They might have been supreme in England for at least a century if it had not been for the daughter of Katharine of Aragon and the Legate of Julius III.
Froude had now completed the first part of his great History.

The second part, the reign of Elizabeth, was reserved for future issue in separately numbered volumes.

The death of Macaulay in December, 1859, left Froude the most famous of living English historians, and the ugly duckling of the brood had become the glory of the family.
The reception of his first six volumes was a curious one.

The general public read, and admired.

The few critics who were competent to form an instructed and impartial opinion perceived that, while there were errors in detail, the story of the English Reformation, and of the Catholic reaction which followed it, had been for the first time thoroughly told.