courts to which they are accredited, fill their letters with
accounts of affairs which often contain little instruction for
posterity, and they judge of a man according to the support which he
gives to their interests. This is the case with the French as well as
with other ambassadors in England. Nevertheless their correspondence
becomes gradually of the greatest value for my work. Their importance
grows with the importance of affairs. The two courts entered into the
most intimate relations: French politicians ceaselessly endeavoured to
gain influence over England, and sometimes with success. The
ambassadors' letters at such times refer to the weightiest matters of
state, and become invaluable; they rise to the rank of the most
important and instructive historical monuments. They have been
hitherto, in great part, unused.

In the Roman and Spanish reports also I found much which deserves to
be made known to the readers of history. The papers of Holland and the
Netherlands prove still more productive, as I show in detail at the
end of the narrative.

A historical work may aim either at putting forward a new view of what
is already known, or at communicating additional information as to the
facts. I have endeavoured to combine both these aims.

NOTES:

[1] _Note to the third edition._--In the course of my researches for
this work the representation of the seventeenth century has occupied a
larger space than I at first thought I should have been able to give
it; it forms the chief portion of the book in its present form. I have
therefore allowed myself the unwonted liberty of altering the title so
as to make this clear. Still the representation of the sixteenth
century, which is not now mentioned in the title, has not been
abridged on this account. The history of the Stuart dynasty and of
William III make up the central part of the edifice; what is given to
the earlier, as well as the later times may, if I may be allowed the
comparison, correspond to its two wings.

TRANSLATORS' PREFACE.

'The History of England, principally during the Seventeenth Century,'
which is here laid before the reader in an English form, is one of the
most important portions of that cycle of works on which Leopold von
Ranke has long been engaged. His History of the Popes, his History of
the Reformation in Germany, his French History, his work on the
Ottomans and the Spanish Monarchy, his Life of Wallenstein, his volume
on the Orig