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Title
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Mercurius Civicus, Londons Intelligencer
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Heading
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The Rise of the News
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Description
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During the English Civil War, printed news became a regular and rapidly expanding feature of political life. Newsbooks such as Mercurius Civicus, published weekly between 1643 and 1646, supplied readers with reports on military campaigns, parliamentary proceedings, foreign affairs, and events within London itself. Supporting the Parliamentarian cause, Mercurius Civicus formed part of an intensely competitive print culture in which rival royalist and parliamentarian publications sought to shape public understanding of the conflict as it unfolded.
The breakdown of pre-war censorship and licensing controls contributed to an extraordinary growth in cheap print during the 1640s. This enabled news to circulate at an unprecedented rate, while political crisis created a large and eager readership. Newsbooks blended reportage with commentary, rumour, propaganda, and visual material, often presenting highly selective or partisan accounts of events. Their regular appearance also helped establish new habits of serial reading, familiarising readers with the idea of weekly printed news.
Such publications reveal how print became central to political mobilisation and ideological conflict in seventeenth-century England. Pamphlets, petitions, newsbooks, and printed declarations enabled political arguments to circulate far beyond London and Westminster, helping to transform national politics into a matter of public debate.
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Place of Publication
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London
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Publisher
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John Wright and Thomas Bates
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Date of Publication
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1643
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Format
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4to
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Century
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17th
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Illustrations
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Woodcut
The Power of Print
