Marchamont Nedham and Christmas

One of the acts of the Puritan Parliament during the English Civil War was to ban the celebration of Christmas, which they considered a Papist rite.  Along with the ban on church services on Christmas Day, there was a specific ban on mince pies and plum puddings (dubbed the invention of ‘the Scarlet Whore of Babylon’), leading the contemporary pamphleteer Marchamont Needham to pen the following rhyme:

 All plums the Prophets‘ sons [i.e. the Puritans] defy,                         And spice broths are too hot;                                                             Treason’s in a December pie,                                                               And death within the pot.

Although the celebration of Christmas was permitted once more after the restoration of Charles II in 1660, the specific ban on mince pies and plum puddings was never repealed so they are still technically illegal in England and Wales.

The English Civil War was, without a doubt, a difficult time to be a political pamphleteer. In the mid-seventeenth century, the English government was completely overhauled multiple times; pamphlets that were reputable one day could be considered treason the next. One man who managed to stay ahead of this turbulence was Marchamont Nedham, an ex-doctor-turned-journalist famous for having written propaganda for both sides of the English Civil War.

In total, Nedham was thrown in prison twice, exiled once, and worked for three very different (though similarly-named) political publications during and between the English Civil Wars. The first of these was entitled Mercurius Britanicus, an anti-royalist periodical. In it, Nedham gleefully attacked King Charles; he published the King’s personal letters, ridiculed his stammer, and even accused him of attempting to overthrow Parliament in 1646. The latter offence caused Britanicus to be shut down, and Nedham was imprisoned for seditious libel. He was released two weeks later, on the condition that he would never publish anything again without permission from Parliament.

With his release secured, Nedham went to the King to plead for a pardon, which was granted. He then began publishing the pro-royalist Mercurius Pragmaticus, in which he volleyed frequent insults at Oliver Cromwell, focusing specifically on the statesman’s large nose. Unfortunately for Nedham, Cromwell and the Roundheads won the first Civil War, and Nedham was thrown in jail once again for his words. While in prison, Nedham wrote a pamphlet wherein he renounced his former royalist position and pleaded for leniency from Cromwell, just as he had done earlier with King Charles. Amazingly, it worked again; in 1649, Nedham took the Oath of Engagement, swearing loyalty to the Commonwealth, and was released from prison.

Upon his release, Nedham began editing yet another Mercurius–this one entitled Mercurius Politicus. This publication and another journal entitled The Publick Intelligencer (also by Nedham) were the only two newspapers Cromwell would allow into print during his reign. In this way, Nedham ironically became the voice of the very regime he had once attacked. Due to his constant side-switching, it is difficult to pinpoint what Nedham’s true beliefs were, but his works do seem to reflect a spirit of humanism and freedom of religion. After Cromwell’s defeat and the restoration of the monarchy, Nedham was forced into hiding but was eventually allowed to return to England after securing yet another pardon. Some years later, he retired from political writing and returned to the field of medicine, but continued to publish the occasional pamphlet until his death in 1678.

During his lifetime, Nedham unsurprisingly saw criticism from both sides of the Civil War due to his inability to remain loyal to either cause; however, no matter how unscrupulous his methods may have been, they certainly kept him alive and employed throughout the turbulence of the war. Nedham’s ability to write convincingly for either side of the conflict proved a useful skill, and the fact that he was thrown in jail twice only serves to prove the influence his words had over the public. All in all, Nedham’s story is a testament to the power of the press, and the State’s desire to control information; Nedham was simply able to use this desire for his own benefit.