The London Gazette

For all you readers who were not in my HIST 2155 class, here's the reading for today, an issue of the London Gazette, a newspaper from the 1690s. This is the era of the great struggle between William of Orange, the Dutch Statholder who became King Billy on his white horse, and Louis XIV, the Sun King. The issue of the Gazette we looked at today is provided thanks to Rochester University in New York State. It's a little tough to get into, with its first paragraph devoted to unexplained royal doings in Vienna, but with a little patience you can begin to see a sketchy portrait of public-minded men of the era. And wait till you get to the unclassified ads!

The Gazette is still published and is still the paper of record for England (Belfast and Edinburgh have Gazettes of their own).