There's always someone who wants to escalate, and place themselves at the centre of the story. That's what Hugh Speke did, not only with the hoax 1688 publication entitled The Prince of Orange His Third Declaration (the DNB says that “William of course disclaimed all responsibility for the spurious proclamation”) but also nearly decades later when Speke retro-constructed at least two narratives about the entire 1688 Revolution, in which he portrayed himself as the key player.
His first version was in 1709, in a pamphlet called Some Memoirs of the Most Remarkable Passages and Transactions on the Late Happy Revolution in 1688.
Six years after it, in 1715, Speke published a new version, The Secret History of the Happy Revolution in 1688, Humbly Dedicated to His Gracious Majesty King George, and entitled himself as having been the "principal transactor" of the revolution. More to follow...
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