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VII.

Camden.

Wilson's
History of
King
James.

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.

(A.) Contemporary Writers.-CAMDEN'S Annals of King James I. (A.D. 1603-23) is a meagre summary of 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

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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 writings.' James I.

State

Letters.

The State Papers and Correspondence of the EARL OF Melros MELROS cover the period 1599 to 1625; 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 Diary.

WALLINGTON's Diary, which relates principally to Wallingthe reign of Charles I., contains the jottings of a city 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.

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.

• Historical Notices of Events occurring chiefly in the Reign of Charles Edited from the original MSS. with Notes and Illustrations [by R. Webb]. 2 vols. London, 1869.

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VII.

The 'King's Pamphlets.'

Lord

b. 1608.

d. 1674. His

History of

the Rebellion.

seum. A not less valuable collection is that, in the same depository, known as The King's Pamphlets, which illustrate the same period.

The great work of CLARENDON1 commences with the reign of Charles I., supplying a comparatively slight Clarendon, account of events until the year 1641 is reached, and His concluding with the return of Charles II. in 1660. admirable delineations of character and general ability as a writer, have obtained for his History a reputation much beyond that deserved by its historic merits, the work having been really designed as an elaborate justification of the royalist party. For a masterly estimate of its value, and a clear discrimination of the biographical element from the historical, the student should consult the criticism in the sixth volume of Ranke's History.

Sir David Dalrymple. b. 1726.

d. 1792. His Memorials and

Letters.

Parliamentary Records.

The Memorials and Letters collected by SIR DAVID DALRYMPLE (better known as lord Hailes), relating to the reigns of James I.2 and Charles I.,3 rendered a considerable service in the last century in enabling students to judge more accurately the policy and motives of those monarchs. Dalrymple was charged, indeed, with exhibiting the court and character of James in a too unfavourable light, but he always maintained that he had suppressed nothing that was favourable.

As the whole history of England at these times represents results consequent upon the action of its

1 The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, together with an Historical View of the Affairs of Ireland, by Edward, Earl of Clarendon, now for the first time carefully printed from the original MS. preserved in the Bodleian Library. To which are subjoined the Notes of Bishop Warburton. 7 vols. Oxford, 1849.

2 Memorials and Letters relating to the History of Britain in the Reign of James I. 1762.

Memorials and Letters relating to the History of Britain in the Reign of Charles I. 1766.

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parliaments, the Debates of the period necessarily become of primary importance. In connexion with those of the year 1610, marking the commencement of the Debates of great struggle between the Crown and the Commons, a series of notes, by a member of the House, has been published by the Camden Society.1

1610.

Debates of 1621.

1620 and

For the debates of 1620 and 1621,2 an account, also by a member of the House (now known to have been E. Nicholas), and much fuller than any before published, was first printed at the Clarendon Press in 1766. For 1621, 1624, and 1626, we have also contemporary notes Lords' Deon the debates in the House of Lords,3 a record all the more deserving of attention in that the speeches of and 1626. a peer, made in his individual capacity, were never given in the Journals.

bates of

1621, 1624,

worth's

The Collections by RUSHWORTH,' assistant clerk of Rushthe House of Commons, and afterwards secretary to Collec lord Fairfax, commence with the year 1618 and con- tions. clude in 1629. He assigns as a leading motive which induced him to undertake the labour, his conviction of 'the impossibility for any man in after-ages to ground a true History, by relying on the printed pamphlets of

2

1 Parliamentary Debates in 1610. Edited from the Notes of a Member of the House of Commons. By Samuel Rawson Gardiner. C. S. 1861. Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons, in 1620 and 1621. Collected by a Member of that House, and now published from his original MS. in the Library of Queen's College, Oxford. 2 vols. Clarendon Press. 1766. Since incorporated in Parliamentary History, vol. i. 1179– 1366.

(i.) Notes of the Debates in the House of Lords, officially taken by Henry Elsing, Clerk of the Parliaments, A.D. 1621. Edited by S. R. Gardiner, Esq. C. S. 1870. (ii.) Notes, etc., officially taken by Henry Elsing, A.D. 1624 and 1626. Edited by S. R. Gardiner. C. S. 1879.

• Historical Collections of private passages of State, weighty matters of Law, remarkable proceedings in Five Parliaments. Digested in order of Time and now published by John Rushworth, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq.

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Clarendon

State Papers.

Debates of 1625.

Protests of

our days, which passed the press while it was without control.' Rushworth dedicated his work to Richard Cromwell. He was afterwards vehemently denounced by royalist partisans for wilful suppression and garbling of documents. In the Somers Tracts (see supra, p. 315) some of the documents which he failed to incorporate are supplied.

With the year 1623 commence the State Papers collected by CLARENDON as materials for his History. These were subsequently given by his descendants, along with translations of the Spanish and Italian despatches, to the university of Oxford, and have since been printed in part at the University Press; while the task of consulting the whole collection has been rendered easy by the recent publication of a Calendar?

For the debates of the House of Commons of the year 1625, we have a volume of contemporary notes lately published by the Camden Society.3

The Protests of the Lords, from the year 1624, have the Lords. been recently edited, with historical introductions, by professor J. E. Thorold Rogers.*

Verney Papers.

With the accession of Charles, down to 1640, the Letters and Papers of the Verney Family acquire con

1 State Papers collected by Edward, Earl of Clarendon, commencing from the year 1621. Containing the Materials from which his History of the Great Rebellion was composed and the Authorities on which the truth of his Relation is founded. 3 vols. fol. Clarendon Press. 1767.

2 Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers preserved in the Bodleian Library. Vol. i. (1623-49); vol. ii. (1649–54); vol. iii. (1655–57). Clarendon Press. 1872.

Notes of Debates in the House of Commons in 1625. Edited from a MS. in the Library of Sir Rainald Knightley, Bart. By S. R. Gardiner. C. S. 1874.

• Protests of the Lords, including those which have been expunged, from 1624 to 1874; with Historical Introductions. Edited by James E. Thorold 1875.

Rogers, M.A. 3 vols. Clarendon Press.

Letters and Papers of the Verney Family down to the End of the Year

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