The History of England

History of England, The

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Title: The History of England From the Accession of Henry III. to the
Death of Edward III. (1216-1377)
Author: T.F. Tout
Editor: William Hunt and Reginald L. Poole
Release Date: September 10, 2005 [EBook #16679]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND
FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY III. TO THE DEATH OF

EDWARD III. (1216-1377)
BY T.F. TOUT, M.A. Professor of Mediæval and Modern History in
the University of Manchester.

THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN TWELVE
VOLUMES
Seventy-six years have passed since Lingard completed his HISTORY
OF ENGLAND, which ends with the Revolution of 1688. During that
period historical study has made a great advance. Year after year the
mass of materials for a new History of England has increased; new
lights have been thrown on events and characters, and old errors have
been corrected. Many notable works have been written on various
periods of our history; some of them at such length as to appeal almost
exclusively to professed historical students. It is believed that the time
has come when the advance which has been made in the knowledge of
English history as a whole should be laid before the public in a single
work of fairly adequate size. Such a book should be founded on
independent thought and research, but should at the same time be
written with a full knowledge of the works of the best modern
historians and with a desire to take advantage of their teaching
wherever it appears sound.
The vast number of authorities, printed and in manuscript, on which a
History of England should be based, if it is to represent the existing
state of knowledge, renders co-operation almost necessary and certainly
advisable. The History, of which this volume is an instalment, is an
attempt to set forth in a readable form the results at present attained by
research. It will consist of twelve volumes by twelve different writers,
each of them chosen as being specialty capable of dealing with the
period which he undertakes, and the editors, while leaving to each
author as free a hand as possible, hope to insure a general similarity in
method of treatment, so that the twelve volumes may in their contents,
as well as in their outward appearance, form one History.

As its title imports, this History will primarily deal with politics, with
the History of England and, after the date of the union with Scotland,
Great Britain, as a state or body politic; but as the life of a nation is
complex, and its condition at any given time cannot be understood
without taking into account the various forces acting upon it, notices of
religious matters and of intellectual, social, and economic progress will
also find place in these volumes. The footnotes will, so far as is
possible, be confined to references to authorities, and references will
not be appended to statements which appear to be matters of common
knowledge and do not call for support. Each volume will have an
Appendix giving some account of the chief authorities, original and
secondary, which the author has used. This account will be compiled
with a view of helping students rather than of making long lists of
books without any notes as to their contents or value. That the History
will have faults both of its own and such as will always in some
measure attend co-operative work, must be expected, but no pains have
been spared to make it, so far as may be, not wholly unworthy of the
greatness of its subject.
Each volume, while forming part of a complete History, will also in
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 British Academy.
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 University of Manchester; formerly
Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.
Vol. IV. 1377 to 1485. By C. Oman, M.A., Fellow of All Souls'
College, and Deputy Professor of Modern History