Vox Populi, Newes From Spayne – 1620

It wasn’t until the Thirty Years’ War, 1618 to 1648, that news began to be printed more regularly to satisfy an intense hunger for information about current events. By 1621, weekly news pamphlets or single-sheet corantos were being printed across Europe. According to Breaking News (Kyle and Peacey, 2008), Thomas Scott anonymously published Vox Populi, or Newes from Spayne. “It was a highly critical attack on the foriegn policy of James I and his negotiations with Catholic Spain to marry his son, Charles, to a Spanish Princess.” The pamphlet was “designed to look like a news report from the Spanish ambassador to his superiors in Madrid, and widely believed to be accurate. The government hunted for its author and attempted to stop its publication. Hastily and poorly printed editions flowed off the presses before the government pressure halted production. Quickly though they handed the text to scriveners and manuscript copies continued to circulate. Printed news had become manuscript news.”