The Mysteries of Chronology

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI. SOME DESULTORY CONCLUSIONS. It is related of a certain gentleman that when asked his opinion about money investments, he invariably replied that he believed Consols were safe. In the same way, if anybody was to ask me for a safe date for the commencement of English history, I should reply that the accession of Henry VIII. to the throne in 1509, or the beginning of the sixteenth century, was a safe date to begin with. Backwards from 1900 to 1666, the year of the publication of the London Gazette, there is a complete system of regular datings which can be generally accepted. From 1666 to the beginning of the sixteenth century the evidence in the shape of Calendars, State Records and Letters, Journals of the Houses of Lords and Commons, and other documents, is good and trustworthy. Positive English history may be said therefore to commence from that period, viz., A.d. 1501, to the present time. From the first years of the reign of Henry VI I. backwards to that of Henry II. there is a much darker period. Accounts of the various documents of those times will be found in the excellent works of C. P. Cooper, S. R. Scargill Bird and Walter Rye, who have all written on the subject of the Public Records. For ready reference, a list of some of these records is here given, viz.: The Domesday Books. The Statutes of the Realm, beginning with Henry III., but very imperfect till the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. The Rolls of Parliament, nothing earlier than the 18th of Edward I., i.e., 1289-1290. The Parliamentary Writs, Petitions, etc., from the time of Edward I., but very imperfect. Rolls of the Curia Regis from Richard I. to Henry III. Pleas of the Crown from Henry III. The Roll Records and Books of the Exchequer from Henry III. The Hundred Rolls fr...