Show FAMILY HISTORY the rewriting of history is one of the remarkable though silent movements of the time it is a turning of the children to the fathers a strong and earnest yearning on the part of millions to trace the history of their families and learn from the best possible authorities the origin of their names and ancestors this movement is not confined to america it is visible in italy switzerland france and germany but more especially in england and scotland careful research in the tb parish records and in the archives of many an old castle or library bas baa brought to light documents of the utmost importance some of these show that many a glowing statement or highly wrought sentence of some of our great historians as carvie for example is only due to a very ry short memory or a heated imagination agi nation england has now a society known agthe as the historical manuscript commission which has been at work for aars and its results are beginning to 0 o be seen not long ago was pub shed the douglas book or his tory ry of the douglas family and its branches brinches br ranches inches this was followed by the publication of the historical documents of the lennox family and now the duke of northumberland h as caused M de Fon Fou blanque to reconstruct the history of the house of percy M de 14 Fon on blanque has acquitted himself of the task with great fidelity and has thrown considerable sid erable light not only on the part played ay edby by this distinguished family Q english history but also on the manners and customs of feudal times tivies the percy family was originally from perel perci near villedieu leu in normandy where still exists an old chateau called the chateau de arci 11 the gercys came over with william the norman and re eved large grants of land in the lamorth gorth of england richard de per rcy cy was foremost among the barons aho vho ho extorted magna charta fro from m ng J john oh u and defied the preten creten frons ons of the pope of rome to the of the english realm the ne best known of the gercys was the he duke of boned by shakespeare as the kingmaker 11 the achievements of his bon hotspur th the fiery ellery border chief t ia n have also been immortalized by he corid renowned dramatist it as one of the earls of northumberland um who was sent by bv henry H to arrest cardinal wolsey me ioe i oe great grief of the cardinal is melancholy death soon after d the promotion of land ad to be knight of the garter are au well known historic facts three 1 tim times ea have members of the mily been permitted by royal de aeto to assume other names so that at al the present time the Smith sons the e jersets Somer mer sets and the av e all claims as branches of the ouse arouse of percy it was in the reign F the tudors that england began at jat great transformation which has r rendered her so different in her oy from the other nations of ut europe Ku rope I 1 it t was in that wonder ful VL epoch bom that hat royal decrees gave so ya ay new names and titles to tens vl ands of worthy subjects in y times it was sufficient clent to tco inize iQ emze ize individuals as george and hard and john or if that was enough the place of their rest resi debee genee As wood or field or hill or 01 A 8 awe me of their business was ad j 14 a weaver baker smith etc tale to these records it was I 1 in n 4 ase age immediately previous and g be time of shakespeare that men da to 0 be ibe known by a greater guy of names at the first one te Is surprised to find that ngtye wand yin and ferryman wads 1 w langford langfort Lang foru all sprang from V the same family it is for this reason that these documents published by the historical commission are of special value as they afford means by which persons of diverse names can prove that in reality they are descended from the same parents in these documents we see the origin of many social customs and the causes that led to En glands wonderful life A world renowned potentate said mid that he found his metropolis of brick and transformed it into one of marble in like manner queen elizabeth might have boasted that she found her realm a poor outlying dependency of catholic spain and that she metamorphosed it anto a rich independent and protestant nation in spite of the deadly hatred which existed in the various religious parties the talisman with which good queen bess effected her wondrous work was religious toleration at home and a peace policy abroad no war my lords sh she repeatedly explained and her numberless intrigues and even the female coquetry which she carried on with half the unmarried sovereigns of europe were all parts of a calculated polley policy when a famous protestant preacher eacher denounced from the pulpit it the iniquity of image worship the irate queen called out from the royal pew leave that alone mr dean stick to your text most of the catholics believed that she was protestant many of the protestants declared that she was catholic it is the spirit of toleration that res lies at the foundation of En glands freedom the cause of queen elizabeths Elizab ethIs popularity may be found in her own words she said to her first pa parliament ct N no 0 gordly thing is so dear to me as the love and goodwill of the english people however when occasion required it queen elizabeth could swear As a british wag remarks she did not swear in a vulgar manner but she performed it with a delicate airy grace infused into it a luxurious abandon and dressed it up with poetical adjectives until it seemed like the strain of a sweet singer or rather like a sweet singer straining herself in fact queen elizabeth had red hair and the delicate shade of her maroon tinted nose contrasted strongly with the alabaster of her bust still the people of england tolerated her deficiencies because of her solicitude for their welfare the whole population of the country at that time scarcely exceeded five millions and the burden of all the vessels engaged in commerce in english ports was not more than fifty thousand tons in a year the size of their vessels then would now seem insignificant a modern collier brig is probably as large as the biggest merchant vessel v 3 which then sailed from the port port of london by far the most moat important branch of english trade was with flanders antwerp and bruges were in fact then the general marts of the world it was with the ruin of antwerp at the time of its siege and capture by the duke of parma that the commer i cial supremacy of london was first established A third of the merchants and manufacturers of the ruined city found a refuge on the banks of the thames the export trade to flanders died away and london developed into the general mart of europe the rough and farmhouses were superseded by dwellings of brick and stone pillows and beds came into use which had formerly been despised by the farmer as fit only for sick women the lavishness of wealth revolutionized english dress the queens three thousand robes were ri by the slashed velvets velvety and jewelled cloaks of the courtiers around her men wore the price of a parish on their backs gallants gambled away a fortune at a sitting and obrn then shartel off to the indies to nuke make a fresh one still the northern part of the island was independent and the scottish queen even disputed elizabeths right to her own crown elizabeths council board at the beginning of her reign were part catholic and part protestant at the close of her reign they were all protestant silently almost unconsciously england accepted the reformed faith this greater freedom in religious matters brought about greater freedom in secular affairs and raised parliament to greater importance than it had possessed during the reign of any previous english sovereign the histories of britain have heretofore been the histories of her kin kings and nobles these dom documents ments mac make it possible for the real history of the british people to be written the fact that the histories of the douglas the lennox and the percy families have been bought by the people and that hundreds of other family records are in course of preparation shows the interest manifested by the people in this subject it now seems that documents are in existence which when published will prove that for the most part the anglo saxon race is one vast brotherhood to those who wish to perfect their genealogies these publications will have a deep and abiding interest J H WARD EUROPE europa january 1889 |