TO THE KING. SIR, I PRESUME to lay before Your Majesty the History of a Period which, if the abilities of the Writer were equal to the dignity of the Subject, would not be unworthy the attention of a Monarch, who is no less a Judge than a Patron of Literary Merit. HISTORY claims it as her prerogative to offer instruction to KINGS, as well as to their people. What reflections the Reign of the Emperor CHARLES V. may suggest to your Majesty, it becomes not me to conjecture.. But your Subjects cannot observe the various calamities, which that Monarch's ambition to be distinguished as a Conqueror, brought upon his dominions, without recollecting the felicity of their own times, and looking up with gratitude to their Sovereign, who, during the fervour of youth, and amidst the career of victory, possess ed such self-command, and maturity of judgment, as to set bounds to his own triumphs, and prefer the blessings of peace to the splendour of military glory. POSTERITY will not only celebrate the wisdom of Your Majesty's choice, but will enumerate the many virtues, which render Your Reign conspicuous for a sacred regard to all the duties incumbent on the Sovereign of a Free People. Ir is our happiness to feel the influence of these Virtues; and to live under the dominion of a Prince, who delights more in promoting the Public Welfare, than in receiving the just Praise of his Royal Beneficence. I am, THE PREFACE. No period in the history of one's own coun try can be considered as altogether uninteresting. Such transactions as tend to illustrate the progress of its constitution, laws, or manners, merit the utmost attention. Even remote and minute events are objects of a curiosity, which, being natural to the human mind, the gratification of it is attended with pleasure. BUT, with respect to the history of foreign States, we must set other bounds to our desire of information. The universal progress of science, during the two last centuries, the art of printing, and other obvious causes, have filled Europe with such a multiplicity of histories, and with such vast collections of historical materials, that the term of human life is too short for the study or even the perusal of them. It is necessary, then, not only for those who are called to |