xl The Preface 



in assaulting, defending, and taking of a fort, or a petty garri- 

 son, than Alexander did employ in conquering the greatest 

 part of the world : which proves, that such historians regard 

 more their own eloquence, wit, and industry, and the know- 

 ledge they believe to have of the actions of war, and of all 

 manner of governments, than of the truth of the history, 

 which is the main thing, and wherein consists the hardest task, 

 very few historians knowing the transactions they write of, 

 and much less the counsels and secret designs of many differ- 

 ent parties, which they confidently mention. 



Although there be many sorts of histories, yet these three 

 are the chiefest : (i) a general history ; (2) a national history ; 

 (3) a particular history. Which three sorts may, not unfitly, 

 be compared to the three sorts of governments, democracy, 

 aristocracy, and monarchy. The first is the history of the 

 known parts and people of the world ; the second is the his- 

 tory of a particular nation, kingdom, or commonwealth. 

 The third is the history of the life and actions of some particu- 

 lar person. The first is profitable for travellers, navigators, 

 and merchants ; the second is pernicious, by reason it teaches 

 subtle policies, begets factions, not only between particular 

 families and persons, but also between whole nations, and 

 great princes, rubbing old sores, and renewing old quarrels, 

 that would otherwise have been forgotten. The last is the 

 most secure ; because it goes not out of its own circle, but 

 turns on its own axis, and for the most part keeps within the 

 circumference of truth. The first is mechanical, the second 

 political, and the third heroical. The first should only be 

 written by travellers and navigators ; the second by states- 

 men ; the third by the prime actors, or the spectators of those 

 affairs and actions of which they write, as Caesar's Commen- 

 taries are, which no pen but of such am author, who was also 

 actor in the particular occurrences, private intrigues, secret 

 counsels, close designs, and rare exploits of war he relates, 

 could ever have brought to so high perfection. 



This history is of the third sort, as that is ; and being of 

 the life and actions of my noble lord and husband, who hath 

 informed me of all the particular passages I have recorded, I 

 cannot, though neither actor nor spectator, be thought ignor- 

 nant of the truth of what I write. Nor is it inconsistent 

 with my being a woman, to write of wars, that was neither 



