Puritan writer William Prynne was tried by the Star Chamber in London for his enormous anti-theatrical book Histriomastix. He was imprisoned, fined and mutilated after passages were interpreted as insulting Queen Henrietta Maria. His punishment became a notorious example of Caroline censorship and judicial severity.

Prynne's case showed that literary criticism, theology and political opposition could not easily be separated. His suffering made the printed author a symbol of resistance and helped turn censorship itself into a central subject of Civil War writing.