So far as his own interests were concerned, he had much better have declined the task.

His History of England had given him a name throughout Europe, and whatever he wrote was sure to be well received.

His English in Ireland was approaching completion, and he had in his mind a scheme for throwing fresh light on the age of Charles V.Principal Robertson's standard book was in many respects obsolete.

The subject was singularly attractive, and would have furnished an excellent opportunity for bringing out the best side of the Roman Catholic Church, which in Charles's son, Philip, so familiar in Froude's History of England, was seen at its worst or weakest.

Charles was to him an embodiment of the Conservative principle, which he regarded as the strongest part of Catholicism, and as needed to counteract the social upheaval of the Reformation.