СНАР. VI. Scots. original documents. The biographical literature relating to MARY, queen of Scots, is voluminous and exceptionally controversial. The controversy appears to have been excited, in the first instance, by the histories of Hume and Robertson, both of whom inclined to an unfavourable estimate of Mary's character. Their conclusions were challenged by WILLIAM TYTLER, who published in 1759 his Inquiry, historical and critical, into Literature relating to the Evidence against Mary, Queen of Scots (2 vols. Mary, 8vo. 1790). A far more thorough investigation of the Queen of evidence is to be found in the comparatively recent work of MIGNET,' who reverted to the view of Hume. MR. HOSACK,2 in a yet later contribution to the subject, sides again with Tytler, looking upon Mary as the 'victim of sectarian violence and barbarous state-craft.' The Life of the first Earl of Essex, in MR. DEVEREUX'S Lives of Lives and Letters of the Devereux, is of special interest the Defrom the new and somewhat startling light in which it places the character of Elizabeth. For the career of Sir Walter Raleigh, the Life by OLDYS, published in 1733, is the original storehouse of facts. This has, however, been to some extent superseded by the work of MR. EDWARDS incorporating the results of Oldys's research, and also additional material unaccessible, for the most part, at the time when the earlier work was compiled.3 M'CCRIE'S Life of Knox (1812), is still the standard source of reference for all that relates to the great Scotch reformer. The whole of our sixteenth history is further illus 'Histoire de Marie Stuart. 3rd edit. 2 vols. Paris, 1854. 2 Mary, Queen of Scots, and her Accusers: embracing a Narrative of Events from the Death of James V. in 1542 until the Death of Queen Mary in 1587. By John Hosack. 2 vols. 2nd edit. 1870. The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh. Based on Contemporary Documents preserved in the Rolls House, the Privy Council Office, Hatfield House, the British Museum, &c. By Edward Edwards. Vol. i. The Life; vol. ii. Letters. 1868. vereux, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Knox. CHAP. VI. Cooper's Athenae Cantabrigienses. trated by a biographical collection of exceptional merit and importance-the Athenae Cantabrigienses, by the brothers CHARLES HENRY, and THOMPSON COOPER, which extends from the year 1500 to 1609. A more admirable series of concise biographies is nowhere to be found, while the aid afforded to the student by the lists of authorities and works of reference appended to each life is of the highest value. In the impartiality of its criticisms, and the thoroughness of its execution, this work greatly surpasses the Athenae Oxonienses of Anthony Wood, above mentioned (p. 323). [ADDENDUM. Students of this period will also find it useful to consult the treatise of Nicolas Sander, entitled Historia Schismatis Anglicani, which extends from the twenty-first year of the reign of Henry VIII. to the twenty-seventh of Elizabeth. This was first published in 1585; subsequent editions, with additions by other hands, appearing in 1610 and 1628, Sander was an Oxford professor with strong Catholic sympathies, who finally quitted England for the continent in 1561. His treatise is frequently appealed to by writers of his party as authoritative, and embodies, they maintain, a more truthful representation of events than that given by Protestant writers. It may here be further observed that it is of high importance clearly to distinguish the successive influences of Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Calvinistic doctrine in this country, and for this purpose Sander's treatise will be found of considerable assistance. The work has been translated, with introduction and notes, by Mr. David Lewis (1877).] 331 CHAPTER VII. FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES I. TO THE ESTAB- CHAP. VII. State Papers.-Party spirit, already excessive under the influence of theological differences, becomes, in the seventeenth century, still further intensified by political State Papers of animosities. Rushworth, in dedicating his Collections to the period. Richard Cromwell, says, ' most writers now-a-days appear in public crooksided, warped, and bowed to the right or to the left.' The few, indeed, who supply a dispassionate and candid record of events are of minor importance as writers, and generally not distinguished by ability. In this dearth of competent and unprejudiced contemporary historians, the State Papers of the period necessarily assume the highest degree of importance, and the Calendars of these, by Mr. Lemon, Mr. Bruce, Mr. Hamilton, and Mrs. Everett Green,3 afford invaluable aid. The Hardwicke Papers, already described (supra, p. 314), contain papers relating to the Spanish Match and to the French Match; correspondence of Charles I. See supra, p. 312, note I. 2 2 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles the First. 16 vols. Edited (i-xii.) by John Bruce, Esq.; vol. xiii. by Bruce and Hamilton; and vols. xiv. xv. and xvi. by W. D. Hamilton, Esq. R. S. 1858-80. 3 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, during the Commonwealth. Edited by Mary Ann Everett Green. 5 vols. 1875-8. For Stale Papers of Reign of James I. by same editor, see supra, p. 312. CHAP. Camden. Wilson's History of Dr. God with the duke of Buckingham; materials connected with the expedition to the Isle of Rhé, and with the Scotch troubles in the years 1637-41; while materials too various here to be particularised, will be found in the Cabala, the Somers Tracts, the Sydney Papers, the Winwood Memoirs, in Fuller, Collier, Neal, Dodd, and other authorities described in the preceding chapter. As regards Scotland, the works of Calderwood and Spottiswoode now become strictly contemporary narratives. The student of Irish history will find considerable aid in the newly published Calendar of State Papers that has just appeared, which includes the papers relating to Ireland to the end of the reign of James I. of (A.) Contemporary Writers.-CAMDEN'S Annals of King James I2 (A.D. 1603–23) is a meagre summary events in strict chronological sequence, containing, as compared with his History of Elizabeth, little of value. The History of King James I., by ARTHUR WILSON,3 is a work of some merit. Wilson was a gentleman of a good Suffolk family, who compiled his History at the suggestion of the third earl of Essex, afterwards the parliamentary general, through whose assistance and that of the earl of Southampton he gained access to a large number of private documents. His friendship for Essex is supposed to have inclined him to severity in his estimate of James. Another contemporary account is the work of the frey Good- well-known DR. GODFREY GOODMAN, bishop of Gloucester. Goodman's sympathies, which were those of man. 1 Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ireland of the Reign of James I. 1615-25. Edited by Rev. Charles W. Russell, D.D. and John Prendergast, Esq. R.S. 1881. 2 Printed in Kennet, see supra, p. 217. 3 Printed in Kennet, see ibid. The Court of King James the First: by Dr. Godfrey Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester: to which are added Letters illustrative of the personal History CHAP. VII. the extreme Anglican party, led him to undertake a too unqualified defence of both king James and the court, but his work is deserving of note as a notable contrast to the virulence and malignity of the Puritan writers of the time. The personal views and literary abilities of James himself are illustrated by his own numerous Writings of James I. writings.1 State Letters. The State Papers and Correspondence of the EARL OF Melros MELROS cover the period 1599 to 1625;2 and the Papers. Carew Letters belong to the years 1615 to 1617. The Carew latter are described by Carte as 'a journal of occurrences, as well in England as in other parts of Europe, containing short memorials of fact, like Camden's summary of king James's reign.' They are, really, news-letters, and may rank among the earlier specimens of that class of composition,—a labour which even men of high rank did not disdain at a time when newspapers were still unknown. ton's WALLINGTON's Diary, which relates principally to Wallingthe reign of Charles I., contains the jottings of a city Diary. Puritan of just so much of public events as had an interest for himself. Collection For the history of the long Parliament and the events Thomason of the Civil War, we have the great collection of pamph- of Pamphlets made by THOMASON, preserved in the British Mu- lets. of the most distinguished Characters in the Court of that Monarch and of his Predecessors. Edited by J. S. Brewer. 2 vols. 1839. Of these a good account is given in Irving's Lives of the Scottish Poets (ed. 1810), ii. 207-91. James's Apophthegms are printed in Dingley's History from Marble. 2 vols. C. S. 1867. A. C. 2 vols. 1837. 3 Letters of George Lord Carew to Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador to the Court of the Great Mogul, 1615-17. Edited by John Maclean, F.S.A. C. S. 1860. A Historical Notices of Events occurring chiefly in the Reign of Charles I. Edited from the original MSS. with Notes and Illustrations [by R. Webb]. 2 vols. London, 1869. |