The origin and progress of the English Constitution, down to the
extinction of the house of Plantagenet, formed a considerable portion
of a work published by me some years since, on the history, and
especially the laws and institutions, of Europe during the period of the
middle ages. It had been my first intention to have prosecuted that
undertaking in a general continuation; and when experience taught
me to abandon a scheme projected early in life with very inadequate
views of its magnitude, I still determined to carry forward the
constitutional history of my own country, as both the most important
to ourselves, and, in many respects, the most congenial to my own
studies and habits of mind.
The title which I have adopted, appears to exclude all matter not
referable to the state of government, or what is loosely denominated
the constitution. I have, therefore, generally abstained from
mentioning, except cursorily, either military or political transactions,
which do not seem to bear on this primary subject. It must, however,
be evident, that the constitutional and general history of England, at
some periods, nearly coincide; and I presume that a few occasional
deviations of this nature will not be deemed unpardonable, especially
where they tend, at least indirectly, to illustrate the main topic of
enquiry. Nor will the reader, perhaps, be of opinion that I have
forgotten my theme in those parts of the following work which relate
to the establishment of the English church, and to the proceedings of
the state with respect to those who have dissented from it; facts
certainly belonging to the history of our constitution, in the large
sense of the word, and most important in their application to modern
times, for which all knowledge of the past is principally valuable. Still
less apology can be required for a slight verbal inconsistency with the
title of these volumes in the addition of two supplemental chapters on
Scotland and Ireland. This indeed I mention less to obviate a
criticism, which possibly might not be suggested, than to express my
regret that, on account of their brevity, if for no other reasons, they
are
2
both so disproportionate to the interest and importance of their
subjects.
During the years that, amidst avocations of different kinds, have been
occupied in the composition of this work, several others have been
given to the world, and have attracted considerable attention, relating
particularly to the periods of the Reformation and of the civil wars. It
seems necessary to mention that I have read none of these, till after I
had written such of the following pages as treat of the same subjects.
The three first chapters indeed were finished in 1820, before the
appearance of those publications which have led to so much
controversy, as to the ecclesiastical history of the sixteenth century;
and I was equally unacquainted with Mr. Brodie's History of the
British Empire from the Accession of Charles I. to the Restoration,
while engaged myself on that period. I have, however, on a revision
of the present work, availed myself of the valuable labours of recent
authors, especially Dr. Lingard and Mr. Brodie; and in several of my
notes I have sometimes supported myself by their authority,
sometimes taken the liberty to express my dissent; but I have seldom
thought it necessary to make more than a few verbal modifications in
my text.
It would, perhaps, not become me to offer any observations on these
contemporaries; but I cannot refrain from bearing testimony to the
work of a distinguished foreigner, M. Guizot, Histoire de la Revolution
d'Angleterre, depuis l'Avenement de Charles I. jusqu'à la Chute de
Jacques II. , the first volume of which was published in 1826. The
extensive knowledge of M. Guizot, and his remarkable impartiality,
have already been displayed in his collection of memoirs illustrating
that part of English history; and I am much disposed to believe that if
the rest of his present undertaking shall be completed in as
satisfactory a manner as the first volume, he will be entitled to the
preference above any one, perhaps, of our native writers, as a guide
through the great period of the seventeenth century.
In terminating the Constitutional History of England at the accession
of George III., I have been influenced by unwillingness to excite the
prejudices of modern politics, especially those connected with
personal character, which extend back through at least a large
portion of that reign. It is indeed vain to expect that any
comprehensive account of the two preceding centuries can be given
without risking the disapprobation of those parties, religious or
political, which originated during that period; but
3
as I shall hardly incur the imputation of being the blind zealot of any
of these, I have little to fear, in this respect, from the dispassionate
public, whose favour, both in this country and on the Continent, has
been bestowed on my former work, with a liberality less due to any
literary merit it may possess, than to a regard for truth, which will, I
trust, be found equally characteristic of the present.
June 1827.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION
4
The present edition has been revised, and some use made of recent
publications. The note on the authenticity of the Icon Basilice, at the
end of the second volume of the two former editions, has been
withdrawn; not from the slightest doubt in the author's mind as to the
correctness of its argument; but because a discussion of a point of
literary criticism, as this ought to be considered, seemed rather out of
its place in the Constitutional History of England.
April 1832.
LIST OF AUTHORITIES
5
The following Editions have been used for the References in these
Volumes
Statutes at Large, by Ruffhead, except where the late edition of
Statutes of the Realm is expressly quoted.
State Trials, by Howell.
Rymer's Fœdera, London, 20 vols.
The paging of this edition is preserved in the margin of the
Hague edition in 10 vols.
Parliamentary History, new edition.
Burnet's History of the Reformation, 3 vols. folio, 1681.
Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, Annals of Reformation, and Lives
of Archbishops Cranmer, Parker, Grindal, and Whitgift, folio.
The paging of these editions is preserved in those lately
published in 8vo.
Hall's Chronicles of England.
Holingshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
The edition in 4to published in 1808.
Somers Tracts, by Walter Scott, 13 vols. 4to.
Harleian Miscellany, 8 vols. 4to.
Neal's History of the Puritans, 2 vols. 4to.
Bacon's Works, by Mallet, 3 vols. folio, 1753.
Kennet's Complete History of England, 3 vols. folio, 1719.
Wood's History of University of Oxford, by Gutch, 4 vols. 4to.
Lingard's History of England, 10 vols. 8vo.
Butler's Memoirs of English Catholics, 4 vols. 1819.
Harris's Lives of James I., Charles I., Cromwell, and Charles II. , 5
vols. 1814.
Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, 8 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1826.
It is to be regretted that the editor has not preserved the
paging of the folio in his margin, which is of great
convenience in a book so frequently referred to; and still
more so, that he has not thought the true text worthy of
a better place than the bottom of the page, leaving to
the spurious readings the post of honour.
Clarendon's Life, folio.
Rushworth Abridged, 6 vols. 8vo. 1703.
This edition contains many additions from works published
since the folio edition in 1680.
Whitelock's Memorials, 1732.
Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, 4to. 1806.
May's History of the Parliament, 4to. 1812.
Baxter's Life, folio.
Rapin's History of England, 3 vols. folio, 1732.
6
Burnet's History of his own Times, 2 vols. folio.
The paging of this edition is preserved in the margin of that
printed at Oxford, 1823, which is sometimes quoted,
and the text of which has always been followed.
Life of William Lord Russell, by Lord John Russell, 4to.
Temple's Works, 2 vols. folio, 1720.
Coxe's Life of Marlborough, 3 vols. 4to.
Coxe's Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole, 3 vols. 4to.
Robertson's History of Scotland, 2 vols. 8vo. 1794.
Laing's History of Scotland, 4 vols. 8vo.
Dalrymple's Annals of Scotland, 2 vols. 4to.
Leland's History of Ireland, 3 vols. 4to.
Spenser's Account of State of Ireland, in 8th volume of Todd's edition
of Spenser's works.
These are, I believe, almost all the works quoted in the following
volumes, concerning which any uncertainty could arise from
the mode of reference.
CONSTITUTIONAL
HISTORY OF
ENGLAND FROM HENRY VII. TO
GEORGE II.
7