Mercurius Aulicus was one of the "most important early newspapers" in England, famous during the English Civil War for its role in Royalist propaganda.
Mercurius Aulicus was one of the "most important early newspapers" in England, famous during the English Civil War for its role in Royalist propaganda.
The Mercurius Aulicus newspaper originated during the English Civil War from a suggestion by George Digby, a key advisor to King Charles I, that the Royalist faction needed a method for promoting their views in Parliament-held London. [1] As a result, the publication was established in January 1643 - it is variously termed either a newspaper or a newsbook - the latter being an alternative term for this form of weekly news publication in a quarto format. [2]
John Birkenhead, a Fellow of All Souls College in Oxford, was appointed editor of the newspaper, receiving updates on events around the country from Digby's contacts, [3] although his colleague Peter Heylin appears to have done much of the practical editing himself. [4] The Mercurius Aulicus was printed in Oxford, which was at this time during the war the Royalist capital, for a penny a copy, then smuggled into London where it was sold on by local women, often at heavily inflated prices. [5] It was also reprinted on occasion - albeit not necessarily accurately - by local sympathisers in London itself. [6] When logistics made it impossible to print a copy for several weeks, Birkenhead would resort to including gaps in page numbers and issues to give the impression that the reader had merely missed a specific copy that had no doubt been delivered elsewhere across the country satisfactorily. [7]
The Mercurius Aulicus has been considered one of the 'most important early newspapers' [8] in England. The newspaper revolutionised the industry in England, initiating the idea of popular journalism as a political tool for dividing and mobilising popular opinion. [9] Prior to the Mercurius, newspapers had purported to portray facts, avoiding commentary on current events [10] - by contrast, the Mercurius represented the Laudian, or more extreme, end of Royalist opinion, openly smearing and mocking its opponents in a way that was quite novel for the period. [11]
The publication began to go downhill from 1644 onwards. As the Royalist defeats on the battlefield continued, the Oxford publication found it harder and harder to obtain current news and issues became badly delayed. [12] The Mercurius Aulicus finally closed in 1645. [13]
The English Civil War refers to a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the struggle consisted of the First English Civil War and the Second English Civil War. The Anglo-Scottish War of 1650 to 1652 is sometimes referred to as the Third English Civil War.
The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main Royalist army under Charles I and Prince Rupert. Defeat ended any real hope of royalist victory, although Charles did not finally surrender until May 1646.
Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, was an English-German army officer, admiral, scientist, and colonial governor. He first rose to prominence as a Royalist cavalry commander during the English Civil War. Rupert was the third son of the German Prince Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James VI and I of Scotland and England.
The Battle of Alton, of the First English Civil War, took place on 13 December 1643 in the town of Alton, Hampshire, England. There, Parliamentary forces serving under Sir William Waller led a successful surprise attack on a winter garrison of Royalist infantry and cavalry serving under the Earl of Crawford. The Battle of Alton was the first decisive defeat of Sir Ralph Hopton, leader of Royalist forces in the south, and the event had a significant psychological effect on him as commander. More important to Hopton was the loss of men, however, as he was already short-handed in much-needed infantry. The successful Parliamentarians were able, after their victory, to attack and successfully besiege Arundel, a larger and more formidable Royalist outpost to the south-east of Alton.
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646. It is part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which also include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the 1650 to 1652 Anglo-Scottish War and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Historians calculate some 15% to 20% of all adult males in England and Wales served in the military between 1639 and 1653, while around 4% of the total population died from war-related cause, versus 2.23% in World War I. These figures illustrate the impact of the conflict on society in general, and the bitterness it engendered.
John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol, was an English diplomat and a moderate royalist during the English Civil War.
John Carew was a member of the landed gentry from Antony, Cornwall and MP for Tregony from 1647 to 1653. A prominent supporter of the Fifth Monarchists, a millenarianist religious sect, he backed Parliament and the Commonwealth in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and approved the Execution of Charles I in January 1649. He held various administrative positions during the Interregnum, including membership of the English Council of State, but was deprived of office and jailed in 1655 for his opposition to The Protectorate.
Sir John Birkenhead or Berkenhead (c.1617 – 4 December 1679) was a British political writer and journalist, imprisoned several times during the Commonwealth for his obtrusive royalism.
Sir Michael Livesey, 1st Baronet, also spelt Livesay, was a Puritan activist and Member of Parliament who served in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He was one of the regicides who approved the Execution of Charles I in January 1649.
Marchamont Nedham, also Marchmont and Needham, was a journalist, publisher and pamphleteer during the English Civil War who wrote official news and propaganda for both sides of the conflict.
Charles I, the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was executed on Tuesday, 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall, London. The execution, carried out by beheading the king, was the culmination of political and military conflicts between the royalists and the parliamentarians in England during the English Civil War, leading to the capture and trial of Charles. On Saturday 27 January 1649, the parliamentarian High Court of Justice had declared Charles guilty of attempting to "uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people" and he was sentenced to death by beheading.
Sir Henry Slingsby of Scriven, 1st Baronet, 14 January 1602 – 8 June 1658, was an English landowner, politician and soldier who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1625 and 1642. He supported the Royalist cause during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and was executed in 1658 for his part in a conspiracy to restore Charles II.
Henrietta Maria of France was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She was mother of his sons Charles II and James II and VII. Under a decree of her husband, she was known in England as Queen Mary, but she did not like this name and signed her letters "Henriette" or "Henriette Marie".
Sir George Wharton, 1st Baronet was an English military officer, astrologer and poet who served as Treasurer of the Ordnance from 1670 to 1681.
Edward Walsingham was an English royalist author, known for his verse of the First English Civil War and Arcana Aulica, often wrongly attributed to Sir Francis Walsingham.
Colonel John "Tinker" Fox (1610–1650), confused by some sources with the MP Thomas Fox, was a parliamentarian soldier during the English Civil War. Commanding a garrison at Edgbaston House in Warwickshire – a location that guarded the main roads from strongly parliamentarian Birmingham to royalist Worcestershire – Fox operated largely independently of the parliamentarian hierarchy, all factions of which tended to view him with suspicion. Though lauded by the parliamentarian press for his "continual motion and action", to royalist propagandists Fox became an icon of dangerous and uncontrolled subversiveness, being decried as a "low-born tinker" whose troops "rob and pillage very sufficiently". By 1649 Fox's notoriety was such that he was widely, though wrongly, rumoured to be one of the executioners of Charles I.
John Hall (1627–1656), also known as John Hall of Durham, was an English poet, essayist and pamphleteer of the Commonwealth period. After a short period of adulation at university, he became a writer in the Parliamentary cause and Hartlib Circle member.
The history of journalism in the United Kingdom includes the gathering and transmitting of news, spans the growth of technology and trade, marked by the advent of specialised techniques for gathering and disseminating information on a regular basis. In the analysis of historians, it involves the steady increase of the scope of news available to us and the speed with which it is transmitted.
Elizabeth Alkin was a publisher, nurse and spy for the Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War. Among the many derogatory names she was called by royalist sympathisers, that of Parliament Joan is one by which she is also commonly known.
The Battle of St Neots on 10 July 1648 was a skirmish during the Second English Civil War at St Neots in Cambridgeshire. A Royalist force led by the Earl of Holland and Colonel John Dalbier was defeated by 100 veteran troops from the New Model Army, commanded by Colonel Adrian Scrope.