4 OLD AND NEW WAYS OF TREATING HISTORY 
however, it is to a great extent dissipated. The 
domestic tragedy remains as hideous and loathsome 
as ever, but in the case of the two queens who lost 
their heads, the king appears more sinned against 
than sinning. Catherine Howard unquestionably 
brought her fate upon herself, and in all probability 
the same is true of Anne Boleyn, who fares worse 
and worse as we learn more about her. The critical 
historian still finds much to condemn in Henry VIII, 
but between his verdict and that of the traditional 
popular opinion there is a very wide difference. 
.Another instance of such a wide difference is fur- 
nished by the conduct of Edward I. with reference to 
the disputed succession to the throne of Scotland. 
A few months ago’ there was published a new edition 
of a rather dull romance which our grandfathers 
used to find entertaining, “The Scottish Chiefs,” by 
Jane Porter. I doubt if it will get many readers now. 
In this book the greatest of English kings, a man 
who, for nobility of character, was like our Washing- 
ton, is recklessly charged with tyranny and bad faith, 
while Bruce and Wallace are treated not merely as 
heroes — which is all right— but as faultless heroes; 
even such an act as the murder of the Red Comyn 
in the church at Dumfries is mentioned with approval. 
Curiously enough the views set forth in this romance 
have been traditional not only in Scotland but in 
England, so that when Mr. Robert Seeley, in 1860, 
published his book entitled “ The Greatest of all the 
Plantagenets,” his defence of King Edward took many 
people by surprise. The question was soon afterward 
handled by Freeman in such a way as to set it at rest. 
1 1896. 
