Seventy-six years have passed since Lingard completed hisHISTORY OF ENGLAND, which ends with the Revolution of 1688. Duringthat period historical study has made a great advance. Year afteryear the mass of materials for a new History of England hasincreased; new lights have been thrown on events and characters,and old errors have been corrected. Many notable works have beenwritten on various periods of our history; some of them at suchlength as to appeal almost exclusively to professed historicalstudents. It is believed that the time has come when the advancewhich has been made in the knowledge of English history as a wholeshould be laid before the public in a single work of fairlyadequate size. Such a book should be founded on independent thoughtand research, but should at the same time be written with a fullknowledge of the works of the best modern historians and with adesire to take advantage of their teaching wherever it appearssound.
The vast number of authorities, printed and in manuscript, onwhich a History of England should be based, if it is to representthe existing state of knowledge, renders co-operation almostnecessary and certainly advisable. The History, of which thisvolume is an instalment, is an attempt to set forth in a readableform the results at present attained by research. It will consistof twelve volumes by twelve different writers, each of them chosenas being specialty capable of dealing with the period which heundertakes, and the editors, while leaving to each author as free ahand as possible, hope to insure a general similarity in method oftreatment, so that the twelve volumes may in their contents, aswell as in their outward appearance, form one History.
As its title imports, this History will primarily deal withpolitics, with the History of England and, after the date of theunion with Scotland, Great Britain, as a state or body politic; butas the life of a nation is complex, and its condition at any giventime cannot be understood without taking into account the variousforces acting upon it, notices of religious matters and ofintellectual, social, and economic progress will also find place inthese volumes. The footnotes will, so far as is possible, beconfined to references to authorities, and references will not beappended to statements which appear to be matters of commonknowledge and do not call for support. Each volume will have anAppendix giving some account of the chief authorities, original andsecondary, which the author has used. This account will be compiledwith a view of helping students rather than of making long lists ofbooks without any notes as to their contents or value. That theHistory will have faults both of its own and such as will always insome measure attend co-operative work, must be expected, but nopains have been spared to make it, so far as may be, not whollyunworthy of the greatness of its subject.
Each volume, while forming part of a complete History, will alsoin itself be a separate and complete book, will be sold separately,and will have its own index, and two or more maps.
Vol. I. to 1066. By Thomas Hodgkin, D.C.L., Litt.D.,Fellow of University College, London; Fellow of the BritishAcademy.
Vol. II. 1066 to 1216. By George Burton Adams, M.A.,Professor of History in Yale University, New Haven,Connecticut.
Vol. III. 1216 to 1377. By T.F. Tout, M.A.,Professor of Medieval and Modern History in the Victoria