Viewing history as a grand drama, Froude emphasized great personalities and disdained the scientific approach in his historical writing. This epic, twelve-volume narrative presents a vivid portrait of a tumultuous era. Volume ten opens with a discussion of Elizabeths Protestantism and the threat of the Catholic reaction. It closes with the horrific invasion of Ireland, and the misery which follows on both sides in the year 1573.

James Anthony Froude (1818-1894) was an English historian, biographer, and novelist.  His histories, modeled on those of his friend Thomas Carlyle, were fiercely polemical, as was his ownThe Nemesis of Faith,which questioned the Anglican church.  His biography of Carlyle,Life of Carlyle (1882-84), proved intensely controversial in focusing on the great man's flaws as well as his virtues.