Chapter 5 The Explosion of News Publishing, 1632–1648
From the late 1620s to the mid-1630s, the consensus built up by the Archdukes Albert and Isabella crumbled, and the political and military prestige of the House of Habsburg reached a low-point in the Netherlands. Abraham Verhoeven’s business declined in parallel with the passing of the archducal order. But just as his business went under, current-affairs publishing in the Habsburg Netherlands attained new heights of productivity, with an unprece- dented number of printers turning out an unprecedented number of pamphlets, and two new periodicals being founded in Antwerp to replace Verhoeven’s bankrupt Tijdinghen. Yet another newspaper was printed, this one in Bruges, from 1637 or earlier, and towns previously unremarkable for their current-affairs output, such as Douai and Lille, developed local markets and more continuous production of news genres. By 1640, the authorities in Brussels were beginning to worry about the loss of control over news publish- ing, but reluctance to invest money or manpower in press control prevented any concerted attempt to recreate a central organ of reputation comparable to Verhoeven’s Tijdinghen until 1649, the year after the Peace of Münster. All over Europe, the same years saw a rapid growth in the news publishing business. Warfare was always a great stimulus to newspaper and pamphlet production. In Germany Gustavus Adolphus’s campaigns (1630–1632) led to a spate of new newspapers and a flood of pamphlets, while the Battle of Nördlingen (1634) and the Peace of Prague (1635) were occasions for imperial- ist propaganda. At least thirty-two newspapers in German began publication in the years 1630–1635, albeit many of them short-lived.1 In France the demand for news and the government’s interest in reputation were boosted by the domestic tensions arising from the Mantuan war (1629–1631), the invasions of Lorraine (1633) and Alsace (1634), and the war against Spain (from 1635). In England newspaper publication was suppressed in 1632 but revived in 1638, and throve from 1641 with the advent of civil war. The years 1639–1645 saw the appearance of newspapers in Genoa, Florence, Milan, Bologna, Naples and Turin; the War of Castro (1641–1644) was a particularly significant catalyst. New attempts at printing regular news periodicals in the Iberian Peninsula were undertaken in Lisbon and Barcelona in the early 1640s, in the midst of rebellion against Habsburg authority (successful in Portugal’s case, not in
1 Bogel & Blühm, pp. 81–120.
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Catalonia’s). The first regular Swedish newspaper appeared in 1645, a product of the Northern War of 1643–1645. After considering the development of the current-affairs press in the Habsburg Netherlands in the 1630s and ’40s, this will be put in the comparative perspective of the more general growth in news publishing throughout Europe. The sample year for comparison, selected on the basis of survivals in the collections consulted, will be 1644. As before, the central concerns will be who printed the news, what events and types of events they reported, and the wider political context of news publishing.
The Habsburg Netherlands, 1632–1648
From a Habsburg perspective, 1632 was one of the worst years for news in the whole period. Domestic and foreign news was bad, and the military situation had serious repercussions for the patterns of communication. In April 1632 the marquis of Santa Cruz was sent to replace the count of Bergh as commander in chief of the Army of Flanders, and Bergh found himself in disgrace and his rivals gaining power in Brussels. Although he was governor of Gelderland, he abandoned the defensive line on the Maas and fled to Liège. There, on 18 June, he issued open letters calling upon the nobility and estates, and the Infanta her- self, to throw off ‘Spanish misgovernment’.2 Within a week, Frederick Henry of Orange had also issued a manifesto calling on the Southern Netherlanders to rise against the king, and on 11 September the States General in The Hague some- what belatedly agreed the text of their own manifesto guaranteeing freedom of worship to their separated Catholic compatriots in the event of reunification after an uprising.3 By then the pamphlet war was in full swing, with official and unofficial declarations for and against the earlier manifestos.4 Besides formal replies and legal sentences, there were opinion pamphlets, at least one of which blamed every military reverse of the past decade on Bergh’s sabotage.5 Pasquils
2 ‘mauvais gouvenement des Espaignols’, Copie de la lettre, que Son Exce. le Comte Henry de Bergen, Maistre du Camp General de sa Majesté, a escript aux Prelats, Nobles & Villes des Provinces du Pays bas (n.p.d.), letter dated Liège, 18 June 1632; Copie de la lettre que son Exce. le Compte Henry de Bergh, Maistre du Camp General de sa Majesté, a escript à S. Altse. Serene. sur le subject de ses miscontentemens & resolutions pour le bien du Pais (n.p.d.). 3 Le manifeste de Messieurs les Etats des Provinces unies (Rouen, Claude le Villain, 1632), esp. p. 5. 4 See e.g. Knuttel nos. 4217–4235. 5 Avis aux Estats des Provinces du pays bas, fidelles et obeysantes à sa Majesté, sur les lettres escrites de Liege le 18. de Juin, 1632, par le Comte Henry de Bergh (no address [Henry Jaye, Mechelen], 1632), pp. 7–11.