Edward Augustus Freeman

Background

He was born at Harborne, Staffordshire, on the 2nd of August 1823. He lost both his parents in infancy, was brought up by a grandmother.

Education

He was educated at private schools and by a private tutor. He was a studious and precocious boy, more interested in religious matters, history and foreign politics than in boyish things. He obtained a scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford, and a second class in the degree examination, and was elected fellow of his college (1845). While at Oxford he was much influenced by the High Church movement, and thought seriously of taking orders, but abandoned the idea.

Career

Ecclesiastical architecture attracted him strongly. He visited many churches and began a practice, which he pursued throughout his life, of making drawings of buildings on the spot and afterwards tracing them over in ink. His first book, save for his share in a volume of English verse, was a History of Architecture (1849). Though he had not then seen any buildings outside England, it contains a good sketch of the development of the art. It is full of youthful enthusiasm and is written in florid language. After some changes of residence he bought a house called Somerleaze, near Wells, Somerset, and settled there in 1860. Freeman's life was one of strenuous literary work. He wrote many books, and countless articles for reviews, newspapers and other publications, and was a constant contributor to the Saturday Review until 1878, when he ceased to write for it for political reasons. To be returned to Parliament was one of his few ambitions, and in 1868 he unsuccessfully contested Mid-Somerset. Foreign rather than domestic politics had the first place with him. Historical and religious sentiment combined with his destestation of all that was tyrannical to inspire him with hatred of the Turk and sympathy with the smaller and subject nationalities of eastern Europe. He took a prominent part in the agitation which followed "the Bulgarian atrocities"; his speeches were intemperate, and he was accused of uttering the words "Perish India!" at a public meeting in 1876. His collected articles and essays on places of historical interest are perhaps the most pleasing of his writings, but they deal exclusively with historical associations and architectural features. The quantity of work which he turned out is enormous, for the fifteen large volumes which contain his Norman Conquest, his unfinished History of Sicily, his William Rufus (1882), and his Essays (1872 - 1879), and the crowd of his smaller books, are matched in amount by his uncollected contributions to periodicals. In 1884 he was appointed regius professor of modern history at Oxford. His lectures were thinly attended, for he did not care to adapt them to the requirements of the university examinations, and he was not perhaps well fitted to teach young men. But he exercised a wholesome influence over the more earnest students of history among the resident graduates. From 1886 he was forced by ill-health to spend much of his time abroad, and he died of smallpox at Alicante on the 16th of March 1892, while on a tour in Spain.

Achievements

• He was made a knight commander of the order of the Saviour by the king of Greece, and also received an order from the prince of Montenegro. The high quality of Freeman's work was acknowledged by all competent judges. He was made D. C. L. of Oxford and LL. D. of Cambridge honoris causa, and when he visited the United States on a lecturing tour was warmly received at various places, of learning. He served on the royal commission on ecclesiastical courts appointed in 1881.

Works

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  • Greater Greece and Greater Britain and George Washington the Great Expander of England

    (This is a history that looks at Britain during the coloni...)

  • The Eastern Question in Its Historical Bearings: An Address Delivered in Manchester, November 15, 1876 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Eastern Question in Its Historical Beari...)

  • Lectures to American Audiences. 1. the English People in Its Three Homes. 2. the Practical Bearings of General European History

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • The History of Sicily From the Earliest Times: From the Beginning of Greek Settlement to the Beginning of Athenian Intervention

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Prose Masterpieces from Modern Essayists

    (Ladies and Gentlemen,—I have undertaken to speak to you t...)

  • Sketches of Travel in Normandy and Maine

    (Sketches of Travel in Normandy and Maine is presented her...)

  • Some Impressions of the United States (Classic Reprint)

    (Some Impressions of the United States Classic Reprint)

  • Atlas to the Historical Geography of Europe (Classic Reprint)

    (Macedonia, its Dependencies A chaian-L eague., i I Italia...)

  • A Short History of the Norman Conquest of England

    (Format Paperback Subject History)

  • Old English History (Classic Reprint)
  • William the Conqueror

Religion

In later life he ceased to hold the theological opinions of his youth, but remained a devout churchman.

Politics

For some years he was an active county magistrate. He was deeply interested in politics, was a follower of Mr Gladstone, and approved the Home Rule Bill of 1886, but objected to the later proposal to retain the Irish members at Westminster. He is almost exclusively a political historian. His saying that "history is past politics and politics are present history" is significant of this limitation of his work, which left on one side subjects of the deepest interest in a nation's life. In dealing with constitutional matters he sometimes attaches too much weight to words and formal aspects. This gives certain of his arguments an air of pedantry, and seems to lead him to find evidences of continuity in institutions which in reality and spirit were different from what they once had been.

Views

Freeman advanced the study of history in England in two special directions, by insistence on the unity of history, and by teaching the importance and right use of original authorities. History is not, he urges, to be divided "by a middle wall of partition" into ancient and modern, nor broken into fragments as though the history of each nation stood apart. It is more than a collection of narratives; it is a science, "the science of man in his political character. " The historical student, then, cannot afford to be indifferent to any part of the record of man's political being; but as his abilities for study are limited, he will, while reckoning all history to be within his range, have his own special range within which he will master every detail (Rede Lecture). Freeman's range included Greek, Roman and the earlier part of English history, together with some portions of foreign medieval history, and he had a scholarly though general knowledge of the rest of the history of the European world. He regarded the abiding life of Rome as "the central truth of European history, " the bond of its unity, and he undertook his History of Sicily (1891 - 1894) partly because it illustrated this unity. Further, he urges that all historical study is valueless which does not take in a knowledge of original authorities, and he teaches both by example and precept what authorities should be thus described, and how they are to be weighed and used.

Personality

His reputation as a historian will chiefly rest on his History of the Norman Conquest (1867 - 1876), his longest completed book. In common with his works generally, it is distinguished by exhaustiveness of treatment and research, critical ability, a remarkable degree of accuracy, and a certain insight into the past which he gained from his practical experience of men and institutions. As a rule his estimates of character are remarkably able. It is true that he is sometimes swayed by prejudice, but this is the common lot of great historians; they cannot altogether avoid sharing in the feelings of the past, for they live in it, and Freeman did so to an extraordinary degree. In width of view, thoroughness of investigation and honesty of purpose he is unsurpassed by any historian. He never conceals nor wilfully misrepresents anything, and he reckoned no labour too great which might help him to draw a truthful picture of the past. When a place had any important connection with his work he invariably visited it. He travelled much, always to gain knowledge, and generally to complete his historical equipment. In respect of matter his historical work is uniformly excellent. In respect of form and style the case is different. Though his sentences themselves are not wordy, he is extremely diffuse in treatment, habitually repeating an ideain successive sentences of much the same import. While this habit was doubtless aggravated by the amount of his journalistic work, it seems originally to have sprung from what may be called a professorial spirit, which occasionally appears in the tone of his remarks. He was anxious to make sure that his readers would understand his exact meaning, and to guard them against all possible misconceptions. His lengthy explanations are the more grievous because he insists on the same points in several of his books. His prolixity was increased by his unwillingness, when writing without prescribed limits, to leave out any detail, however unimportant. His passion for details not only swelled his volumes to a portentous size, but was fatal to artistic construction. The length of his books has hindered their usefulness. They were written for the public at large, but few save professed students, who can admire and value his exhaustiveness, will read the many hundreds of pages which he devotes to a short period of history. In some of his smaller books, however, he shows great powers of condensation and arrangement, and writes tersely enough. His style is correct, lucid and virile, but generally nothing more and his endeavour to use as far as possible only words of Teutonic origin limited his vocabulary and makes his sentences somewhat monotonous. While Froude often strayed away from his authorities, Freeman kept his authorities always before his eyes, and his narrative is here and there little more than a translation of their words. Freeman had a strongly marked personality. Though impatient in temper and occasionally rude, he was tender-hearted and generous. His rudeness to strangers was partly caused by shyness and partly by a childlike inability to conceal his feelings. Eminently truthful, he could not understand that some verbal insincerities are necessary to social life. He had a peculiar faculty for friendship, and his friends always found him sympathetic and affectionate. In their society he would talk well and showed a keen sense of humour. He considered it his duty to expose careless and ignorant writers, and certainly enjoyed doing so. He worked hard and methodically, often had several pieces of work in hand, and kept a daily record of the time which he devoted to each of them. His tastes were curiously limited. No art interested him except architecture, which he studied throughout his life; and he cared little for literature which was not either historical or political.

Connections

He married a daughter of his former tutor, the Rev. R. Gutch, in 1847.

Mother:

Mary Anne

References

• Making History: Edward Augustus Freeman and Victorian Cultural Politics (Proceedings of the British Academy)