GARDINER, SAMUEL RAWSON English historian, son of Rawson Boddam Gardiner, was born near Alresford, Hants. He was educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a first class in literati humaniores, and became a fellow of All Souls (1884) and Merton (1892). For some years he was professor of modern history at King's college, London. Gardiner, who was himself a descendant of Cromwell and Ireton, is the historian of the Puritan revolution, and has written its history in a History of England from the Accession of James I. to the Outbreak of the Civil War, 1603 1642 (ro vols., ; History of the Great Civil War,. 1642-1649 (4 vols., 1886) ; and History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-166o (3 vols., 1894-1903). His researches in public and private collections of manuscripts at home, and in the archives of Simancas, Venice, Rome, Brussels and Paris, were indefatigable. In his judgments of men and their actions he is unbiassed, and his appreciations of character exhibit a re markable fineness of perception and a broad sympathy. Through out his work he gives a prominent place to everything which illustrates human progress in moral and religious, as well as political conceptions, and specially to the rise and development of the idea of religious toleration, finding his authorities not only in the words and actions of men of mark, but in the writings of obscure pamphleteers, whose essays indicate currents in the tide of public opinion.
Gardiner's style is clear and unadorned ; he appeals constantly to the intellect rather than to the emotions, and is seldom pictur esque, though in describing a few famous scenes, such as the execution of Charles I., he writes with pathos and dignity. Among the most noteworthy of his separate works are : Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage (2 vols., 1869) ; Outline of English History (1st. ed. 1887, later ed. 1919); Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625-1660 (1st ed., 1889; 3rd ed., 1906) ; Student's History of England (2 vols., 1st ed. 1890-91; later ed. 1920) ; What Gunpowder Plot Was (1897) ; Oliver Crom well (1901). He edited collections of papers for the Camden Society, and from 1891 was editor of the English Historical Re view.