bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Notes on the Ligurians, Aquitanians, and Belgians
Authors: Clarke Hyde
Published: March 2007

I. The question of who were the Ligurians has occupied many, and remained obscure. Many and many years ago it occupied me, and about the year 1869 it led me to engage in a close investigation of a possible Dravidian connexion. This brought me some remarkable results, but for reasons not then known to me they led to no decision. The names of rivers in Liguria and Northern Italy responded to the Tamil names for river, water, &c., but the true cause was that such names are not Dravidian in their origin, and that the river names were not given by the Ligurians, but according to a uniform law, recognisable from Hispania or Britannia to further India, and it may be said to America.
The English Acquisition and Loss of Dunkirk
Authors: Swaine S. A.
Published: March 2007

To the student of English history the campaign in Flanders, undertaken by Cromwell in 1657 in conjunction with the French king, is one of great interest and importance. Yet, strange to say, to all, except to the plodders in the by-paths of history, it is one of the least known of the episodes in the story of that wonderful man, who according to Macaulay was the ‘greatest prince that ever ruled England.’ Justice has not yet been done to the memory of one to whom the English nation owes more perhaps than to any other ruler, or statesman, to whom for so brief a period the destinies of the country have been entrusted. Something has been attempted of recent years in this direction, and something done—especially by Carlyle—but it amounts to no more than an instalment of the sum total of that justice which was due. When that interest comes to be taken in the measures and achievements of the great Protector which they deserve, it will be found and confessed that the Flanders scheme, which he did not live long enough to fully realise, was one of the greatest of them. It is with that scheme that we have to deal in the present paper.
The Iberian and Belgian Influence and Epochs in Britain
Authors: Clarke Hyde
Published: March 2007

The portion of the history of Britain now to be dealt with has hitherto been regarded as rather belonging to ethnology than to history, as prehistoric. It has consequently been supplied from barrows, from skulls, and from pottery, and has been largely matter of speculation and conjecture, supplied according to the fancy or prepossessions of each individual author. The greater part of what has been written turns upon Stonehenge and on supposed Druidical practices.
Political Lessons of Chinese History
Authors: Temple Richard
Published: March 2007

Political and strategic geography of China — Mongol invasion turning-point in Chinese history — Early Chinese civilisation before that event — Gallant and patriotic resistance on the part of the Chinese against their Mongol invaders — Mongol conquest of China completed A.D. 1270 — Character of Mongol rule there — Restoration of native Chinese dynasty — Its decay after lasting two centuries — Local insurrection of a strange character arising — Prepares the way for accession of the Manchus — Origin of the Manchu Tartars — They overrun China after a noble resistance by the people — Their dominion established over China — Character of their rule up to the nineteenth century — Eminent sovereigns of their race — Beginning of their degeneracy.
Bridges: Their Historical and Literary Associations
Authors: Walford Cornelius
Published: March 2007

It will be seen by the above title that my present purpose is not to attempt a history of Bridges. That indeed would be an herculean task: for the materials lie scattered through the histories of nations, and no serious attempt has been made to bring them into a manageable compass. Still I assume it will be expected that I shall present such an historical review as may serve to make the subject intelligible to those who have not heretofore turned their attention to it.
The Keltic Church and English Christianity
Authors: Dawson William
Published: March 2007

Among the many services done the cause of historical research by Mr. John Richard Green, whose premature loss all lovers of history are mourning, the last and not the least was to point out in his own matchless language the part played by the Keltic Church in the conversion of the English to Christianity. I wish to emphasise his hint on the greatness of the part played by the Keltic Churches—to show how far reaching it was in its effects; and that, after the time of S. Augustine, amidst great difference of opinion, there was no touch of antagonism between the Keltic and Italian missions.
Sovereignty in Relation to the Origin of Social Institutions
Authors: Gomme G. Laurence
Published: March 2007

It may be remembered (and I am especially induced to hope that it is so, now that the new volume of Transactions is in the hands of the members) that, on the last occasion at which I had the honour to address you, I mentioned, though I fear too cursorily, some of the necessary considerations due to an inquiry into the origin of monarchical, or, rather it should be termed, personal sovereignty. Speaking roughly, I stated that the origin of society, the origin of law, and the origin of religion, seemed to coalesce into the origin of government.
Lancashire in the time of Elizabeth
Authors: Fishwick Lieut.-Colonel Henry
Published: March 2007

It would be an easy task, and perhaps a not uninteresting one, to draw a picture of what Lancashire may be supposed to have been during the reign of Queen Elizabeth—its large forests, its trackless mosses, its many-gabled, moated, timber halls, and its old grey churches, would all form an admirable background to a stage upon which the persecuted Catholic gentry, the almost equally persecuted Puritan, the honest old yeoman and his comely dame, the hard-working husbandman, and the “sturdy beggar,” might be made to act their parts; but this would not be history, and may therefore be left to the hands of the romancer and the novelist.
Historical Notes on some of the Ancient Manuscripts formerly belonging to the Monastic Library of Waltham Holy Cross
Authors: Winters William
Published: March 2007

It appears from the writings of Eusebius, Basil, Jerome, and Augustine, that libraries were at a very early period attached to various ecclesiastical establishments; and that these libraries were chiefly composed of liturgical and other service books, together with manuscript copies of the Scriptures (in the original language), homilies, catechisms, psalters, and other similar works. Many of these works were of great value and importance, especially those belonging to the Oriental churches. And to some of these early houses of worship were attached separate buildings for libraries and schools.
Inaugural Address of the Right Hon. Earl Russell, K.G., President of the Society
Authors: Russell Earl
Published: March 2007

In rising to address you I cannot but feel that I am occupying the place of one who was illustrious not only by the accomplishment of his great work, the “History of Greece,” but by his extensive learning, his love of liberty, and his reverence for ancient institutions, combined with readiness to embrace truth from whatever quarter it might come. These qualities won him the attachment of the society in which he lived, and the admiration and respect of the nation to which he belonged.
Life and Naval Career of Admiral Sir Richard J. Strachan, Baronet, G.C.B.
Authors: Wise Thomas A.
Published: March 2007

The duties required of a captain of the navy during the Continental war, at the beginning of the present century, were peculiarly difficult. They often involved questions of great national importance, which required intelligence, judgment, and energy, not always united in the same person. On the possessors of such qualities we look back with pride and satisfaction, as to them we owe our high position among the nations. Similar occasions may not again occur for developing such qualities. International and maritime law is now more correctly defined, and the same scope is not given to commanders of iron-clads, as to those who commanded wooden ships. The latter depended on their sailing qualities and power of manoeuvring; the former have only to find out the weak parts of their antagonists, and by the weight of artillery to send their opponents to the bottom. But while these changes in ships have taken place, the race of seamen continues the same. The like courage remains, ready to fight the country's battles and to gain victories, as in former days, when the sailor was prepared to undergo every hardship, and with calmness and sagacity to take advantage of every passing event for maintaining the national glory.
Podiebrad: Bohemia Past and Present
Authors: De Vericour
Published: March 2007

The word Bohemia, it is well known, is a conventional appellation devoid of truth; a name derived from the Boij, a Gallic tribe which settled in that country, 587 B.C. In the seventh century, the Czechs, a Slavonian people, conquered it, and that branch of the great Slavonian race has ever possessed a distinct and original life, as well as a vernacular culture, that has not met with the attention it deserves at the hands of historical students. The Germans of the hereditary house of Habsburg, proclaim that the Czechs owe everything to them— arts, science, civilisation; they have often done so in a somewhat insulting language, despite several glorious epochs in the history of Bohemia, namely, the reign of Ottokar, the competitor of Rodolf of Habsburg to the imperial crown, in 1272; the greatness of the University of Prag, in the fourteenth century, and the glorious episode of George of Podiebrad. As to the Bohemian kingdom of Ottokar, by its importance and extent, it alone deserves a special history. It comprised, besides Bohemia proper, great part of modern Prussia, Carinthia, Croatia, Illyria; it extended from the Baltic to the Adriatic sea, with the harbour of Nao on the latter, thus justifying, as it were, Shakespeare, in whose “ Winter's Tale ” a Sicilian fleet sails into Bohemia, a statement that was eagerly ridiculed by Ben Jonson and others.
Borrowings of Modern from Ancient Poets
Authors: Bowring John
Published: March 2007

The influence of the literature of Greece and Rome, not only upon that of the nations the groundwork of whose language may be traced back to classical sources, but on those civilised races who descend from a wholly different origin, has been a subject which has received much attention and abundant illustration. We formerly gave a collection of examples to be found in the writings of Shakespeare, and also from several of our English poets; and availing ourselves, as before, mainly of the labours of Henderson, give a continuation of our excerpts. They are very far indeed from being exhaustive, but they may encourage others to fill up the blanks that have been left.
The Poetical Remains of King James the First of Scotland, with a Memoir, and an Introduction to His Poetry
Authors: Rogers Charles
Published: March 2007

James the First of Scotland has, as a poet, been associated with Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate; and, on competent authority, has been ranked with the more distinguished musicians. In the present memoir, we shall advert to his claims as a sovereign, as well as to his personal accomplishments.
Notes in Ethnography
Authors: Twemlow George
Published: March 2007

The third day of creation was ushered in by an Oorayoo . Then “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job xxxviii. 7). This may be held to prove that other orbs had been inhabited before this globe appeared. The “shout” was used as a battle cheer; after an “Hourah” of the men of Judah, a vast number of the men of Israel fell down slain (2 Chron. xiii. 15–17).
Notes on the History of “Old Japan.” (Dai Nipon.)
Authors: Pfoundes C.
Published: March 2007

In Japanese history, I am convinced the competent explorer will find, a rich fund of interesting material; and much that will prove important to the orientalist and historian.
Domestic Every-day Life, Manners, and Customs in this Country, from the Earliest Period to the End of the Eighteenth Century
Authors: Harris George
Published: March 2007

We have now arrived at the concluding epoch among those which I have marked out in taking a survey of the different periods in the Domestic History of this country, and of the Pursuits and Modes of Life of our Forefathers; and in the present paper I shall endeavour to trace the course of civilization down to the era in which we are now living.
On Certain Points of Analogy Between Jewish and Christian Baptism in the Apostolic age
Authors: Greene J. Baker
Published: March 2007

I propose, with your kind permission to offer some observations upon the close analogy which existed between Jewish and Christian Baptism in the Apostolic Age, and in doing so I will consider this question in its purely historical aspect, without raising, certainly without desiring to raise, any of those issues which belong to the field of religious controversy, and which would necessarily be out of place in such a Society as ours.
The Inquisition of 1517. Inclosures and Evictions: Edited from the Lansdowne MS. 1. 153
Authors: Lansdowne  , Leadam I. S.
Published: March 2007

This return is plainly a mere fragment. The page on the Lansdowne MS. is without a heading and is bound up between the Isle of Wight and part of Staffordshire. Some of the small inclosures recorded would be with a view to future building, and altogether these entries, which seem principally to refer to the east side of London, are of little value as enabling us to estimate the magnitude of the agricultural revolution. As towns increase in size, fresh areas of land are naturally taken for accommodation land by butchers & c. Such areas would be returned as conversions to pasture. The following extract is interesting in this connexion.
Babylonian Chronology and History
Authors: Bertin G.
Published: March 2007

Many attempts have been made to establish with a degree of accuracy the Babylonian chronology, but all have failed from want of sufficient documents. Previous to the Assyriological discoveries the historians depended mainly, if not altogether, on the relations of Herodotus and Ctesias, and both lived a long time after the Persian conquest of Babylon; mere travellers besides, and unacquainted with the language of the country, they were often imposed upon by their dragomans or misunderstood them.
The Sequence of Forms of Government in Plato's ‘Republic’ compared with the Actual History of Greek Cities
Authors: Malden H. E.
Published: March 2007

Ineed scarcely remind the Society, for the most part, of the subject of the Republic of Plato, the longest and in some respects the most important of his dialogues. But as it is as well not to take too much for granted, I will briefly describe its purport. Nearly all points of the Platonic philosophy are treated or glanced at in the Republic, but the ostensible subject is an inquiry into the nature and meaning of Justice.
Frederick the Great's Invasion of Saxony, and the Prussian ‘Mémoire Raisonné,’ 1756
Authors: Ropes Arthur R.
Published: March 2007

In a previous paper which I read some years ago before the Society I declared my intention of discussing the reasons for which Frederick the Great made his famous attack on Saxony in 1756—an attack which roused half Europe against him, and brought him within a hair's-breadth of ruin, but of which he never seems to have repented.
The Desirability of Treating History as a Science of Origins
Authors: Stuart-Glennie J. S.
Published: March 2007

1. It may give clearness to what I have to say with respect to History if I begin with some remarks on what seems to me a less desirable view of History, and of the method of treating it, than that which, I venture to think, should more distinctively, perhaps, than hitherto guide the proceedings of the Royal Historical Society. The less desirable view of History, as I think, is that of the literary man; the more desirable view of History is that of the man of science. And I shall introduce what I have to say with respect to the scientific view of History by some remarks on the literary view of it as set forth by Mr. Carlyle and Mr. Froude, and recently defended with much brilliancy by Mr. Augustine Birrell. Deprecating even the attempt to view History as a series of phenomena of which the laws, and hence the purport, may be discovered, Mr. Carlyle counsels us to ‘aim only at some picture of the things acted, which picture itself will at best be a poor approximation, and leave the inscrutable purport of them an acknowledged secret;’ and to be content if but ‘here and there an intelligible precept, available in practice, be gathered.’ And so Mr. Carlyle's most distinguished disciple, Mr. Froude, declares that the History of Man ‘seems to him like a child's box of letters with which we can spell any word we please;’ and therefore, with equal truth or falsehood, either progress or the reverse, or anything else whatever.
On Learning and on Teaching History in Schools, and on the Results Obtained by Such Teaching
Authors: Williamson George C.
Published: March 2007

After the most successful conference held by the Royal Historical Society on October 22, 1887, and the admirable paper by Mr. Oscar Browning on the subject of teaching history in schools, it may seem presumption on my part to refer to the subject again.
The National Study of Naval History
Authors: Laughton J. K.
Published: March 2007

It would be senseless presumption in me to speak in this place of the interest of any branch of history studied for its own sake; nor have I interpreted the invitation which I have received through your Secretary as implying any wish that I should do so. I have rather understood the term ‘national’ as expressing a wish that I should speak of the lessons of national importance which are to be sought for in the history of our navy, ‘the wall and fence of the kingdom.’
The Attempts to Establish A Balance of Power in Europe During the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century (1648–1702)
Authors: Routh M. G.
Published: March 2007

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 put an end to the war which had troubled Europe for thirty years, and which had its origin in the bitter religious hatred, intensified by political jealousy, of the partisans of the Reformation on the one hand, and of the adherents of the Roman Catholic Church on the other.
Canning and Spanish America
Authors: Lloyd Colonel E. M.
Published: March 2007

In a letter to Hookham Frere, on January 8, 1825, Canning spoke of the recognition of Mexico and Colombia as 'an act which will make a change in the face of the world almost as great as that of the discovery of the continent now set free. The Allies will fret; but they will venture no serious remonstrance. France will fidget; but it will be with a view of hastening after our example. The Yankees will shout in triumph; but it is they who lose most by our decision.
The Holy Maid of Kent
Authors: Cheney A. Denton
Published: March 2007

On the range of Quarry hills, midway between Lympne and Aldington, overlooking the vast expanse of Romney Marsh, lies the little hamlet of Court-at-Street, and in the fields below, belonging to the manor farm, the considerable remains of the ancient chapel. It is as quiet and pastoral a spot as you will find in all England, yet the scene of an event which has made an indelible mark upon the history of our country.
A Supposed Conspiracy Against Henry VII
Authors: Gairdner James
Published: March 2007

In the last volume of our Transactions is printed a paper by Mr. Leadam, which I had the privilege of hearing when it was read before the Society on May 15, 1902, on ‘An un-known Conspiracy against Henry VII.’ I had not at that time the opportunity of reading the documents on which it was founded, and the few remarks I was able to make upon the subject at the meeting were, I fear, not very edifying. One or two mysterious points are certainly involved in the evidences; but on examining the sources I confess it seems a little doubtful to me whether there was really any such conspiracy against Henry VII. as Mr. Leadam infers from them. The truth, however, if my view of it is correct, is not a little interesting, and very much in keeping with the dark doings of that troubled period.
The Midland Revolt and the Inquisitions of Depopulation of 1607
Authors: Gay Edwin F.
Published: March 2007

The opinion has recently been expressed by a competent student of the sixteenth century that the inclosures of that period, both those which turned the old open fields into sheep farms, thereby evicting husbandmen from their holdings, and those which hedged in severalty the common pastures, were almost entirely responsible for the greater revolts which occurred under Tudor rule. Mr. Pollard specifies this cause of social discontent as mainly operative in the Pilgrimage of Grace, Wyatt's rebellion and that of 1569, as well as those of 1549, both east and west. Such a view ascribes, I think, an exaggerated importance to the inclosing movement of the time and fails to take due account of the combination of motives, political, religious, and social other than agrarian, which acted concurrently, though often at cross purposes, upon all classes, high and low, of a people which was passing reluctant and uncomprehending through an agitated era of transition. The thread of inclosure discontent, it is true, may be traced more or less plainly in these popular uprisings, but as only one of a tangled skein. Yet it is certainly a hasty generalisation, which, laying emphasis on this single element in a complex problem, declares that the masses who took part in all these cbellions were composed of ‘men who had been evicted from their tenements or who had been ground down to the verge of poverty by the loss of their rights to common—men who had nothing to hope from the existing social condition, and nothing to lose in case of failure.’
The Minority of Henry III
Authors: Turner G.J.
Published: March 2007

Although the history of the reign of Henry III. has often been written, I venture to think that some generalisations about it have been too readily accepted and that this is especially the case with respect to the king's minority. Too much importance has been attached to the monastic chronicles, and too little to the testimony of official records. In the first part of this paper I narrate briefly a few of the chief incidents of the regency of the earl Marshal with a view to showing what part the great men of the realm played in the war. I also endeavour to show the importance of the offices of castellan and sheriff, and to explain the government's policy with respect to them on the king's accession. In another part of this paper I hope to be allowed to deal with the difficulties concerning the surrender of the castles into the king's hands and those concerning the termination of the minority itself.
The Later History of the Ironsides
Authors: Firth C. H.
Published: March 2007

Two years ago, in a paper read on April 20, 1899, and printed in volume xiii. of the Transactions of this Society, I traced the early history of the famous regiment of horse raised by Cromwell, the troopers of which are popularly known by the name of the Ironsides, though that name properly belongs not to them alone, but to the cavalry of the Cromwellian army in general. That paper closed with the dissolution of the army of the Eastern Association in April 1645, and with the consequent subdivision of the regiment which Cromwell had raised. I propose now to trace the history of the two regiments which sprang out of it.
A Chapter in Roman Frontier History
Authors: Pelham H. F.
Published: March 2007

In no quarter of the empire was Augustus' warning against further expansion more carefully heeded than on the Rhine, until with the death of Nero the ‘progeny of the Cæsars’ ended, and nowhere else was a scheme of frontier defence based on this policy more rapidly and completely developed. The territory lying along the left bank of the river was treated as a military district and placed under the control of the legates who commanded the two army corps of Upper and Lower Germany. Within this area there were, until the foundation of Cologne in 50 A.D., besides the legionary camps and the smaller forts garrisoned by auxiliaries, only the native settlements of the subject German tribes, themselves liable to be called upon to assist the Imperial forces in repelling or punishing raids by their kinsmen beyond the river. The two armies were of imposing strength, consisting of four legions each and of at least an equal number of auxiliaries. The head-quarters of the lower army were at Xanten (Vetera), facing the valley of the Lippe, and the route that led up it into the heart of Germany. Here two legions were stationed, the others being at Neuss (Novæsium) and at Bonn (Bonna). The upper army had its head-quarters at Mainz (Mogontiacum), commanding the lowlands of the Main, and the road to the country of the Chatti. At Mainz, as at Xanten, were two legions, while Strassburg (Argentoratum) and Windisch (Vindonissa) had one each. With the tribes on the further side, ‘among whom,’ as Seneca says, ‘our peace ceases,’ Rome only concerned herself so far as the safety of the frontier required.
Mr. Canning's Rhyming ‘Despatch’ to Sir Charles Bagot
Authors: Poland Harry
Published: March 2007

Writers on Canning have published from time to time various versions of this so-called ‘rhyming despatch,’ all of them incorrect; and it may therefore be desirable that the Royal Historical Society should record the true version and also the circumstances in which it came to be written.
The Beginnings of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance
Authors: Shillington Violet
Published: March 2007

The beginnings of the alliance between England and Portugal are to be sought almost at the beginning of the latter's history as an independent kingdom. Though the distance between these two countries must have seemed greater in the Middle Ages than it does now, they were very soon brought into friendly relationship through the crusading energy of England in the twelfth century, and the convenient position of Portugal as a stopping-place for ships sailing to the Holy Land, which made it possible for the English to help the early Portuguese kings in their long struggle with the Moors.
The English Nouveaux-Riches in the Fourteenth Century
Authors: Law Alice
Published: March 2007

Of late years the attention of the most distinguished English and foreign economic writers has been riveted upon that remarkably sudden expansion of English trade and commerce which took place during the first half of the fourteenth century.

The problem is, How did the insignificant peddling English traders of the eleventh, twelfth, and early thirteenth centuries so suddenly develop into the important political plutocracy of the fourteenth, a plutocracy so powerful that at one time it threatened to furnish the English constitution with a fourth estate, that of the merchants?
The Gild Merchant of Shrewsbury
Authors: Cunningham Prof. W.
Published: March 2007

Last year it was my duty to lay before the Society the laws of the Lichfield Gild Merchant, which were of special interest from the lateness of the period from which they dated. Today I have the good fortune to be able to introduce to the notice of members a roll of the Shrewsbury Gild Merchant, which is of exceptional interest from its early date. It has been transcribed with great care by Mr. C. H. Drinkwater, Vicar of St. George's, Shrewsbury, who has already printed several similar rolls in the ‘Salop Archæological Transactions.’ He will shortly contribute to the ‘Transactions’ of that society a paper which comments in detail on the proper names, place names, and designations in the rolls. Into these points I shall not enter to-day, as I merely desire to call attention to the bearing of the document on a problem of very wide interest; I shall not attempt to elucidate its details.
The Tudors and the Currency, 1526–1560
Authors: Oman C. W. C.
Published: March 2007

It is the special boast and glory of the English currency that for more than a thousand years it has maintained its original weight and purity in a far higher degree than any of its neighbours. In the whole course of our history only one severe shock has been given to the credit of the English coinage, the one with which this paper deals. Save in this one single case, the currency has been spared by even the worst, the weakest, and the most unfortunate of our rulers. In the clash of the Norman Conquest, in the evil days of King John, in the long thriftless administration of Henry III., in the anarchy of the Wars of the Roses, in the sharpest stress of the Great Rebellion, no ruler of England ever laid hands on the coin of the realm to alloy its purity or cut down its size. It is true that in the attrition of the ages the first of English coins, the venerable silver penny, has sunk to about one-third of its original weight. Offa, its first creator, struck it to the standard of 22 grains; Queen Victoria's Maundy penny of to-day weighs 7¼ grains. But this shrinkage has been due not to deliberate dishonesty in any series of kings or ministers, but to the variations of the ratio between gold and silver in the last five centuries, since the day when Edward III. first added gold money to the currency of the realm.
‘Walter of Henley’
Authors: Cunningham W.
Published: March 2007

For the last three years I have been hoping to take a convenient opportunity to put on record some corrections and additions which I am able to make to my introduction to Miss Lamond's edition of ‘Walter of Henley.’ The occasion has come in the saddest of all fashions, since I cannot delay longer the expression of my personal obligations to a French scholar who has recently died. The kindness I received from André RéVille adds poignancy to my own regret, although all English students must bitterly deplore the loss which historical research has sustained in the death of a man of such brilliant natural gifts, who had profited so well by the great opportunities of training which Paris now affords. He was especially interested in English history, and the first-fruits of his labours, in his paper on the ‘Abjuratio Regni’ (‘Revue Historique,’ L. 1–42), serve to show how much we might have hoped to learn from him, had his life been pro-longed.
Presidential Address
Authors: Prothero G. W.
Published: March 2007

It is with no little diffidence that, in giving my first presidential address, I follow in the steps of so many distinguished predecessors—men notable in various walks of life—historians, statesmen, administrators, diplomatists. The Royal Historical Society has had the good fortune to be presided over by such men as George Grote, Lord John Russell, Lord Aberdare, and Sir M. E. Grant Duff. My immediate predecessor in this chair, Dr. Ward, whom we so unwillingly released from his presidency to fill a larger sphere of usefulness as Master of Peterhouse and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, is known to most of us here as the author of an admirable history of the English drama, the biographer of Chaucer and Wotton, the translator of Curtius's ‘History of Greece,’ and a distinguished writer on various epochs of German history. We have all of us admired the combined courtesy, dignity, and learning with which he discharged the duties of President during his too short tenure of the office but probably only Members of the Council are fully aware of the energy and enthusiasm which he threw into the task of directing the efforts of the Society. To him is chiefly due the successful initiation of a movement for the promotion of advanced historical study in this great but ill-provided capital, which has issued in the establishment, I am glad to say, of two lectureships in the higher branches of historical learning. We parted from him, as I have said, most reluctantly, but we feel confident that the qualities which so fully justified our choice here will insure him full success in the position which he now holds—the practical headship of one of our two great and ancient Universities.
Origin and Early History of Double Monasteries
Authors: Bateson Mary
Published: March 2007

M. Varin's learned monograph at present stands alone as an attempt to ascertain the origin of the double monastery, or monastery for men and women. He deals with the subject incidentally as part of a thesis on the points at issue between the Breton and Roman Church, and he handles his whole theme controversially. In spite of this fact, his argument on the subject of double monasteries has met with general acceptance, for example, from Montalembert, Ozanam, Haddan, Professor Mayor, and M. Maurice Prou. M. Varin seeks to prove that St. Rhadegund' foundation at Poitiers was the first example of this form of organisation among the Western nations of the Continent, and that its origin is directly traceable to Irish influences. It is the object of this essay to suggest a different conclusion, to collect the evidence on the subject from the scattered sources where alone it is at present accessible, and incidentally to criticise the arguments adduced by M. Varin.
Presidential Address
Authors: Prothero G. W.
Published: March 2007

On this occasion, last year, when I first had the honour of addressing you from this chair, I deplored the loss of two of our leading historians—the Bishops of Oxford and London—both of whom were Fellows of our Society. Since that date two other great men, to whose illness I then referred, have been removed from us—Lord Acton and Dr. S. R. Gardiner. To my last year's address, as delivered, I ventured subsequently to add some remarks on these notable writers and men of learning, and will therefore on the present occasion do no more than remind you of their deaths, and express the hope that we may, to the best of our powers, follow their example and imitate their high endeavours in the cause of historical science.
Bondmen under the Tudors
Authors: Savine Alexander
Published: March 2007

In the Domesday Survey villani, bordarii, cotarii, and servi included the great majority of the rural and also of the whole population. The intermixture of these classes created the apparently homogeneous mass of the villeins of the feudal age. No one has ever tried to work out for statistical purposes the rich store of information concerning the sub-division of these classes that is accumulated in the manorial records and in the State surveys of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. But the best modern authorities convey the impression that villeins holding in villeinage were typical of the feudal village and formed the bulk of the rural population.
Historical Evidence and Information Gathered from the Traders' Tokens of the Seventeenth Century and from the Minor Currency
Authors: Williamson George C.
Published: March 2007

There are few branches of knowledge that have within the past few years so varied in their character as that of Numismatics. At one time merely the amusement and pursuit of the leisured wealthy or the study of the very learned, it has within the present generation become a study of importance, interest, and value to those who have but comparatively little leisure and recreation, to those engaged in other branches of study, and a source of historical knowledge hitherto little suspected. To this work the existence of the Numismatic Society of London has given no small aid, and in fact has been largely instrumental in both encouraging and carrying on the study of coins and the research for their historical evidence amongst those who are beginning to understand the high value of such research.
Notes on the History of the Family of Rumbold in the Seventeenth Century
Authors: Rumbold Horace
Published: March 2007

In the course of extensive researches in which I have been engaged for some years on the subject of the history of the Rumbold family during the seventeenth century, and more especially at the period immediately preceding the Restoration, I came across a paper in the British Museum which has never, as far as I know, been made public, and is, perhaps, not unworthy to find a place among the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. The curious document in question is headed A Particular of the Services performed by me Henry Rumbold for His Majesty.
The Inquisition of 1517. Inclosures and Evictions
Authors: Leadam I. S.
Published: March 2007

Professor Ashley on The Character of Villein tenure, and its Relation to InclosureInherent Improbabilities of Professor Ashley's Theory: (I) From the Yorkist Position; (2) From the Tudor Policy; (3) From Absence of EvidenceThe Acts of 1488 and 1515 for Restraint of InclosuresLimits of the Commission of 1517The Returns of the Record Office and of the Lansdowne MS.IllustrationsAreas embraced in ReturnsAbsence of Uniformity in Returns. Examples. Inclosures: (1) By Tenants; (2) By LandlordsCharacteristics of the Returns for the Different CountiesSympathetic Description of EvictionsBoldness and Impartiality of the CommissionersThe Commissioners call Attention to the Losses of Tenants by InclosureLegal Position of Persons concerned mentioned in Yorkshire, where Persons evicted clearly not CopyholdersIndications of Tenure in Herefordshire, Hants, and Norfolk. No Sign of Evictions of CopyholdersInclosures of Demesne Lands by Farming Tenants, with and without EvictionsInclosures by Lords with EvictionsInclosures by CopyholdersWhat Class of Tenants were evicted? The Evidence supplied by the Herefordshire ReturnsThe Persons so described Tenants at Will at Common LawThe Gloucestershire Cases of Evictions of CopyholdersThe Commissioners' View of the Duke of Buckingham's ProceedingsReport of the Surveyors of the Duke of Buckingham's Estates. His Expropriations of FreeholdersThe Duke of Buckingham's Arbitrary Conduct a Cause of his RuinCorroborative Evidence derived from the Statutes that the Persons evicted were not Copyholders.
The Parliament of Lincoln, 1316
Authors: Hughes Arthur
Published: March 2007

In the history of a nation no little importance attaches to the study of the development of its administration, the means with which the social organism provides itself in order to express its will in acts, and to be able to do so with the fairest possible distribution among its members of the strain which action involves. The general course of such development may perhaps be described as the gradual substitution of definite rules for indefinite impulses, of law for equity, of constitutional acts for royal behests. Routine is ever growing and spreading, and becoming more rational as it grows. The rules, at first, are few and simple, but only meet the commonest emergencies, and, however developed the system, the unforeseen is always arising, the hard cases which make good law in the end find new law made to meet them. Everywhere we begin with a person and end with a department.
The Foreign Policy of William Pitt in the First Decade of his Ministry in its European Significance
Authors: Salomon Felix
Published: March 2007

The latest work from the pen of Sir J. R. Seeley, just published, contains, as the last legacy of an author who has rendered such good service to learning, a suggestion surpassing the limits of the subject of which he treats. In speaking of the growth of British policy, Seeley also proceeds to treat of the foreign relations of a state from the standpoint of their development, and in giving the history of this growth teaches us to observe and to reproduce the conditions of such a development. At the same time special stress is laid upon the point that the policy of a state is not to be considered by itself, but that the reciprocal action of states upon one another must be followed out. The history of policy is to Seeley synonymous with international history. It cannot be said that this conception is altogether new, since there is no lack, especially in English literature, of works which have adopted it; but, on the other hand, it is doubtful whether this manner of treating of foreign policy, which cannot pay sufficient regard to its connection with the internal policy of every separate state, will always be advisable.
A Proposal for a New Historical Bibliography
Authors: Harrison Frederic
Published: March 2007

The proposed amalgamation of the Royal Historical Society with the Camden Society, from which we hope to see many advantages to both, has led me to submit for consideration a scheme in which both societies might collaborate for the preparation of a competent Bibliography of English History. All students are aware how singularly deficient is our liferature in the department of historical bibliography. France and Germany have now been working in this field with great industry, and more or less success, for more than a century. They have shown us many lacuncæ and not a few errors to avoid; and we may now, at any rate, perceive what schemes are impracticable and what are useless. England, which has with such energy, and I venture to think with such signal success, laboured on a series of exhaustive Calendars of her Manuscript authorities, has been curiously slow to set about a scientific bibliography of the published materials of her own history.
The École des Chartes and English Records
Authors: Powell F. York
Published: March 2007

My subject obviously deserves a skilled advocate to present it to the public, but as a professional historical student speaking to historical students I may be pardoned if I attempt only the plainest exposition, and ‘let me find a charter in your voice to assist my simpleness.’
The Beginnings of the King's Council
Authors: Baldwin James F.
Published: March 2007

Writers of the thirteenth century observed the formation of a new power in the government. This they variously called ‘the king' familiar council’, ‘the supreme council’, ‘the secret council,’ ‘the noble and prudent council’. It later became known as ‘the continual’ or ‘the ordinary council’, and finally ‘the privy council’. These adjectives and others applied to the council and councillors serve very well to designate the body of which we speak. It is to be noted, however, that it is in chronicles and other literary sources that such terms are at first to be found. The stricter and more conservative ofKcial language recognised only the king's council, or simply the council Ambiguous as they are, these continued to be the usual terms for almost the whole of the middle age, though in the fourteenth century the more popular and descriptive terms found a place in the official records.
The Inclosure of Common Fields in the Seventeenth Century
Authors: Leonard E. M.
Published: March 2007

In the present day we are often reminded that the farmhouse surrounded by hedged fields has not always formed a prominent feature of our English landscape.

At the close of the sixteenth century many fields now inclosed were still forest, fen, or rough waste land. Some formed portions of the so-called pastures where the village herds grazed in common, tended by the village herdsman, and others, again, were included in the great cornfields and meadows, known as the ‘common fields,’ which were often hundreds, and even thousands, of acres in extent.
The Eastland Company in Prussia, 1579–1585
Authors: Szelagowski Adam , Gras N. S. B.
Published: March 2007

Very little is known about the early history of English mercantile venture into the far Eastland. Although some ambitious traders from this island steered their course through the Sound in the fourteenth century, or earlier, and in the fifteenth century seem to have aspired to some degree of common action, it remains true that, previous to the foundation of the Eastland Company in 1579, there was no important body of English merchants organised to trade in the Baltic.
Presidential Address: ‘National Boundaries and Treaties of Peace’
Authors: Oman C.
Published: March 2007

When first in the early autumn of 1918, it begun to occur to me that at some not very remote date I should once more have the duty and pleasure of delivering my annual address to the Society which has given me the honour of its presidential chair, I had intended to speak on a very academic topic—‘The Mediaeval Conception of History’. But as the months of victory wore on, and the collapse of the enemies of Great Britain became manifest, it grew more and more obvious that the only subject which the Society would wish to discuss at such a moment,—at the end of the greatest War that the world has ever seen,—would be ‘Peace and its Consequences’. I acknowledge myself wholly inadequate to take up such a burden: the brain reels when it tries to visualise as a whole the consequences of the triumph of the Allies.
The Courts and Court Rolls of St. Albans Abbey
Authors: Levett A. E.
Published: March 2007

Few stories in English Economic History are better known than that of the Peasants' Revolt at St. Albans. Wat Tyler's dramatic career is indeed more familiar, but its interest has long been recognised as more strictly political than social. Kent was rising against taxation and an unpopular foreign policy rather than against manorial conditions. The maxim “In Kent there is no villenage” had just enough truth in it to put the Kentish men on a different footing from their brothers in other counties.
A Reply to Mr. F. W. Buckler's The Political Theory of the Indian Mutiny
Authors: Dewar Douglas , Garrett H. L.
Published: March 2007

Mr. F. W. Buckler has put forth a theory to account for the Indian Mutiny, or, rather, has unearthed and elevated to the dignity of an hypothesis an assertion made by some of the mutineers at the time of the Mutiny, namely, that the East India Company rebelled against the King of Delhi and that the native soldiers were in duty bound to rally round him against the rebel Company.
The Causes of the War of Jenkins' Ear, 1739
Authors: Temperley Harold W. V.
Published: March 2007

Both Burke and Coxe have said that Jenkins never lost his ear from the stroke of a Spanish ‘cutlash’; a modern historian has shown it to be likely that he did. What, however, is more important than the establishment of this truth is the decision as to the exact amount of influence it had upon producing the war which followed. Jenkins' ear may be said to typify the feelings of the English public in their broad sense, their hatred for the Spaniards as cruel Papists, their insular detestation of the foreigner, and the like. The question is how far did these feelings influence the declaration of war; what were the main motives of the diplomats on either side? Did the English statesmen first truckle to Spain and then to England? The great interest of such an inquiry lies in the fact that the year 1739 was a turning point of history. It was, perhaps, the first of English wars in which the trade interest absolutely predominated, in which the war was waged solely for balance of trade rather than for balance of power. But it is not alone memorable on this account; from this war issued, in a clear and undeviating succession, the series of wars which were waged between England and France during the eighteenth century — wars in which Spain was sometimes a passive spectator, oftener an active enemy, never the friend of England. Spain's alliance with France produced grave complications for England in 1743, contributed to the fall of the greatest of English ministers in 1761, and to the loss of the greatest of English colonies in 1783.
English Traders and the Spanish Canary Inquisition in the Canaries during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth
Authors: de Alberti Leonora , Chapman A. B. Wallis
Published: March 2007

There is perhaps no historical subject less easy to treat dispassionately than the Inquisition. The tissue of exaggerations that has grown up around it is such that the sole hope of arriving at the truth is to turn to authentic sources, and to draw our own conclusions from them. Perhaps it was with this idea that the late Marquess of Bute, who had acquired a very valuable collection of the archives of the Canary Inquisition, had intended publishing in extenso the cases relating to English traders and others. The execution of this plan was unfortunately frustrated by death; but though a search through many volumes of MSS. is rendered necessary for a full study of the subject, the catalogue prepared by Dr. de Gray Birch is probably sufficient to give an intelligent acquaintance with it.