author
Patrick Fraser Tytler
1791–1849
A Scottish historian and advocate, he is best remembered for helping bring Scotland’s medieval past to a wide nineteenth-century readership. His multi-volume History of Scotland became one of his era’s best-known works on the subject.
1 Audiobook
Travels in France during the years 1814-15 Comprising a residence at Paris, during the stay of the allied armies, and at Aix, at the period of the landing of Bonaparte, in two volumes.
by Sir Archibald Alison, Patrick Fraser Tytler
About the author
Born in Edinburgh on August 30, 1791, he came from a notably literary family: his father was Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, trained in law, and was called to the Scottish bar in 1813, practicing as an advocate before turning more fully toward historical writing.
He wrote biographies as well as history, but his major achievement was the multi-volume History of Scotland, published across the 1820s and 1840s. He also helped found the Bannatyne Club, a society devoted to printing and preserving historical texts, which reflects how closely his work was tied to the recovery of Scotland’s documentary past.
Tytler died on December 24, 1849. Though some of his interpretations belong firmly to his own time, he played an important part in making Scottish history vivid and popular for later readers.