Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/55

 She witnessed the queen's coronation in 1838, and was presented at court in 1840. In that year she wrote at Colburn's request ‘Queen Victoria from Birth to Bridal’ (2 vols.). The book, which was founded on scanty and untrustworthy material supplied to the author by Colburn, did not find favour with the queen.

Miss Strickland based her ‘Lives of the Queens’ wherever possible on unpublished official records, on contemporary letters and other private documents. When preparing the biographies of the consorts of Henry VIII she found it necessary to consult state papers, and applied to Lord John Russell for the required permission, which he refused. However, through the influence of Lord Normanby, the difficulty was overcome, and both sisters were permitted to work at the state paper office whenever they liked. The Stricklands also visited many of the historic houses of England in order to examine documents. In 1844 Miss Strickland visited Paris, and Guizot, who much admired her work, enabled her to make researches in the French archives. The last of the twelve volumes of the first edition of the ‘Lives of the Queens’ appeared in 1848.

But this great undertaking did not absorb Miss Strickland's energies. During 1842–3 she edited and published the ‘Letters of Mary Queen of Scots’ in three volumes. The third volume was dedicated to Jane Porter [q. v.] as a tribute of friendship, and in the dedication Miss Strickland acknowledges the assistance rendered by Sir Robert Ker Porter [q. v.] in obtaining transcripts from the royal autograph collection in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg. A new edition in two volumes appeared in 1844, and a complete edition in five volumes in 1864. From 1850 to 1859 Miss Strickland was engaged in the writing and publication of the ‘Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses connected with the Royal Succession of Great Britain,’ which had a good sale. In 1861 she published ‘Lives of the Bachelor Kings of England,’ i.e. William Rufus, Edward V, Edward VI. Elizabeth contributed the memoir of Edward V.

After her mother's death, on 3 Sept. 1864, Reydon Hall, which had always been her chief home, was sold, and Agnes removed to Park Lane Cottage, Southwold. She had just finished revising the proofs of a new edition of the ‘Queens,’ which appeared in six volumes in 1864–5. In the latter year she published a novel in three volumes, ‘How will it end?’ for which Bentley paid her 250l. It reached a second edition in the same year. In 1869 she visited Holland in order to collect materials for her ‘Lives of the last Four Princesses of the Royal House of Stuart’ (published 1872), her last work. At The Hague she had an interview with the queen of the Netherlands.

On 3 Aug. 1870 she was granted a pension of 100l. from the civil list (cf., Literature and the Pension List, p. 54). In 1872 her health gave way; she broke an ankle through a fall, partial paralysis supervened, and she died at Southwold on 13 July 1874. She was buried in the churchyard of Southwold.

Miss Strickland's fame as author and historian rests on the ‘Lives of the Queens of England,’ which was the joint work of herself and her sister Elizabeth. The lives contributed by Elizabeth, whose style is more masculine than that of Agnes, were those of Adelicia of Louvain, Eleanora of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, Isabella of Valois, Katherine of Valois, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne of Warwick, Elizabeth of York, Katharine of Arragon, Jane Seymour, Mary Tudor, Anne of Denmark, Henrietta Maria, Mary II, and Anne. To the ‘Queens of Scotland and English Princesses connected with the Royal Succession of Great Britain’ Elizabeth contributed Elizabeth Stuart, queen of Bohemia, and Sophia, electress of Hanover. Elizabeth Strickland also wrote the lives of the Duchess of Suffolk, Lady Jane Grey, Lady Katharine Grey, and Lady Mary Grey in the ‘Tudor Princesses’ (1868), and those of Lloyd and Trelawney in the ‘Seven Bishops’ (1866), both books, as usual, being given to the public as the sole work of Agnes. Elizabeth conducted the greater part of the business arrangements connected with their joint literary work. She died at Abbot's Lodge, Tilford, Surrey, 30 April 1875.

‘The Lives of the Queens of England’ was very successful and popular. By 1854 it was in a fourth edition, which was embellished by portraits of each queen. In 1863 Miss Strickland bought from Mrs. John Forster (the sole executrix of Mr. Colburn) the copyright of the book for 1,862l. 15s. 6d. The statement (cf. Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iii. 458) that the copyright fetched 6,900l. at Colburn's sale in 1857 appears to be incorrect. Miss Strickland bequeathed the property to her sister, Mrs. Catherine Parr Traill, who sold it to Messrs. Bell & Daldy in 1877 for 735l. (cf., Pearls and Pebbles, 1894). Of the edition in six volumes published in 1864–5 over eleven thousand copies were sold. The work has still a small though steady sale. An abridged edition, intended for use in schools, appeared in 1867.

Miss Strickland was laborious and pains-