None of Austen's youthful works were published in her lifetime. 'Volume the Second' passed to Cassandra at Austen's death in 1817, and on Cassandra's death in 1845 to Francis Austen, with whose descendants it remained until it was sold to the British Library in 1977. Cassandra's 13 illustrations were done after the copying was completed. These three volumes comprehensively are considered Austen's juvenilia, and by some critics her 'minor works.' The History of England is in 'Volume the Second' (as are Love and Freindship and four other works) occupying 34 manuscript pages. Some years after writing The History of England, Austen compiled this work and 28 other of her early compositions by copying them into three notebooks which she called 'Volume the First', 'Volume the Second' and 'Volume the Third'. Mary, Queen of Scots by Cassandra Austen Publication history Elizabeth I is treated as a tyrant, rather than a good leader, thus showing Austen's affinity for Mary and the Stuart monarchs. Mary, Queen of Scots, in particular plays an important role in Austen's History, which also acts as a vindication of the executed cousin of Elizabeth I.

While the work offers her family humorous vignettes on English rulers from Henry II to Charles I, many entries focus on royal women, such as Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary, Queen of Scots, who are denied entries but are significant figures in English history. Along with accounts of English kings and queens which contain little factual information but a great deal of comically exaggerated opining about their characters and behaviour, the work includes material such as charades and puns on names. Her History cites as sources works of fiction such as the plays of Shakespeare and Sheridan, a novel by Charlotte Turner Smith and the opinions of Austen's family and friends. George Austen, this work is inscribed with

To Miſs Austen, eldest daughter of the Rev d

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