ABSTRACT
Writing with the benefit of hindsight, and with the intention of demonising leading parliamentarian figures of the 1640s, the author of Vox Veritatis claimed in 1650 that the Apologetical Narration (1643) of the dissenting brethren, one of the key texts of the early civil war period, was written ‘by the secret advice of the Lord Saye, Lord Wharton, Sir Henry Vane junior and Mr [Oliver] St John’.1 Such phraseology may have been chosen carefully, in order to indicate not merely that Saye and his allies had instigated the work, but that they had also played a constructive part in its composition. Whatever the truth of this allegation, and whatever the accuser’s precise meaning, understanding political influence over polemical publication clearly requires that analysis be extended beyond examination of the impetus behind specific tracts and pamphlets, in order to establish the depth of political involvement in particular texts. To the extent that political grandees were concerned to instigate the appearance of texts for specific purposes and at particular moments, they were naturally concerned with the content of such works, and the aim of this chapter is to explore the ways in which such concern was manifested, and the degree to which the substance of political texts was managed and manipulated. For texts to be subjected to substantive influence required collaboration between authors and political grandees before works reached the bookstalls. This naturally meant seeking to exert control during the composition process, which could involve interference in planning and progress, and scrutiny of substantive content and literary style, and which pertained to a variety of polemical forms, from the sermon to the newspaper, the substantial political treatise, and work of historical scholarship. Study of such processes will inform our understanding not merely of the commitment to the polemical process on the part of political grandees, but also of the role and status of propagandists, and the nature of their relationships with patrons and employers.
