Rumour, slander and propaganda in fifteenth-century Scottish politics

Abstract

Early modernists have recognized the importance of propaganda and public opinion in Scotland after the development of print culture and the Reformation. Consequently, there is an impression that these sixteenth-century developments were new features of political life. Yet the role of rumour and slander in the political culture of fifteenth-century Scotland has gone unnoticed, despite numerous references in the contemporary records. Several acts of political violence throughout the century were followed by attempts by the crown, and its opponents, to present a coherent narrative of events. These competing narratives were the impetus for the development of propaganda in fifteenth-century Scotland.