Excerpt from The White King, Vol. 1 of 2: Or Charles the First, and the Men and Women, Life and Manners, Literature and Art of England in the First Balf of the 17th Century IT must not be supposed that in the following pages the author puts forward any pretensions to compete with the historians who have made the period of English history to which they refer emphatically their own. They are designed, on the contrary, to deal with incidents and details which the historian overlooks or but briefly touches; in a word, with the gossip of history, with personal characteristics, with the mm and anecdotes which float like straws on the great currents of thought and action. Thus, the personal history of 'the White King' (as Lilly the astrologer calls him) is narrated at considerable length, including numerous parti culars which the historian passes over, though they are not without value as illustrations of character and of the manners of the time. That memorable Trial, which remains to this day so startling a fact in our history, is described with special fulness, though chiefly from the personal point of View. Sketches are also introduced of some of the notable men and women of the period these have been composed on the same principle, namely, of presenting the personal rather than the historical aspect of their biographies. And, as supplementary to the work of the historian, the writer has endeavoured to supply an outline of the condition of our English art and literature in the early Stuart period, with such biographical notices as he conceived might interest and entertain the general reader. An analysis of Lord Herbert. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.