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Henry HallamFRS FRSE FSA FRAS (9 July 1777 – 21 January 1859) was an English historian. Educated atEton andChrist Church, Oxford, he practised as a barrister on theOxford circuit for some years before turning to history. His major works wereView of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages (1818),The Constitutional History of England (1827), andIntroduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1837). Although he took no part in politics himself, he was well acquainted with the band of authors and politicians who led theWhig party. In an 1828 review ofConstitutional History,Robert Southey claimed that the work was biased in favour of the Whigs.
Hallam was a fellow of theRoyal Society, and a trustee of theBritish Museum. In 1830 he received the gold medal for history founded byGeorge IV.
The only son of RevJohn Hallam, canon ofWindsor and dean ofBristol, Henry Hallam was born on 9 July 1777 and educated atEton andChrist Church, Oxford, graduating in 1799. Called to the Bar, he practised for some years on theOxford circuit; but his tastes were literary, and when, on his father's death in 1812, he inherited a small estate inLincolnshire, he gave himself up to study. He had become connected with the brilliant band of authors and politicians who led theWhig party, a connection to which he owed his appointment to the well-paid and easy post of commissioner of stamps; but took no part in politics himself. He was, however, an active supporter of many popular movements—particularly of that which ended in the abolition of theslave trade; and he was attached to the political principles of the Whigs.[1]
Hallam's earliest literary work was undertaken in connection with the Whig periodical, theEdinburgh Review, where his review ofWalter Scott'sDryden attracted attention. His first major work,View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages (two volumes),[2] was published in 1818, and was followed nine years later byThe Constitutional History of England (1827, two volumes).[3]Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (four volumes) appeared in 1837.[4] A volume of supplemental notes to hisMiddle Ages was published in 1843, and in 1852Literary Essays and Characters: Selected from "An Introduction to the Literature of Europe"[5] was published. These works represent nearly all of Hallam's career.[1]
Hallam was a fellow of theRoyal Society, and a trustee of theBritish Museum. In 1830 he received the gold medal for history founded byGeorge IV.[1]
Hallam described his workMiddle Ages as a series of historical dissertations for the period from the 5th to the 15th century. The work consists of nine long chapters: the histories ofFrance,Italy,Spain,Germany, and of the Greek andSaracenic empires, fill five chapters. Others deal with major institutional features ofmedieval society: thefeudal system, the ecclesiastical system, and the political system of England. The last chapter sketches society, commerce, manners, and literature in the Middle Ages.[1]
TheConstitutional History of England (1827) took up the subject at the point at which it had been dropped inMiddle Ages, namely the accession ofHenry VII,[6] and carried it down to the accession ofGeorge III. Hallam stopped here because he was unwilling to touch on issues of contemporary politics which seemed to him to run back through the whole period of the reign of George III, but this did not prevent him from being accused of bias. TheQuarterly Review for 1828 contains a hostile article on theConstitutional History,[7] written byRobert Southey, full of reproach: the work, he said, is the "production of a decided partisan". It was his distant treatment ofCharles I,Thomas Cranmer andWilliam Laud that provoked the indignation of Southey.[8]
Hallam, likeThomas Babington Macaulay, ultimately referred political questions to the standard ofWhig constitutionalism. But he was conscientious with his materials, and it was this which made theConstitutional History one of the standard textbooks of English politics.[9]
The 4-volumeIntroduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries (1837–1839)[10][11][12] continues a topic broached in theView of the Middle Ages. In the first chapter Hallam sketches the state of literature in Europe down to the end of the 14th century: the extinction of ancient learning which followed the fall of theRoman Empire and the rise ofChristianity; the preservation of theLatin language in the services of the church; and the revival of letters after the 7th century. For the first century and a half of his period he is mainly occupied with a review of classical learning, taking short decennial periods and noticing works which they produced. For the period 1520–1550 there are separate chapters on ancient literature,theology, science, speculative philosophy andjurisprudence, the literature of taste and other miscellaneous literature; and the subdivisions of subjects is carried further in later periods. Thus poetry, the drama and polite literature form the subjects of separate chapters. An author may be mentioned in many chapters:William Shakespeare,Hugo Grotius,Francis Bacon andThomas Hobbes appear in half a dozen different places.[9]
The plan excluded biographical history. It is an account of the books which would make a complete library of the period, arranged according to date of publication and subject.[9]
Hallam died inLondon on 21 January 1859, aged 81. He has a memorial in the crypt ofSt Paul's Cathedral in London,[13] and there is ablue plaque at 67Wimpole Street in London installed by theLondon County Council commemorating the fact that he once lived there.
In 1807 Hallam married Julia Maria Elton (daughter of SirCharles Elton). She died in 1847.[14]
Hallam lost his children, one after another. His eldest son, the poetArthur Henry Hallam—the "A.H.H." ofTennyson'sIn Memoriam A.H.H.—died in 1833 at the age of 22. In 1834 Hallam edited and publishedRemains, in Verse and Prose, of Arthur Henry Hallam.[15] In 1850 his second son, Henry Fitzmaurice Hallam, also died.[1][16]
In 1852 his daughter Julia marriedJohn Farnaby Cator, who was later created a Baronet in the name of Lennard. They had one son, Henry Arthur Hallam Farnaby Lennard, the 2nd Baronet, born in 1859) and two daughters. Julia died in 1888.[17]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Robertson, Edmund (1911). "Hallam, Henry". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 851–852.
