What follows is an attempt to provide an overview of the development and the kinds of political journalism from the lapsing of the Licensing Act in 1695 through the end of the reign of Queen Anne. This survey is representative rather than exhaustive, an attempt to characterise some of the kinds of journalistic enterprises we find in this period, and to contextualise the works of the major authors covered in the middle part of this book: Defoe, Swift, and Steele. The ideological outlooks and apparent aims of major and minor journals – including ephemeral papers, where the extant issues are sufficient – are detailed in the tabular appendix to this book. That table indicates the range and diversity of the canon of political journalism during these years. This chapter does not treat Swift’s, Defoe’s, and Steele's major party periodicals at length, but does place those enterprises within the milieu of late seventeenthand early-eighteenth century journalism. A key argument of this chapter is that the distinction between ‘news’ and ‘expression of ideology’ is problematic. This chapter answers three questions. First, what kinds of venture do we see in this period? Second, how did newswriters manage, varyingly indirectly, to take sides in partisan and ideological battles? And third, what exactly is the relationship between (particular) newspapers and (particular) advocacy journals?

Context

The year 1695 was doubly important: the Licensing Act expired, and the first election was held under the new Triennial Act. Both changes contributed to fervent partisan rivalry, though the press would reflect that increased controversy more after c. 1700 than in the closing years of the seventeenth century. Queen Mary had died at the end of 1694; some contemporaries felt that William was less legitimate as sole monarch than he had been ruling alongside James's daughter. Country Whigs – like their successors under Anne – advocated parliamentary sovereignty and checks on monarchical power; Country Tories queried the legitimacy of standing armies and voiced opposition to the expensive continental wars that lasted throughout William's and most of Anne's reigns. The two wars of our period involving England were the Nine Years’ War or King William’s War (1689–1697) with France and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1713). Most newspapers and advocacy journals respond in some way to these conflicts.