History of the Early Part of the Reign of James the Second

A History of the Early Part of the
Reign of
by Charles James Fox,
Edited by Henry Morley

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Title: A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James the Second
Author: Charles James Fox
Editor: Henry Morley
Release Date: October 4, 2007 [eBook #4245]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY
OF THE EARLY PART OF THE REIGN OF JAMES THE
SECOND***

Transcribed from the 1888 Cassell & Company edition by David Price,
email [email protected]
CASSELL'S NATIONAL LIBRARY.

A HISTORY OF THE EARLY PART OF THE REIGN OF JAMES
THE SECOND
BY CHARLES JAMES FOX.
CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK
& MELBOURNE. 1888.

INTRODUCTION.
Fox's "History of the Reign of James II.," which begins with his view
of the reign of Charles II. and breaks off at the execution of Monmouth,
was the beginning of a History of England from the Revolution, upon
which he worked in the last years of his life, for which he collected
materials in Paris after the Peace of Amiens, in 1802--he died in
September, 1806--and which was first published in 1808.
The grandfather of Charles James Fox was Stephen, son of William
Fox, of Farley, in Wiltshire. Stephen Fox was a young royalist under
Charles I. He was twenty-two at the time of the king's execution, went
into exile during the Commonwealth, came back at the Restoration,
was appointed paymaster of the first two regiments of guards that were
raised, and afterwards Paymaster of all the Forces. In that office he
made much money, but rebuilt the church at Farley, and earned lasting
honour as the actual founder of Chelsea Hospital, which was opened in
1682 for wounded and superannuated soldiers. The ground and
buildings had been appointed by James I., in 1609, as Chelsea College,
for the training of disputants against the Roman Catholics. Sir Stephen
Fox himself contributed thirteen thousand pounds to the carrying out of
this design. Fox's History dealt, therefore, with times in which his

grandfather had played a part.
In 1703, when his age was seventy-six, Stephen Fox took a second wife,
by whom he had two sons, who became founders of two families;
Stephen, the elder, became first Earl of Ilchester; Henry, the younger,
who married Georgina, daughter of the Duke of Richmond, and was
himself created, in 1763, Baron Holland of Farley. Of the children of
that marriage Charles James Fox was the third son, born on the 24th of
January, 1749. The second son had died in infancy.
Henry Fox inherited Tory opinions. He was regarded by George II. as a
good man of business, and was made Secretary of War in 1754, when
Charles James, whose cleverness made him a favoured child, was five
years old. In the next year Henry Fox was Secretary of State for the
Southern Department. The outbreak of the Seven Years' War bred
discontent and change of Ministry. The elder Fox had then to give
place to the elder Pitt. But Henry Fox was compensated by the office of
Paymaster of the Forces, from which he knew even better than his
father had known how to extract profit. He rapidly acquired the wealth
which he joined to his title as Lord Holland of Farley, and for which he
was attacked vigorously, until two hundred thousand pounds--some
part of the money that stayed by him--had been refunded.
Henry Fox, Lord Holland, found his boy, Charles James, brilliant and
lively, made him a companion, and indulged him to the utmost. Once
he expressed a strong desire to break a watch that his father was
winding up: his father gave it him to dash upon the floor. Once his
father had promised that when an old garden wall at Holland House
was blown down with gunpowder before replacing it with iron railings,
he should see the explosion. The workmen blew it down in the boy's
absence: his father had the wall rebuilt in its old form that it might be
blown down again in his presence, and his promise kept. He was sent
first to Westminster School, and then to Eton. At home he was his
father's companion, joined in the talk of men at his father's
dinner-parties, travelled at fourteen with his father to the Continent, and
is said to have been allowed five guineas a night for gambling-money.