author

Henry Offley Wakeman

1852–1899

Remembered as a historian of Europe and the English church, he brought an Oxford scholar’s clarity to big political and religious questions. His books remained in circulation long after his early death, a sign of how useful readers found his work.

1 Audiobook

The ascendancy of France, 1598-1715

The ascendancy of France, 1598-1715

by Henry Offley Wakeman

About the author

Born in 1852 and dying in 1899, Henry Offley Wakeman was a British academic, university lecturer, barrister, and church historian associated with the Oxford Movement. Sources linked to Oxford and public-domain library records describe him as Tutor and Bursar of Keble College, later Fellow and Bursar of All Souls College, Oxford.

Wakeman wrote history with a strong interest in religion, politics, and early modern Europe. His known works include The Church and the Puritans, 1570–1660, The Ascendancy of France, 1598–1715, and An Introduction to the History of the Church of England. The survival of these books in Project Gutenberg, HathiTrust listings, and other library catalogs suggests that they continued to be read and reprinted after his lifetime.

Contemporaries seem to have valued him highly. A notice in The Spectator marked his death with evident regret, and later historical notes describe him as an influential lay figure within Oxford church life. He died relatively young, in April 1899, but left behind a body of work that still appeals to readers interested in church history and the political world of early modern Europe.