Freeman_1

Freeman, Edward Augustus (1823-92), an English historian, was born at Harborne, Staffordshire, and was elected scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1841, becoming fellow in 1845. After having several times been an examiner, he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History in the University in 1884 in succession to Dr. Stubbs. In 1868 he had been an unsuccessful Liberal candidate for Mid-Somerset, and was in after-years a firm Home Ruler. He early inherited an estate in Somersetshire, and was able to devote himself without interruption to his favourite studies. His name will be remembered chiefly in connection with his History of the Norman Conquest (1867-76), and his doctrine of the Unity of History first propounded in the Rede lecture at Cambridge in 1872. Among his numerous other works were The History and Conquest of the Saracens, The Reign of William Rufus, and his Old English History; and he was at work upon a History of Sicily when he died of small-pox at Alicante. He was a high authority on the history of architecture, and was for many years a regular contributor to the Saturday Review, but resigned in consequence of the line taken by that paper on the Eastern Question in 1877. He took a prominent part in the agitation of that time against English support of Turkey against Russia. He was Hon. D.C.L. of Oxford, LL.D. of Cambridge and Edinburgh, and a knight of several foreign orders.