Radical Protestant Propaganda of the Thirty Years' War

educated would be able to understand the references to historical events, the complex
forms of verse, sentences in Latin, allegories and complex symbols. 44
In contrast to broadsheets, pamphlets were typically published in prose and exclusively
aimed at a literate, well-educated audience. This meant that they had a less universal
appeal when compared to the broadsheet. In spite of this, however, the medium was no
less ambitious than the broadsheet. This is because its target audiences were those situated
in the upper echelons of society: these were the nobles and, on a more abstract level, the
‘decision-makers’. It was this audience that had the education and experience that enabled
them to follow long and complex argumentation, and the time to read the lengthy booklets
and to digest their content. In the seventeenth century, pamphlets were not only directed
at this audience, but also produced by it. Princes of the Empire often found it necessary to
justify or clarify their position on current events or controversies by publishing a pamphlet
on the matter. This created a pressure among the ruling classes to publish in order to make
their voice heard: publishing a pamphlet could help to strengthen one’s own claims and
arguments, while the absence of a publication could signal political inferiority. 45 We see
evidence of pamphlets being used to justify the position of Protestant powers in all four
chapters of this dissertation. The targeted noble audience can even be evident in the title of
the pamphlet, such as Copia Eines Sendschreibens / So von Betlehem Gabor [...] An die Herrn
Directores deβ Königreichs Böheim, 46 which was used as a medium to explain the reasons
for Bethlen Gabor’s intervention to the governors of Bohemia as well as to a wider,
44 Pfeffer, p. 14.
45 See Körber, pp. 204-5.
46 Copia Eines Sendschreibens / So von Betlehem Gabor dem Fürsten in Sibenbürgen / auβ
Weissenburg / sub dato den 20 Augusti dieses ablauffenden Jahrs / An die Herrn Directores des
Königreichs Böheim abgelauffen: Auβ welchem der Ausländischen / unnd dem Türcken verpflichtete
Potentaten affection und fürnemen gegen der Christenheit zu ersehen / Auβ dem Latein in unser
Teutsches durch einen Philohistorem fleissig uberstzet (1619) (HAB : A:60 Pol (27).
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