Froude, James Anthony (fr

d), 1818–94, English historian. Educated at Oxford, he took deacon's orders after coming under the influence of the Oxford movement Oxford movement, religious movement begun in 1833 by Anglican clergymen at Oxford Univ. to renew the Church of England (see England, Church of ) by reviving certain Roman Catholic doctrines and rituals.
..... Click the link for more information. , but he later abandoned the path of Newman and became a skeptic. His record of this course in The Nemesis of Faith led to his resignation from an Oxford fellowship. He became an intimate friend of Thomas Carlyle Carlyle, Thomas, 1795–1881, English author, b. Scotland.

Early Life and Works

Carlyle studied (1809–14) at the Univ. of Edinburgh, intending to enter the ministry, but left when his doubts became too strong.
..... Click the link for more information. , whom he greatly admired, and devoted himself to writing and lecturing. In 1872–73 he came to the United States and lectured on Irish questions, and later traveled in many parts of the British Empire. In 1892 he became regius professor of modern history at Oxford. His most important work is The History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada (12 vol., 1856–70). An indefatigable worker, Froude produced an almost incredible number volumes. Among his best-known works are Short Studies on Great Subjects (4 vol., 1867–82); The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (3 vol., 1872–74); English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century (1892); several books on Carlyle and his wife; and biographies of Julius Caesar, Erasmus, and Disraeli. As literature, Froude's works are superb; his style is graceful and fluent, his opinions are competently and clearly expressed. As history, they leave much to be desired; his numerous prejudices color all his writing, and he was so prone to factual errors that the term "Froude's disease" came to be applied by some later historians to habitual inaccuracy. Nevertheless, his interest in social questions and his tireless curiosity concerning the past give the books value.

Bibliography

See biographies by H. Paul (1905) and J. Markus (2005); W. H. Dunn, Froude and Carlyle (1930).

Froude, James Anthony

(born April 23, 1818, Dartington, Devon, Eng.—died Oct. 20, 1894, Kingsbridge, Devon) English historian and biographer. He was influenced by the Oxford Movement, which sought a renewal of Roman Catholic practices within the Church of England, but later broke with it. Among his historical works, which display both carelessness and his anti-Catholic bias, the best known is History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada (1856–70), which fundamentally altered the direction of Tudor studies. Immensely prolific, he was attacked by reviewers but was popular with the reading public. He later produced a biography (1882–84) of his friend Thomas Carlyle.