Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/115

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Charles
107
Charles

lished from original papers by D. Jones, is apocryphal though curious, and seeks to trace the hand of France in everything. There is also a Secret History of the Court and Reign of Charles II (2 vols. 1792). Heath's Chronicle of the late Intestine War, &c., 2nd ed., to which is added A Continuation to the present year 1675, by J. P. (1676), serves the purpose of brief annals up to that date. Of particular episodes in the life of Charles that of his wanderings after Worcester received both biographical and autobiographical treatment (see above); the several accounts are collected in J. Hughes's Boscobel Tracts (1830, partly repr. by Bohn, 1846); there is also a work by S. E. Hoskyns, Charles II in the Channel Islands (2 vols. 1854). Among contemporary memoirs Clarendon's great work in its two divisions accompanies the public life of Charles II up to 1668; the text cites the Oxford editions of the Rebellion (cited simply as Clarendon), 8 vols. 1826; and the Life, 3 vols. 1827. Next in importance is Burnet's History of his own Times (6 vols. Oxford 1833), which narrates the Scottish experiences of Charles II before the Restoration, and English and Scotch ai&irs from that date (Burnet went abroad in 1683). Vol. i. of Clarke's Life of James II (2 vols. 1816) contains genuine memoranda of his brother's life and reign. Evelyn's Diary gives the whole of the reign, that of Pepys ends 31 May 1669; the Correspondence of both extends beyond the death of Charles. An invaluable commentary on what it professes to condense is H. B. Wheatley's Samuel Pepys and the World he lived in (2nd ed. 1880). A. Hamilton's French Memoirs of the Court of Charles II by Count Grammont, which owe much to their real author, only cover

the period from 1662-4. Of greater historical value are the Savile Correspondence, ed. for the Camden Society by W. I). Cooper (1858), which Mpreuds over nearly the whole of the reign (from 1661), but more particularly belongs to the years 1677-82, and the Diary, beginning in 1679, and Correspondence of Henry Sidney, ed. by R. W. Blencowe (2 vols. 1843). Of annalisttc works Whitelocke's Memorials (4 vols. 1853) end with the Restoration, and N. Luttrell's Brief Relation (6 vols. 1857) begins September 1678. Curious information is contained in the Hatton Correspondence, ed. for the Camden Society by K. M. Thompson (2 vols. 1878), chiefly concerning the middle and later parts of the reign; in the Travels and Memoirs of Sir John Reresby (here cited in the 3rd ed. but well edited in 1875 by Mr. Cartwright); in the Letters to Sir Joseph Williamson, 1673 and 1674, ed. for the Camden Society by W. D. Christie (2 vols. 1874); in the despatches of the Brandenburg minister. Otto von Schwerin, Briefe aus England, 1674-8 (Berlin, 1837), and in R. North's Life of Lord Guilford (Lives of the Norths, 3 vols. 1826). There are gleanings in vol. vi. of Rushworth's Historical Collections, 1618-48 (1703); Thurloe's State Papers, Ludlow's Memoirs, also in the Prideaux Letters, ed. for the Camden Society by E. M. Thompson (1876), the Crosby Records, A Cavalier's Note-book, ed. by T. Ellison (1880), Dr. E. Lake's Diary (Camden Miscellany, vol. i. 1847), and the Pythouse Papers, ed. by W. A. Day (1879). In Ellis's Original Letters (1824-7), vol. iv. of the 2nd series in particular illustrates this reign. The letters of Secretary Coventry remain in manuscript at Longleat. Arlington's Letters to Temple, &c., 1664-70, ed. by Bebington (2 vols. 1871). are valuable for the diplomatic history of the earlier half of the reign, as are the Letters of Temple himself (Works, 1750, vol. ii.), which extend to 1679, while his Memoirs (ib. vol. i.) reach from 1672 to the same year. Of special periods in the biography of Charles, the Memoirs of the Duchess Sophia, ed. by A. Köcher (Leipsig, 1789), throw light on his affairs at the Hague before the Scotch expedition, those of Cardinal de Retz (tr. 1774) on his second sojourn in France; Dr. Price's Mystery and Method of H. M.'s Happy Restoration) (1680, repr. in Masères's Select Civil War Tracts, 1815) on the transactions leading up to that event; the Reliquiæ Baxterianæ (1696) on the religious schemes and difficulties ensuing upon it. Forneron's papers in the Revue Historique, vol. xxviii., on the Duchess of Portsmouth are mainly based on the despatches of Colbert de Croissy in the French archives. The authorities concerning the king's death and the circumstances attending it have been mentioned in the text, as has been the masterly summary or the character of King Charles II by Halifax (1750). The king's way of managing, or leaving to be managed, Scotch and Irish affairs is to be gathered from the Lauderdale Papers, ed. for the Camden Society by O. Airy (3 vols. 1884-6), and from the Orrery State Letters (2 vols. 1743), and the documents in Carte's Life of Ormonde (6 vols. 1852) respectively. Of English (and French) State Papers and cognate documents a most important but incomplete selection forms the basis of Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, which begin with the dissolution of the Pensioners' Parliament (2 vob. 4th ed. 1773). The Clarendon State Papers (3 vols. 1767-80, calendared in 3 vols. 1872) extend only as far as the Restoration. Though much use has been made by historians of the despatches of Barillon, the French archives, as is shown by the recent researches of Forneron, contain much more information concerning the reign of Charles II than has hitherto been made public. Modern students, however, have at their service the twelve volumes of Calendars of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Commonwealth (1875-85), and the seven of the reign of Charles II (1860-6) up to 1667, edited by Mrs. Everett Green, together with the volume of the Calendar of Treasury Papers 1556-7-1696, ed. by J. Bedington (1868). Much light is thrown on the finances by Secret Services of Charles II and James II, ed. for the Camden Society by J. Y. Akerman (1851). In addition there are the State Trials, the Parliamentary History, and Chamberlayne's Angliæ Notitiæ (here cited in the ed. of 1676), which last gives a valuable account of the constitution