MONK'S CONTEMPORARIES. BIOGRAPHIC STUDIES ON THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION. BY M. GUIZOT. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY ANDREW R. SCOBLE. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. PREFACE. In the English Revolution, two figures, Charles I. and Cromwell, tower above all others, and fill the history. Among the personages who, though they do not so largely occupy the stage, took a considerable part in the scene, Monk is not the only one who deserves to be closely studied and intimately known. When I published my "Collection des Mémoires relatifs à la Revolution d'Angleterre," I prepared sketches of the principal actors, and particularly of those who were at once actors and historians, similar to that which I had already written of General Monk. I have now collected these biographic studies into a volume; all of them have been carefully revised and completed, and some are entirely new. They constitute, together with Monk, a sort of gallery of portraits, in which personages of the most different character appear in juxtaposition-chiefs or champions of sects or parties, Parliamentarians, Cavaliers, Republicans, Levellers,-who, either at the termination of the political conflicts in which they were engaged, or when in retirement towards the close of their lives, resolved to describe themselves, their own times, and the part they played therein. In the drawing together of such men, and in the mixture of truth and vanity which characterises such works, there is, unless I am greatly mistaken, abundance to interest persons of serious and curious minds, especially amongst us and in our times; for in spite of the great diversity of manners, contemporary comparisons and applications will present themselves at every step, however careful we may be not to seek them. GUIZOT. Paris, March, 1851. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. To dilate upon the character of the present work, after the ample explanation given by M. Guizot in his own Preface, would be superfluous; but a few words in reference to the circumstances under which it was originally composed, may not be out of place, as it belongs to a most interesting period of its distinguished author's career. About thirty years ago, whilst M. Guizot was Professor of History at the Sorbonne, he published some pamphlets on political questions, which gained for him the ill-will of the ministry of the day. Upon this, his enemies sought to drive him from the university, and to deprive him of bread; but their machinations only stimulated him to increased effort, and he nobly replied to their attacks by the publication of his "Collection of Memoirs relating to the History of the Revolution in England." This great work, which extended to twenty-seven volumes, was enriched by him with copious annotations, and biographical sketches of |