7 - James I and Sir Francis Cottington

Summary

Sales of newsbooks were high in the early 1620s making this a valued market the publishers were determined to retain. They respected the censorship constraints placed upon them and did what they could to ensure they printed only what ‘is thoroughly examin[ed and pri]nted according to the high or low Dutch [printed c]opies, or out of Letters of the best credit fro[m beyond]d the Seas’. Success in periodical publication necessitated an effective working relationship with the Crown. Initially, this was through Cottington who, as James I’s licenser, needed to consider the political implications of these publications in a time of complex international diplomacy and growing Protestant concern that reached a watershed with the embarkation of Charles and Buckingham for Madrid. After Charles and Buckingham returned, the relationship between the Crown and the syndicate needed to adapt to the changing political context; the prospect of war with Spain, Cottington’s withdrawal from Court, and the initiation of negotiations for a marriage alliance with France.

In managing the foreign news press, James demonstrated, as with so many other things, an apparent inconsistency of the sort that has encouraged historians to repeat the remark attributed to Henry IV of France that he was ‘the wisest fool in Christendom’. Between 1620 and 1622, James had made a steadily more concerted effort to stem public debate and speculation. This culminated in the proclamation of July 1621. Yet control was not draconian: as Fritz Levy noted, James was in practice more generous than his predecessors in allowing news. His approach was neither simplistic nor absolute, but was pragmatic and balanced. He allowed the trade to continue, but appointed Cottington, who understood his foreign policy and diplomatic relations with Spain, to license foreign news.

The popular image of James as a king who was learned and scholarly, yet whose political judgments were poor, is undergoing revision. Scottish historians have pointed to his success in Scotland and there has been a re-examination of his record in the management of ecclesiastical affairs and of foreign policy. He has been shown by Fincham and Lake to have successfully reformed a number of abuses in the Church and enforced conformity, while maintaining a degree of flexibility and scope for compromise.