Századok – 2013
TANULMÁNYOK - Vincze Dániel: Rebellisek, elégedetlenek, magyarok. A Thököly-felkelés a London Gazette hasábjain IV/891
930 VINCZE DANIEL REBELS, MALCONTENTS, HUNGARIANS: THE THÖKÖLY REVOLT ON THE PAGES OF THE LONDON GAZETTE by Dániel Vincze Summary Research into the echoes of the Thököly revolt in the European press has hitherto been based mainly on the analysis of German and French publications. Knowledge thus obtained can, however, be considerably enlarged by the material contained in the London Gazette, the most important English journal of the period, which, moreover, offers the possibility of an examination covering the whole revolt. By comparison with the continental journals, the articles in the Gazette reflect less the immediate influences of the shifts in English home and foreign policies in forming their opinion about the Thököly movement. Although the phraseology of the journal did depend on the actual relationship between the rebels and the Habsburg government, most of the reports nevertheless aimed at an objective, factual approach. The analysis of the journal’s reports offers a deep insight into the working of contemporary news and information networks, into the emergence and causes of false pieces of information, and on their spread and transformations in both other British journals and the continental press. The fall in the intensity of the revolt was not reflected in a parallel loss of interest provided by the Gazette, as the English public could follow the adventurous story of Imre Thököly and Ilona Zrínyi through stories which focussed on romantic elements harddly emphasised before. The person of Thököly, as a weapon laying on the ground, provided ever new topics for the journal until his very death, thus proving that his loss of power did not involve an immediate loss of the attention focussed on him.
