Monarch and Marketplace: Proclamations as News in Early Modern England

Proclamations served many purposes—they allowed the government to regulate or rule by edict, provided texts for magistrates to enforce the laws, regulated the economy, and tweaked statutory instruments. These (by and large) single-folio sheets were the main method the government used to communicate with the people of England, and as such, were printed in very large numbers. This essay looks at how proclamations functioned as news, how they were received in the countryside, and at local reactions to their arrival—from their display on market crosses and walls to the often elaborate lengths that towns and cities went to when publicizing the decrees of central government.