King Charles II [antikvár]

PREFACE To all those who, by patient scholarship and research, have made some kind of highway through the forest of documents which encompass the reign of Charles II, the thanks of the author of this book are due. First and foremost to Dr. W. A. Shaw, whose titanic work on the Treasury Papers has revolutionized all knowledge of the later seventeenth century; to die editors of the Calendars of State Papers, the publications of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Camden Society, and various other associations; to Thomas Carte and Leopold von Ranke among the dead, and Sir Charles Firth and Keith Feiling among the living. To the latter I owe not merely the inspiration and guidance of his brilliant study of English Foreign Policy from 1660-72, but the transcription of, perhaps, the most important Carolean document of modern times, Justice Warcup's Journal. There are many others who have made paths and vistas which have lightened my pilgrimage, to whom I pay no other tribute but a bare mention in the List of Authorities Cited\ yet every student of the period will know how much I owe them. These are for books: I have also to acknowledge more personal services. To Professor Wallace Notestein of Yale, who not only examined every word of my manuscript with the most critical care, but benefited the reader by eliminating some forty thousand of them; to Edmund Blunden, Hugh Sellon and Professor Andrew Browning who, despite heavy demands on their time, read my proofs and suggested much vii