In the seventeenth century, riots, rebellions, and revolts flared around Europe. Concerned about their internal stability, many states responded by closely observing the violent upheavals that plagued their neighbours. Rebellion and Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe investigates how in this struggle for intelligence about internal discord, diplomats emerged as key information brokers and interpreters of Europe's tumultuous political landscape. The contributions in this volume uncover how diplomatic actors interacted with rulers, opposition leaders, informers, media entrepreneurs, and different audiences in their efforts to understand, communicate, and draw lessons from the insurrections in their time. Rebellion and Diplomacy also examines how diplomats actively tried to shape the course of internal conflicts by managing the spread news, supporting political factions at their court of residence, and even instigating violence. Covering different European regions from the Iberian Peninsula to Scandinavia and from the British Isles to the Carpathian Basin, the book will appeal to all students and researchers interested in early modern diplomacy, politics, and news cultures.

This study examines how the British Empire of the 18th century contained revolution by integrating opposition agents as new spaces of power opened up. Monika Barget convincingly argues that this process of constitutionalisation meant that groups from the aristocracy to religious communities, from the army to the people at large, were brought into the system in a way that balanced the obvious, serious challenges that the Glorious Revolution, the Jacobite Rebellion, the American Revolution, and Jacobin threats of the late-18th century posed to the Empire. Barget highlights the lasting political and legal repercussions of this process. The structure of the chapters, each focussing on specific agents and conflict media, also links the history of political agency and political institutions with an expanding European and even trans-continental media market.