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As we have various country sections within our Scots Diaspora I thought it would be useful to make available histories of those countries. This is partly as we're tracing the Scots connections there it would be interesting to know more about the country and what our people might have experienced while they were there.
And so this week I've been hunting around and found quite a few good books in pdf format and have now made them available on the site. The list is as follows...
Netherlands
A Neglected Source for the History of the Commercial Relations between Scotland and the Netherlands during the 16th, 17th and and 18th Centuries By S. van Brakel. http://www.electricscotland.com/history/netherlands
A History of Spain
By Charles E. Chapman (1918)
IN these days of Spanish study it is of real use to read a history like this and to be able to recommend it heartily to other students. The Spanish authority on which it is founded gives his hearty approval to the way it is constructed, and the American writer adds three chapters of his own of special interest, that on Charles III. and England, 1759-1788,' and the two modern ones, 1808 to 1917. It is difficult to find special points to comment on in so long and so excellent a vista of the descent of the Spanish people and the history, political and economic, of the different provinces of Spain which have such varied origins. The author is right in drawing special attention to the close connection of the whole country with Africa, even during the late Roman time, when the two lands were conjoined in one diocese, which was no doubt prepared by their earlier associations through Carthage. It explains also how the foreign Visigothic Kings were, at first, so easily overcome by the Moslems, and how it took quite a long time before the Church was able to inspire the Christians with hatred and crusading zeal against the tolerant rule of their African masters. The account of this rule and the gradual expulsion of the 'Moors' is particularly well given, and one reads the succession of events with great interest as the Christian sovereigns gradually, by union, gained power for themselves while the nobles lost it, until there was almost absolute autocracy during the great reigns of Charles V. (here called Charles I.) and Philip II. which preceded such a long period of decline. This study deals with the progress (one way or the other) of government, law, literature and foreign politics. While adequate in its narrative it is by no means a dynastic history, and anyone who wishes stories of the sad and sombre Court life of Spain must go elsewhere. The writer is more concerned with the popular development than with the pedigrees of kings. It is perhaps this that causes a curious slip on page 74 when he calls the first ruler of the House of Burgundy in Portugal 'a French Count, Henry of Lorraine.'
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/spain/spain.htm
Russia from the Varangians to the Bolsheviks
By Raymond Beazley, Nevill Forbes and G. A. Birkett. (1918) With an Introduction by Ernest Barker.
THE four authors of this book have done their difficult work well. It is a long period from 852 to 1917 to pass in review and show, as they have done, the latent causes which have led to the sudden collapse of what was in all appearance a giant and a united empire. Yet the causes were not really far to seek. Russia, through the suppression of all popular government to suit a Byzantine system of kingship made more autocratic through its borrowings from the Khans during the Tartar conquest, was a colossus with one head and many bureaucratic hands but no real popular support. From the time of Peter the Great it became, owing to the impetuous will of that Tzar, a Western power with a great army, and until 1917 this army supported the Chinovniksy who in turn (for their own advancement and through no spirit of real patriotism) supported the sovereignty of the different Tzars without much sense of personal loyalty. Indeed when one considers the heterogeneous races of Russia and the heritage of the long period of serfdom, the idealistic nature of some of the Romanovs, the retrograde character of other emperors and empresses, and the passivity of the Orthodox Church, 'We are beginning to realize,' as the Introduction shows, that the dissolution of the great State ... is less astonishing than its long continuance in the past.' That it lasted so long is no doubt due to the continual repression of all popular thought through the jealous fears of the bureaucracy, but with this came the jealousy of all progress. This was not so easily seen in peace time, but every war tried the system, and during the great war of 1914 to 1917 was a war which dwarfs all previous wars to child's play the Russian State, though it endured the strain for a time, 'cracked and collapsed.' The early history is well given here. The 'Time of the Troubles,' a period having some analogy to the present Anarchy, is also instructively dealt with. So is the tortuous policy of the partitions of Poland, which like serfage also left a long legacy of evil to Russia. The modern political movements (the Developments so called) are instructive as leading up to the Revolution of 1905, and the summary of events since must be read and studied. The whole book is a real addition to political history.
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ia/russia2.htm
Japan: The Rise of a Modern Power
By Robert P. Porter (1918)
THE story of the way in which the Japanese people suddenly grafted Western civilisation on to their own purely Oriental culture must always be a fascinating one, and we are glad to read the excellent account in this book, where the historical sequence is followed with care and an admirable sense of proportion. It tells how the primeval Imperial dynasty fell into the hands of the Clans and the Shoguns, of the veneer of Chinese culture which spread over the Court, and of the early martial successes. We note that the Mongol invasion failed, and that Japan has been one of the few unconquered countries. Then came the Portuguese and Spanish intercourse and missions, successful Christian propaganda, until it looked as if Christianity might become the accepted Japanese religion. The zeal of the converts went too far, however, and provoked reaction first and then fierce prosecution. The result was that, except for meagre trade with the Protestant Dutch, Japan remained a 'closed country' from 1636 to 1853. The author does not think the thought of the country remained stagnant however, but that in spite of the antiquated setting it continued vigorous enough, and when American influences opened the country the native education was quite sufficient to allow the Japanese to absorb the use of every western item of material superiority, while by no means inducing them to give up their native culture and modes of thought. This was shown in the constitutional changes, when the Shoguns fell, the semi-divine Emperor came into his own again and gave the country a constitution. We are led clearly through the period of utilitarian progress, increase of armaments, and military success, first over the reactionary Chinese, then, when German intrigue had forced on the war, over Russia, whose feet of clay showed already. In the war the Japanese have assisted the Allies greatly and far more than is realised, on account of their continual naval co-operation.
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/japan/japan.htm
History of Serbia
By Harold W. V. Temperley (1917)
THIS book is not only a history of Serbia and Montenegro, but is also a study of the historical development of the whole of the Jugo-Slav peoples. It is very instructive, and is written in a singularly restrained style when one considers the battles, invasions, revolts, and oppressions it deals with, for, in the author's phrase, the story of the Jugo-Slavs is 'bloody beyond ordinary bloodiness.'
The Jugo-Slavs early became split up into two great sections, of which the Croats and Dalmatians adopted the Church of Rome, the Latin alphabet, and in part, Western culture as far as they were permitted by their German oppressors ; whereas the Serbians and Montenegrins acknowledged the Greek rite, and so, unfortunately for themselves, were ecclesiastically subordinate to the Byzantine Empire, and on its fall were absolutely cut off from the West by the Turkish Conquest. But the old kingdom of Serbia, in spite of its constant wars with Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Byzantines, had a great history, as we see here, and the spirit of nationality has always been strong, and, we have reason to think, will continue among the suffering people.'Disaster,' says the writer, 'has sometimes created and has always intensified national feeling in Serbia.' The period of the Serbian zenith was from about 1190 to 1400. Stephen Dushan (1321-55), their greatest ruler, aimed at the Imperial throne of the East when cut off by death, and his death was followed by a gradual decline of Serbian power to a state of weakness, which allowed the Turkish invaders to conquer in 1389 at the battle of Kossovo, 'The Field of Blackbirds,' still sung in many sad ballads as the end of a great period of freedom.
The rest of the history deals with Turkish misrule and oppression, which was inaugurated at once by the * tribute of children,' and the gradual acquisition of independence by Serbia and the fiery battles for freedom in Montenegro under the chiefs and vladikas. It recounts the painful feud in Serbia between the two chief families, the Karageorgevitch and the Obrenovitch, which did not end until the extinction of the latter worthless dynasty in 1903 by the brutal murder of King Alexander and Queen Draga, a murder which made way for the present king, of the rival family, and which was not greatly disapproved of by the tumultuous subjects of the Serbian Crown. It is sad to think that the hard-won Serbian and Montenegrin independence is again under a hateful eclipse, but if history teaches anything it shows a phoenix-like power of resurrection among the Slav peoples.
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...bia/serbia.htm
Italy, mediaeval and modern: a history
By Evelyn M Jamison (1917)
IT is justly remarked in the Preface to this volume that while Italian history is well represented in the form of monographs on particular periods and personages throughout its course, there are few works, at least in our language, which give a complete conspectus of what is certainly one of the most deeply interesting and important of all the histories of the world. Perhaps it is the very magnitude of the task which has prevented its accomplishment. Putting aside the history of classic Rome, Italy, in one way or another, has been the main field of human action in Europe from the earliest time down to our own : at first a dominant and world-embracing Empire, the seat of a tremendous spiritual power, and through every century nourishing and spreading abroad the fairest flowers and fruits of human culture. The Age of Dante, the times of the Medici, the Papacy, the Republics, the Reunited Kingdom, what splendid subjects are each of these for separate and detailed treatment, and how hard is the task to weave them into one continuous tale without finding our tapestry become too crowded, and without having, perforce, to leave aside details of the highest interest.
The authors of this volume have succeeded to a very marked degree in supplying the kind of book which is so much to be desired. If it suffers from anything, it is from compression, especially in its earlier chapters. But the knowledge is so abundant, the materials so thoroughly at command, and the style, as a whole, so engaging, that the impression left is that of fine work well and conscientiously done. It is not a mere narrative ; it takes more the shape of a running commentary on Italian history from the time of the great struggles between Pope and Emperor in the thirteenth century, and before it, down to the present day, with a more detailed exposition of Italian politics in the nineteenth century, the great age of Cavour, and Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel. The great names of the early Renascence receive due honour, and not only these, but the very remarkable group of men who surrounded Frederick II. at Palermo, and formed what might be designated an earlier Renascence. The plan of giving separate sketches of the different communities and states, and resuming the story at intervals, tends to keep one's mind free from confusion in the great mass of detail : for it is undoubtedly difficult to do so, especially in these periods and they do occur in Italian history, when the daily life of the people and their rulers was alike dull and unenlightened. But from its mere mass of great names, alone, Italian history can never be other than interesting in the highest degree. And nowhere has it been more ably or more engagingly set forth than in this book in which its authors have combined a fine historical judgment with abundant scholarship.
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/italy/italy.htm
Portugal Old and Young
An historical study by George Young (1917)
THE writer of this delightful book is a true lover of Portugal, and wishes to make the reader love that beautiful country as he does himself, and by the charm of his style and his enthusiasm he has his reader to a great extent in his thrall. He traces the history of Portugal from the Roman times to the present, when, as oldest ally of England, it is now fighting side by side with Britain in France. And he shows why this is so. He tells how the alliance between England and Portugal, then a struggling kingdom only recently carved out of Galicia and the Moorish territories, began in 1147, and has lasted ever since. English troops assisted the Portuguese in their crusades with the Moors, at Aljubarotta in 1383 against the Spaniards, and have since helped them at every difficult period, save when the religious differences interfered. The first King of the House of Aviz, married Philippa of Lancaster, and the royal line for a time was greatly under English influence. The writer describes the great discoveries and conquests of Portugal under Prince Henry the Navigator and King Manoel, and shows how the reign of the latter with his policy of Spanish marriages, rich and prosperous as it seemed to be, was really leading up to the moral bankruptcy of Portugal, when, after the loss in Africa of the visionary King Sebastian, it fell, through the death of an effete Cardinal, to swell the Spanish Empire of Philip II., and so, for a period, lost its independence. One wishes that Camoens had had more followers stirred by his song of the glories of the past to oppose the Spanish yoke, and one wonders what might not have been had Queen Elizabeth only supported Dom Antonio with more vigour.
The author is a little less convincing when he describes the Portuguese 'revolt' or War of Freedom in 1640, for he does not explain the reason satisfactorily while writing of the Portuguese captivity.' The reason we take it is very much the same as that which prevented Scotland being merged in England. The Portuguese must have, through Galicia or Lusitania, absorbed some forgotten race absolutely hostile in mind to Spanish morgue^ and it was the spirit of this people which time and again separated the two countries, which, geographically, were almost one. It is strange how the marriage of Charles II. to the Portuguese Infanta still unites their two peoples further, though through it Portugal lost Bombay and much of its Indian territory, and its chief town in Morocco. Into the latter history, the Methuen Treaty which almost gave the pleasant city of Oporto to the British, the Napoleonic changes which forced the Court to flee to Brazil, and the Peninsular War, we need not enter except to praise the way they are dealt with ; we also pass the Civil wars which led to the fall of the odious Miguel and the rise of the not romantic Maria da Gloria. The Saxe-Coburg Kings are well described, and, except for the excellent phrase, 'the Court and through it the country were controlled by barons of finance, many of them German Jews, whose pillaging and plunderings were all too recent to be respectable,' the writer is temperate about their virtues and vices. He is also calm about their removal from the Throne and the discomforts of their adherents. He is illuminating on the Republic, its beginnings, policy, and doings, and we are grateful for his political instruction.
We think he is a little too insistent on the prevalence of the Jewish strain in Portugal, and not enough so about the very mixed, Oriental and African, blood in the nation, which in its native alliances has followed the deliberate policy of Albouquerque. We think also he is not a very careful genealogist. One or two of his statements need scrutiny, and Isabella the Catholic especially would be much surprised to see herself (twice) called 'sister' of La Beltraneja!
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...l/portugal.htm
And so I hope these will be a useful reference tool for you to use.
Alastair
And so this week I've been hunting around and found quite a few good books in pdf format and have now made them available on the site. The list is as follows...
Netherlands
A Neglected Source for the History of the Commercial Relations between Scotland and the Netherlands during the 16th, 17th and and 18th Centuries By S. van Brakel. http://www.electricscotland.com/history/netherlands
A History of Spain
By Charles E. Chapman (1918)
IN these days of Spanish study it is of real use to read a history like this and to be able to recommend it heartily to other students. The Spanish authority on which it is founded gives his hearty approval to the way it is constructed, and the American writer adds three chapters of his own of special interest, that on Charles III. and England, 1759-1788,' and the two modern ones, 1808 to 1917. It is difficult to find special points to comment on in so long and so excellent a vista of the descent of the Spanish people and the history, political and economic, of the different provinces of Spain which have such varied origins. The author is right in drawing special attention to the close connection of the whole country with Africa, even during the late Roman time, when the two lands were conjoined in one diocese, which was no doubt prepared by their earlier associations through Carthage. It explains also how the foreign Visigothic Kings were, at first, so easily overcome by the Moslems, and how it took quite a long time before the Church was able to inspire the Christians with hatred and crusading zeal against the tolerant rule of their African masters. The account of this rule and the gradual expulsion of the 'Moors' is particularly well given, and one reads the succession of events with great interest as the Christian sovereigns gradually, by union, gained power for themselves while the nobles lost it, until there was almost absolute autocracy during the great reigns of Charles V. (here called Charles I.) and Philip II. which preceded such a long period of decline. This study deals with the progress (one way or the other) of government, law, literature and foreign politics. While adequate in its narrative it is by no means a dynastic history, and anyone who wishes stories of the sad and sombre Court life of Spain must go elsewhere. The writer is more concerned with the popular development than with the pedigrees of kings. It is perhaps this that causes a curious slip on page 74 when he calls the first ruler of the House of Burgundy in Portugal 'a French Count, Henry of Lorraine.'
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/spain/spain.htm
Russia from the Varangians to the Bolsheviks
By Raymond Beazley, Nevill Forbes and G. A. Birkett. (1918) With an Introduction by Ernest Barker.
THE four authors of this book have done their difficult work well. It is a long period from 852 to 1917 to pass in review and show, as they have done, the latent causes which have led to the sudden collapse of what was in all appearance a giant and a united empire. Yet the causes were not really far to seek. Russia, through the suppression of all popular government to suit a Byzantine system of kingship made more autocratic through its borrowings from the Khans during the Tartar conquest, was a colossus with one head and many bureaucratic hands but no real popular support. From the time of Peter the Great it became, owing to the impetuous will of that Tzar, a Western power with a great army, and until 1917 this army supported the Chinovniksy who in turn (for their own advancement and through no spirit of real patriotism) supported the sovereignty of the different Tzars without much sense of personal loyalty. Indeed when one considers the heterogeneous races of Russia and the heritage of the long period of serfdom, the idealistic nature of some of the Romanovs, the retrograde character of other emperors and empresses, and the passivity of the Orthodox Church, 'We are beginning to realize,' as the Introduction shows, that the dissolution of the great State ... is less astonishing than its long continuance in the past.' That it lasted so long is no doubt due to the continual repression of all popular thought through the jealous fears of the bureaucracy, but with this came the jealousy of all progress. This was not so easily seen in peace time, but every war tried the system, and during the great war of 1914 to 1917 was a war which dwarfs all previous wars to child's play the Russian State, though it endured the strain for a time, 'cracked and collapsed.' The early history is well given here. The 'Time of the Troubles,' a period having some analogy to the present Anarchy, is also instructively dealt with. So is the tortuous policy of the partitions of Poland, which like serfage also left a long legacy of evil to Russia. The modern political movements (the Developments so called) are instructive as leading up to the Revolution of 1905, and the summary of events since must be read and studied. The whole book is a real addition to political history.
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ia/russia2.htm
Japan: The Rise of a Modern Power
By Robert P. Porter (1918)
THE story of the way in which the Japanese people suddenly grafted Western civilisation on to their own purely Oriental culture must always be a fascinating one, and we are glad to read the excellent account in this book, where the historical sequence is followed with care and an admirable sense of proportion. It tells how the primeval Imperial dynasty fell into the hands of the Clans and the Shoguns, of the veneer of Chinese culture which spread over the Court, and of the early martial successes. We note that the Mongol invasion failed, and that Japan has been one of the few unconquered countries. Then came the Portuguese and Spanish intercourse and missions, successful Christian propaganda, until it looked as if Christianity might become the accepted Japanese religion. The zeal of the converts went too far, however, and provoked reaction first and then fierce prosecution. The result was that, except for meagre trade with the Protestant Dutch, Japan remained a 'closed country' from 1636 to 1853. The author does not think the thought of the country remained stagnant however, but that in spite of the antiquated setting it continued vigorous enough, and when American influences opened the country the native education was quite sufficient to allow the Japanese to absorb the use of every western item of material superiority, while by no means inducing them to give up their native culture and modes of thought. This was shown in the constitutional changes, when the Shoguns fell, the semi-divine Emperor came into his own again and gave the country a constitution. We are led clearly through the period of utilitarian progress, increase of armaments, and military success, first over the reactionary Chinese, then, when German intrigue had forced on the war, over Russia, whose feet of clay showed already. In the war the Japanese have assisted the Allies greatly and far more than is realised, on account of their continual naval co-operation.
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/japan/japan.htm
History of Serbia
By Harold W. V. Temperley (1917)
THIS book is not only a history of Serbia and Montenegro, but is also a study of the historical development of the whole of the Jugo-Slav peoples. It is very instructive, and is written in a singularly restrained style when one considers the battles, invasions, revolts, and oppressions it deals with, for, in the author's phrase, the story of the Jugo-Slavs is 'bloody beyond ordinary bloodiness.'
The Jugo-Slavs early became split up into two great sections, of which the Croats and Dalmatians adopted the Church of Rome, the Latin alphabet, and in part, Western culture as far as they were permitted by their German oppressors ; whereas the Serbians and Montenegrins acknowledged the Greek rite, and so, unfortunately for themselves, were ecclesiastically subordinate to the Byzantine Empire, and on its fall were absolutely cut off from the West by the Turkish Conquest. But the old kingdom of Serbia, in spite of its constant wars with Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Byzantines, had a great history, as we see here, and the spirit of nationality has always been strong, and, we have reason to think, will continue among the suffering people.'Disaster,' says the writer, 'has sometimes created and has always intensified national feeling in Serbia.' The period of the Serbian zenith was from about 1190 to 1400. Stephen Dushan (1321-55), their greatest ruler, aimed at the Imperial throne of the East when cut off by death, and his death was followed by a gradual decline of Serbian power to a state of weakness, which allowed the Turkish invaders to conquer in 1389 at the battle of Kossovo, 'The Field of Blackbirds,' still sung in many sad ballads as the end of a great period of freedom.
The rest of the history deals with Turkish misrule and oppression, which was inaugurated at once by the * tribute of children,' and the gradual acquisition of independence by Serbia and the fiery battles for freedom in Montenegro under the chiefs and vladikas. It recounts the painful feud in Serbia between the two chief families, the Karageorgevitch and the Obrenovitch, which did not end until the extinction of the latter worthless dynasty in 1903 by the brutal murder of King Alexander and Queen Draga, a murder which made way for the present king, of the rival family, and which was not greatly disapproved of by the tumultuous subjects of the Serbian Crown. It is sad to think that the hard-won Serbian and Montenegrin independence is again under a hateful eclipse, but if history teaches anything it shows a phoenix-like power of resurrection among the Slav peoples.
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...bia/serbia.htm
Italy, mediaeval and modern: a history
By Evelyn M Jamison (1917)
IT is justly remarked in the Preface to this volume that while Italian history is well represented in the form of monographs on particular periods and personages throughout its course, there are few works, at least in our language, which give a complete conspectus of what is certainly one of the most deeply interesting and important of all the histories of the world. Perhaps it is the very magnitude of the task which has prevented its accomplishment. Putting aside the history of classic Rome, Italy, in one way or another, has been the main field of human action in Europe from the earliest time down to our own : at first a dominant and world-embracing Empire, the seat of a tremendous spiritual power, and through every century nourishing and spreading abroad the fairest flowers and fruits of human culture. The Age of Dante, the times of the Medici, the Papacy, the Republics, the Reunited Kingdom, what splendid subjects are each of these for separate and detailed treatment, and how hard is the task to weave them into one continuous tale without finding our tapestry become too crowded, and without having, perforce, to leave aside details of the highest interest.
The authors of this volume have succeeded to a very marked degree in supplying the kind of book which is so much to be desired. If it suffers from anything, it is from compression, especially in its earlier chapters. But the knowledge is so abundant, the materials so thoroughly at command, and the style, as a whole, so engaging, that the impression left is that of fine work well and conscientiously done. It is not a mere narrative ; it takes more the shape of a running commentary on Italian history from the time of the great struggles between Pope and Emperor in the thirteenth century, and before it, down to the present day, with a more detailed exposition of Italian politics in the nineteenth century, the great age of Cavour, and Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel. The great names of the early Renascence receive due honour, and not only these, but the very remarkable group of men who surrounded Frederick II. at Palermo, and formed what might be designated an earlier Renascence. The plan of giving separate sketches of the different communities and states, and resuming the story at intervals, tends to keep one's mind free from confusion in the great mass of detail : for it is undoubtedly difficult to do so, especially in these periods and they do occur in Italian history, when the daily life of the people and their rulers was alike dull and unenlightened. But from its mere mass of great names, alone, Italian history can never be other than interesting in the highest degree. And nowhere has it been more ably or more engagingly set forth than in this book in which its authors have combined a fine historical judgment with abundant scholarship.
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/italy/italy.htm
Portugal Old and Young
An historical study by George Young (1917)
THE writer of this delightful book is a true lover of Portugal, and wishes to make the reader love that beautiful country as he does himself, and by the charm of his style and his enthusiasm he has his reader to a great extent in his thrall. He traces the history of Portugal from the Roman times to the present, when, as oldest ally of England, it is now fighting side by side with Britain in France. And he shows why this is so. He tells how the alliance between England and Portugal, then a struggling kingdom only recently carved out of Galicia and the Moorish territories, began in 1147, and has lasted ever since. English troops assisted the Portuguese in their crusades with the Moors, at Aljubarotta in 1383 against the Spaniards, and have since helped them at every difficult period, save when the religious differences interfered. The first King of the House of Aviz, married Philippa of Lancaster, and the royal line for a time was greatly under English influence. The writer describes the great discoveries and conquests of Portugal under Prince Henry the Navigator and King Manoel, and shows how the reign of the latter with his policy of Spanish marriages, rich and prosperous as it seemed to be, was really leading up to the moral bankruptcy of Portugal, when, after the loss in Africa of the visionary King Sebastian, it fell, through the death of an effete Cardinal, to swell the Spanish Empire of Philip II., and so, for a period, lost its independence. One wishes that Camoens had had more followers stirred by his song of the glories of the past to oppose the Spanish yoke, and one wonders what might not have been had Queen Elizabeth only supported Dom Antonio with more vigour.
The author is a little less convincing when he describes the Portuguese 'revolt' or War of Freedom in 1640, for he does not explain the reason satisfactorily while writing of the Portuguese captivity.' The reason we take it is very much the same as that which prevented Scotland being merged in England. The Portuguese must have, through Galicia or Lusitania, absorbed some forgotten race absolutely hostile in mind to Spanish morgue^ and it was the spirit of this people which time and again separated the two countries, which, geographically, were almost one. It is strange how the marriage of Charles II. to the Portuguese Infanta still unites their two peoples further, though through it Portugal lost Bombay and much of its Indian territory, and its chief town in Morocco. Into the latter history, the Methuen Treaty which almost gave the pleasant city of Oporto to the British, the Napoleonic changes which forced the Court to flee to Brazil, and the Peninsular War, we need not enter except to praise the way they are dealt with ; we also pass the Civil wars which led to the fall of the odious Miguel and the rise of the not romantic Maria da Gloria. The Saxe-Coburg Kings are well described, and, except for the excellent phrase, 'the Court and through it the country were controlled by barons of finance, many of them German Jews, whose pillaging and plunderings were all too recent to be respectable,' the writer is temperate about their virtues and vices. He is also calm about their removal from the Throne and the discomforts of their adherents. He is illuminating on the Republic, its beginnings, policy, and doings, and we are grateful for his political instruction.
We think he is a little too insistent on the prevalence of the Jewish strain in Portugal, and not enough so about the very mixed, Oriental and African, blood in the nation, which in its native alliances has followed the deliberate policy of Albouquerque. We think also he is not a very careful genealogist. One or two of his statements need scrutiny, and Isabella the Catholic especially would be much surprised to see herself (twice) called 'sister' of La Beltraneja!
You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...l/portugal.htm
And so I hope these will be a useful reference tool for you to use.
Alastair