The English Mercurie is a literary hoax purporting to be the first English newspaper. It is apparently an account of the English battle with the Spanish Armada of 1588, but was in fact written by the second Earl of Hardwicke, Philip Yorke, in the 18th century as a literary game with some friends. Although the hoax was exposed in 1839, copies of the Mercurie are still mistakenly referred to as factual accounts in the modern era.