Foundation Quotes

“The ordinary routines of life are never chronicled by the historian, but they make up almost the whole of experience.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“History is about longing and belonging. It is about the need for permanence and the perception of continuity. It concerns the atavistic desire to find deep sources of identity. We live again in the twelfth or in the fifteenth century, finding echoes and resonances of our own time; we may recognise that some things, such as piety and passion, are never lost; we may also conclude that the great general drama of the human spirit is ever fresh and ever renewed. That is why some of the greatest writers have preferred to see English history as dramatic or epic poetry, which is just as capable of expressing the power and movement of history as any prose narrative; it is a form of singing around a fire.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“The house of the Plantagenets, from Henry II to Richard III himself, was brimming with blood. In their lust for power the members of the family turned upon one another. King John murdered, or caused to be murdered, his nephew Arthur; Richard II despatched his uncle, Thomas of Gloucester; Richard II was in turn killed on the orders of his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke; Henry VI was killed in the Tower on the orders of his cousin, Edward IV; Edward IV murdered his brother, Clarence, just as his own two sons were murdered by their uncle. It is hard to imagine a family more steeped in slaughter and revenge, of which the Wars of the Roses were only one effusion. It might be thought that some curse had been laid upon the house of the Plantagenets, except of course that in the world of kings the palm of victory always goes to the most violent and the most ruthless. It could be said that the royal family was the begetter of organized crime.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“A survivor, in another sense, was left alive. The king’s nephew, Stephen, count of Blois, was suffering from a severe bout of diarrhoea and declined to join the revelry aboard the White Ship. Since he would be crowned as king of England fifteen years later, it can plausibly be maintained that an attack of diarrhoea determined the fate of the nation. Statesmen may plot and plan. Learned men may calculate and conclude. Diplomats may debate and prevaricate. But chance rules the immediate affairs of humankind.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“By the time of Athelstan the country was divided into shires, hundreds and vills or townships, precisely in order to expedite taxation. The shires of England were unique, their boundaries lasting for more than a thousand years until the administrative reorganization of 1974. The earliest of them date from the late seventh and early eighth centuries, but many of their borders lie further back in the shape of the Iron Age tribal kingdoms. So the essential continuity of England was assured. Hampshire is older than France. Other shires, like those in the midlands, were constructed later; but they are still very ancient.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“Sir it did not belong to me to examine the matter, since I knew full well that I should not be a judge of the matter for it belongs only to a judge to study illam Sacre Scripture clausam where Holy Job says “Causam quam nesciebam diligentissime investigabam”.’ So men were inclined, and able, to break into Latin when addressing one another. Latin was also used for the ruder moments. Of two men in close alliance it was written that singuli caccant uno ano or ‘they shit out of the same arse’.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“Who can give more heat to the fire, or joy to heaven, or pain to hell? A ring upon a nun is like a ring in a sow’s nose. Your best friend is still alive. Who is that? You. The sun is none the worse for shining on a dunghill. He must needs swim that is borne up to the chin. An hour’s cold will suck out seven years of heat.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“Less violent diversions can also be cited. An inspection of the pupils of Magdalen College, Oxford, in the very early years of the sixteenth century, revealed that ‘Stokes was unchaste with the wife of a tailor … Stokysley baptised a cat and practised witchcraft … Gregory climbed the great gate by the tower and brought a Stranger into College … Pots and cups are very seldom washed but are kept in such a dirty state that one shudders to drink out of them … Kyftyll played cards with the butler at Christmas time for money.’ Other students were accused of keeping as pets a ferret, a sparrowhawk and a weasel.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“The names of the English have changed. Before the invasion of William I the common names were those such as Leofwine, Aelfwine, Siward and Morcar. After the Norman arrival these were slowly replaced by Robert, Walter, Henry and of course William.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“lord, decked with jewels, sitting at the head of a table. It is a poetry of assonance”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“calculations. England was worth a fight. Its”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“history, as it is generally described and understood, is the sum total of accident and unintended consequence.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“When we look over the course of human affairs we are more likely than not to find only error and confusion.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“One of the first Roman leaders of the north, Coelius or Coel Hen, became in English folk rhyme ‘Old King Cole’.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation

“Although their populations ranged only from 20 to 200 people, we may see in them the beginnings of urban life in England. The author believes that London was once just such a hill fort, but the evidence for it is now buried beneath the megalopolis it has become.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“Many of the roads loosely known as ‘Roman roads’ are much more ancient; the Romans simply made use of the prehistoric paths. Modern roads have been built along the routes of these ancient lines, so that we still move in the footsteps of our ancestors.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“our goods and money are consumed by taxation; our land is stripped of its harvest to fill their granaries; our hands and limbs are crippled by building roads through forests and swamps under the lash of our oppressors’.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England Volume 1: The History of England Volume I

“parlous state”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“purlieus of London,”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“shibboleth”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“He was a man who combined familial greatness with personal mediocrity.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“after the Black Death, had materially changed the role of law. It was no longer an instrument of communal justice; it had instead become the machinery of exaction designed to control and discipline the lower classes.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“One third, or even perhaps one half, of the population died. There had never been mortality on this scale, nor has there been since. At the best estimation a population of approximately 6 million was reduced to 3 million or 4 million. It remained at this level until the early sixteenth century.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“The king’s lavish architectural patronage was part of the chivalric programme. He had been born in Windsor Castle, but he proceeded to demolish the existing castle and build an even grander edifice in its place.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“Only in the nineteenth century did the English throne renounce its claim to the French crown.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“the financial reserves of the Crown were severely depleted; the sum of £61,921 left by Edward in 1326 had been reduced by 1330 to £41.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“execration”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“The rector of Manchester invited a local couple, with their daughter, to dinner. The rector’s servants seized the daughter, broke two of her ribs, and then deposited her in the rector’s bed; he had sex with her that night, but the unfortunate girl died from her injuries a month later.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“contumely,”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors

“Henry III ordained a Statute of Jewry that enforced a number of disciplinary measures, including the compulsory badge of identification. This was a token or tabula of yellow felt, 3 inches by 6 inches (7.5 by 15 centimetres), to be worn on an outer garment; it was to be carried by every Jew over the age of seven years.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors