‘Dutchland Devil’
‘Dutchland Devil’
The prince and the pamphleteers, August-December 1642
This chapter focuses on the series of vituperative attacks which were launched against the prince by Parliamentarian polemicists during the opening months of the Civil War (by which time Rupert had been appointed as general of the Royalist cavalry). It concentrates, in particular, on the reports that sought to imply that Rupert possessed supernatural powers, and demonstrates that, in late 1642, a group of anonymous Parliamentarian pamphleteers in London made a concerted effort to tar the prince with the brush of diabolism, by repeating the earlier claims that he was ‘shot-free’, by hinting that he was a shape-shifter’ and even by implying that – after Rupert had, allegedly, been killed in battle – his corpse had been possessed and reanimated by the devil. [120 words]
Keywords: Propaganda*, Hell-hounds, Carlo Fantom, Shape-shifting*, Transvestism, John Lambe, Joan of Arc*, John Cleveland*, Conjuring*, Cannibalism
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