SOURCE: Benbow, R. Mark. “The Providential Theory of Historical Causation in Holinshed's Chronicles: 1577 and 1587.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 1, No. 2 (Summer 1959): 264-76.

In the essay below, Benbow compares Holinshed's historiography with that of Abraham Fleming, the editor of the 1587 edition of the Chronicles, noting that Holinshed's sense of providential intervention is implicit whereas Fleming explicitly interprets historical events as foreordained acts of God.

The reader who makes a comparison of the two editions of Holinshed's Chronicles is struck by certain obvious differences in length and treatment.¹ Collected and edited by Raphael Holinshed, the first edition of the Chronicles was issued in 1577. After Holinshed's death around 1580, a second edition was issued in 1587. The 1587 edition is essentially longer because of additions to and expansions of the earlier volume. These additions are the contributions of John Hooker, Francis Thynne, John Stow, William Harrison, and Abraham Fleming. Presumably, it is Fleming...