The American Nation: A History — Volume 1: European Background of American History, 1300-1600

by Edward Potts Cheyney

ENGLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES

BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The standard bibliographical guide in early English history is Charles Gross, Sources and Literature of English History from the Earliest Times to about 1485 (1900).

GENERAL WORKS.—The best general history of the reign of Henry VII. is W. Busch, England under the Tudors (I., Henry VII., 1895); on the early part of the reign of Henry VIII., J. S. Brewer, The Reign of Henry VIII. (2 vols., 1884); J. A. Froude, History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Armada (12 vols., 1856-1870). Notwithstanding the criticism to which this work has been subjected it remains the most detailed, serious, and valuable history of England in the sixteenth century. A. F. Pollard, England under Protector Somerset (1900), is a valuable survey of the period 1547-1551. S. R. Gardiner, History of England from 1603 to 1642 (10 vols., 1883-1884), History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649 (4 vols., 1886-1891), and History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate (3 vols., 1894-1903), form a series of great value, covering more than half of the seventeenth century. Henry Hallam, Constitutional History of England (3 vols., 1829), is serviceable. L. O. Pike, Constitutional History of the House of Lords (1894), and A. V. Dicey, The Privy Council (1895), are valuable monographs.

SOURCES.—The sources for English history during this period are to be found principally in the Acts of the Privy Council (in progress 1890-), Calendars of State Papers (about 300 vols.), Statutes of the Realm, 1235-1713 (11 vols.), Journals of the House of Lords (16 vols. to 1700), Journals of the House of Commons (13 vols. to 1700), Sir S. D'Ewes, Journals of the Period of Elizabeth (1682), J. Rushworth, Historical Collections (1703), Historical Manuscripts Commission, Reports (106 parts), Deputy Keeper of the Rolls, Public Records, Reports (64 vols.), and in a vast number of detached publications of contemporary journals, correspondence, etc.

Many of the most important statutes and other state papers are collected in G. W. Prothero, Select Statutes and other Constitutional Documents of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I., 1559-1625 (1894), and S. R. Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1628-1660 (1889). Each of these collections has an admirable introduction discussing the history and institutions of the period. Other collections illustrating the constitutional history of the time are George B. Adams and H. Morse Stephens, Select Documents of English Constitutional History (1901); and Mabel Hill, Liberty Documents (1901). The following collections of sources also illustrate social conditions: C. W. Colby, Selections from the Sources of English History (1899); Elizabeth K. Kendall, Source-Book of English History (1900); Ernest P. Henderson, Side-Lights on English History (1900).

COMMERCIAL HISTORY.—The Merchants Adventurers are discussed and illustrated in W. E. Lingelbach, Laws and Ordinances of the Merchant Adventurers (1902), and The Internal Organization of the Merchant Adventurers (1902); in G. Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik (2 vols., 1881); Richard Ehrenberg, England and Hamburg (1896); and Charles Gross, The Gild Merchant (2 vols., 1890). The commercial companies generally are described in Cawston and Keane, The Early English Chartered Companies (1896), a book of slight value and limited extent of information apart from the fact that it is practically the only work covering the field. David Macpherson, Annals of Commerce (4 vols., 1802), is a book of old-fashioned learning on the subject. For the East India Company there is a large literature. Some of the sources are The Charters of the East India Company (no date or place of publication); Birdwood and Foster, The First Letter Book of the East India Company, 1600-1619 (1893); Henry Stevens, Dawn of British Trade to the East Indies (1886). Of more general histories the most recent and one of the best is Beckles Wilson, Ledger and Sword (1903).

Events in England affecting the early history of Virginia are related and the original papers given in Alexander Brown, Genesis of the United States (2 vols., 1891). Valuable articles by H. L. Osgood bearing on this general subject are: "England and the Colonies" (Political Science Quarterly, II.); "Political Ideas of the Puritans" (ibid., VI., Nos. 1, 2); and "The Colonial Corporation" (ibid., XI., Nos. 2, 3). See also his American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century (2 vols., 1904). On general commercial conditions, William Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce (revised ed., 1904).

RELIGIOUS HISTORY.—W. E. Griffis, The Pilgrims in their Three Homes (1898); Daniel Neal, History of the Puritans (4 vols., 1732-1738); W. A. Shaw, The English Church During the Commonwealth (1900); E. Eggleston, Beginners of a Nation (1897), gives interesting and unfamiliar details of the religious sects in England. A. B. Hinds, The England of Elizabeth (1895), is a careful study of the origins of English Puritanism on the Continent. G. P. Gooch, English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century (1898), throws light on the various sects. William Sewel, History of the Quakers (1725), is a standard history on the origin of that body.

C. G. Walpole, The Kingdom of Ireland (1882), describes the "Plantation of Ulster" and the conditions that led to the emigration of the Scotch- Irish. Of value also are W. E. H. Lecky, England in the Eighteenth Century (8 vols., 1878-1890); J. P. Prendergast, The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland (1865); and H. Green, The Scotch-Irish in America (1895).

ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—For local government the admirable bibliography is Charles Gross, Bibliography of British Municipal History, Including Gilds and Parliamentary Representatives (Harvard Historical Studies, V., 1897). Contemporary legal treatises concerning county government are Michael Dalton, Officium Vicecomitum, or the Office and Authority of Sheriffs (1623), and The Country Justice (1681); William Greenwood, Authority, Jurisdiction, and Method of Keeping County Courts, Courts-Leet, and Courts-Baron, etc. (1659); William Lambarde, Eirenarcha, or the Office of the Justices of Peace (1588); A. Fitzherbert, L'Office et Authorities de Justices de Peace (1514), often quoted as "Crompton", an editor who enlarged the original work in 1583; John Wilkinson, Office and Authority of Coroners and Sheriffs (1628). All these appear in numerous editions, the above dates being, as far as ascertained, those of the earliest editions.