Rumours of Revolt: Civil War and the Emergence of a Transnational News Culture in France and the Netherlands, 1561-1598

This book explores the reception of foreign news in the late sixteenth century civil wars in France and the Netherlands. Using a large number of French and Dutch chronicles, Baars innovatively demonstrates that the wider public was well aware of events abroad, though mutual interest in the other conflict was far from constant. She sheds new light on the connections between the Dutch Revolt and French Wars of Religion: contemporaries were gradually more inclined to see these wars as part of an international struggle. Baars argues that these times of civil war made inhabitants of both countries more experienced in distinguishing rumour from reliable rapports, stimulating the emergence of a public of critical news consumers.