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IV. John Lingard and the Simancas Archives
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 December 2010
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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References
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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.
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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.).
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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.
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