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From Tyrant to Unfit Monarch: Marchamont N edham's Representation of C harles S tuart and R oyalists during the Interregnum
Author(s) -
Woodford Benjamin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.12
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1468-229X
pISSN - 0018-2648
DOI - 10.1111/1468-229x.12076
Subject(s) - interregnum , newspaper , politics , representation (politics) , government (linguistics) , history , classics , law , political science , philosophy , linguistics
Marchamont N edham was one of the most significant E nglish journalists of the seventeenth century. During the Interregnum, his newspaper M ercurius P oliticus routinely printed stories of exiled royalists and their leader C harles S tuart. Although the topic of royalists was consistent throughout the 1650s, the royal image in P oliticus was not. In the early 1650s, N edham described C harles S tuart as a tyrant and enemy of freedom, while after 1651, the exiled king appeared as a failed monarch. N edham's reporting of royalists was independent of government influence, and he himself elected to change his representation of royalists. It was the shifting political situation that convinced him to alter his descriptions of C harles S tuart and his followers.