Marchamont Nedham

Marchamont Nedham, also Marchmont and Needham (1620 – November 1678) was a journalist, publisher and pamphleteer during the English Civil War, who wrote official news and propaganda for both sides of the conflict.

A "highly productive propagandist," he was significant in the evolution of early English journalism, and has been strikingly (if hyperbolically) called the "press agent" of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.

Nedham was raised by his mother, the innkeeper of The George Inn, Burford, Oxfordshire, after his father's death. His stepfather was the vicar of Burford and teacher at the local school. He was educated at All Souls College of Oxford University. After college he became an usher at the Merchant Taylors' School, and then a clerk at Gray's Inn. He also studied medicine and pharmacology.

Nedham came to prominence in 1643 when he began working on Mercurius Britanicus, a weekly news-book espousing the parliamentary politics of the era, mainly written as a response to the royalist Mercurius Aulicus of John Birkenhead. The Britanicus was originally edited by Captain Thomas Audley, but it has been suggested that Nedham was responsible for the content much earlier, as the style changed little when he took over in May 1644. Britanicus was more overtly polemical and savage than the satirical Aulicus; often refuting the royalist title point for point. Nedham also personalised the debate, declaring that Aulicus was "So full of lying and railing, that I think he is afflicted by all the pimp." The publication of Charles I's personal letters which were captured after the Battle of Naseby was a significant propaganda coup for the parliamentary forces. However, when Nedham began to launch attacks on the personality of the king and mock his stammer he drew censure from the House of Lords from members who felt he had gone too far. When Nedham again attacked the king during delicate negotiations with the Scots in May 1646, he was sent to the Fleet prison for two weeks for seditious libel. Upon his release he was banned from publishing but probably authored some of the many anonymous pamphlets around at the time.

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