Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition: E680001-001

The History of the Kingdom of Ireland

Author: Richard Burton [= Nathaniel Crouch]

Background details and bibliographic information

File Description

Electronic edition compiled by Beatrix Färber

Funded by University College, Cork and
The President's Strategic Fund via the Writers of Ireland II Project.

Proof corrections by Janet Crawford

1. First draft, revised and corrected.

Extent of text: 62270 words

Publication

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork
College Road, Cork, Ireland —http://www.ucc.ie/celt

(2007)

Distributed by CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland.
Text ID Number: E680001-001

Availability

Available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of academic research and teaching only.

Notes

Nathaniel Crouch (c.1640–1725?), was an English bookseller, publisher and writer with a shop in London. He wrote under the pseudonym Robert Burton, or R. B. "This pseudonym was a reference to the author of 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' (1620)," which "became a best-seller partly because it translated hundreds of quotations from Greek and Latin into English, thereby giving many humbly educated men a passing knowledge of the classics. In a similar fashion Crouch's history books presented shortened and simplified versions of serious works to audiences that might otherwise never have read them." (DNB) In editions printed after his death, the pseudonym Richard Burton, rather than Robert Burton, was sometimes used. Crouch published many books on history and divinity. The histories were compiled by himself, and written in a comparatively plain style. Between 1666 and 1725 he seems to have published nearly eighty books, all intended for the popular market within England. In his prefaces he drew particular attention to the value for money offered through his works. At the cost of one shilling per book they sold well and were frequently reprinted. Crouch wrote and published for a sizeable and growing market in a time when literacy was increasing. He was no historian. It is not surprising to find inaccuracies and polemic partiality in his account. This text is given as a specimen of a popular history interpretation by an Englishman, illustrative of an account that would have been popular with the less educated social groups. [Source: DNB article by Jason Mc Elligott; supplemented by R. Mayer's article (see below).]

Sources

    About or by Nathaniel Crouch
  1. R. Mayer, 'Nathaniel Crouch, bookseller and historian: popular historiography and cultural power in late seventeenth-century England', Eighteenth-Century Studies, 27 (1993–4), 391–420.
  2. Gilles Duval, 'Trois aventuriers de l'imprimé en Angleterre au XVIIIe siècle: Nathaniel Crouch, John Dunton et Thomas Gent', Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, 52:1 (2005) 5–127.
  3. The History of the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland (1686).
  4. Richard Burton [=Nathaniel Crouch], History of the Wars of England, with all the most remarkable passages, till the death of King Charles I. and his trial and last speech at large. (1681?)
  5. Richard Burton [=Nathaniel Crouch], The History of Oliver Cromwell (1693).
  6. Richard Burton [=Nathaniel Crouch], The History of the House of Orange (1693).
  7. Richard Burton [=Nathaniel Crouch], The History of the Two Late Kings, Charles the Second & and James the Second (1693).
  8. Richard Burton [=Nathaniel Crouch], The History of the Principality of Wales (1695).
  9. Richard Burton [=Nathaniel Crouch], The History of Scotland (1696).
    Further Reading: a Selection
  1. Acts and ordinances of the interregnum (1642–60), collected and edited by C. H. Firth and R.S. Rait. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1911. (3 volumes.) Volume 2: Acts and ordinances from 9th February, 1649 to 16th March, 1660; see 598–603, 722–53.
  2. Ireland under the Commonwealth: being a selection of documents relating to the government of Ireland from 1651–1659, edited by Robert Dunlop. 2 volumes. (Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1913) Volume 1.
  3. William Francis Thomas Butler, Confiscation in Irish history (Dublin 1917, London 1918, reprinted 1970: Kennikat Press).
  4. R. B. McDowell, 'The problem of religious dissent in Ireland, 1660–1740'. Bulletin, Irish Committee of Historical Sciences 40 (1945).
  5. Jane H. Ohlmeyer, Civil war and restoration in the three Stuart kingdoms: the career of Randal MacDonnell, marquis of Antrim, 1609–1683. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1993.)
  6. Jane H. Ohlmeyer (ed.), Ireland from independence to occupation 1641–1660 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995).
  7. Jane H. Ohlmeyer 'The civil wars in Ireland'. In: John Philipps Kenyon; Jane H. Ohlmeyer (eds.), The civil wars: a military history of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1638–1660 (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998) 73–102.
  8. Micheál Ó Siochrú, Confederate Ireland 1642–1649: a constitutional and political analysis. (Dublin: Four Courts Press 1998).
  9. Jane H. Ohlmeyer (ed.). Political thought in seventeenth-century Ireland: kingdom or colony. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press in association with the Folger Institute, Washington, DC, 2000.
  10. Pádraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War 1641–49 (Cork: Cork University Press, 2001).
  11. Henry Mangan, 'The sieges of Derry and Limerick'. Nineteenth Century & After, 50 (1901) 459–478.
  12. Demetrius Charles Boulger, The Battle of the Boyne: together with an account based on French and other unpublished records of the war in Ireland (1688–1691) and of the formation of the Irish brigade (...) France (London: Seeker 1911).
  13. J. M. Flood, The sieges of Limerick, 1690–91; a narrative based on contemporary sources. (Limerick: Limerick Leader, 1944).
  14. D. Murtagh, 'Origins of Irish nationalism'. Studies; an Irish quarterly review, 39 (1950) 87–90.
  15. J. Jordan, 'Würtemberg at Limerick, 1690'. Studies; an Irish quarterly review, 43 (1954) 219–225.
  16. J(ohn) G(erard) Simms, 'The surrender of Limerick, 1691'. Irish Sword, 2:1 (1954) 23–28.
  17. J. G. Simms, The Williamite confiscation in Ireland, 1690–1703 (London: Faber and Faber 1956).
  18. J. G. Simms, 'Eye-witnesses of the Boyne'. Irish Sword, 6:22 (1963–4) 16–27.
  19. J. G. Simms, 'The siege of Derry (1689)'. Irish Sword, 6:25 (1963–4) 221–33.
  20. J. G. Simms, The Jacobite Parliament of 1689 (Dundalk: Dundalgan 1966).
  21. J. G. Simms, The siege of Derry (Dublin: APCK 1966).
  22. J. G. Simms, Jacobite Ireland 1685-91 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1969).
  23. Michael Hewson, 'Robert Stearne's diary of the Williamite campaign'. An Cosantóir 33 (1977) 49–53.
  24. Sheila Mulloy, 'French eye-witness of the Boyne'. Irish Sword, 15 (1982) 105–111.
  25. J. G. Simms, War and politics in Ireland: 1649–1730; edited by D.W. Hayton and Gerard O'Brien. London: Hambledon, 1986.
  26. Patrick Macrory, The siege of Derry (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1988).
  27. Peter McCartney, The siege of Derry 1689 (Derry: Guildhall Press, 1988).
  28. D. Murtagh, H. Murtagh, 'The Irish Jacobite army, 1689–91'. Irish Sword, 18 (1990) 32–48.
  29. William Kelly (ed.), The sieges of Derry. (Dublin: Four Courts 2001).
  30. Adrian Johns, 'Printing, publishing and reading in London, 1660–1720'. In Patrick Karl O'Brien (ed.), Urban achievement in early modern Europe: golden ages in Antwerp, Amsterdam and London (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2001, 264–83).
  31. James Raven, 'The economic context (1557–1695)'. In: John Barnard; Donald Francis McKenzie (eds.), The Cambridge history of the book in Britain, vol. 4: 1557–1695; with the assistance of Maureen Bell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002, 568–82).
  32. Donald Francis McKenzie, 'Printing and publishing 1557–1700: constraints on the London book trades'. In: John Barnard; Donald Francis McKenzie (eds.), The Cambridge history of the book in Britain, vol. 4: 1557–1695; with the assistance of Maureen Bell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002, 553–67).
  33. James Raven, The business of books: booksellers and the English book trade, 1450–1850, (New Haven (CT) & London: Yale University Press 2007).
    The edition used in the digital edition
  1. The History of the Kingdom of Ireland; being an Account of all the Battles, Sieges, and other considerable Transactions, both Civil and Military, during the late Wars there, till the entire Reduction of that Country, by the Victorious Arms of our most gracious Sovereign, King William (...). Richard Burton [=Nathaniel Crouch] A new edition with wood-cut portraits [138 pages] Printed for Machell Stace, no. 5, Middle Scotland Yard, by W. Smith & Co. 6, King Street, Seven Dials.Westminster (1811)

Encoding

Project Description

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts

Sampling Declaration

The present text covers the author's introductory pages (unnumbered) and pp 1–136 of the volume.

Editorial Declaration

Correction

Text proofread twice at CELT.

Normalization

Non-standard spellings of personal names and place names are standardised using the reg attribute within the corresponding name tags. Otherwise, names are not tagged. Outdated spellings are encoded orig, with the reg attribute indicating the normalised spelling. Where the hardcopy has phrases in uppercase, in the electronic edition these are encoded in emph tags and normalised to mixed case. Encoding is subject to revision. The illustrations are not reproduced.

Quotation

Direct speech is tagged q. The author does not identify his written sources.

Hyphenation

Soft hyphens are silently removed. When a hyphenated word (hard or soft) crosses a page-break or line-break, this break is marked after the completion of the hyphenated word.

Segmentation

div0=the history; div1=the book. There are no chapters; paragraphs are marked; page-breaks are marked pb n="". The author's introduction is contained in an unnumbered div in the front matter.

Standard Values

Dates are standardized in the ISO form yyyy-mm-dd.

Interpretation

Place-names, group and personal names are not tagged. Words, terms, and phrases from other languages are tagged.

Canonical References

This text uses the DIV1 element to represent the book.

Profile Description

Created: By Richard Burton [ =Nathaniel Crouch] Date range: 1692-1693.

Use of language

Language: [EN] The text is in English.
Language: [LA] A few words are in Latin.
Language: [GA] A few terms are in Irish.

Revision History