Getting the News and Getting Ahead: Correspondence and News Culture in Early Stuart England

In early seventeenth-century England, court politics and the spread of news were closely connected. Many outside of James I’s inner political circle were deeply concerned with what was happening at the center of power. This preoccupation with court affairs and court politics was reflected in the news of the day, specifically in the epistolary correspondence of men looking to advance their own political careers. This book uses the letter collections of Sir John Chamberlain and several of his contemporaries to discuss how they gathered, sent, received, used, and understood the news of court.