ABSTRACT
In 1534 printing was restricted to English subjects. The abolition of the Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission in July 1641, and the breakdown of royal authority at the onset of the Civil War, shattered the chains of censorship. The next stage in the development of the newsbook was the introduction of collections of reports from a number of different sources. Some Speciall and Considerable Passages from London are Westminster, Portsmouth, Warwicke, Coventry, and other places. The 1640s and 1650s are the history of journalism. Freed from the shackles of press restrictions, a great jumble of assorted Diurnalls, Passages, Mercuries, Intelligencers, Posts, Spies and Scouts appeared on the streets. The Civil War newsbooks dealt mainly with facts, albeit unreliable facts biased in favour of King or Parliament. Their successors, Mercurius Politicus and the London Gazette, gave the official presentation of facts as filtered by government. The Gazette is generally regarded by newspaper historians as the first English newspaper.
