The Development of the Study of Seventeenth-Century History Author(S): C
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The Development of the Study of Seventeenth-Century History Author(s): C. H. Firth Source: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 7 (1913), pp. 25-48 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3678415 Accessed: 26-06-2016 17:12 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press, Royal Historical Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Transactions of the Royal Historical Society This content downloaded from 128.110.184.42 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 17:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STUDY OF SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HISTORY By Professor C. H. FIRTH, LL.D., F.B.A., President (1913). Read May 15, 1913. MY purpose is to trace the development of the study of one particular century in our national history, to show how the knowledge we now possess of it was acquired; how gradually the darkness which overhung the time was dissipated and the truth part by part revealed, and finally by what hands this work was achieved; and by what general causes its progress was promoted or retarded. To relate this process in detail would require more than one hour, but it is possible to indicate its stages and to explain its nature. We must begin by putting ourselves back into the position of the first men who tried to write the history of the period, and, forgetting what we know, consider only what they knew, and the sources from which they obtained their knowledge. Practically the only sources of information available to the first historians of the period were printed sources. A man who in the latter part of the seventeenth century tried to write the history of the first part of it found a vast mass of printed materials in existence which he could use for his purpose. There were thousands of contemporary pamphlets-either controversial discourses about religion and politics, or narratives of battles, sieges, and trials. There were the manifestos of the two parties in the Civil War, widely circulated at the time in the shape of quarto tracts and folio broadsheets; there were also a certain number of speeches made in Parliament by the party leaders. Finally there were the newspapers, which became about 1641 a source of the first importance for the history This content downloaded from 128.110.184.42 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 17:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 26 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY of events and opinions, but were sometimes free to say everything, and at other times only allowed to print what the government thought fit. From these sources the first histories of the Civil War were put together, namely, May's 'History of the Long Parliament,' the 'Parliamentary Chronicle' of John Vicars, and Sprigge's 'Anglia Rediviva.' All were published as soon as the war ended, and confined themselves almost entirely to military history. William Sanderson's' Complete History of the Life of King Charles from his Cradle to his Grave,' published in 1658, and William Dugdale's 'Short View of the Late Troubles,' published in 1681, were com- pilations from similar sources, but they dealt with longer periods of time and devoted more space to political events. But the two contemporary compilations which attained the widest circulation were: James Heath's 'Brief Chronicle of the late Intestine War,' which went through about five editions between 1661 and the end of the century; and Sir Richard Baker's 'Chronicle of the Kings of England.' Baker's 'Chronicle,' it will be remembered, always lay in the hall window of Sir Roger de Coverley's house,1 and was the authority he studied before he went to see the tombs in Westminster Abbey. It was a complete history of England, originally published in 1641, but brought up to date in its nine later editions by repeated supplements. The continuation of Baker, written by Milton's nephew Edward Phillips, was a source of real value for the story of the restoration of Charles II, because it was based on original papers supplied by Monck's brother-in-law, Thomas Clarges. A third contemporary historian acquired a more lasting reputation, namely Thomas Fuller. Fuller's ' Church History of Britain' appeared in 1655. He devoted books x. and xi. to the ecclesiastical history of the reigns of James I and Charles I, treating contemporary events with a modera- tion which gave these books a special value, though it did not save him from violent attacks. 1 Spectator, number 269. This content downloaded from 128.110.184.42 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 17:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms STUDY OF SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HISTORY 27 Another class of historians undertook not merely to relate events but to explain their causes, and to reveal what they called the secret history of the times. Arthur Wilson, in his 'History of Great Britain, being the Life and Reign of James I,' which he published in 1653, explained that he followed the example of Tacitus, and promised to draw the character of James with as much freedom as his exemplar had described those of Tiberius and Nero. Others frankly declared that Suetonius was their model, and collected all the scandals they could about the Stuart kings as he had done about the Caesars. A series of such works was published, between 1649 and 166o: Sir Anthony Weldon's 'Court and Character of King James and King Charles' in 1651; Sir Edward Peyton's 'Divine Catastrophe of the House of Stuart' in 1652 ; Francis Osborne's ' Memoirs on the Reign of Elizabeth and James' in 1658.1 After the Revolution of 1688 a second series appeared dealing with the later Stuarts: 'The Secret History of the Reigns of King Charles and King James,' in 169o; Roger Coke's ' Detection of the Court and State of England during the last four Reigns,' in 1694; James Welwood's 'Memoirs of the most material Transactions in England for the last hundred years preceding the Revolution in I688,' published in 1700. In the main these 'secret historians,' as they were termed, simply put into currency a mass of fabulous anecdotes and traditional gossip, which hindered rather than helped those who strove to write history, and they obtained too much credit. More trustworthy materials were supplied by the early biographers: though they vindicated or glorified their personages they often wrote from personal knowledge, and sometimes based their lives on manuscript materials. To this class belong the Duchess of Newcastle's 'Life' of her 1 These were reprinted and collected in 1811 under the title of Secret History of the Court of James the First, edited by Sir Walter Scott. Another work of the same kind by Godfrey Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester, remained in manuscript till 1839, and was then published by J. S. Brewer. This content downloaded from 128.110.184.42 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 17:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 28 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY husband, published in 1666 ; Heylyn's ' Cyprianus Anglicus, or Life of Archbishop Laud,' published in 1668; Hackett's ' Scrinia Reserata' (a life of Laud's great antagonist John Williams, Archbishop of York), which appeared in 1693; and Burnet's 'Lives of James and William Dukes of Hamilton,' published in 1677, which was founded on the family papers. There were also collections of brief biographies, such as those of Lloyd and Winstanley, but the most useful of all was Wood's 'Athenae Oxonienses,' published in 1692, which served as a sort of 'Dictionary of National Biography.' These biographies were supplemented by the memoirs or recollections of persons who had played some part, small or great, in the events of the period, and wished to relate what they had seen or vindicate what they had done. Price's 'Mystery and Method of his Majesty's happy Restoration' and Lord Castlehaven's 'Memoirs' of his part in the Irish Rebellion both came out in I68o0 ; White- locke's 'Memorials' were first published in 1682. After the Revolution the greater freedom of the Press encouraged the multiplication of such books. Sir William Temple's 'Memoirs' were published in 1693; Laud's 'History of his Troubles and Trial,' written during his imprisonment in the Tower, saw the light in 1694, in the same year as George Fox's 'Journal' ; Baxter's 'Autobiography' was published by Sylvester in 1696, and Ludlow's 'Memoirs' in 1698-9. In 1699 appeared also Sir Thomas Fairfax's 'Short Memorial,' Sir John Berkeley's 'Narrative of the Negotiations between the King and the Army' in 1647, and Denzil Holles's vindication of the Presbyterian leaders whom the Army drove into exile. Taking all these printed authorities together-contem- porary pamphlets, chronicles, secret histories, biographies, and memoirs-it is evident that a man who undertook to write a history of the seventeenth century could put together a pretty full account of what happened, but that it must be necessarily rather superficial and general.