Public-domain ebook
by Jacob Abbott
Language: en5,021 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Biographies·History - British·History - Royalty
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #26734.
The work is a nineteenth‑century historical narrative that sets out to tell the life of Charles I for a young American audience. It begins with a broad statement about why many different accounts of a famous person exist, then explains that this series is designed specifically for readers “between the ages of fifteen and twenty‑five” in the United States, whose ideas differ from those of earlier audiences. The author promises a version of the king’s story that emphasizes the points most relevant to those readers, and the table of contents follows with chapters ranging from his childhood and youth through his accession, civil war, captivity, trial and death, accompanied by numerous illustrations of castles, portraits, and events. The opening chapter recounts Charles’s birth in Scotland, his parents’ diplomatic marriage, and the early political maneuvers that led to his eventual claim to the English throne, providing a detailed backdrop for the rest of the biography.
The text is written in a formal, didactic style typical of late‑Victorian popular history, with a narrator who frequently addresses the reader directly and offers moral reflections on royalty, prophecy, and destiny. Its language is elaborate yet accessible, peppered with descriptive passages about Windsor Castle, royal ceremonies, and the “second sight” of a Highland laird. Readers who enjoy richly detailed, lecture‑like accounts of early‑modern Britain, especially those interested in the political and personal forces that shaped Charles I’s reign, will find this book engaging. It also appeals to students of genealogy, art history, and anyone who appreciates illustrated biographies that blend factual chronology with the cultural attitudes of the period in which they were written.
The opening · free to read
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York.
Copyright, 1876, by JACOB ABBOTT.
PREFACE.
The history of the life of every individual who has, for any reason, attracted extensively the attention of mankind, has been written in a great variety of ways by a multitude of authors, and persons sometimes wonder why we should have so many different accounts of the same thing. The reason is, that each one of these accounts is intended for a different set of readers, who read with ideas and purposes widely dissimilar from each other. Among the twenty millions of people in the United States, there are perhaps two millions, between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, who wish to become acquainted, in general, with the leading events in the history of the Old World, and of ancient times, but who, coming upon the stage in this land and at this period, have ideas and conceptions so widely different from those of other nations and of other times, that a mere republication of existing accounts is not what they require. The story must be told expressly for them. The things that are to be explained, the points that are to be brought out, the comparative degree of prominence to be given to the various particulars, will all be different, on account of the difference in the situation, the ideas, and the objects of these new readers, compared with those of the various other classes of readers which former authors have had in view. It is for this reason, and with this view, that the present series of historical narratives is presented to the public. The author, having had some opportunity to become acquainted with the position, the ideas, and the intellectual wants of those whom he addresses, presents the result of his labors to them, with the hope that it may be found successful in accomplishing its design.
CONTENTS.
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