COURTLY REFORMATION STRATEGIES

Having identified the human and material resources available to William, it is time to investigate how these resources were actually used. Broadly, the government's propagandists attempted to legitimate the regime by proving that it was reforming many different areas of national life. They justified William's claim to be an instrument of God through a number of publicity campaigns designed to show his reformation acting in a variety of spheres. These campaigns were to some extent interdependent, and it is thus somewhat crude to separate them out. For the sake of clarity, however, six main strategies can be identified. First, William's publicists attempted to prove that the new monarchs had cleared the court of sin, and that they had made the royal household an appropriately virtuous engine of reform. Second, the king's men promoted a series of fasts and thanksgivings. These, they hoped, would cast their master in an Old Testament role and portray him turning his people back towards God. Third, a mantle of royal patronage was thrown over a number of initiatives to reform the nation's manners through the use of statute law. Fourth, William's pro-Dutch foreign policy was presented as a promotion of true godliness. Fifth, the king was shown improving the moral guidance and pastoral resources of the English church. Finally, William was depicted as an honest and frugal executive, purging waste and corruption from the machinery of his government.