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IV. John Lingard and the Simancas Archives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2010

Edwin Jones
Edwin Jones
Affiliation:
Headmaster of St Joseph's R.C. Comprehensive School, Baglan Moors, Port Talbot
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Extract

John Lingard (1771–1851) was the first English historian to attempt to look at the history of England in the sixteenth century from an international point of view. He was unconvinced by the story of the Reformation in England as found in the works of previous historians such as Burnet and Hume, and believed that new light needed to be thrown on the subject. One way of doing this was to look at English history from the outside, so to speak, and Lingard held it to be a duty of the historian ‘to contrast foreign with native authorities, to hold the balance between them with an equal hand, and, forgetting that he is an Englishman, to judge impartially as a citizen of the world’. In pursuit of this ideal Lingard can be said to have given a new dimension to the source materials for English history. As parish priest in the small village of Hornby, near Lancaster, Lingard had few opportunities for travel. But he made good use of his various friends and former pupils at Douai and Ushaw colleges who were settled now in various parts of Europe. It was with the help of these friends that Lingard made contacts with and gained valuable information from archives in France, Italy and Spain. We shall concern ourselves here only with the story of Lingard's contacts with the great Spanish State Archives at Simancas.

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The Historical Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , 1967, pp. 57 - 76
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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References

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3 For these details, see Correspondence de Philippe II sur Les Affaires des Pays-Bas: D'Apres les Originaux Conserve's dans Les Archives Royales de Simancas, ed. Gachard, M. (1848), I, Notice Historique et Descriptive, pp. 43–8Google Scholar . M. Gachard adds that ‘De tous les historiens et chronistes espagnols, Geronimo de Zurita, qui ecrivit, sous les regnes de Charles-Quint et de Philippe II, en qualite de chroniste d’Aragon, l'histoire de ce royaume…paralt avoir et6 le seul qui ait eu acces aux archives de Simancas' (op. cit. p. 50 n. 1).

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19 Ushaw MS., Lingard Transcripts, B. 11, Lingard to Kirk, 15 July 1819.

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24 Cf. Tytler, P. F., Life of Henry VIII (edition of 1851), p. 20. this work had been first published in 1837; alsoGoogle ScholarFroude, J. A., History of England (1870), 1, 117Google Scholar.

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29 Ushaw MS., Lingard Transcripts B. 11, Lingard to Kirk, 25 Nov. 1820.

30 , Lingard, op. cit. IV, 335, n. 2Google Scholar . Writing to his publisher in 1820, Lingard had to explain the spelling and meaning of the word ‘Simancas’-so unfamiliar were these Archives to Englishmen (Ushaw MS., Lingard to Mawman B.3, letter m. 4, dated 1820).

31 Ushaw MS., Lingard Correspondence F-N 1805-48, Cameron to Lingard (through the medium of Sherburne who forwarded it to Lingard), Valladolid, 10 Jan. 1823.

32 Leaders of the ‘Spanish Party’ among the English Catholics of Elizabeth's reign. Persons was the founder of the English missionary college at Valladolid in 1589.

33 Ushaw MS., Lingard Correspondence N-Y Miscellaneous 1806-51, 11, Sherburne to Lingard, 19 Feb. 1823.

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48 Ibid. Sherburne to Lingard, 28 Feb. 1823.

49 Ibid. Cameron to Sherburne, 26 Nov. 1832 (re-addressed to Lingard).

50 Ibid. Sherburne to Lingard, 28 Feb. 1823.

51 Alvaro della Quadra, bishop of Aquila, Spanish ambassador to Elizabeth 1559-63.

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55 Ibid.

56 , Lingard, History (1st ed. 1823), v, 535Google Scholar . ‘How far these confessions [of two witnesses against Lopez], made in the Tower, and probably on the rack, are deserving of credit, may be doubted’ (ibid.).

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70 Gonzalez's account is as follows: “The rumours that Elizabeth now indulged in the most intimate intercourse with Leicester became so brim, that in one of the audiences with De Cuadra she tried to exculpate herself, showing him the arrangement of her private apartments …” ( Gonzalez, T., Documents From Simancas Relating To The Reign of Elizabeth (1558-1568), firstpublished in Spanish, 1832, edited and translated by Hall, Spencer, 1865, p. 70Google Scholar.

71 Read, Conyers, Bibliography of British History-Tudor Period (2nd ed. Oxford, 1959), no. 874, p. 73.Google Scholar

72 Ushaw MS., Lingard Correspondence 1806-51, 11, Sherburne to Lingard, Valladolid, 28 Feb. 1823. Here Sherburne is transcribing Cameron's notes for Lingard.

73 Ushaw MS., Lingard Correspondence 1805-48, Cameron to Sherburne, Valladolid, 10 Jan. 1823 (forwarded to Lingard). Cf. ‘it [the correspondence] exhibits a shocking picture of Elizabeth’s lewdness, total want of principle, & readiness to comit [sic] every crime' (ibid.).

74 Ushaw MS., Lingard Correspondence 1806-51, Sherburne to Lingard, 19 Feb. 1823 (Sherburne is here transcribing Cameron's notes for Lingard).

75 Ibid., but here Sherburne is writing on his own part.

76 Ushaw MS., Lingard Correspondence 1806-51, 11, Sherburne to Lingard, Valladolid, 16 Apr. 1825.

77 Ushaw MS., Lingard Correspondence 1806-51, 11, Cameron to Sherburne, 26 Nov. 1832 (forwarded to Lingard with this note by Sherburne added on the cover).

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79 Tierney, M. A., who produced the best edition of Dodd's Church History of Englandfrom 1500 to the year 1688, chiefly with regard to Catholicks, in the years 1839-1843.Google Scholar

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81 Ibid.

82 ‘My memory is so treacherous that I may be mistaken…’ (Ushaw MS., Lingard to Tate, B. 4, letter T. 58, 30 May 1844).

83 Ushaw MS., Lingard to Walker 1846-50, A. 3, letter h. 32, 29 Oct. 1848.

84 Ushaw MS., Lingard Transcripts, B. io, fos. 309-10, Lingard to Tierney, 27 May 1848.

85 See above, pp. 69, 71.

86 See above, pp. 62, 65, 66.

87 ‘Perhaps I should observe to you that in quoting the records at Simancas, I do not mention the No. or the page &c. as in quoting other documents. This arises from the jealousy of the Spaniards, or rather from the standing orders of the place. The officers will not allow my friend to take any notes. He can only read there [earlier, the papers had been read to him], and write down what he remembers when he leaves’ (Ushaw MS., Lingard to Mawman 1818-27, letter m. 17, spring 1823).

88 Compare the information in a letter from Sherburne to Lingard, Ushaw MS., Lingard Correspondence N-Y Miscellaneous 1806-51, 11, 26 Nov. 1832, with Lingard's published account of the documents in History (4th ed. 1837-38, VIII, n. x, p. 458-Appendix), and with the Simancas documents published in Calendar of State Papers: Simancas IV. Elizabeth 1587-1603, ed. Hume, M. A. S. (1899), pp. 101–6Google Scholar.

89 Lingard did manage to go to Rome where, with the support of certain English bishops and a Cardinal, he gained entry to the Vatican archives; but this is another story.

90 Gooch, G. P., History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (2nd ed. 1952), p. 273.Google Scholar