly twenty-five thieves, beggars, and vagrants who form a criminal underworld led by a chief known as the Ruffler. The gang feasts, drinks, and sings a cant-language ballad. When Hobbs asks after old acquaintances, he hears grim tales — one woman burned as a witch, another comrade killed in a brawl. The former farmer Yokel delivers a harrowing account of how English law stripped him of his land, whipped his family through three towns, branded him as a slave, and drove his wife and children to their deaths.
Moved by Yokel's speech, Edward steps forward and declares himself King of England, vowing to end such unjust laws. The gang erupts in mocking laughter, and a tinker dubs him "Foo-foo the First, King of the Mooncalves." The vagrants stage a burlesque coronation — crowning him with a tin basin, robing him in a tattered blanket, and seating him on a barrel — while heaping sarcastic supplications upon him. The chapter ends with tears of shame in Edward's eyes and the bitter recognition that his offer of kindness has been met with cruelty.
Character Development
Edward's royal dignity is tested to its limit. Despite his helplessness, he never wavers in asserting his identity, displaying the same stubborn courage that defines him throughout the novel. His immediate, compassionate response to Yokel's suffering — "Thou shalt not! — and this day the end of that law is come!" — marks a pivotal moment: the prince's abstract sense of justice is now fueled by firsthand witness of systemic cruelty. John Canty reveals a pragmatic ruthlessness, changing his name and exploiting his supposed son for survival. The Ruffler emerges as an ambiguous figure — violent yet possessing a rough code of loyalty, protecting Edward from Canty's wrath while insisting the boy abandon his "mad" claims.
Themes and Motifs
The chapter deepens two central themes of the novel. Injustice of English law is dramatized through Yokel's testimony — whipping, ear-cropping, branding, and slavery inflicted on a man whose only crime was poverty. Twain uses these historical punishments to indict a legal system that manufactures the very criminals it claims to punish. Appearance versus reality operates on multiple levels: beggars fake disabilities, Canty hides behind a new name, and the true King is mocked as a madman. Edward's burlesque coronation inverts reality so completely that the genuine monarch becomes a figure of ridicule.
Literary Devices
Twain employs dramatic irony throughout: the reader knows Edward truly is the King, which makes every jeer sting with double meaning. The mock coronation is a sustained piece of satire, mirroring real court pageantry with absurd substitutes — a tin basin for a crown, a soldering-iron for a scepter — to expose how much royal authority depends on external trappings. Yokel's monologue functions as a social realist set piece embedded within the adventure narrative, drawing directly on historical Tudor-era statutes. The chapter also uses parallel structure: Miles Hendon searches rationally for Edward while Edward is drawn deeper into danger through deception, creating suspense about when — or whether — protector and prince will reunite.