History of England, from the Accession of James II - (Volume 1, Chapter 04)

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) planned his History of England from the Accession of James II as a vast narrative of the years after 1685. The first volume appeared in 1848 and was extraordinarily successful, in part because Macaulay had the novelist's gift of making the past feel dramatic. The fourth chapter finally reaches the reign of the title, beginning with the death of Charles II and the accession of his brother.

The chapter covers the rebellion against the new king, its defeat and the harsh reprisals that followed. Judge Jeffreys, whose name became a byword for cruelty, appears in his full notoriety, and the proceedings known as the Bloody Assizes are treated at length. Macaulay was a convinced Whig and a fierce critic of the Stuart kings, so his picture is far from neutral, and modern historians have corrected some of his emphases. Yet his command of narrative and his eye for character are still striking.

The recording has twelve parts and lasts about three hours and twelve minutes. It is shared among four LibriVox volunteers, among them Jim Mowatt, ianish and Gesine. Because the chapter follows directly on the earlier ones, it is best heard in sequence, but it also stands reasonably well alone for listeners already familiar with the period. It makes a lively companion for anyone interested in the political conflicts that led, a few years later, to the revolution of 1688, and in the way Victorian historians told the story.