A HISTORY OF ENGLAND PRINCIPALLY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1875. First Edition. Cloth.

History of England in six volumes. Complete six volume set. Octavo-sized volumes bound in brick red cloth. Very good condition in original publishers cloth.

v. 1. The chief crises in the earlier history of England. Attempts to consolidate the kingdom independently in its temporal and spiritual relations. Queen Elizabeth. Close connexion of English and Scottish affairs. Foundation of the kingdom of Great Britain. First disturbances under the Stuarts. Disputes with Parliament during the later years of the reign of James I and the earlier years of the reign of Charles I --
v. 2. Governments in England without the parliament. Troubles in Scotland. Connexion between troubles in Scotland and those in England and elsewhere. The long Parliament and the king, down to the outbreak of the Civil War. The English Civil War, 1642 --
1646. Independents and Presbyterians. Fate of the king --
v. 3. The commonwealth in England, 1649 --
1653. The protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, 1653 --
1658. Fall of the protectorate and the commonwealth. Restoration of the monarchy, 1658 --
1660. The first five years under Charles II. The restoration of the Anglican church. The Dutch wars of Charles II. Establishment of the Protestant and Parliamentary character of the Constitution 1664 --
1674 --
v. 4. The later years of Charles II, 1674 --
1685. Whigs and Tories. Reign of James II, February 1685 to September 1688. The fall of James II in its connexion with the European conflicts which marked the close of 1688. Completion of the revolution in the three kingdoms, 1688 --
1691 --
v. 5. William III and Parliament during the war with France, 1690 --
1697. The later years of William III, 1697 --
1702. Illustration of details from original documents --
v. 6. Criticism of the historians. History of the war in Ireland. Extracts from the correspondence of William III.
Responsibility: by Leopold von Ranke.


German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) is well known for pioneering the modern historical method which advocates empiricism, rather than a focus on the philosophy of history. Emphasizing the importance of presenting history exactly as it happened, Ranke asserted that different eras need to be understood in their own contexts rather than in relation to each other: history should not be regarded as one long, teleological narrative. These principles of writing history, established in earlier publications, are all evident here. Originally published in eight volumes between 1859 and 1869, Ranke's history, 'principally in the seventeenth century', was first published in English as a six-volume history by the Clarendon Press in 1875, the mammoth task of its translation distributed among eight Oxford dons. Volume 3 focuses on the Interregnum years, detailing the rise and fall of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, the Restoration, and Charles II's wars with the Dutch.