Makers of History

Charles I.

By JACOB ABBOTT

WITH ENGRAVINGS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

1901

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by

Harper & Brothers,

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York.

Copyright, 1876, by Jacob Abbott.

Tower of London.

JOHN HAMPDEN.

PREFACE.

The history of the life of every individual who has, for any reason,attracted extensively the attention of mankind, has been written in agreat variety of ways by a multitude of authors, and persons sometimeswonder why we should have so many different accounts of the samething. The reason is, that each one of these accounts is intended fora different set of readers, who read with ideas and purposes widelydissimilar from each other. Among the twenty millions of people in theUnited States, there are perhaps two millions, between the ages offifteen and twenty-five, who wish to become acquainted, in general,with the leading events in the history of the Old World, and ofancient times, but who, coming upon the stage in this land and at thisperiod, have ideas and conceptions so widely different from those of[Pg 6]other nations and of other times, that a mere republication ofexisting accounts is not what they require. The story must be toldexpressly for them. The things that are to be explained, the pointsthat are to be brought out, the comparative degree of prominence to begiven to the various particulars, will all be different, on account ofthe difference in the situation, the ideas, and the objects of thesenew readers, compared with those of the various other classes ofreaders which former authors have had in view. It is for this reason,and with this view, that the present series of historical narrativesis presented to the public. The author, having had some opportunity tobecome acquainted with the position, the ideas, and the intellectualwants of those whom he addresses, presents the result of his labors tothem, with the hope that it may be found successful in accomplishingits design.

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CONTENTS.