Ebook The Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, Lieutenant-General of the Horse in the Army of the Commonwealth of England, 1625-1672

Ludlow's Memoirs were first published in 1698, six years after their author's death, in two octavo volumes, said on the title-page to be printed at Vevay. A third volume containing the post-restoration part of the Memoirs followed in 1699. Since that date they have been frequently reprinted. A second English edition appeared in 1721-2, unless it is simply the first edition with a new title-page. In 1751 an edition in three duodecimo volumes was published at Edinburgh, and during the same year also an edition in one folio volume edited by Richard Baron. These were followed in 1771 by a fifth in quarto, which Lowndes terms the best edition. A French translation of the first two volumes was published at Amsterdam in 1699, and a second edition in 1707 in three volumes. They were included in 1827 in Guizot's Collection des Memoires relatifs a la revolution d'Angleterre. These numerous reprints are sufficient proof of the historical interest of Ludlow's work. The justification of the present edition lies in the fact that it is the first to restore a number of passages suppressed by Ludlow's editor, and the first containing critical and explanatory notes, and adding the letters of Ludlow.

The Memoirs are at once an autobiography and a history of Ludlow's own time. The aim of this Introduction is partly to complete Ludlow's account of himself, and partly to estimate the value of his contribution to the general history of the period.