author
William Coxe
1747–1828
An English clergyman, traveler, and historian, he turned years of continental travel into lively books that brought Europe’s politics, landscapes, and courts to a wide readership. He is especially remembered for combining first-hand observation with access to important historical papers.
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About the author
Born in London in 1747, William Coxe was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge. After taking orders, he spent many years as a tutor and travelling companion to young noblemen, a role that allowed him to journey widely across Europe and gather the material for his travel writing.
Those travels fed directly into the books that made his name. Coxe wrote detailed accounts of Switzerland, Russia, Poland, and Scandinavia, and later produced substantial historical works including studies of the House of Austria, the Duke of Marlborough, and Sir Robert Walpole. Readers valued his combination of careful research, political interest, and the eye of someone who had actually seen many of the places and courts he described.
He also served as a clergyman, eventually becoming archdeacon of Bemerton near Salisbury, where he remained until his death in 1828. Today he is remembered as one of the notable English travel writers and historians of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.