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News Networks in Early Modern Wales
Author(s) -
BOWEN LLOYD
Publication year - 2017
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.12368
Subject(s) - gentry , welsh , politics , history , media studies , sensibility , print culture , sociology , political science , law , archaeology
This article addresses the neglected topic of gentry news culture in early modern Wales. It argues that the Welsh gentry accessed and consumed news in much the same way as their English counterparts, but with subtle and important differences. Examining the circulation of news as part of the culture of gentry sociability, the article examines the ways in which news followed networks of family and friendship, highlighting in particular the role of the London Welsh diaspora in communicating news back to the principality. It is suggested that this served to inflect the news with a particular cultural sensibility – by highlighting matters of relevance to the principality or local area, for example. The article also examines the role of Welsh news flowing back into London to inform correspondents at the centre of provincial developments. The piece further argues that the prevailing religious and political cultures of the principality influenced what news was welcomed there, privileging the status of news which supported the position of king and Church, particularly after the civil wars of the 1640s and 1650s. As such, the article makes a claim for thinking about Welsh news as part of a particularist political culture within the British state.