“Published by Authoritie”: Newsbooks and the Duke of Buckingham's Expedition to the Île de Ré

Thomas Cogswell analyzes an early example of periodical publication, a coranto produced by Thomas Walkley in 1627 (with the evident collusion of the duke of Buckingham's entourage) reporting the fortunes of the expedition to the Île de Ré. Imitating the successful formula of news publications produced by Butter and Bourne,A Continued Iournall of All the Proceedingswas a clear attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of the once admired and favored duke. The reportage heroized the duke's every action, offering an account of the Army's accomplishments on Ré that was, at the outset, exaggerated but not counterfactual. Once the siege of the French citadel failed, however, accompanied by the slaughter of over two thousand British troops at once, the positive account backfired completely, creating a public relations disaster that only deepened the negative consequences of the duke's military failure.