James Anthony Froude
James Anthony Froude Regius Professor of Modern History | |
---|---|
Term | 1892–1894 |
Predecessor | Edward Augustus Freeman |
Successor | Frederick York Powell |
Relatives | William Froude and Hurrell Froude (brothers) |
James Anthony Froude
Inspired by Thomas Carlyle, Froude's historical writings were often fiercely polemical, earning him a number of outspoken opponents. Froude continued to be controversial up until his death for his Life of Carlyle, which he published along with personal writings of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. These publications led to persistent gossip and discussion of the couple's marital problems.
Life and works
Early life and education (1818–1842)
He was the son of
Beginning in 1836, he was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, then the centre of the ecclesiastical revival now called the Oxford Movement. Here Froude began to improve personally and intellectually, motivated to succeed by a brief engagement in 1839 (although this was broken off by the woman's father). He obtained a second-class degree in 1840 and travelled to Delgany, Ireland, as a private tutor. He returned to Oxford in 1842, won the Chancellor's English essay prize for an essay on political economy, and was elected a fellow of Exeter College.
Religious development and apostasy (1842–1849)
Froude's brother
During his time at Oxford and in Ireland, Froude became increasingly dissatisfied with the Movement. Froude's experience living with an
Froude retained a favourable impression of Newman, however, defending him in the controversy over
Nevertheless, Froude was ordained deacon in 1845, initially intending to help reform the church from within.[10] However, he soon found his situation untenable; although he never lost his faith in God or Christianity,[11] he could no longer submit to the doctrines of the Church. He began publicly airing his religious doubts through his semi-autobiographical works Shadows of the Clouds, published in 1847 under the pseudonym "Zeta", and The Nemesis of Faith, published under his own name in 1849. The Nemesis of Faith in particular raised a storm of controversy, being publicly burned in Oxford, at Exeter College, by William Sewell,[12][13] and deemed "a manual of infidelity" by the Morning Herald.[14] Froude was forced to resign his fellowship, and officials at University College London withdrew the offer of a mastership at Hobart Town, Australia, where Froude had hoped to work while reconsidering his situation.[15] Froude took refuge from the popular outcry by residing with his friend Charles Kingsley at Ilfracombe.
His plight won him the sympathy of kindred spirits, such as
History of England (1850–1870)
At Ilfracombe, Froude met and soon married Charlotte Grenfell, Kingsley's sister-in-law, the daughter of
Froude's historical writing was characterised by its dramatic rather than scientific treatment of history,
In 1862, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.[26]
Beginning in 1864,
In 1860, Froude's wife Charlotte died; in 1861, he married her close friend Henrietta Warre, daughter of
In a prize-winning work published in 1981,[31] the historian J. W. Burrow remarked of Froude that he was a leading promoter of the imperialist excitement of the closing years of the century, but that in the mass of his work even empire took second place to religion.
Looking abroad (1870–1880)
Soon after the completion of the History of England in 1870, Froude began research for a
In September 1872, Froude accepted an invitation to lecture in the United States, where his work was also well-known. At that time, many Americans (particularly Irish Americans) were opposed to British rule in Ireland,[35] and Froude hoped to change their views. The lectures, widely discussed, raised the expected controversy, with opposition led by the Dominican friar Father Thomas Nicholas Burke. Opposition caused Froude to cut his trip short, and he returned to England disappointed both by his impression of America and by the results of his lectures.[36]
In England, too, Froude's Irish history had its critics, most notably William Edward Hartpole Lecky in his History of England in the Eighteenth Century, the first volumes of which were published in 1878, and in reviews in Macmillan's Magazine.
In February 1874, shortly before completion of English in Ireland, Froude's wife Henrietta died, after which Froude moved from London to Wales. As a means of diversion, Froude travelled to the Southern African Colony of Natal, unofficially for Colonial Secretary Lord Carnarvon, to report on the best means of promoting a confederation of the colonies and states of southern Africa. This region, seen as vital for the security of the Empire, was only partially under British control. Confederating the various states under British rule was seen as the best way of peacefully establishing total imperial control and ending the autonomy of the remaining independent states.[37]
On his second trip to Southern Africa in 1875, Froude was an imperial emissary charged with promoting confederation, a position which conflicted at times with his habit of lecturing on his personal political opinions.
However, in his travels through different parts of southern Africa, Froude gained some support through publicly agitating for pet local causes. "Chameleon-like, his politics assumed the colour of his surroundings," was how the Cape Argus newspaper described his strategy.
Froude was acclaimed nearly everywhere he went on his speaking tour, but the support he found was not so much for the conference as for his endorsement of pet local causes. Separatists would have separation; the Cape Dutch would have redress for their cousins in the Dutch Republics over Griqualand West; and conservatives would have a strict disciplinary native policy. "Chameleon-like, his politics assumed the colour of his surroundings," said a Cape Argus editorial. Froude became more confident of the success of his mission when his Lord and Master Carnarvon decided to switch the site of the conference to Natal. That decision contained the threat–empty as it turned out because Natal and the Republics would not play ball–that the Confederation might comprise Natal, Griqualand West and one or both Dutch Republics, leaving the Cape out in the cold. These hardball tactics produced exactly the opposite of their intended effect upon the Molteno Ministry. It became more rabid in its anti-Imperialist stance. John X. Merriman, who had come to accept responsible government and had become Molteno's Commissioner of Crown Lands and Public Works, mounted slashing counter-attacks upon Froude, "the Imperial Agent." The rhetoric culminated in the famous "Bread-roll War." Suffice it to say that, with emotions running very high, it was imprudent for the Mayor of Uitenhage to invite the Imperial Agent to a luncheon in honour of the Minister of Crown Lands and Public Works. As Merriman got warmed up on the subject of Imperial agitation, guests–including Paterson–interrupted the Minister, to the annoyance of his supporters. The culmination was a bombardment of the top table with bread rolls, and fist fights among guests. Merriman's remarks may have been ill-advised and intemperate, but the incident did at least persuade Froude to stop making speeches.
— Hone 1993, p. 61
The Cape Colony was by far the largest and most powerful state in the region, and Froude thus sought audience with its
Froude responded by openly allying with a radical white opposition party, the "Eastern Cape Separatists," promising a
Froude's mission was thus ultimately considered unsuccessful, and caused considerable uproar in southern Africa. Nonetheless,
On his return to London, Froude announced,
If anybody had told me two years ago that I should be leading an agitation within Cape Colony, I should have thought my informant delirious. The (Cape) Ministers have the appearance of victory, but we have the substance.[50]
Froude's observations on Africa were presented in a Report to the Secretary of State and a series of lectures for the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, both of which were adapted into essays for inclusion in Froude's essay collection Short Studies on Great Subjects.
In 1876 he was appointed to two
Life of Carlyle controversy (1881–1903)
Froude had been a close personal friend as well as an intellectual disciple of
Shortly after Carlyle's death in 1881, Froude published Carlyle's Reminiscences of Jane Welsh Carlyle.[55] Carlyle's niece, Mrs. Alexander Carlyle, presented a note written by Carlyle in 1866 stating that the volume should not be published. On the basis of this note, she accused Froude of misconduct in publishing the volume, even though the fact that Carlyle had given the volume to Froude five years later suggested that he had changed his mind.[56] Mrs. A. Carlyle also made claims of ownership over her uncle's papers, and over the profits from their publication.
The conflict discouraged Froude from continuing his biography of Carlyle, as he wrote in 1881, "So much ill will has been shown me in the case of the other letters that I walk as if on hot ashes, and often curse the day when I undertook the business." (quoted in
The controversy persisted for so long that in 1903, nearly ten years after Froude's death, his daughters decided to publish My Relations with Carlyle, which their father had written in 1887; in this pamphlet Froude attempted to justify his decisions as biographer, yet went further than his official biography had by speculating, based on "gossip and rumor" circulated by
Froudacity
Following completion of the Life of Carlyle, Froude turned to travel, particularly to the British colonies, visiting South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the West Indies. From these travels he produced two books, Oceana, or, England and Her Colonies (1886) and The English in the West Indies, or The Bow of Ulysses (1888), which mixed personal anecdotes with Froude's thoughts on the British Empire. Froude intended with these writings "to kindle in the public mind at home that imaginative enthusiasm for the Colonial idea of which his own heart was full".[67] However, these books caused great controversy, stimulating rebuttals and the coining of the term Froudacity by Afro-Trinidadian intellectual John Jacob Thomas, who used it as the title of, Froudacity. West Indian fables by J. A. Froude explained by J. J. Thomas, his book-length critique of The English in the West Indies.
Later life (1885–1894)
During this time Froude also wrote a
The demanding lecture schedule was too much for the ageing Froude. In 1894 he retired to Woodcot in Kingsbridge, Devonshire. He died on 20 October 1894 and is buried in Salcombe Cemetery.[73]
Family
Froude was married twice: first in 1849 to Charlotte Maria Grenfell (d.1860), and upon her death, in 1861 to Henrietta Elizabeth Wade (d.1874).[73] He was survived by one daughter (Margaret) of his first wife Charlotte Maria, née Grenfell, and by a son (Ashley Anthony Froude, C.M.G.) and a daughter (May) of his second wife Henrietta Elizabeth, née Warre.
Ashley Anthony Froude was born in 1863 at Paddington, London, England. He married Ethel Aubrey Hallifax, daughter of Albert Praed Hallifax and Isabella Aubrey Coker, in 1897 at Chelsea, London, England. He died on 17 April 1949. He was appointed Companion, Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.) and held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.). His son, John Aubrey Froude (b. 1898, d. 22 September 1914), died when H.M.S. Cressy on which he was serving was torpedoed by U.9.
Works
Fiction
- Shadows of the Clouds. London: J. Ollivier. 1847.
- The Nemesis of Faith. New York: D. M. Bennett. 1879. download
- The Two Chiefs of Dunboy. New York: C. Scribnerʹs Sons. 1889.
Non-fiction
- History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. in 12 volumes. C. Scribner and company. 1856–1870. Vol 1 Vol 2; Vol 3
- Revised as History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, in 12 volumes (1893)
- Short Studies on Great Subjects. 1867–1882.
- The Oxford Counter-Reformation (1881)
- The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century. Scribner, Armstrong. 1873. p. 445.
- Caesar: A Sketch. 1879. (biography of Julius Caesar)
- Bunyan. 1880. (Biography of John Bunyan)
- Froude, James Anthony, ed. (April 1881). "Review of Reminiscences by Thomas Carlyle". The Quarterly Journal. 151: 385–428. .
- Thomas Carlyle. New York, C. Scribner's sons. 1882.
- "Review of Thomas Carlyle: a History of the First Forty Years of his Life, 1795–1835 by J. A. Froude, 1882 and Thomas Carlyle: a History of his Life in London, 1834–1881 by J. A. Froude, 1884". The Quarterly Review. 159: 76–112. January 1885. Volume 1 Volume 2
- Luther: A Short Biography. 1884. (biography of Martin Luther)
- Historical Essays. 1886.
- Oceana, or, England and Her Colonies. 1886.[74]
- The English in the West Indies or The Bow of Ulysses. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1888.
- Lord Beaconsfield. 1890. (Biography of Benjamin Disraeli)
- The Earl of Beaconsfield. 1914 [1890].
- The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon. New York, C. Scribner's sons. 1891.
- Life and Letters of Erasmus. New York Scribner. 1894.
- English Sea-Men in the Sixteenth Century. 1895.
- My Relations with Carlyle (published 1903). 1887.
Translations
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandtschaften) (1854, published anonymously)
References
Citations
- ^ "Miscellaneous Items". West Coast Times and Observer. No. 2337. New Zealand. 27 March 1873. p. 3.
For he swears by the rood/That his name it is Froude
- ^ Markus 2007, p. 14.
- ^ a b Paul 1906, p. 110.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 20.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 11.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 15.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 26–28.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 29–30.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 33–35.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 39.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 56.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 47–48.
- ^ Willey 1956, p. 131.
- ^ Ashton 1989, p. 76.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 50.
- ^ Ashton 1989, p. 73.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 57–58.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 78.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 72.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 95.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 73–74.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 119–120.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 73.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 90–91.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 91–92, 97.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 147–148, ch. 5.
- ^
- Freeman, Edward Augustus (1878). "Froude's Study of Thomas Becket 1". Contemporary Review. XXXI. A. Strahan. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- Freeman, Edward Augustus (1878). "Froude's Study of Thomas Becket 2 & 3". Contemporary Review. XXXII. A. Strahan. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- Edward Augustus Freeman (1878), "Froude's Study of Thomas Becket 2 & 3", Contemporary Review, vol. XXXII, p. 216
- Freeman, Edward Augustus (1878). "Froude's Study of Thomas Becket 2 & 3". Contemporary Review. 32. A. Strahan. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- Freeman, Edward Augustus (1878). "Froude's Study of Thomas Becket 1".
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 182–186.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 301.
- ^ Burrow 1981.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 200.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 210.
- ^ Froude 1873, p. 445.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 202.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 227.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10202. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 263–265, 273–274.
- ^ Lewsen 1982, p. 55.
- ^ Dunn 1963, p. 441, Vol.2.
- ^ Malherbe 1971, pp. 144–145.
- ^ Newton 1924, pp. 24–29.
- ^ Mostert 1993, p. 1247.
- ^ Theal 1902, pp. 402–403.
- ^ Lewsen 1982, p. 54.
- ^ Molteno 1900, vol. 2.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 274.
- ^ Anon 1992, p. 182.
- ^ Eybers 1918, pp. 448–453.
- ^ Michell 1910, p. 113.
- ^ "No. 24316". The London Gazette. 21 April 1876. p. 2574.
- ^ "No. 24319". The London Gazette. 28 April 1876. p. 2668.
- ^ "No. 24988". The London Gazette. 24 June 1881. p. 3208.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 302–303.
- ^ Froude 1881, pp. 385–428.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 306–307.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 309.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 313–314.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 304, 312, 320–321.
- ^ Broughton 1995, p. 567.
- ^ Broughton 1995, p. 556.
- ^ Cumming 2004, p. 184.
- ^ Broughton 1997, p. 503.
- PMID 20760987.
- ^ Cumming 2004, p. 211.
- ^ Cumming 2004, p. 71.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 364.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 365.
- ^ Berresford Ellis 2009.
- ^ "No. 26280". The London Gazette. 19 April 1892. p. 2318.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 382, 395.
- ^ Paul 1906, p. 385–388.
- ^ ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
- ^ "Review of Oceana by James Anthony Froude". Science. VII (164): 292–294. 26 March 1886.
Sources
- Anon (1992). "Confederation from the Barrel of a Gun". Illustrated history of South Africa: the real story. Reader's Digest Association South Africa. ISBN 978-0-947008-90-1.
- Ashton, Rosemary (1989), "Doubting Clerics: From James Anthony Froude to Robert Elsmere via George Eliot", in Jasper and Wright (ed.), The Critical Spirit and the Will to Believe, New York: St. Martins
- Berresford Ellis, Peter (2009). "'Nineteen Duel Dick' from Galway". Irish Abroad. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012.
- Broughton, Trev Lynn (1995). "The Froude-Carlyle Embroilment: Married Life as a Literary Problem". Victorian Studies: A Journal of the Humanities, Arts and Sciences. 38 (4): 551–585. JSTOR 3829381.
- Broughton, Trev Lynn (1997). "Impotence, Biography, and the Froude-Carlyle Controversy: 'Revelations on Ticklish Topics'". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 7 (4): 502–536. PMID 11619115.
- Burrow, J.W. (1981). A Liberal Descent: Victorian Historians and the English Past. Cambridge: University Press. ISBN 0-521-24079-4.
- Cumming, Mark, ed. (2004). The Carlyle Encyclopedia. Madison, NJ / Teaneck, NJ: ISBN 978-0-8386-3792-0.
- Dunn, Waldo Hilary (1963), James Anthony Froude, A Biography, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- Heidt, Sarah J. (2006). "The Materials for a 'Life': Collaboration, Publication, and the Carlyles' Afterlives". Nineteenth-Century Contexts. 28 (1): 21–33. S2CID 220354720.
- Hone, Basil T. (1993). The First Son of South Africa to be Premier: Thomas Charles Scanlen. Oldwick, NJ: Longford Press.
- Malherbe, Vertrees Canby (1971). What They Said, 1795–1910: A Selection of Documents from South African History. Cape Town: Maskew Miller. ISBN 978-0-623-00457-9.
- Markus, Julia (2007). J. Anthony Froude: The Last Undiscovered Great Victorian. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-8643-2.
- Michell, Sir Lewis (1910). The Life and Times of the Right Honourable Cecil John Rhodes 1853-1902. Vol. 1. New York: M. Kennerley.
- Mostert, Noël (1993). Frontiers: The Epic of South Africa's Creation and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People. Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-5584-2.
- Newton, A.P. (1924). "Froude's Report to Carnarvon on 10 January 1876". Select Documents Re. Unification of South Africa. 1: 24–29.
- Molteno, Percy A. (1900), The life and times of Sir John Charles Molteno, K. C. M. G., First Premier of Cape Colony, Comprising a History of Representative Institutions and Responsible Government at the Cape, vol. 2 (Confederation), London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Lewsen, Phyllis (1982), John X. Merriman: paradoxical South African statesman, Johannesburg: Ad.Donker, pp. 54–55 (Froude in South Africa)
- Eybers, G.W. (1918), Select Constitutional Documents Illustrating South African History, 1795–1910, Routledge & Sons, pp. 448–453
- Paul, Herbert (1906), The Life of Froude, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
- Theal, George McCall (1902). Progress of South Africa in the Century. London: Linscott Publishing Company.
- Willey, Basil (1956), "J.A. Froude", More Nineteenth Century Studies: A Group of Honest Doubters, London: Chatto and Windus
Further reading
- Badger, Kingsbury (1952). "The Ordeal of Anthony Froude, Protestant Historian". Modern Language Quarterly. 13: 41–55. .
- Bell, Duncan (2009) "Republican Imperialism: J. A. Froude and the Virtue of Empire", History of Political Thought, Vol. 30, 166–91
- Brady, Ciaran (2013), James Anthony Froude: An Intellectual Biography of a Victorian Prophet, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Chadwick, Owen (1966), An Ecclesiastical History of England: The Victorian Church, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Gilbert, Elliot L. (1991). "Rescuing Reality: Carlyle, Froude, and Biographical Truth-Telling". Victorian Studies: A Journal of the Humanities, Arts and Sciences. 34 (3): 295–314.
- Hesketh, Ian (2008). "Diagnosing Froude's Disease: Boundary Work and the Discipline of History in Late-Victorian Britain". History and Theory. 47 (3): 373–395. .
- Hunt, William (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 252–253.
- Minnick, Wayne C. (1951). "The Froude-Burke Controversy". Speech Monographs. 18: 31–36. .
- Jann, Rosemary. The Art and Science of Victorian History (1985) online free
- ISBN 0-86299-384-9
- Van Auken, Sheldon. "Froude: A Collision of Principles", History Today (July 1951) 1#7 pp. 51–58
External links
- Works by James Anthony Froude at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about James Anthony Froude at Internet Archive
- Works by James Anthony Froude at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Portraits of James Anthony Froude at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Plaque #195 on Open Plaques at Onslow Gardens
- Quotations of James Anthony Froude at RubyQuote
- James Anthony Froude at Library of Congress, with 122 library catalogue records