ABSTRACT
Royalist correspondence from the 1640s reveals a clear fascination with and enthusiasm for print culture, and any number of individuals sought regular supplies of pamphlets and newspapers and asked for specific items. What is particularly striking about the correspondence of men like Hyde, Nicholas and Browne is the sense that royalists displayed not just an appetite for but also a reliance upon English newspapers, in ways which obviously raise questions about the degree to which such texts were invested with credibility. Close scrutiny of surviving evidence indicates that at least some royalists were capable of reading newspapers sceptically and critically, and men like Nicholas often distanced themselves from the intelligence they passed on from the press. Royalist attitudes towards newspapers thus appear to be somewhat confusing, in the sense that they demonstrated enthusiasm for, and even reliance upon, print journalism and pamphleteering, while at the same time expressing profound and growing distrust in such genres.
