are comprised in the present series of the "Lives of the Queens of England."

Biography, however, especially when historically treated, is a widely extended field, to which all labourers are freely welcomed in this intelligent age of inquiry. Such opposite views, indeed, are taken of the same events and characters, by persons of differently constituted minds, that the cause of truth is sure to be benefited when the research of several writers is directed to the same subjects.

"Facts, not opinions," should be the motto of every candid historian; and it is a sacred duty to assert nothing lightly, or without good evidence, of those who can no longer answer for themselves. I have borne in mind the charge which prefaces the juryman's oath,-it runs as follows:-" You shall truly and justly try this cause; you shall present no one from malice; you shall excuse no one from favour," &c. &c.

Feeling myself thus charged, by each and every one of the buried Queens of England whose actions, from the cradle to the tomb, I was about to lay before the public, I considered the responsibility of the task, rather than the necessity of expediting the publication of the work. The number of authorities required, some of which could not be obtained in England, and the deep research among the Norman, Provençal, French, and monkish Latin authors, that was indispensably neces

sary, made it impossible to hurry out a work which I hoped to render permanently useful.

The principal part of the work being now written and in types, and the whole in an advanced state, I have acceded to the wish of my publisher for its issue in monthly volumes, which will appear in regular chronological succession.

As it has been one of my principal objects to render the Lives of our Queens a work of general interest to every class of readers, I have modernized the orthography of extracts from ancient authors, and endeavoured as much as possible to avoid prolix and minute details, on matters more suited to the researches of the antiquarian than to volumes which, I would fain hope, may find a place in the popular and domestic libraries of their day.

The introduction contains brief notices of our ancient British and Saxon Queens. Their records are, indeed, too scanty to admit of any other arrangement. Yet a work professing to be the history of the female royalty of our country would have been incomplete without some mention of those princesses.

The biographies of the Queens of England commence, in their natural order, with the life of Matilda, the consort of William the Conqueror, the first of our AngloNorman queens, and the mother of the succeeding line of kings, whose dynasty, in the person of our present

Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria, occupies the throne of

England.

Independently of her important position among the Queens of England, the incidents of the life of Matilda are peculiarly interesting, and it affords me much pleasure to make her better known to the English reader; since the rich materials of which her memoir is composed, are chiefly derived from untranslated Norman and Latin chronicles.

The life of Berengaria, the crusading queen of Richard Cœur de Lion, will also for the first time be presented to the public, in the Second Volume of this work, with a portrait in her bridal costume.

The memoir of Isabella of Valois, the virgin widow of Richard II., with whose eventful history some authors appear little acquainted, will be included in these biographies.

The memoir of Margaret of Anjou contains a portion of her life which is at present unknown to English historians the details of her childhood and early youth: these are derived from the most authentic sources, and comprise many new particulars, both of her personal and public life as Queen of England, and the mournful epoch of her widowhood. Some curious incidents connected with the life of her unfortunate daughter-in-law, Anne of Warwick, afterwards the queen of Richard III., which will be found in her memoir in this work, will, I

trust, tend to throw additional light on the brief and barren records that have hitherto appeared of this hapless lady.

The life of Catherine Parr will, I venture to hope, form an attractive portion of one of my succeeding volumes of the Lives of the Queens of England ;-my ancestral connexion with that queen affording me some peculiar facilities as her biographer.

In conclusion, I have to acknowledge my obligations to his Grace the Duke of Norfolk, and to Mr. Howard of Corby, the descendants of Queen Adelicia, for some important particulars connected with the life of that princess, for which I was indebted to the "Memorials of the Howard Family."

The courteous attention of Sir William Woods, garter king-at-arms, to all my requests, claims also my grateful remembrance.

My acknowledgments must likewise be offered to the Earl of Stradbroke, Lord Manners, D. C. Davy, Esq., and other learned and noble individuals in my native county, who have facilitated my arduous undertaking, by placing their extensive and valuable libraries at my disposal;-nor can I omit to express my sincere appreciation of the courteous attention and assistance I have received during my researches from Mr. Crabham, the junior librarian at the British Museum, and other gentlemen of that inestimable national establishment.

My warmest thanks are due to my accomplished friend Mademoiselle Fontaine, of Neuilly, for her unwearied kindness in supplying me with foreign chronicles, and transcribing French documents, not always accessible in England also to J. Bruce, Esq., the treasurer of the Camden Society, and the learned editor of some of its publications; and last, not least, to that dear sister who

is

my fellow-labourer and faithful assistant in the Lives of the Queens of England, though she has forbidden her name to be united on the title-page with that of

Reydon Hall, Suffolk,

Dec. 16th, 1839.

AGNES STRICKLAND.