History of England ... And a further continuation to the period of peace, in 1814 ... by Hewson Clarke

Front matter

_ II P SjS^ * tr m x~ As- ', J^rtUnillol?^!^ ~ arid & furt/irr Ti^j/te finodof laf/r.utt&ji: y i I V HEWSOT CLARKE — liVidinu Fub h> IV Et ans S^po$-i6i$. -=— - MY OWN L.IFE. IT is difficult for a man to speak long of; himself without vanity ; therefore I shall ; be short. It may be thought an instance of; vanity that I pretend at all to write my life; ; but this narrative shall contain little more : than the history of my writings ; as, indeed, j almost all my life has been spent in literary ; pursuits and occupations. The first success ; of most of my writings was not such as to » be an object of vanity. 1 I was born the 26th of April, 1711, old ! style, at Edinburgh. I was of a good family, \ both by father and mother : my father's ; family is a branch of the earl of Home's, or j Hume's ; and my ancestors had been pro- \ prietors of the estate which my brother pos-; sesses, for several generations.

My mother ! vvas daughter of sir David Falconer, president ; of the college of justice : the title of lord : Halkerton came by succession, to her brother, j My family, however, was not rich ; and ; being myself a younger brother, my patri- 5 mony, according to the mode of my country, | was of course very slender. My father, who j passed for a man of parts, died when I was j an infant, leaving me, with an elder brother | and a sister, under the care of our mother, a \ woman of singular merit, who, though young j and handsome, devoted herself entirely to the J rearing and educating of her children. I j passed through the ordinary course of eduj cation with success, and was seized very j early with a passion for literature, which has ; been the ruling passion of my life, and the great source of enjoyments.

My studious disposition, my sobriety, and my industry, gave my family a notion that the law was a proper profession for me ; but I found an: unsurmountable aversion to every thing but the pursuits of philosophy and general learn-\ ing ; and while they fancied 1 was poring upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil \ were the authors which I was secretly de vouring. My very slender fortune, however, being unsuitable to this plan of life, and my health being a little broken by my ardent application, I was tempted, or rather forced, to make a very feeble trial for entering into a more active scene of life. In 1734 I went to Bris tol, with some recommendations to eminent merchants ; but, in a few months, found that scene totally unsuitable to me. I went over to France, with a view of prosecuting my studies in a country retreat ; and I there laid that plan of life which I have steadily and successfully pursued.

Preface

. THE excellence of history, compared j with every other species of literary j composition, has been well described by | the poets and orators of the Augustan age, j and, in modern times, has been tacitly acj knowledged by the emulation of the \ learned, and the suffrage of the intelli- \ gent part of the community. Individuals of the highest genius, and most splendid attainments, have not disdained to appear j in the character of historians, and every j historical production, of tolerable merit, I has been received by the public with the > most immediate and liberal patronage, j That it should be thus attractive to ! the community at large, and worthy of; cultivation by the scholar and the man of j genius, will not appear surprising to him j who contemplates its important influence ; on the morals, the feelings, and the x opinions of mankind ; or the qualificaj tions that are requisite, even to the mode- \ rate performance of the duty of an his- \ torian.

To deduce from the prosperity \ or adversity, the virtues and the vices of j celebrated and eccentric characters, those j salutary lessons, which even experience, j unaided by study, will not supply, is ! the office of Biography ; but History, j while it accomplishes the same object, j takes a wider range, and while it abounds I with accurate delineations of the human character in every variety of form and situation, expands the mind by the mag nitude of the events which it records, in vigorates the judgment by accustoming the reader to habits of comparison, and contributes at once to excite and to gratify curiosity, by the incidental introduc tion and discussion of a great variety of collateral subjects. If the purposes and effects of history in general be thus important, the history of our own country, independent of our sympathy as Englishmen, and its immediate reference to our own feelings, habits, and circumstances, is peculiarly fertile in all that can delight the fancy, or improve the mind.

The exploits of Edward, of Henry, and of Marl borough, surpass the fabled achievements of oriental romance, the insular situation of England leaves its geographical boundaries so distinct and defined, as to preclude the confusion that frequently attaches to continental history ; and above all, the number and importance of the questions that agitated the public mind, during various periods of our progress to freedom, and are still discussed with the ardour and animation of genuine liberty, conspire to render the labours of the historian of England, the

PREFACE.

n. most useful study to the scholar, or the \ speculative reader, and the most effectual x stimulant to languid curiosity. \ Among the historians of England, Mr. j Hume has been placed by the suffrage of j criticism in the first rank. He possessed j many important requisites for the suej cessful execution of his task. His habits j were studious, his research extensive, his j perception deep, his learning various and j correct. Throughout his pages he disj I days the most ample knowledge of the j aws and political constitution of Engx land, and the perfect command of a style | at once animated and correct, elegant I and familiar. His fidelity may always | be trusted, and though he sometimes de viates into the advocate for unlimited j power, he is always scrupulous in record- \ ing the materials of his conclusions. j If any plea may be admitted, to justify \ my presumption in continuing the work \ of so eminent a writer, it is the urgency \ of the general demand for a publication \ like the present.

From the year 1688, \ the period at which the labours of Mr. \ Hume concluded, to the present time, j there is no connected and authentic his- | tory. The annals of the eighteenth cen- \ tury must be collected from a multitude \ of unconnected volumes, by authors, who \ were neither assiduous in selecting, nor \ scrupulous in adorning their materials. { The volumes of Smollet are compiled, j with little effort at original composition, j from the gazettes and magazines ; and j Tindal and Guthrie, with all their merits, j were destitute of those materials which j have been discovered or published by > I succeeding writers. The memoirs of Sir i Robert W al pole, and a various mass of valuable papers, respecting the secret and political history of the last and the preceding centuries, have been, within a few years of the present time, submitted to the public eye, and promise, when carefully collated and embodied in a connected narrative, to give a new form and feature to English history.

The revolutions and events of later years, will be recorded with a correctness and a copiousness commensurate with their importance. The American war, the French revolution, the war in Spain and Portugal, the campaign in Russia, and the present awful contest between France and the Allies, will afford the most copious materials of reflection to every class of readers, and neither expense nor labour shall be wanting, to the completeness of our details, and the correctness of our conclusions. It only remains, on the part of the proprietors, to assure my readers, that the Engravings with which the work is embellished, are executed in the highest style of elegance, by the most eminent artists, from the designs of the first painters ; and they trust upon the whole, that from the superlative style of workmanship in which the publication is brought forward, it will meet with the decided approbation of a discerning public.

London, HEWSON CLARKE. Oct. 6, 1813. <©®MTOMTO OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAP. I. . The Britons. — Romans. — Saxons. — The Hep- ] tarchy. — The Kingdom of Kent — of Northj umberland — of East Anglia — of Mercia — x of E_fWx-ofWe.se, , j CHAP. II. The ANGLO SAXONS. Egbert.— Ethelwolf— Ethelbald— and Ethelbert.— Ethered.— Alfred the Great.— Edj ward the Elder. — Athelstan. — Edmund. — ! Edred. — Edwy. — Edgar. — Edward the ! Martyr. 29 j CHAP. III. Ethelred. — Settlement of the Normans. — Ed- 1 mund Ironside. — Canute the Great. — Ha- ; rold Harefoot. — Hardicanute. — Edward the I Confessor. — Harold. 55 <