The Stuart Press

News Media

• Word of mouth• Broadsheet ballads• Manuscripts with news items amidst business and

personal items• “Pure newsletter” domestic and foreign• The “separate”– 1628 First public account of the proceedings and

debates in Parliament• News sheets

News

1620 First coranto in English, published in Amsterdam.

Dutch style – 4 pages1622 Weekly Newes from Italy; A Currant of generall newes

First to carry date of publication on title pageUnsanctioned publications report on war in France

Deal only with foreign affairs, and generally careful to avoid controversial topics

First Corantos

Earliest surviving, Printed in Amsterdam, 1620

Earliest surviving printed in England, 1621

Manuscript News

• Incorporated into personal or business letters• Semi-professional ‘pure newsletters’

Censorship

• 1621 Cottington appointed to approve international news

• Ecclesiastical licensing under statute going back to Elizabeth

• 1622 Limit afternoon sermons

News Center- St. Paul's Cross

Alternative−St. Paul’s Walk It is the great Exchange of all

discourse, & no busines whosoeuer but is here stirring and afoot.

It is the generall Mint of all famous lies ... All inuentions are emptyed here, and not few pockets. ...

It is the eares Brothell and satisfies their lust, and ytch.

Bishop John Earle, 1628

Pamphlets and Newsbooks

Pamphlets– Less than 50 pages– Full title-page– Topical and contentious;

one-off– Often anonymous

Newsbooks– Serial– Header– ~1000 copies – Also often anonymous– Neutral beginning:

quickly develop a political voice

Mercurius Civicus. Londons Intelligencer 25 May-1 June 1643

Mercurius Aulicus

• Published from 1643-5• Royalist• Peter Heylin, editor

Mercurius Britanicus

• Marchamont Nedham, editor

• Parliamentarian• Published to refute

charges in Mercurius Aulicus

Mercurius Politicus (1650-1660)

• Marchamont Nedham, editor

• Domestic and foreign news• Headlines• Content included– Editiorials– Human interest stories– Social column

Freedom of the Press

1644 Milton pamphlet Areopagitica“who kills a Man kills a reasonable creature, Gods Image; but hee who destroyes a good Booke, kills reason it selfe, kills the Image of God, as it were in the eye.”“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”

1661 Sedition Act– Writings against the King or reconvened

Parliament; Difficult to enforce:

1662 Licensing of the Press Act

“For preventing the frequent Abuses in printing seditious treasonable and unlicensed Bookes and Pamphlets and for regulating of Printing and Printing Presses” Printing presses to be registered with Stationers’

Company Books to list publisher and author Limits on imported books, master printers, etc.

1662 Licensing Act• Particular licensing for books on– Common Law – chancellor or chief Justices– “History concerning the State of this Realm” –

Secretary of State– Divinity Phisick Philosophy or whatsoever other

Science or Art – Archbishop of Canterbury • Copies; one to Keeper of his Majesties Library;

two to the Vice-Chancellors of the two Universities “or the use of the Publique Libraries of the said Universities”

Enforcement

• Agents set up to do searches and inspections• Violations– First offense – 3 years loss of right to print– Second offense – lifetime loss of right to print & “Fine, Imprisonment, or other Corporal Punishment, not extending to Life or Limb”

• Roger L’Estrange, licenser

Roger l’Estrange

• Enforcer• Publisher of

official news The Intelligencer

L’Estrange on a Free Press

[Even] "supposing the press in order [and] the people in their right wits,...a Publick Mercury should never have my vote; because I think it makes the multitude too familiar with the actions, and counsels of their superiours, too pragmaticall and censorious, and gives them, not only an itch, but a kind of colourable right, and licence, to be meddling with the government.

Official news

• Protectorate – Marchamont Nedham– Mercurius Publicus Thursdays– The Publick Intelligencer Mondays

• Restoration– Same publications, new owners

John Birkenhead (1617-79)Henry Muddiman (1629-92)

• Birkenhead produced Mercurius Aulicus, a royalist news book in 1643

• 1660-1663 Mercurius Publicus• 1665 Oxford Gazette becomes London Gazette

under Sir Joseph Williamson, undersecretary of state, and Muddiman

• Muddiman also produces newsletters• 1666 The Current Intelligence

The Gazette

2015

Court in Oxford to avoid the plague

L’Estrange Again

Information control“Tis the Press that has made 'um Mad, and the Press must set 'um Right again. The Distemper is Epidemical; and there's no way in the world, but by Printing, to convey the Remedy to the Disease.”

1681

The Press and the Anglo-DutchWar

• Dutch atrocities• Justification for War• Recruitment – patriotism• Anti-Dutch sentiment• English victories• Anti-war sentiment

ComplaintDutch seizure of

English ships

Mare clausum v. Mare Liberum These are our seas. Only one

nation can rule the seas[If the Dutch were to seize the English]What person left untouch’t? what Throat unscrapt?What Female Sex but should be made a Rape?What cruelty doth now your Burghers act,To our distressed men? their bodies ract.

Dutch Ingratitude

Encouraging Enlistment

Celebrating the soldiers Go on brave Duke, make Forreign foes confessUnto their cost they find thou art no less,Than Valours abstract, fortunes favourite,The most invincible Heroick wight.My Muse hath vow'd, so have the Virgins nineEngag'd by Oath a Panegerick line,To each thy famous deed Parnassus hillShall sound, resound with songs thy praise shall fillHeavens spacious Vaults, the Starry sphearShall env'ous be when it thy fame shall hear.

Rousing the Public

Report of a Victor

y

Dutch View of London FireDiverse strangers, Dutch and French were apprehended on suspicion that they contributed to it.Notwithstanding the manner of burning makes us conclude the whole is an effect of unhappy chance orTo speak better the heavy hand of God upon us for our sins.

George Wither (1558-1667)

Poetry to encourage debate– Motif from Tuba Pacifica

Anti-ImperialThe conquer’d shall inslaved be, and theyWho conquer, be made slaves another way.The world is wide enough, and the Seas have room Sufficient for your ships to go and come:

Other Methods of Spreading the News

• Private letters– Handwritten to subscribers (£5/year)• Post Office claims monopoly on transport• Circumvented by using carriers and stage-coaches

• Word of mouth– Coffee House