by James Anthony Froude
Late Regius Professor of Modern History in The University of Oxford
Lectures delivered at Oxford Easter Terms, 1893-4
Froude's lectures, reprinted here, cover: The Sea Cradle of the Reformation; John Hawkins and the African Slave Trade; Sir John Hawkins and Philip the Second; Drake's Voyage Around the World; Parties in the State; The Great Expedition to the West Indies; Attack on Cadiz; Sailing of the Armada; and Defeat of the Armada. First published in 1895. While this is undeniably a work of rare scholarship, it is also a work of great force and excitement. Froude's lecture style is easy and involved and one wishes, while reading these transcripts, that one could have been present in the auditorium during his presentation. He has the story-teller's gift of giving weight to the characters and imbuing each of the historical events with the excitement and daring which were so necessarily present during their enactment. The two lectures on the Sailing of the Spanish Armada and The Defeat of the Spanish Armada are thrilling cases in point.
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