This was the first attempt of the author in Historical Romance uponEnglish ground. Nor would he have risked the disadvantage of comparisonwith the genius of Sir Walter Scott, had he not believed that that greatwriter and his numerous imitators had left altogether unoccupied thepeculiar field in Historical Romance which the Author has here sought tobring into cultivation. In "The Last of the Barons," as in "Harold,"the aim has been to illustrate the actual history of the period, andto bring into fuller display than general History itself has done thecharacters of the principal personages of the time, the motives by whichthey were probably actuated, the state of parties, the condition ofthe people, and the great social interests which were involved in what,regarded imperfectly, appear but the feuds of rival factions.
"The Last of the Barons" has been by many esteemed the best of theAuthor's romances; and perhaps in the portraiture of actual character,and the grouping of the various interests and agencies of the time, itmay have produced effects which render it more vigorous and lifelikethan any of the other attempts in romance by the same hand.
It will be observed that the purely imaginary characters introduced arevery few; and, however prominent they may appear, still, in order notto interfere with the genuine passions and events of history, they arerepresented as the passive sufferers, not the active agents, of thereal events. Of these imaginary characters, the most successful isAdam Warner, the philosopher in advance of his age; indeed, as an idealportrait, I look upon it as the most original in conception, and themost finished in execution, of any to be found in my numerous proseworks, "Zanoni" alone excepted.
For the rest, I venture to think that the general reader will obtainfrom these pages a better notion of the important age, characterized bythe decline of the feudal system, and immediately preceding that greatchange in society which we usually date from the accession of HenryVII., than he could otherwise gather, without wading through a vast massof neglected chronicles and antiquarian dissertations.