Freeman.

Freeman. EDWARD AUGUSTUS, historian, born at Mitchley Abbey, in the parish of Harborne in Staffordshire, 2d August 1823, was elected scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1841, and fellow in 1845. He held the examinership in the School of Law and Modern History in 1857 and 1863, and in the School of Modern History in 1873; and was created D.C.L. of Oxford in 1870, and LL.D. of Cambridge in 1874. In 1884 he became regius professor of Modern History at Oxford. In 1860 he had settled at Somerleaze, where he lived the life of a country gentleman, but travelled frequently (see his Studies of Travel, 1894); and he stood unsuccessfully for Mid-Somerset as a Liberal. He had Greek and Servian decorations, and was a member of various academies. His principal work is his History of the Norman Conquest (5 vols. 1867-76), one of the greatest monuments of English historical learning, which shows its author to possess almost every requisite of an historical style save one—that of condensation. His other works include A History of Architecture (1849); History and Conquests of the Saracens (1856); History of Federal Government (vol. i. 1863); History of the Cathedral Church of Wells (1870); Old English History (1869); Growth of the English Constitution (1872); Historical Essays (3 series, 1872-79); Comparative Politics (1873); Historical and Architectural Sketches, chiefly Italian (1876); The Ottoman Power in Europe (1877); Historical Geography of Europe (2 vols. 1881); The Reign of William Rufus, and the Accession of Henry I. (2 vols. 1882); Some Impressions of the United States (1883); English Towns and Districts (1883); Chief Periods of European History (1886); Methods of Historical Study (1886); Exeter (1887); and an unfinished History of Sicily (i.-iii., 1891-93). He died of smallpox at Alicante, 17th March 1892. The leader of 'the Teutonic school' in English history, Freeman, carried away by his prepossessions, placed too great reliance on the evidence offered by the language and institutions, and overestimated the Teutonic element in the blood of the English people. As an historian he shows equal erudition and accuracy; but his learning is marred by its pedantry: his argument, by its iteration; while his insight and breadth of view are scarce proportional to his knowledge. He maintains a high ideal of the dignity of real history, and made unsparing onslaught on writers who subordinate the true to the picturesque. See his Life and Letters by Dean Stephens (2 vols. 1895).