Agents in the News: English Envoys and Imperial Diplomats in the London Periodical Press during the Peace Negotiations of Rákóczi’s War of Independence (1704–06)

This study examines the series of events between 1704 and 1706, focusing on the peace negotiations of Rákóczi’s War of Independence (1703–11) took place in Hungary. This period can be observed as the climax of interest in the English political discourse given the pivotal role played by the English and Dutch mediators during the negotiations. I intend to narrow down the scope of the examination to the media appearances of those who shaped the course of the negotiations: the imperial diplomats and the English and Dutch envoys in two contemporary, essentially divergent, London newspapers, the London Gazette and the Daily Courant. I argue that the body of knowledge of the English public’s political discourse regarding the political landscape of the Kingdom of Hungary was complex and multifaceted and was incorporated into the London periodicals in diverse ways, emphasizing the diplomatic aspect in the pursuit of consensus. In accordance with the changing characteristics of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century diplomacy, negotiators, mediators, and delegates were monitored thoroughly in the public sphere, and therefore in the periodical press. Providing clear evidence of this, the newspapers I analyse here present the diplomatic events of the war of independence in a detailed and nuanced manner, while revealing significant differences in their news coverage.