A Short History of the English People

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Macmillan and Company, 1875 - 847 pages
A Short History of the English People is a book written by English historian John Richard Green. Originally published in 1874, "it is a history, not of English Kings or English Conquests, but of the English People." Green began work on the book in 1869, having been given only six months to live after being hit hard by disease that had plagued him throughout his life. Only having around 800 pages to write on, he had to leave out much of what he wanted to include. Green intentionally left out the battles of England feeling they did not play a big role in the formation of the nation, saying that historians "too often turned history into a mere record of the butchery of men by their fellow men." His new ideas, and omission of information that others felt important, meant Green was criticized by other historians as well as the people close to him. Others thought highly of the book, including Francis Adams, who used quotations from the book in his poem 'The Peasants' Revolt'.--Wikipedia (accessed 28 October 2022).
 

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Page 422 - O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide, The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, That did not better for my life provide Than public means which public manners breeds. Thence comes it that my name receives a brand, And almost thence my nature is subdued To what it works in, like the dyer's hand.
Page 594 - ... whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit ; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect ; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.
Page 757 - If I were an American as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms — never, never, never!
Page 748 - I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest.
Page 565 - I have sought the Lord night and day, that He would rather slay me than put me upon the doing of this work.
Page 452 - Sometimes, with secure delight, The upland hamlets will invite, When the merry bells ring round, And the jocund rebecks sound To many a youth and many a maid Dancing in the chequered shade...
Page 324 - Kingston, had I but served God as diligently as I have served the King, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs.
Page 508 - I must tell you, there are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland. There is King James, the head of the commonwealth, and there is Christ Jesus the King, and his kingdom the Kirk, whose subject King James the Sixth is, and of whose kingdom he is not a king, nor a lord, nor a head, but a member.
Page 477 - That the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of parliament are the ancient and undoubted birthright and. inheritance of the subjects of England...
Page 486 - ... and that your Majesty would also vouchsafe to declare, that the awards, doings, and proceedings to the prejudice of your people, in any of the premises, shall not be drawn hereafter into consequence or example : and that your Majesty would be also graciously pleased, for the further comfort and safety of your people, to declare your royal will and pleasure, that in the things aforesaid all your officers and ministers shall serve you, according to the laws and statutes of this realm, as they tender...

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