Mercurius Politicus

Last updated

Mercurius Politicus was a newsbook that was published weekly from June 1650 until the English Restoration in May 1660. Under the editorship of Marchamont Nedham, it supported the republican governments. From 1655 until 1659 it had a monopoly on news publication. [1]

Contents

History

Mercurius Politicus was Marchmont Nedham's most significant enterprise, which he used as a platform for the Commonwealth regime. (Nedham received a government payment of £50 in May 1650, probably to start this venture.) This third Nedham weekly began in June 1650, on a light note: "Why should not the Commonwealth have a Fool as well as the King had?" – but soon settled into a more serious vein as a voice of the republican movement of the day. [2] He rested the case for the Commonwealth on arguments similar to those of Hobbes: that "the Sword is, and ever hath been, the Foundation of all Titles to Government", and that it was hardly likely that the Commonwealth's adversaries would ever succeed in their designs. [3] Politicus continued for the next decade, the term of the Commonwealth era, under alternative titles like the Public Intelligence or Public Intelligencer. In 1655 the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell rewarded Nedham with an official post, so that Nedham was then perceived as a spokesman for the regime.

Notes

  1. Eaman 2009, p. 203.
  2. Anthony 1966, pp. 595–596.
  3. Franklin 2001, p. 82.

Related Research Articles

A republic, based on the Latin phrase res publica, is a state in which political power rests with the public through their representatives—in contrast to a monarchy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Lilburne</span> 17th-century English political activist

John Lilburne, also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after the English Civil Wars 1642–1650. He coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law. In his early life he was a Puritan, though towards the end of his life he became a Quaker. His works have been cited in opinions by the United States Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Protectorate</span> British government (1653–1659)

The Protectorate, officially the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, was the English form of government lasting from 16 December 1653 to 25 May 1659, under which the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with their associated territories were joined together in the Commonwealth of England, governed by a Lord Protector. It began when Barebone's Parliament was dissolved, and the Instrument of Government appointed Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. Cromwell died in September 1658 and was succeeded by his son Richard Cromwell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Sexby</span>

Colonel Edward Sexby was an English Puritan soldier and Leveller in the army of Oliver Cromwell. Later he turned against Cromwell and plotted his assassination, which Sexby considered tyrannicide, as a decapitation strike, which would then be followed by a joint regime change uprising by both Cavaliers and Levellers. Failing in his efforts, Sexby was taken prisoner and died in the Tower of London.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Liberation Council</span> Government in Ghana from 1966 to 1969

The National Liberation Council (NLC) led the Ghanaian government from 24 February 1966 to 1 October 1969. The body emerged from a coup d'état against the Nkrumah government carried out jointly by the Ghana Police Service and Ghana Armed Forces with collaboration from the Ghana Civil Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1969 Rhodesian constitutional referendum</span>

A double referendum was held in Rhodesia on 20 June 1969, in which voters were asked whether they were in favour of or against a) the adoption of a republican form of government, and b) the proposals for a new Constitution, as set out in a white paper and published in a Gazette Extraordinary on 21 May 1969. Both proposals were approved. The country was subsequently declared a republic on 2 March 1970.

<i>Mercurius Civicus</i>

Mercurius Civicus: Londons Intelligencer, or, Truth impartially related from thence to the whole Kingdome to prevent mis-information was an English Civil War weekly newspaper, appearing on Thursdays from 4 May 1643 to 10 December 1646 published by John Wright and Thomas Bates. It supported the Roundhead (Parliamentary) cause.

Arthur Charlett was an Oxford academic and administrator. He was Master of University College, Oxford for thirty years until his death in 1722. He was noted for his love of society, and for his expensive way of living.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Fleetwood</span> English Parliamentarian soldier and politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland

Charles Fleetwood, c. 1618 to 4 October 1692, was an English lawyer from Northamptonshire, who served with the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A close associate of Oliver Cromwell, to whom he was related by marriage, Fleetwood held a number of senior political and administrative posts under the Commonwealth, including Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652 to 1655.

John Reynolds (1625–1657) was a soldier in the English Civil War and during the Commonwealth. Reynolds may have been a member of the Middle Temple. He joined the parliamentary army, and in 1648 he commanded a regiment of horse. He took part in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. He was a member of the Westminster-based Protectorate Parliament for Galway and Mayo in 1654 and Waterford and Tipperary in 1656. He was knighted in 1655. In 1657 he commanded the English force which cooperated with the French in Flanders in the Anglo-Spanish War and was lost at sea when returning to England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Tichborne</span>

Sir Robert Tichborne was an English merchant, politician, author and military officer who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1656. He was a regicide of Charles I.

George Fenwick (1603?–1657), was an English Parliamentarian, and a leading colonist in the short-lived Saybrook Colony.

Payne Fisher (1616–1693) was an English poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hall (poet)</span> English poet, essayist and pamphleteer

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scotland under the Commonwealth</span> Overview of Scottish history under the Commonwealth of England

Scotland under the Commonwealth is the history of the Kingdom of Scotland between the declaration that the kingdom was part of the Commonwealth of England in February 1652, and the Restoration of the monarchy with Scotland regaining its position as an independent kingdom, in June 1660.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Interregnum</span> Political event

The interregnum in the British Isles began with the execution of Charles I in January 1649 and ended in May 1660 when his son Charles II was restored to the thrones of the three realms, although he had been already acclaimed king in Scotland since 1649. During this time the monarchial system of government was replaced with the Commonwealth of England.

Sir Richard Chiverton of the Worshipful Company of Skinners was Lord Mayor of London in 1658.

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.

References