Publicity and Persuasion in Early Modern England: The Babington Plot and its Aftermath, 1586‒88

Abstract

Abstract: This article argues that the English Privy Council organised a persuasion campaign in the wake of the Babington Plot (1586). It examines a wealth of sources from a variety of genres, including prayers, sermons, ballads, and treatises, which are often analysed in isolation. It establishes the date of an anonymous sermon delivered at Paul’s Cross to condemn the Babington Plot, and it provides new information about the trials and executions of the traitors, making use of a little-known narrative written by the spy Maliverey Catilyn. The article reaffirms the traditional view that Tudor governments used popular propaganda to promote royal policy, which is of more utility than the theory of the ‘early modern public sphere’.