Chapter Twenty - Newspapers and War

Summary

Introduction

Newspapers and war were intimately connected. The origins of London newspapers can be traced to war: the corantos of the 1620s and 1630s were based on English translations of continental newsletters, principally devoted to the Thirty Years War (Brownlees 2011: 25–55; Boys 2011). The Civil Wars of the 1640s saw the emergence of regular weekly newsbooks, which provided wartime coverage. Newsbooks, and later the daily, bi-weekly and tri-weekly newspapers of the eighteenth century, were important vehicles for political and civic engagement, and mobilisation of public support during wartime (Raymond 1996; Barker 1998; Bickham 2009; Harris 1995a; 1995b; 1995c). Newspapers could also serve as instruments of public diplomacy, printing information and commentary in the hopes of shaping political and military responses to events (Helmers 2016; Peacey 2016; Slauter 2009: 763–4). In reporting on war, newspapers shaped its contours, providing context and commentary, and creating a dynamic space for advocacy, opposition, critique and debate.

Coverage of war depended upon a number of factors, which changed and evolved over time. It was common to reprint items across newspapers, which could cause confusion if reports were in error. Geographical distance and wartime conditions, such as postal interruption, could delay the transmission of information. Another major influence was the ebb and flow of state censorship. In 1641 the traditional mechanisms of press licensing collapsed, launching a period of exponential growth in print and news coverage during the Civil Wars that followed. In the wake of the regicide, the new republic suppressed most royalist newsbooks by the end of 1649; Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate went even further, stamping out almost all newsbooks in the autumn of 1655 (Wilcher 2001: 289–98; Potter 1989: 17–22). The Restoration ushered in a new wave of press censorship in 1662, until the final lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695. For much of this period the only printed newspaper was the official London Gazette, established in 1665 (Raymond 2003: 324–63). After 1695 newspaper titles multiplied in London and spread to the provinces (Bickham 2009; Barker 1998; Black 1987; Gardner 2016). The eighteenth century also saw the expansion of the print markets in Scotland and Ireland, which previously depended heavily on imports and reprints from London (Brown 2012; Barnard 2006; Munter 1967). By the late eighteenth century newspapers balanced local, national, international and global news.