Lectures on Modern History

by John Acton

LECTURES

on

MODERN HISTORY

by

JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG-ACTON
First Baron ACTON

d.c.l., ll.d., etc. etc.
regius professor of modern history in the university of cambridge

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

JOHN NEVILLE FIGGIS, M.A.
sometime lecturer in st. catherine's college, cambridge

and

REGINALD VERE LAURENCE, M.A.
fellow and lecturer of trinity college, cambridge

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET LONDON
1930

COPYRIGHT

First Edition September 1906
Reprinted October 1906, 1907, 1912, 1918, 1920, 1921, 1926, 1930

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BY R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, EDINBURGH

PREFATORY NOTE

The Lectures on Modern History were delivered by Lord Acton in his ordinary course as Professor in the academical years 1899-1900 and 1900-01. The Inaugural Lecture on the Study of History, here reprinted, was delivered on June 11, 1895. The document printed in Appendix I. is of great interest, as exhibiting the ideals of Lord Acton as a student and the aims of the undertaking which he planned and still bears his name.

It is hoped shortly to issue in another volume the Lectures on the French Revolution, and thus to complete the record of his work as Professor. The Introductory Essay deals exclusively with his Cambridge work. A more general account of his career will precede the volumes of essays and reviews. The editors wish to thank Professor Henry Jackson for his kind advice with regard to the Introduction.

The second impression differs from the first in that a few small errors in the text have been corrected. The editors desire to state that the Lectures are printed from the manuscript exactly in the form in which they were delivered.

J. N. F.
R. V. L.

CONTENTS

PAGE
	Introduction	ix
	Inaugural Lecture on the Study of History	1
LECTURES ON MODERN HISTORY
I.	Beginning of the Modern State	31
II.	The New World	52
III.	The Renaissance	71
IV.	Luther	90
V.	The Counter-Reformation	108
VI.	Calvin and Henry VIII.	126
VII.	Philip II., Mary Stuart, and Elizabeth	144
VIII.	The Huguenots and the League	155
IX.	Henry the Fourth and Richelieu	168
X.	The Thirty Years' War	181
XI.	The Puritan Revolution	195
XII.	The Rise of the Whigs	206
XIII.	The English Revolution	219
XIV.	Lewis XIV.	233
XV.	The War of the Spanish Succession	249
XVI.	The Hanoverian Settlement	264
XVII.	Peter the Great and the Rise of Prussia	277
XVIII.	Frederic the Great	290
XIX.	The American Revolution	305
Appendix I.—Letter to Contributors to the Cambridge Modern History		315
Appendix II.—Notes to Inaugural Lecture		319
Index		343