CLARENDON, Edward, Earl of

History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England

      1704. CLARENDON, Earl of [HYDE, Edward]. The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. With the precedent Passages, and Actions, that contributed thereunto, and the happy End, and Conclusion thereof by the King's blessed Restoration. Oxford: Printed at the Theater, [1702]-04. Three volumes. Tall folio (10 by 15-1/2 inches), contemporary full gilt-stamped paneled brown calf rebacked in period-style and recornered, raised bands, red and green morocco spine labels. $4200. First edition, with second issue title pages (uniformly dated 1704), of this "broad and lucid" history of the "Puritan Revolution," the struggle between a king who claimed to rule by divine right and a Parliament that professed to have rights independent of the crown. Each volume with half title, engraved frontispiece portrait and vignette title page. "Since its publication at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Earl of Clarendon's history of the English Civil War has remained one of the most important sources for our understanding of the events which changed the course of British history! [It] chronicles in absorbing detail the intrigues and upheavals, the alliances and confrontations, the triumphs and the tragedies, of the 1640s and 1650s. In elegant and vital prose it brings to life the personalities who shaped the era, and the principles for which a nation was divided" (Oxford University Press). The Civil War has also been called the "Puritan Revolution," because the religious complexion of the king's opponents was prevailingly Puritan, and because the issue was between a king's claim of divine right and a Parliament that professed to have rights independent of the crown. Clarendon's is "the most valuable of all the contemporary accounts of the Civil Wars! His characters are not simply bundles of characteristics, but consistent and full of life, sketched sometimes with affection, sometimes with light humor" (DNB). The Wars' religious consequence was the end of the Church of England's monopoly on Christian worship, with the consolidation of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. The political consequence was the establishment of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. Printed at the Oxford University Press between 1702-04, "the titles of some copies of this first edition are uniformly dated 1704" (Lowndes), as is this set. Brunet II, 81. Graesse II, 191. Lowndes 467. Owner signatures on title pages, occasional pencil annotation, evidence of bookplate removal. Text generally very clean, expert paper repairs to bottom gutter of first six gatherings of Volume II, moderate rubbing and abrading to contemporary paneled calf boards, very handsomely rebacked. A near-fine copy.