by Robert Lacey
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The preceding source notes set out the books, articles and historical research on which I have relied in writing this book, but I owe a special debt to the historians who have given me personal help and advice — Dr Jacqueline Eales, Richard Eales, Dr Christopher Haigh, J. Patrick Hornbeck II, John McSween, Christopher Skidmore, Yvonne Ward and Patrick Wormald. I have also derived particular stimulation from my fellow committee members of the Society of Court Studies — Dr Andrew Barclay, Dr Anna Keay, our esteemed president Dr David Starkey, Dr Simon Thurley and Dr Mary Hollingsworth, who organises our seminars and the convivial evenings that follow. Thanks to Nabil AlKhowaiter for his data on the Newton Project.
Nigel Rees once again helped me track down several fugitive quotations, and the National Archives joined the quest — but we are still looking for the first reliably recorded utterance of the words‘Glorious Revolution’. Nautical gratitude is due to the crew of The Matthew for their guidance in Bristol harbour, and to my mother for her hospitality while I was in Bristol and for her support at all times. Thanks, when it came to reference resources, to the librarians of the British Library, the London Library, and the Westminster public library, as well as to the partners of the John Sandoe bookshop.
As with several previous projects, writing this book with the assistance of Moyra Ashford has made the process a pleasure. My wife Sandi — ever my best friend and critic — has been a particular support in helping to devise the illustrations so beautifully drawn by Fred van Deelen. In recent months I have been especially strengthened by the clarity offered by Prentis Hancock, Gregorio Kohon and Belinda Shand.
My thanks at Time Warner to Peter Cotton, David Young, Ursula Mackenzie, Sue Phillpott, David Atkinson, Jane Birkett and, in particular, to Roger Cazalet and the endlessly patient Viv Redman. Jonathan Pegg, my new agent at Curtis Brown, has worked hard on my behalf with Camilla Goslett and, more recently, with Shaheeda Sabir.
This volume, the second of three, is dedicated to my second child and only daughter Scarlett. She adds wonderful freshness to the ideas that I bounce off her in our transatlantic telephone calls, and I am deeply grateful for her unfailing emotional wisdom and support. She helped me think through the imagery of history as a kaleidoscope, and it is also thanks to her that I find myself revising the manuscript and writing these final words in the serene and stimulating atmosphere of the Esalen Institute at Big Sur, California.
Robert Lacey, August 2004
The greatest historians are vivid storytellers, Robert Lacey reminds us, and in Great Tales from English History,he proves his place among them, illuminating in unforgettable detail the characters and events that shaped a nation. In this volume, Lacey limns the most important period in England’s past, highlighting the spread of the English language, the rejection of both a religion and a traditional view of kingly authority, and an unstoppable movement toward intellectual and political freedom from 1387 to 1689.
Opening with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and culminating in William and Mary’s “Glorious Revolution,” Lacey revisits some of the truly classic stories of English history: the Battle of Agin court, where Henry V’s skilled archers defeated a French army three times as large; the tragic tale of the two young princes locked in the Tower of London (and almost certainly murdered) by their usurping uncle, Richard III; Henry VIII’s schismatic divorce, not just from his wife but from the authority of the Catholic Church; “Bloody Mary” and the burning of religious dissidents; Sir Francis Drake’s dramatic, if questionable, part in the defeat of the Spanish Armada; and the terrible and transformative Great Fire of London, to name but a few. Here Anglophiles will find their favorite English kings and queens, villains and victims, authors and architects — from Richard II to Anne Boleyn, the Virgin Queen to Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Pepys to Christopher Wren, and many more.
Continuing the “eminently readable, highly enjoyable” (St. Touis Post-Dispatch) history he began in volume I of Great Tales from English History, Robert Lacey has drawn on the most up-to-date research to present a taut and riveting narrative, breathing life into the most pivotal characters and exciting landmarks in England’s history.
Robert Lacey is the coauthor of the history classic The Year 1000 and the author of such acclaimed and bestselling books as Majesty, TheKingdom, Ford: The Men and the Machine, Sotheby’s: Bidding for Class, The Queen Mother’s Century, and Great Tales from English History: The Truth About King Arthur,Lady Godiva, Richard the Lionheart, and More. The father of three, he lives with his wife in London.
Acclaim for Volume 1 of Robert Layer’s
GREAT TALES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY
“An informative, trustworthy distillation, less a debunking than an entertaining, wryly lucid reconstruction of the facts.… The tales weave a narrative as finely thatched as an English cottage.”
—The Tennessean
“Eminently readable, highly enjoyable.… Great Tales should appeal to the reader who appreciates individuals and their personalities more than mere mass movements.”
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Beautifully written, full of things you didn’t know, and well worth a read if you want a new view on stories you thought you already understood.”
— Living Histroy
A great introduction to histroy and legend.”
—Observer(London)