Samuel Rawson Gardiner (March 4, 1829 - February 24, 1902) was an English historian. March 4 is the 63rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (64th in leap years). ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1829 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... A historian is someone who writes history, and history is a written accounting of the past. ...

The son of Rawson Boddam Gardiner, he was born near Alresford, Hampshire. He was educated at Winchester College and Christ Church College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class in literae humaniores. He was subsequently elected to fellowships at All Souls (1884) and Merton (1892). For some years he was professor of modern history at King's College London, and devoted his life to the subject. Location within the British Isles Broad Street, Alresford New Alresford or simply Alresford (pronounced Allsford) is a small town in Hampshire, England. ... Winchester College is a well-known boys independent school, and an example of a British public school, in the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England. ... Christ Church (in full: The Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford of the Foundation of King Henry VIII) is one of the largest and wealthiest of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... Literae Humaniores is the name given to the study of Classics at Oxford and some other universities. ... All Souls College (in full: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... College name The House of Scholars of Merton Named after Walter de Merton Established 1264 Sister College Peterhouse Warden Prof. ... Kings College London is the largest college of the University of London and one of a number of university institutions founded in England in the early 19th century. ...

Puritan Revolution

Regarded into the 21st century as the foremost historian of the Puritan revolution, he wrote its history in a series of volumes, originally published under different titles, beginning with the accession of King James I of England. It was completed in two volumes by CH Firth as The Last Years of the Protectorate (1909). A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was any person seeking purity of worship and doctrine, especially the parties that rejected the Laudian reform of the Church of England. ... James VI and I (James Stuart) (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland and was the first to style himself King of Great Britain. ... Charles Harding Firth (March 16, 1857 _ February 19, 1936) was a British historian. ...

The series is History of England from the Accession of James I to the Outbreak of the Civil War, 1603-1642 (10 vols. 1883-4); History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649 (5 vols. 1893); and History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660 (4 vol. 1903). Gardiner's treatment of the subject is exhaustive and philosophical, taking in political and constitutional history, the changes in religion, thought and sentiment, their causes and their tendencies. Of his original sources, many exist only in manuscript, and his researches in public and private collections of manuscripts at home, and in the archives of Simancas, Venice, Rome, Brussels and Paris, were tireless and productive. Simancas, a town of Spain, in the province of Valladolid; 8 miles SW of Valladolid, on the road to Zamora and the right bank of the river Pisuerga. ... Venice, (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venexia) is the capital of the region of Veneto and the province of the same name in Italy. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1,500 km²  (580 sq mi... Nickname: The Capital Of Europe, Comic City City of a 100 Museums Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 979 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area    - City 162 (Region) km²  (62. ... The Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

He may have been drawn to the period by the fact that he was descended from Oliver Cromwell and Henry Ireton, but his judgments are unbiased, and his appreciations of character reveal fine perception and broad sympathies. This is shown in his analyses of the characters of James I, Francis Bacon, William Laud, Strafford and Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell (April 25, 1599–September 3, 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for making England a republic and leading the Commonwealth of England. ... Henry Ireton Henry Ireton (1611 - November 26, 1651), was an English general in the army of Parliament during the English Civil War. ... James VI and I (James Stuart) (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland and was the first to style himself King of Great Britain. ... Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, KC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman and essayist but is best known for leading the scientific revolution with his new observation and experimentation theory which is the way science has been conducted ever since. ... William Laud (October 7, 1573 – January 10, 1645) was Archbishop of Canterbury and a fervent supporter of King Charles I of England, whom he encouraged to believe in divine right. ... Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (April 13, 1593 - May 12, 1641) was an English statesman, a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. ... Oliver Cromwell (April 25, 1599–September 3, 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for making England a republic and leading the Commonwealth of England. ...

On constitutional matters, he writes with an insight achieved by the study of political philosophy, discussing in a masterly fashion the dreams of idealists and the schemes of government proposed by statesmen. Throughout his work he gives a prominent place to everything which illustrates human progress in moral and religious, as well as political conceptions, and specially to the rise and development of the idea of religious toleration, finding much of his source material in the writings of obscure pamphleteers, whose essays indicate currents of public opinion. His record of the relations between England and other states proves his thorough knowledge of contemporary European history, and is rendered specially valuable by his researches among manuscript sources which have enabled him to expound for the first time some intricate pieces of diplomacy.

Gardiner's work is long and minute. He is apt to attach an exaggerated importance to some of the authorities which he was the first to bring to light, to see a general tendency in what may only be the expression of an individual eccentricity, to rely too much on ambassadors' reports which may have been written for some special end, to enter too fully into the details of diplomatic correspondence. His style is clear, unadorned, and somewhat lacking in force; he appeals to the intellect rather than to the emotions, and is seldom picturesque, though in describing a few famous scenes, such as the execution of Charles I, he writes with pathos and dignity. Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. ...

The minuteness of his narrative detracts from its interest; though his arrangement is generally good, here and there the reader finds the thread of a subject broken by the intrusion of incidents not immediately connected with it, and does not pick it up again without an effort. And Gardiner has the defects of his supreme qualities, of his fairness and critical ability as a judge of character; his work lacks enthusiasm, and leaves the reader cold and unmoved. Yet, apart from its sterling excellence, it is not without beauties, for it is marked by loftiness of thought, a love of purity and truth, and refinement in taste and feeling.

He wrote other books, mostly on the same period, but his great history is that by which his name will live. It is a worthy result of a life of unremitting labour, a splendid monument of historical scholarship. His position as an historian was formally acknowledged: in 1862 he was given a civil list pension of £150 per annum, "in recognition of his valuable contributions to the history of England"; he was honorary D.C.L. of Oxford, LL.D. of Edinburgh, and Ph.D. of Göttingen, and honorary student of Christ Church, Oxford; and in 1894 he declined the appointment of Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, lest its duties should interfere with the accomplishment of his history. The Georg-August University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, often called the Georgia Augusta) was founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, and opened in 1737. ... The Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford is an old-established professorial position. ...

Evaluation of Oliver Cromwell

As a foremost historian of the era, Gardiner's evaluation of Oliver Cromwell is especially significant. No figure in English history has called forth a greater range of evaluations. On the positive side Gardiner concluded: Oliver Cromwell (April 25, 1599–September 3, 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for making England a republic and leading the Commonwealth of England. ...

"The man--it is ever so with the noblest--was greater than his work. In his own heart lay the resolution to subordinate self to public ends, and to subordinate material to moral and spiritual objects of desire. He was limited by the defects which make imperfect the character and intellect even of the noblest and the wisest of mankind. He was limited still more by the unwillingness of his contemporaries to mould themselves after his ideas. The blows that he had struck against the older system had their enduring effects. Few wished for the revival of the absolute kingship, of the absolute authority of a single House of Parliament, or of the Laudian system of governing the Church....The living forces of England--forces making for the destruction of those barriers which he was himself breaking through, buoyed him up--as a strong and self-confident swimmer, he was carried onward by the flowing tide."

"In the latter portion of the Protector's career it was far otherwise. His failure to establish a permanent Government was not due merely to his deficiency in constructive imagination. It was due rather to two causes: the umbrage taken at his position as head of an army whose interference in political affairs gave even more offence than the financial burdens it imposed on a people unaccustomed to regular taxation; and the reaction which set in against the spiritual claims of that Puritanism of which he had become the mouthpiece…. It was no reaction against the religious doctrines or ecclesiastical institutions upheld by the Protector that brought about the destruction of his system of government.... So far as the reaction was not directed against militarism, it was directed against the introduction into the political world of what appeared to be too high a standard of morality, a reaction which struck specially upon Puritanism, but which would have struck with as much force upon any other form of religion which, like that upheld by Laud, called in the power of the State to enforce its claims. Even though Oliver was in his own person no sour fanatic, as Royalist pamphleteers after the Restoration falsely asserted; it is impossible to deny that he strove by acts of government to lead men into the paths of morality and religion beyond the limit which average human nature had fixed for itself."

"In dealing with foreign nations his mistake on this head was more conspicuous, because he had far less knowledge of the conditions of efficient action abroad than he had at home. It may fairly be said that he knew less of Scotland than of England, less of Ireland than of Great Britain, and less of the Continent than of any one of the three nations over which he ruled. It has sometimes been said that Oliver made England respected in Europe. It would be more in accordance with truth to say that he made her feared."

"Oliver's claim to greatness can be tested by the undoubted fact that his character receives higher and wider appreciation as the centuries pass by. The limitations on his nature--the one-sidedness of his religious zeal, the mistakes of his policy--are thrust out of sight, the nobility of his motives, the strength of his character, and the breadth of his intellect, force themselves on the minds of generations for which the objects for which he strove have been for the most part attained, though often in a different fashion from that which he placed before himself. Even those who refuse to waste a thought on his spiritual aims remember with gratitude his constancy of effort to make England great by land and sea; and it would be well for them also to be reminded of his no less constant efforts to make England worthy of greatness."^[1]

Other books

Among the more noteworthy of Gardiner's separate works are:

• Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage (2 vols., London, 1869)
• Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625-1660 (1st ed., Oxford, 1889; 2nd ed., Oxford, 1899)
• Oliver Cromwell (London, 1901)
• What Gunpowder Plot was (London, 1897)
• Outline of English History (1st ed., London, 1887; 2nd ed., London, 1896)
• Student's History of England (2 vols., 1st ed., London, 1890-1891; 2nd ed., London, 1891-1892).

He edited collections of papers for the Camden Society, and from 1891 was editor of the English Historical Review. The Camden Society, named after the early English historian William Camden, was founded in 1838 in London to print early historical and literary materials, both unpublished manuscripts and new editions of rare printed books. ... 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...