James Anthony Froude

Born in Devon in 1818, James Anthony Froude first seemed headed for the Church, studying at Oxford in the world of the Oxford Movement. But his religious doubts reshaped his career. After the publication of The Nemesis of Faith caused a scandal, he moved away from clerical life and toward writing, criticism, and history.

Froude became best known for his monumental History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, published in twelve volumes between 1856 and 1870. He also wrote biographies, essays, travel writing, and edited Fraser's Magazine. His work on Tudor England was especially influential, helping to popularize a vivid, strongly argued style of historical storytelling.

He was admired for the force and readability of his prose, but he was also a disputed figure, with critics challenging both his judgments and his use of evidence. Even so, his books made him one of the best-known historical writers of Victorian Britain. He died in 1894 in Devon.