Louisa Stuart Costello, History, and Historical Biography

Abstract

David Hume described the second half of the eighteenth century as “the historical age.” Some of the most lauded historiographic works of all time were produced at this time, not least Hume’s own History of England (1754 — 61). However, “[h]istor y was the principa l non-fiction genre and assumed to be a distinctively male preserve.”² Catherine Macaulay, writing political history in competition with Hume and fully conscious of the anomaly of her position, was both celebrated for her erudition and scholarship and vilified for her personal life. As her early biographer Mary Hays expressed, “[S]he seemed to have stepped out of the province of her sex; curiosity was sharpened, and malevolence provoked” by her intellect and fame.³ After her death in 1791, women historians, particularly “dependent professional” writers, avoided openly publishing political, national, and constitutional history, like the defamed Macaulay, but found innovative and market friendly ways of writing history and presenting their political views.

Of Historical or Biographical works there is no very abundant growth. Miss Costello’s Memoirs of Mary of Burgundy, however, may be classed in either category. It is one of those works partly historical, partly biographical, which combine the solid importance of one with the vivid interest of the other. It is pleasantly and conscientiously written by one full of the subject. Miss Costello knows well the people, the places, and the times of which she writes.¹