Dangerous Talk: Scandalous, Seditious, and Treasonable Speech in Pre-Modern England

How could mere words send people to court, to prison, or the scaffold? Dangerous Talk shows how private words had public consequence, how malicious tongues caused social damage, seditious words challenged political authority, and treasonous speech imperilled the crown. In early Tudor times to speak ill of the monarch could risk execution. By the end of the Stuart era similar words could be dismissed with a shrug. This book, by a prize-winning social historian, traces free speech across five centuries of popular political culture, and shows how scandalous, seditious and treasonable talk finally gained protection as ‘the birthright of an Englishman’.