“Wee have tidings out of Polonia": English corantos, news networks, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Abiejų Tautų Respublika (ATR; Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów; Žečpospolita; Sandrauga; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth); 17 amžius; Spauda; Anglija (England); 17th century; Press.

ENIn the latest study of London’s news press during the Thirty Years’ War, Jayne E.E. Boys – having inspected the datelines of the English corantos – argues, rightly, that as far as news transmission in early modern Europe is concerned, news generally tended to travel towards England through the Continent in a north-westerly direction. This statement is followed by a more detailed analysis of the issue: The oldest news came from the central and eastern Habsburg lands and from Italy and Constantinople. German news came next. The freshest news was usually Dutch, though news from France, the Spanish Netherlands and Westphalia, when it was available, was seldom more than few days older and was often added at the end. News from places north of the Netherlands, such as Denmark and Sweden appeared less frequently, and via a variety of routs, but the activities of Danish and Swedish troops in Germany were eagerly reported. Surprisingly, in this description, Boys completely ignores the largest European state of the period, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, even though there are nearly 200 reports coming from or dealing with Poland-Lithuania, containing more than 250 news items, between 1620 and 1641. This may be an unimpressive number when compared with, for example Germany or the Netherlands, but it is definitely enough to argue that, in spite of the geographical distance, the coranto readers were not only aware of Poland-Lithuania’s existence, but also were in a position to form their own opinions on this country based on what they had read in these publications. The aim of this chapter is to analyse these reports and answer two main questions. Firstly, about their contents and the contexts in which the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was presented to the English readers, and secondly about this country’s place in the early European news networks used by the coranto editors. [Extract, p. 41]