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good, the great, the benevolent Philippa; and of Katharine Parr, the preserver of our universities and the nursing mother of the Reformation?—and here it is impossible to refrain from referring the reader to our life of that illustrious lady, as a sufficient refutation of the ridiculous accusation put forth in letters, which have been addressed to the editors of daily and weekly papers, complaining of our unjust partiality "in having made angels of all the popish queens, and demons of all the protestant queens," as if it were in the power of biographers to make historical characters anything but what they were, or just to blame them for recording facts for which authentic authorities are given. Our affections are naturally on the side of the queens of the reformed church, to which we ourselves belong. It is a church which enjoins truth, and we do not pay her so ill a compliment as to imply that she requires the sophistries of falsehood to bolster up her cause. It is impossible for any rational person to draw controversial inferences from the relative merits of Roman-catholic and protestant queens, since no two of them have been placed in similar circumstances. Our earlier queens were necessarily members of the church of Rome, and there are only the biographies of five avowedly protestant queens in this series. Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Anne of Cleves, died in communion with the church of Rome. Katherine Parr is, therefore, our first protestant queen, and an honour to our church. There is only another protestant queen-consort, Anne of Denmark, in this series, and our three queens-regnant, Elizabeth, Mary II., and Anne. No one can deny that these princesses would have been better women if their actions had been more conformable to the principles inculcated by the pure and apostolic doctrines of the church of England. No sincere friend of that church can blame those who transfer the reproach, which political religionists have brought on their profession, from her to the individuals who have violated her precepts under the pretext of defending her interests.

Enough of sin, enough of sorrow, have surely been related of queens of the Romish church, to satisfy any candid reader that they have been portrayed, not according to the ideal perfections of angelic beings, but with all the follies, the inconsistencies, the frailties to which fallen and corrupt human nature is heir. If we had represented them otherwise, we should have acted as absurdly as those who argue, after the fashion of stultified heathens, by raising a clamour and reiterating cries of, "Great is the Diana of the Ephesians."

Even an author of fiction, as the most distinguished living writer in that department of literature has wittily observed, "cannot make characters amiable, great, or good, by describing them as such, but must make actions define the character in order to produce a proper effect on the reader's mind." Biographers have no license to invent actions, neither can they, conscientiously, omit facts which militate against preconceived opinions. The queens of Eng land were not the shadowy queens of tragedy or romance, to whom imaginary words and deeds could be imputed to suit a purpose. They were the queens of real life, who exercised their own free will in the words they spoke, the parts they performed, the influence they exercised, the letters they wrote. They have left mute but irrefragable witnesses of what they were in their own deeds, for which they, and not their biographers, must stand accountable. To tamper with truth, for the sake of conventional views, is an imbecility not to be expected of historians. Events spring out of each other: therefore, either to suppress or give a false version of one, leads the reader into a complicated mass of errors, having the same effect as the spurious figure with which a dishonestly disposed school-boy endeavours to prove a sum that baffles his feeble powers of calculation. Ay, and it is as easily detected by those who are ac

* See Lives of the Queens, vol. v.

+ Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton.

customed to verify history by the tests of dates and documents. It is, however, the doom of every writer who has had the fidelity to bring forward suppressed evidences, or the courage to confute long-established falsehoods, to be assailed, not only by the false but by the deluded, in the same spirit of ignorant prejudice with which Galileo was persecuted by the bigots of a darker age, for having ventured to demonstrate a scientific truth.

What was the result as regarded Galileo and his discoveries? Why, truly, the poor philosopher was compelled to ask pardon for having been the first to call attention to a fact, which it would now be regarded as the extreme of folly to doubt! Neither the clamour of the angry supporters of the old opinion, nor the forced submission of the person who had exposed its fallacy had in the least affected the fact, any more than the assertion that black is white, can make evil good or good evil. Opinions have their date, and change with circumstances, but facts are immutable. We have endeavoured to develop those connected with the biographies of the queens of England with uncompromising fidelity, without succumbing to the passions and prejudices of either sects or parties, the peevish ephemerides of a day, who fret and buzz out their brief term of existence, and are forgotten. It is not for such we write: we labour in a high vocation, even that of enabling the lovers of truth and moral justice, to judge of our queens and their attributes-not according to conventional censure or praise, but according to the unerring test, prescribed not by "carnal wisdom, but by heavenly wisdom coming down from above," which has said, "By their fruits ye shall know them."

We have related the parentage of every queen, described her education, traced the influence of family connexions and national habits on her conduct, both public and private, and given a concise outline of the domestic, as well as the general history of her times, and its effects on her character, and we have done so with singleness of heart, unbiassed by selfish interests or narrow views. If we have borne false witness in any instance, let those who bring accusations bring also proofs of their assertions. A queen is no ordinary woman, to be condemned on hear-say evidence; she is the type of the heavenly bride in the beautiful 14th Psalm-"Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are holy, whatsoever things are pure, and of good report" in the female character, ought to be found in her. A queen regnant occupies a still higher positionshe is God's vicegerent upon earth, and is therefore to be held in reverence by his people. In proportion to her power, so are her responsibilities. Of the four queens-regnant, whose lives are narrated in this series of biographies, one only, queen Elizabeth, was possessed of absolute power. Her sister Mary I. had placed herself under the control of a cruel and tyrannical husband, who filled her council and her palace with his creatures, and rendered her the miserable tool of his constitutional bigotry. The case of the second Mary was not unlike that of the first, as regarded the marital tutelage under which she was crushed. Anne, when she designated herself "a crowned slave," described her position only too accurately.

The Lives of the Tudor and Stuart female sovereigns, form an important portion of this work; there is much that is new to the general reader in each, in the shape of original anecdotes and inedited letters, especially in those of the royal Stuart sisters, Mary II. and queen Anne. The biographies of those princesses have hitherto been written, either in profound ignorance of their conduct on the part of the writer, or else, the better to work out general principles, in the form of vague outlines full of high-sounding eulogiums, in which all facts were omitted, as if by particular desire, (impressing the disappointed reader with the idea that there was much ado about nothing.) We have endeavoured to supply the blanks, by tracing out their actions, and compelling them to bear witness of themselves by their letters-such letters as they permitted to survive them Strange mysteries might have been unfolded, if bio

graphers had been permitted to glance over the contents of those which queen Mary spent a lonely vigil in her closet in destroying, when she felt the dread fiat had gone forth: "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live." The great marvel regarding the secret correspondence of royalty at such epochs, is not that so much is destroyed, but that any should survive.

The biographical value of the inedited letters and other important documents, connected with the personal history of our queens, to which we have been so fortunate as to obtain access, through the courtesy of M. Guizot, and other distinguished statesmen and antiquarians, as well as the representatives of the ancient historical families in England and Scotland, has necessarily led to the extension of this work to nearly double the number of volumes at first projected. It is needless to speak of the labour and time expended in making a proper use of such materials. Documentary historians, alone, can appreciate the difficulties, the expense, the injury to health, and the sacrifice of more profitable literary pursuits, that have been involved in these royal biographies. The hope that "The Lives of the Queens of England" may be regarded as a national undertaking, generally useful to society, has encouraged us to persevere to the completion of the task.

Meantime, it appears anything but fair that the fruits of so many years of unremitting labour should be no sooner published, than appropriated by compilers, who, possessing no other information on the subject than the materials derived from these volumes, have put forth mutilated versions of various of our biographies, with such verbal alterations as a due regard to consequences suggested, but without favouring the public with an iota of fresh information.

It is unnecessary to remind our readers, that the Lives of several of the Queens whose memories we have had the honour of rescuing from oblivion, had never before been written; that every biography in these volumes contains much original matter, based on documents to which the parties who have availed themselves of our quotations and deductions, never had access; and that in the progress of the work, we have succeeded in eliciting facts which had escaped the research of our popular historians. Yet these, which formed peculiar and distinctive features in our royal biographies, have been as coolly paraded with the rest of the plunder, by the persons to whom we allude, as if they had themselves traced, verified, and restored those broken and widely scattered links to their proper places in the chain of history; nay, more, in the structure of Lives which had never before been made matter of history.

If the same unscrupulous parties were, in like manner, to abridge, transpose, and paraphrase the works of any popular writer of fiction, the attempt to impose such fabrications on the world would cover them and their publisher with obloquy, and would be treated, not only as an unfair, but an illegal infringement of literary property. Why should the rights of historians be regarded as less sacred than those of the poet or the novelist?

A narrative based on facts, more especially facts not previously blended with historic evidences, is no less an original literary production, than a narrative founded on imaginary events. Historians, it is true, expect to be quoted; it is their pride to be cited as faithful witnesses, their delight to supply information; but quotation and piracy are essentially different.

Some literary pirates there are who plunder the book and attack the author in the same page. Others with greater subtlety, have ostentatiously quoted it for trifles that required no references, while they assumed to themselves the credit of everything that had involved peculiar research, and might therefore be esteemed of value. We have heard of an ingenious appropriator in another line, who politely returned a lady a pin which she had dropped, and while she was curtseying her acknowledgments, took quiet possession of her watch and

seals.

But enough of this unpleasant subject. Our readers are fortunately too nu merous not to be aware of the use that has been made of our work in every instance where the obscurity of the offender has not concealed the offence.

We have now to repeat our grateful acknowledgments to the noble and learned friends who have assisted us in the previous volumes of the "Lives of the Queens of England," by granting us access to national and family archives, and favouring us with the loan of documents and rare books, besides many other courtesies, which have been continued with unwearied kindness to the conclusion of the work. Nor must we omit this opportunity of returning thanks to our unknown or anonymous correspondents, who have favoured us with transcripts and references, which have, occasionally, proved very useful; and if they have not, in every instance, been either new to us, or available in the course of the work, have always been duly appreciated as friendly attentions, and tokens of good will.

We cannot take our leave of the gentle readers who have kindly cheered us on our toilsome track, by the unqualified approbation with which they have greeted every fresh volume, without expressing the satisfaction it has given us to have been able to afford mingled pleasure and instruction to so extensive a circle of friends-friends who though personally unknown to us, have loved us, confided in our integrity, brought our Queens into their domestic circles, associated them with the sacred joys of home, and sent them as pledges of affection to their dear ones far away, even to the remotest corners of the world. We should be undeserving of the popularity with which this work has been honoured, if we could look upon it with apathy, but we regard it as God's blessing on our labours and their sweetest reward.

REYDON HALL, SUFFOLK,

March 15th, 1848.

ANNE,

QUEEN REGNANT OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

CHAPTER III.

The princess Anne's conduct and feelings on the death of her only child, the duke of Gloucester-She remains at Windsor during his funeral-She exaspe rates William III. by writing to her father-The princess receives no condolences from William-Her mortification at this neglect-Annoyed at his omission to notify her son's death to Louis XIV.-Disgusted by his meanness in regard to her son's attendants-Resolves to continue their salaries herself -The princess observes the increasing insolence of lady Marlborough-Overhears her unqualified hatred and abuse-Keeps secret her knowledge of it— From this incident commences the princess's dislike to her-Princess receives news of her father's death-Goes in deep mourning for him-Conscious of the failing health of king William-Supposes that her own reign approaches -Commences the study of history-Soon tired of it-Plot to hinder her from succeeding to the throne-Fatal accident to the king-Princess Anne visits him with her consort-Attainder of her brother urged on-This measure effected by her party-The princess is rudely denied access to king William's sick chamber-She receives half-hourly bulletins of his failing breath-She watches all the night with lady Marlborough, expecting his death-Many persons waiting to bring her the news of her accession-William III. dies March 8, 1702-Succeeded by the princess Anne.

THE Contest between good and evil does not affect the human mind so powerfully as the struggle between rights. The lives of the daughters of James II., placed in contradistinction to the Jacobite cause, present strong illustrations of this axiom of ethics. On either side, right has been loudly pleaded. In behalf of the daughters may be urged, that they found it requisite to support the interests of protestantism against their father and his religion. Many who believed in the actual danger of the church of England have sympathized with them, and will continue so to do. Others will judge them according to the standard of common humanity and moral duty. It is this contest which invests the Jacobite cause with its undying interest.

Wheresoever the influence of royal personages has effected great changes in national property, the light of truth, respecting their private characters and motives, is prevented from dawning on historical biography for centuries after such persons have passed onward to eternity. The testimony of either losers or winners becomes suspicious; vested interests bias the recording pen, for which causes certain characters have remained enveloped like veiled idols, to which were offered clouds of incense, in the semblance of baseless panegyric, or they were hooted at through countless pages of vituperation, in which facts are concealed with sedulous care.

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