A CHRONICLE OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND, FROM THE TIME OF THE ROMANS GOVERNMENT, UNTO THE RAIGNE OF OUR SOVERAIGNE LORD KING CHARLES. Containing all Passages of State and Church, with All Other Observations Proper for a Chronicle. Faithfully Collected out of Authours Ancient and Moderne; & Digested into a new Method ... Whereunto is Added, THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE FIRST AND KING CHARLES THE SECOND. In Which are Many Material Affairs of State, Never Before Published; and Likewise the Most Remarkable Occurrences Relating to King Charles the Second’s Most Wonderful Restoration, by the Prudent Conduct of George Late Duke of Albemarle, Captain General of All His Majesties Armies...
(London: Printed for Daniel Frere, and are to be Sold at his Shop, at the Red Bull in Little Brittaine, 1643).
ONE OF THE GREAT EARLY WORKS ON THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH GOVERNMENT AND ROYALTY. Educated at Oxford, Baker was elected to parliament in 1597. In 1603 he was knighted by King James I. His great Chronicle of the Kings of England was published first in 1643, translated into Dutch in 1649 and was continued down to 1658 by Edward Phillips, a nephew of John Milton and a strong loyalist. For many years the Chronicle was extremely popular and followed on in many editions all the way throughout the 19th century.
Baker was Knighted by James the 1st in 1620 but by 1635 found himself penniless and in debtor’s prison. It was there that he wrote his magnificent CHRONICLE. The great success of the work came too late to help as he died, still in confinement, very shortly after the printing of the first edition. Item #34240
Rare First Edition, First Issue of this important work. With a very elaborate and beautifully engraved title-page by W. Marshall depicting Kings including a Roman, a Saxon, a Dane and a Norman, King Charles, Baker and views of London, York, Lincoln and Verolam, a frontispiece engraving of Charles, the young Prince of Wales who would later be King Charles II by van Dalen, the preliminary leaves including the Dedication, the Catalogue of Authours, the first page of the Chronicle and the first page of each book, with beautifully engraved head-pieces and 4, 6 or 10 line historiated initials, the books with finely engraved tail-pieces at the end of each. Folio, 13.5" x 9", the binding 14" x 9.5", bound in full contemporary vellum, the spine panel with title in manuscript. [14], 181, [1], 163, 108, 163, [1] pp. complete A handsome and very well preserved copy, the text crisp, clean and unpressed, the binding strong, with minimal wear and normal expected age evidence.