Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis - Volume 134, Issue 2, 2021

Introduction. Character assassination, a timeless weapon

Character assassination is the deliberate destruction of an individual’s reputation or credibility. While the term itself is relatively new, the practices it describes can be found in virtually all cultures and historical epochs. Despite their great variety, character attacks share five common aspects or pillars: they involve an attacker, a target, a medium, an audience and they take place in a particular cultural, political and technological context. In recent times there has been a surge in scholarship on character assassination from a range of academic disciplines, including political science, rhetoric and communication studies. This thematic issue will explore the historical dimensions of character assassination and the challenges and opportunities that come with it. It will focus in particular on the role that various media – ranging from Roman histories and medieval chronicles to nineteenth-century cartoons – have played in shaping practices of character assassination throughout the ages.

Black ink. The defamation of Gaius Caligula

This article analyses how ancient media were used for the character assassination of the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula. Why was Caligula’s reputation so severely damaged? How was this done? In the complicated situation in which Caligula came to power, the Augustan system of an autocratic rule hidden behind a republican veil was pushed aside. As a result, the conflict between Caligula and the Roman elite became insuperable. When Caligula demonstrated the realities of absolute power, he was assassinated. Shortly after, senatorial authors used the medium of historiography to start their character assassination, depicting Caligula as an insane psychopath. This article discerns between three different groups of attackers with different motives for their character assassination: eyewitnesses, Jewish writers, and later Roman senatorial authors. The article concludes with an assessment of the differences and similarities of the attacks by the three groups. The defamation of Caligula turned out to be highly successful.

From prince to black sheep and back. Royal prince Pippin in Carolingian historiography

This article investigates the rather fluid process of character assassination of Pippin, nicknamed “the Hunchback”. In 792 Pippin joined a conspiracy led by more than a few noblemen against his father, Charlemagne. However, the plot came out just in time and Pippin was confined to a monastery for the rest of his life. His memory was subsequently besmirched by quite a number of writers, who walked the line between blackening Pippin while at the same time ensuring that Pippin’s misstep was never presented as a stain on the reputation of the Carolingian dynasty as a whole. As a result, the character assassination had to be modified time and again to constantly fit the present-day needs of the dynasty. As long as the Carolingians were safe and sound, as a ruling dynasty, Pippin could be blackened. But when the Carolingian family found itself in trouble with regard to securing the family bloodline, the literary Pippin made a spectacular comeback in order to contribute to the preservation of the Carolingian royal dynasty.

Conspiracy Thinking and the Culture of Fear During the Twelve Year’s Truce: The Character Assassination of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (1617-1619)

A remarkable public attack was launched against John of Oldenbarnevelt during the Dutch Truce Conflicts of 1609-1619, which culminated in his execution in May 1619. This article analyses the genesis and effectiveness of this early modern ‘character assassination’ of a leader of state. It argues that this attack derived its power from a carefully nourished, international, protestant culture of fear, in which the preservation of the Dutch Republic was deemed essential to the survival of protestantism as a whole. Two interconnected elements of this culture of fear played into the hands of Oldenbarnevelt’s opponents: the steady stream of international news to the Dutch Republic due to its new infrastructure of news, and the dominant conspiratorial mindset amongst the elite and the wider public alike.

The case of the false letters attributed to George Washington—the first president of the United States—serves as a classical example of character attacks conducted with the help of “fake news”. The fake letters attributed to Washington were allegedly intercepted in 1776. The seven letters were addressed to Washington’s relatives and to a friend. This alleged Washington’s correspondence revealed his serious character flaws, indecisiveness, remorse, his sympathies toward Britain, as well as his wavering commitment to the revolution. These attacks attempted not only to discredit a major public figure and hurt him emotionally but also, feasibly, generate a public scandal and thus achieve or further certain political goals such as winning a military conflict. This article demonstrates whether and how this case fits into the general theory of character assassination and ultimately suggests that many forms, methods, and responses to character attacks remain consistent throughout the ages.