ABSTRACT
The relationship between Henry IV and the press raises many questions about the nature of public information during the early modern era. Among these are the matter of how it was created, diffused and then consumed by the public at large. Its ensuing effects on political action and policy also merit close attention. A few caveats are in order before getting started. First, the word 'press' did not yet exist as the fourth estate familiar to us today. Any mention of the press usually soon leads to discussions about public opinion or the public sphere. Yet using these terms risks both anachronism and a stern chiding from dix-huitièmistes, who believe Jürgen Habermas intended them for their use alone. In so far as it existed, public opinion during the reign of Henry IV was profoundly corporate in nature as well as highly localized. It is probably best to speak in terms of multiple publics, such as a noble, an officier, a clerical, and even a peasant public, particularly in light of the Croquant uprisings of the late 1590s.1 Distinguishing urban from rural milieux also helps to determine the extent to which news, in all its sundry forms, penetrated different places. Lastly, some effort should be made to differentiate Henry IV's individual attitude and actions toward the press from those of the official establishment in general. As is well known, deep differences on matters of religion and state divided the ruling elites of late sixteenth-century France - differences that very often became played out in the press. Words carried a power at that time that jaded postmodern scholars frequently underestimate. One need only recall the awful punishments meted out to blasphemers, or the Catholic hopes pinned to the words of penitential forgiveness uttered by a confessor.2 False words, rumours, or purposeful misinformation formed every bit
a part of the press as did verifiable accounts of l'histoire immédiate. Ephemeral events generated information whose meaning, whether true or false, was by its very nature highly unstable, even when conveyed in the enduring medium of print.
