Motley, John Lothrop

(1814-1877)

   Historian, b. at Dorchester, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, was ed. at Harvard, where O.W. Holmes (q.v.), afterwards his biographer, was a fellow-student. After graduating he went to Europe, studied at Göttingen and Berlin, and visited Italy. On his return he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1837. He did not, however, practise, and was in 1840 sent to St. Petersburg as Sec. of Legation. Meanwhile, having pub. two novels, Morton's Hope and Merry Mount, which had little success, he turned to history, and attracted attention by some essays in various reviews. Having decided to write an historical work on Holland, he proceeded in 1851 to Europe to collect materials, and in 1856 pub. The Rise of the Dutch Republic. It was received with the highest approval by such critics as Froude and Prescott, and at once took its place as a standard work. It was followed in 1860 by the first two vols. of The United Netherlands. The following year M. was appointed Minister at Vienna, and in 1869 at London. His latest works were a Life of Barneveldt, the Dutch statesman, and A View of ... the Thirty Years' War. M. holds a high place among historical writers both on account of his research and accuracy, and his vivid and dramatic style, which shows the influence of Carlyle.