tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/charles-ii-39843/articlesCharles II – The Conversation2018-10-12T11:57:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1048572018-10-12T11:57:32Z2018-10-12T11:57:32ZPrincess Eugenie and the unexpected importance of second daughters of second sons<p>The reaction of most of the world’s press and the British public to the marriage of HRH Princess Eugenie of York, ninth in line to the British throne has been <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/princess-eugenie-2-million-taxpayers-money-prince-andrew-labour-mp-a8497221.html">at best lukewarm</a>. But this indifference is not really extraordinary –the second daughter of the second son of Elizabeth II has never featured prominently in international media. </p>
<p>Since her birth in 1990, Eugenie – who is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45827183">marrying drinks executive Jack Brooksbank</a> – has never formed part of the actively working monarchy in the same manner as her cousins, princes William and Harry. While she does support some public charities in keeping with the roles and duties of her family – most recently in the <a href="https://people.com/royals/princess-eugenie-travels-to-serbia-to-help-fight-human-trafficking-ahead-of-her-royal-wedding/">fight against human trafficking</a> – she is not on the Civil List, and has pursued <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45827183">an independent career</a> in fine art sales, making use of a degree in the history of art from Newcastle University. </p>
<p>But it was not always so easy for a princess so far down the royal pecking order to stay out of the spotlight – and history has shown that sometimes unexpected heirs turn out to have important roles to play.</p>
<p>A recent trend in historical research has been to look beyond the dominant central characters of the history of monarchy and investigate peripheral members of royal dynasties – the princely satellites to royal suns, as I explored <a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-harry-and-the-history-of-the-heir-and-the-spare-96685">in a previous piece</a> for The Conversation. In extending this story one step further, to the second daughters of second sons, we can see that the history of monarchy in Europe was in fact a much wider affair, embracing not just kings and queens, but even those members of their families who were fairly remote from the expected succession to the throne.</p>
<h2>Anne the survivor</h2>
<p>Princess Anne of York, who was born in 1665, was expected to play a fairly peripheral role in the British monarchy. The daughter of James, Duke of York, and niece to Charles II – a second daughter of a second son – she was fodder, you may have thought, for a marriage to secure a diplomatic alliance for the Stuart monarchy. But Anne had a couple of things going for her: none of her brothers had survived infancy and it was clear by the time of her birth that her uncle Charles was not going to produce an heir. Most importantly, neither England or Scotland barred female succession to the throne.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240396/original/file-20181012-119135-1tg8yu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240396/original/file-20181012-119135-1tg8yu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240396/original/file-20181012-119135-1tg8yu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240396/original/file-20181012-119135-1tg8yu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240396/original/file-20181012-119135-1tg8yu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240396/original/file-20181012-119135-1tg8yu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240396/original/file-20181012-119135-1tg8yu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">James II with his family.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Lely/Benedetto Gennari via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>James’ first wife, <a href="http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/stuart_37.html">Anne Hyde</a>, died in 1671 and the Duke of York remarried the Italian princess <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-of-Modena">Mary Beatrice of Modena</a> in 1673 – and hoped for a male heir. Daughter Anne was married off, therefore, in 1683, to <a href="http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/prince-george-of-denmark/">Prince George of Denmark</a>, the younger brother of King Christian V. Christian was a protestant – but also an ally of France’s catholic king, Louis XIV – and so a good counterbalance to Dutch power in the North Sea, which was represented dynastically by William of Orange. William had been married a few years before to Anne’s older sister, Princess Mary.</p>
<p>In 1685, Charles II died and his brother became James II of England (and James VII of Scotland). But he was only to reign for a few years before being chased off the throne by the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688. His daughter Mary was proclaimed queen alongside her husband William III. Anne became their heir. </p>
<p>So, when William died in 1702, Anne succeeded as queen – and reigned for 12 years. Finally emerging from the shadows, she surprised many by proving herself <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/anne.shtml">a capable ruler</a>, overseeing the transformation of England and Scotland into a united Great Britain. It was during her reign that the two-party system of government largely evolved.</p>
<h2>Changing roles</h2>
<p>As junior royal daughters go, Anne was atypical in her rise to the top – as many similarly situated younger daughters of younger sons faded into obscurity. But the nature of the British monarchy regarding female succession has meant that, while still limited, there were more opportunities for royal women than in neighbouring France or Germany where women were still banned from the throne. Queen Victoria was the <a href="http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/hanover_6.htm">daughter of a fourth son</a> and Queen Elizabeth II is the <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/queen-elizabeth-ii-9286165">daughter of a second son</a>, George VI, another duke of York, who succeeded to the throne after his brother’s <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2701463.stm">abdication in 1936</a>.</p>
<p>The role of junior princesses marrying to aid royal diplomacy did of course continued: royal daughters and grand-daughters – even those fairly remote from the throne – were directed by Queen Victoria to solidify alliances through marriage, resulting in several members of her extended family being <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2552270/Royal-Cousins-War-tells-family-rift-saw-George-V-Tsar-Nicholas-against-German-cousin.html">on opposite sides in World War I</a>. </p>
<p>One of these, Princess Victoria Melita, another second daughter of a second son (Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh), defied royal tradition and started off the 20th century with a shocking new idea, <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/in-profile-the-british-princess-who-scandalised-the-royal-family/">divorcing her first husband in 1901</a> and marrying for love the Grand Duke Cyril of Russia, against the family’s wishes. Another second daughter would attempt to do the same in the 1950s, as seen in the recent television documentary <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bk8xcp">Princess Margaret: the Rebel Royal</a>. </p>
<p>In today’s world, Princess Eugenie’s choice of husband has caused no royal ripples, and it is extremely unlikely that – barring some kind of bizarre disaster that removed the eight people who are ahead of her in succession – she will ever rise to greater prominence in the history of monarchy of the United Kingdom. But history has shown, sometimes we can expect the unexpected.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104857/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Spangler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>At least one second daughter of a second son of the British monarch has ended up on the throne in her own right.Jonathan Spangler, Senior Lecturer in History, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/893972017-12-20T14:26:15Z2017-12-20T14:26:15ZNoises off: UK theatre audiences have always been a rowdy lot<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200200/original/file-20171220-4995-zzxdi0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Laughing Audience (or A Pleased Audience), by William Hogarth</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Portrait Gallery</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Without an audience in the theatre, there’d be no drama. But audiences have been providing rather too much drama in UK theatres – if a couple of recent articles in the industry bible, The Stage, are anything to go by.</p>
<p>Eating can be noisy and distracting for the cast – especially when it comes to unwrapping boiled sweets and the like. According to theatre owner <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2017/nica-burns-theatre-must-accommodate-people-want-eat-snacks/">Nica Burns</a>, when it comes to stopping people eating snacks during a performance altogether, the horse has bolted. But she told The Stage that there are limits (one audience member apparently tried to get away with bringing in takeaway pizza). Her company has been experimenting with non-intrusive packaging.</p>
<p>“A few of the very noisy packages have now been gracefully retired, and we’ve brought in similar ones that don’t make any noise,” she said, adding: “It’s a work in progress.”</p>
<p>More contentious by far is the use of mobile phones during performances. A theatregoer at the Old Vic was recently punched by the partner of a woman using a mobile phone throughout the first act, after he remonstrated with them. Theatre critic Mark Shenton <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2017/mark-shenton-its-time-to-tackle-noisy-food-and-mobile-phones-in-theatres/">pointed out (also in The Stage)</a> that in New York, since a city ordnance of 2013, mobile phone use is illegal – and urged UK theatres to consider doing the same.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mrs-mills-nibbling-noises-are-so-off-dear-hbrhls3bg">worse things have happened</a>. In 2015, a man in the audience at the Tony Award-nominated play Hand to God on Broadway, climbed on stage and attempted to charge his mobile phone by plugging it in to a prop plug socket on the set. On another occasion, actors Tamsin Greig and Haydn Gwynne, stars of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown had to intervene to stop a couple apparently having sex in the audience.</p>
<h2>Oi, you in the cheap seats</h2>
<p>What are things coming to? As it happens, the concept of a quiet, polite and well-behaved audience is rather a modern phenomenon in Britain (as it is in America). Charles II <a href="http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/restoration_drama_001.html">restored the English stage in 1660</a> – after it had been banned by Oliver Cromwell during the Protectorate – and from then on, theatre audiences were anything but quiet and polite, expressing their opinions, vocally and physically, on the production and on the performers. And what took place on stage was not exactly designed to promote quiet. </p>
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<span class="caption">Nell Gwynn, Charles II’s favourite actress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gerard Valck, via National Portrait Gallery</span></span>
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<p>For the first time on English stages, women were permitted to act in productions, causing scandal by sometimes displaying a promiscuous and provocative leg in what became known as “<a href="https://restorationtheater.wordpress.com/category/articles/">breeches roles</a>”. The most famous breeches star of the era was former orange seller <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nell-Gwyn-English-actress">Nell Gwynn</a> (or Gwyn, Gwynne) who parleyed her popularity as the leading commedienne of her age into a more lucrative role as the mistress of King Charles II. </p>
<p>These were licentious times – theatre auditoriums were also used for the commercial exchange between client and prostitute. In 1698, Bishop Jeremy Collier was outraged by such activities and published a <a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/%7Esdb2/collier.html">monograph on the topic</a> – A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, making a serious of accusation against the theatre – which included mocking the Bible and lewdness. </p>
<p>The boisterousness of the theatre as well as its potential subversiveness (mocking the Bible was frequently accompanied by satires against the government of the day) led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-hamilton-reminds-us-of-the-roots-of-british-musical-theatre-in-political-activism-87902">Theatre Licencing Act of 1737</a>, which stipulated that all scripts had to be vetted by the Lord Chamberlain and only two theatres, Drury Lane and Covent Garden, which operated under Royal Patent, could stage spoken dramas. </p>
<h2>Nuts and other criticism</h2>
<p>While the two patent theatres established a degree of control over audience behaviour, it would be several decades before British audiences would become relatively silent witnesses in the auditoria. Charles Dickens satirised theatre’s noisy atmosphere in <a href="https://www.shmoop.com/great-expectations/chapter-31-summary.html">Great Expectations</a> (1860/1861), exposing amateur “roscian” Mr Wopsle to the taunting humour of the “debating society” in the gallery, whose “general indignation” at the performance took “the form of nuts”. The throwing of food, among other choice objects, was a risk that actors frequently faced. Dickens’ satire here is aimed at poor performances as much as the audience in the cheap seats (at this time, housed in the gallery).</p>
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<span class="caption">Mr Wopsle as Hamlet, from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Harry Furniss</span></span>
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<p>But, by the mid-19th century, the concept of theatre had changed. Instead of being seen a potentially riotous assembly, it was increasingly viewed as a potential harbinger of aesthetic integrity. Ultimately Dickens’ caricature of theatre audiences was ideologically constructed and he consolidated a mythology that it was the working classes (a diverse group that included seasoned and serious theatregoers) that brought noisy disruption to theatres.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net/th-censor.html">Theatre Regulation Act of 1843</a> disaggregated the power of the Royal Patent theatre houses, and other theatres were permitted to stage serious drama, which coincided with a change in approach by theatre owners and managers, whose focus became increasingly fixed on attracting a wider audience through their doors. Styles of auditoria with more open spaces and better viewing were designed to attract a wealthier (and therefore assumed to be less rowdy) audience.</p>
<p>Additionally, by the mid-19th century, capaciously emotive and sometimes explosive melodramas – with scenes of danger, derring-do and despair – held sway across major theatres. Featuring heroes and heroines, these productions appealed to audience sympathies from across a spectrum of economic positions and class groups. Any sound in the auditoria at this point was as likely to be sweeping approbation as discontent.</p>
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<span class="caption">Advertising card for The Streets of London, Princess Theatre, 1864.</span>
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<p>Through a combination of these and other factors, a system of regulation emerged around audience behaviour, and though we think audiences are, or should be quieter than they were, reports of displeasure expressed in the auditoria have continued throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries. </p>
<p>So, this current disruptive use of mobile phones, is the latest in a long line of audience misbehaviour. We can never know what inspires our fellow playgoers to engage in potentially disruptive activity – but we know for certain that it has always happened and, likely, will continue to do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89397/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theresa Saxon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Popcorn packets and phone use in the theatre can be very distracting, but it’s nothing compared to what performers had to put up with in the past.Theresa Saxon, Principal Lecturer in English Literature, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/811962017-08-01T14:33:07Z2017-08-01T14:33:07Z‘Frondeurs’ and fake news: how misinformation ruled in 17th-century France<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179326/original/file-20170723-28501-tt4134.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Louis XIV 'confesses his sins' to Pere de la Chaize, 1694</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://books.google.ie/books?id=YXNAAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=true">Anon</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We are in the midst of a information revolution, matched perhaps only by the printing revolution of the 15th century and the reading revolution of the 18th. The digital revolution has made writers, commentators, and publishers of us all – and we can reach potential audiences of millions at the touch of a button. </p>
<p>This level of reach would have been unfathomable in the 17th century, when a thousand copies was considered a huge print run. However 17th-century readers faced some of the same problems we encounter today. The challenge of finding unbiased, accurate reportage of relevant political issues was as daunting in the 1640s as it is now. We are told we live in a “post-truth” era – which suggests that there has, at some stage, been a golden age of truth. In fact, consumers of news have always been subject to the perils of misinformation or propaganda – it’s by no means the first era of fake news. </p>
<p>Our media today combines more information with faster distribution than ever before. However, acceleration like this has happened previously in times of intense political upheaval. During the 1640s and 1650s Western Europe stumbled out of the Thirty Years War only to be plunged straight back into revolts, civil wars and regicide. During this intense period the medium of print was pushed to new limits. Across France and England, royalists, <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frondeur">frondeurs</a></em> (political rebels), roundheads and cavaliers faced off not just on the battlefield but through the art and wiles of the pamphleteer. They presented clearly antagonistic and contradictory versions of the “truth”, purposefully offering dramatically different views of their actions for or against the state. </p>
<h2>French letters</h2>
<p>In France, news travelled in a variety of ways – through pamphlets, <em>affiches</em>, which were posted around cities, and <em>billets</em> – small card-sized reports that could be hidden or discarded quickly in the event of arrest. Low literacy rates did little to slow the spread of this news, particularly in urban areas. News was relayed (and redrafted) often by word of mouth – the social media of the age. <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colporteur">Colporteurs</a></em> peddled songs and stories on the streets, often scribbled down on notes, or sung aloud to an already well-known tune. Making the message memorable was half the battle – the other half could be covered by the outlandish or <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14659.html">scandalous nature of the material</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180550/original/file-20170801-22175-bizifj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180550/original/file-20170801-22175-bizifj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180550/original/file-20170801-22175-bizifj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180550/original/file-20170801-22175-bizifj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180550/original/file-20170801-22175-bizifj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180550/original/file-20170801-22175-bizifj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180550/original/file-20170801-22175-bizifj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cardinal Mazarin was a particular target of malicious gossip.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the best-known examples of seditious material during this decade was that of the <a href="https://rechtsgeschiedenis.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/law-and-protest-in-the-mazarinades/">Mazarinades</a> during the French civil wars during the early years of Louis XIV’s reign. These pamphlets, primarily attacking Louis XIV’s prime minister Cardinal Mazarin, levelled charges of everything from corruption and treason to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/286688?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">incest and sodomy and other sexual misdemeanours</a> against the Italian cardinal. </p>
<p>The outlandish and extreme claims made by this particular set of pamphlets have echoed in the political sphere over the past year. Probably the best-known recent example of “fake news” was the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/05/gunman-detained-at-comet-pizza-restaurant-was-self-investigating-fake-news-reports">Pizzagate case</a>, in which a pizza parlour in Washington DC was targeted as a supposed hub of a paedophile ring led by high-ranking Democrats – leading to a shooting at the restaurant when one conspiracy theorist went to investigate further. This conspiracy theory shared a number of characteristics with Mazarin’s treatment, not least in that they both raised the issue of child abuse – conflating sexual disorder with political corruption is an old trick. </p>
<p>Not all readers were (or will be) misled. Many were exposed to a multitude of viewpoints, gaining a balance at least from a wider consumption of material, sometimes handed to them on the street, or simply listened to as they went about their daily business. <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/how-paris-became-paris-9781608195916/"><em>Coureurs</em> and <em>coureuses</em></a> (male and female “runners”) sang the latest news on the street and were hard to avoid – indeed these “songs-of-news” were better known as the original “vaudevilles”, literally “what goes around the city”. In the same way, any discerning internet surfer today can find a huge range of competing viewpoints – but the packaging of news online now presents a different set of problems. </p>
<h2>Falsehood flies</h2>
<p>Distinguishing between misinformation and disinformation is challenging. This leads to the charge of “fake news” being levelled at almost all outlets – Donald Trump’s habit of accusing the mainstream media of lying has become a particular feature of his administration. This raises an urgent question: if the political establishment continues to undermine the value of the press and to erode its integrity by lumping investigative journalism with unsubstantiated rumour, what measures to control freedom of expression and means of communication will government deem justifiable?</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180551/original/file-20170801-31988-8bzkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180551/original/file-20170801-31988-8bzkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180551/original/file-20170801-31988-8bzkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180551/original/file-20170801-31988-8bzkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180551/original/file-20170801-31988-8bzkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180551/original/file-20170801-31988-8bzkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180551/original/file-20170801-31988-8bzkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jonathan Swift: ‘Falsehood flies’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Jervas</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The latter decades of the 17th century were characterised by severe repression of the press, especially effective in Louis XIV’s France where many were persecuted for writing and publishing seditious material. Many fled the country, or published on the borders around France. In England rumour continued to weave political magic or havoc depending on one’s perspective, not least in episodes such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Popish-Plot">The Popish Plot in the 1670s</a> – the widely believed “fake news” that Jesuits were planning to do away with Charles II in favour of his Catholic younger brother James – but it tended to be a much safer place to be a journalist or pamphleteer, despite considerable political and religious tensions.</p>
<p>The role of the press during this period certainly gave commentators cause for concern. Jonathan Swift displayed his usual healthy cynicism when he noted that: “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.” But we can also take heart from the 1644 work <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Emilton/reading_room/areopagitica/text.html">Areopagitica</a>, Milton’s timely treatise on the importance of the freedom of expression: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>For who knows not that Truth is strong … she needs no policies, nor strategems, nor licencings to make her victorious, those are the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The advice of that age endures now – let falsity and deception serve as unavoidable counterpoints to what is accurate. They underline the necessity of identifying what is fake, disputing what is wrong, and the imperative of pursuing the truth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81196/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Kiernan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pamphlets, songs and posters were the 17th-century equivalent of social media and just as effective at spreading falsehoods.Linda Kiernan, Lecturer in French History, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/793012017-06-20T08:21:00Z2017-06-20T08:21:00ZWhy Oliver Cromwell may have been Britain’s greatest ever general – new analysis of battle reports<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173349/original/file-20170612-10249-5jbdbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster, London, UK</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/oliver-cromwell-statue-front-palace-westminster-96806341?src=A-jBsXePVku-6sCGm0kkNg-1-2">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil-war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=49">battle of Worcester</a> was <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/charles_i_king.shtml">Oliver Cromwell’s</a> greatest triumph. It was the culmination of a campaign which ran like clockwork and finally ended the long and bloody English Civil War (1642-1651).</p>
<p>Some even believe that Cromwell engineered the preceding invasion of England by the royalist army of Prince Charles (the son of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/charles_i_king.shtml">executed King Charles I</a>) by letting him slip behind his own parliamentarian force in the north. Cromwell then allowed the Scottish and English royalists to pass unchallenged down the western side of the Pennine mountains while simultaneously arranging a series of military rendezvous and creating supply dumps down eastern England ahead of his own march southwards. </p>
<p>Cromwell ensured royalist recruitment drives in Charles’s wake were broken up and defeated. And then, isolating Charles and his army in Worcester, Cromwell tightened his cordon. On September 3, 1651, Cromwell’s professional <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Model-Army">New Model Army</a> stormed the royalist positions from the east and south. By the end of the day, Worcester was in Cromwell’s hands and his enemies were scattered. While Prince Charles escaped into exile, the royalist cause was doomed. It was a remarkable battle and campaign. </p>
<h2>A battle to end a war</h2>
<p>The planning which forced Charles into the trap was smooth and successful. And Cromwell also mastered a <a href="http://www.ibtauris.com/en/Books/Humanities/History/Cromwell%20at%20War%20The%20Lord%20General%20and%20His%20Military%20Revolution?menuitem=%7BF27A7174-62F6-40A3-8A37-7C39F7340215%7D">force of 35,000 men</a>, the largest army seen during the war. The sophistication bears comparison with Napoleon Bonaparte’s march into Bavaria in autumn 1805 and his entrapment of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Ulm">General Mack at Ulm</a>, a victory which essentially knocked Austria out of that war. With this extraordinary success, Cromwell also brought an end to years of warfare.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174443/original/file-20170619-12433-j9rox4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174443/original/file-20170619-12433-j9rox4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174443/original/file-20170619-12433-j9rox4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174443/original/file-20170619-12433-j9rox4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174443/original/file-20170619-12433-j9rox4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174443/original/file-20170619-12433-j9rox4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174443/original/file-20170619-12433-j9rox4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oliver Cromwell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/oliver-cromwell-15991658-engraved-by-escriven-81841279?src=A-jBsXePVku-6sCGm0kkNg-1-0">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My new book, <a href="http://www.ibtauris.com/en/Books/Humanities/History/Cromwell%20at%20War%20The%20Lord%20General%20and%20His%20Military%20Revolution?menuitem=%7BF27A7174-62F6-40A3-8A37-7C39F7340215%7D">Cromwell at War: the Lord General and His Military Revolution</a>, explores Cromwell’s battles using contemporary descriptions and battle reports in conjunction with military manuals available to Cromwell to reveal how the “virgin soldier” learned his trade. </p>
<p>Just nine years before Worcester, Cromwell, then aged 43, had strapped on his sword for the first time – as a captain of a troop of horses in parliament’s army at the beginning of the English Civil War. Within months, he was a colonel, and at a skirmish near Grantham in May 1643, Cromwell won his first battle. </p>
<p>Analysis of Cromwell’s <a href="http://www.ibtauris.com/en/Books/Humanities/History/Cromwell%20at%20War%20The%20Lord%20General%20and%20His%20Military%20Revolution?menuitem=%7BF27A7174-62F6-40A3-8A37-7C39F7340215%7D">report</a> of the skirmish reveals that he had been using many of the military manuals that had been written in response to the fast-changing nature of warfare on the continent at the time, particularly during the ongoing <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Thirty-Years-War">Thirty Years War</a> on the continent.</p>
<p>Here, Cromwell used dragoons – fast-moving, mounted infantry armed with muskets – to fire on the royalists before staging his main attack. This tactic caused casualties among the ranks and killed officers, breaking up command and control within the royalist force. </p>
<p>Cromwell was also a consultative leader, who had formed strong relationships with his fellow soldiers, writing that he had consulted with one or more of his “faithfullest and most experienced Captains … we agreed to charge”. </p>
<p>His attack began at a “full trot” which then built up speed until his men were “charging fiercely”. His forces hit the royalists standing and broke the enemy in a manner borrowed from the Swedish king <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gustav-II-Adolf">Gustavus Adolphus</a>, who had made Sweden a potent modern military power a few decades earlier. Cromwell then ensured the royalists remained in a state of confusion by pursuing them for two or three miles. </p>
<h2>A master of strategy</h2>
<p>Cromwell was not just an astute student of tactics, he also showed a remarkable capacity for strategy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174446/original/file-20170619-27202-1lpx46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174446/original/file-20170619-27202-1lpx46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174446/original/file-20170619-27202-1lpx46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174446/original/file-20170619-27202-1lpx46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174446/original/file-20170619-27202-1lpx46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174446/original/file-20170619-27202-1lpx46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174446/original/file-20170619-27202-1lpx46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Antique 17th-century English Civil War lobstertail cavalry helmet and breastplate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reexamining Cromwell’s reports from 1643 also reveals how the new soldier quickly and correctly identified the importance of Newark in Nottinghamshire. This royalist stronghold was strategically located on the major thoroughfares of the Great North Road and Fosse Way, and also dominated the River Trent. For several months in the spring and summer of 1643, Cromwell tried to coordinate local forces to capture the town. </p>
<p>Cromwell realised that as well as disrupting communications between parliament in Westminster and the northern parliamentarians, Newark threatened the parliamentarians’ hold on East Anglia, imperilling access to vast resources of food, money and manpower. So convinced was he of his “vision” that he ruthlessly exposed in his reports to, and speeches within parliament the superior officers who failed to appreciate his strategy. Leading parliamentarians Lord Grey of Wark, Lord Grey of Groby, Lord Willoughby of Parham and the Earl of Manchester were all castigated and replaced for their “failure” to see things as Cromwell did. </p>
<p>But Cromwell was also able to read the landscape and its military implications quickly and correctly. </p>
<p>It would be at the Battle of Marston Moor on July 2, 1644 that Cromwell came to the attention of the wider nation. There, his understanding of the terrain gave the parliamentarians a huge advantage and his wing of the army won the battle in a manner reminiscent of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zwtf34j">Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo</a>, 150 years later. </p>
<p>Seizing a small knoll on the fringe of the ridge where his cavalry was based, Cromwell pushed the royalists into defending disadvantageous ground. Later in the day, on that very spot, he went on to defeat them. </p>
<p>From a standing start, Cromwell developed into a great military leader – and he would later go on to rule Britain and Ireland as Lord Protector. Whether or not the military developments taking place on the continent constituted a revolution, he mastered them and more than any other British commander before or since combined an understanding of modern tactics with a detailed appreciation of terrain and the need for a strategic vision. </p>
<p>These talents he combined with ensuring that he led well-trained men with a high degree of <em>esprit de corps</em>, confident in their abilities and cause, first in his own regiment and later in the parliamentrians’ formidable <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Model-Army">New Model Army</a>. </p>
<p>He was a clever leader with a clear and realistic vision – and he changed the face of Britain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martyn Bennett is affiliated with
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Member of the Cromwell Association
member of the British Interplanetary society
member of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire</span></em></p>He strapped on a sword aged 43 – and changed British history.Martyn Bennett, Professor of Early Modern History, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.