FROUDE, frood, James Anthony, Eng lish historian: b. Dartington, Devonshire, Eng land, 23 April 1818; d. Salcombe, Devonshire, 20 Oct. 1894. He was the youngest son of Archdeacon R. H. Fronde, rector of Dartington, and was educated at Westminster and Oxford. His brother, Hurrell Fronde, was one of the leaders in the "Oxford Movement" and both were influenced by Newman, the earliest work of the younger FroUde being a contribution to the 'Lives of the Saints,' edited by Newman. He soon emerged from Tractarian influence however, and for the rest of his life remained indifferent to the Church in which he had been reared. The first two volumes of his history of England appeared in 1856 and at once attracted marked attention, both favorable and adverse, on account of the brilliant style and the audacity of the writer's opinions. The book flatly reversed many historical judgments, and interpreted mo tives in a manner more common now than then, but very startling to readers in the middle of the 19th century. His attempted vindication of Henry VIII must be accounted a failure, bril liant and able as it is, and although it is a most striking portrait of Henry that he has painted, it cannot be called a faithful likeness, His treat ment of Mary of Scotland is frankly hostile, and has been met with severe criticism. His judgment of Elizabeth, though far from im partial, is more nearly accurate than that of either of the other two personages. He excelled in vigorous, dramatic presentation of men and events, and in the judgment of sober critics appears to have cared much more for pictur esque narrative than for absolute historical ac curacy. As a historian, he will long continue to be read and admired, but his apparent in differen0 to historical truth at times will not permit of his inclusion in the first •rank of historians. He visited the United States in 1872 on a lecture tour, his lectures being after ward in with the title of 'English Mis rule n Ireland.' In 1874 he visited South Africa, his impressions bilipz later given to the world in lectures at Edinburgh, and in 1882 made an extended tour through Australia, the West Indies and the United States, the liter ary outcome of which were 'Oceana' and 'The English in the West Indies.' He was the friend of Carlyle, whose literary executor he became, and his life of the Sage of Chelsea, his 'Reminiscences of Carlyle' and 'Letters and Memorials of Jane Carlyle' have excited a vast amount of controversy. In 1892 Froude
succeeded the historian Freeman as regius professor of history at Oxford, his lectures in that capacity afterward constituting his volume on Erasmus. It may be said that Froude was more distinctly a man of letters than a historian. He is always readable even when one is forced to dissent from him most strongly, but he touched on too many themes to give to the writing of history the devotion toward it so characteristic of such men as the late Samuel Rawson Gardner, Professor Freeman or John Richard Green, and he was temperamentally indifferent to the claims of entire truthfulness. He may not have consciously distorted facts, but his selection of certain details and suppres sion of others for the apparent sake of making the particular hero in question brighter, or the particular villain darker, does not commend itself to the lover of truth for its own sake. His important include 'Shadows of the published under the pseudonym 'Zeta' (1847) ; 'The Nemesis of Faith' (1849) ; 'The Book of job' (1851); 'The History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth' (1856-70) ; 'Short Studies on Great Subjects' (1867); Address Delivered to the University of St. Andrews' (1869) ; Cat's Pilgrimage' (1870) ; Studies: Second Series' (1871) : Calvinism' (1871) ; 'The English in Ireland in the 18th Century> (1872-74) ; 'Short Studies: Third Series' (1877); 'Life and Times of Thomas Becket> (1878) a Sketch' (1879) ; 'Bunyan' (184 ; 'Two Lectures on South Africa' (1880) ; of the High Church Revival' (1881); 'Short Studies: Fourth Series' (1882) ; 'Reminiscences of Thomas Carlyle> (edited 1881) ; 'Thomas Car lyle: History of the First Forty Years of His Life' (1882) • 'Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle> (edited 1883) ; Car lyle; History of His Life in London 1831-81) (1884),. 'Life of Lord Beaconsfield' (1890); 'The Divorce of Catharine of Aragon' (1891) ; 'Life and 'Letters of Erasmus' (1894). The first two volumes named above he attempted to suppress in later life, and succeeded with Shadow of the Consult by Herbert Paul (1905).