p. 3, l. 3.  Charles XII the famous soldier king of Sweden died in 1718.

p. 3, l. 31.  Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, was one of the staunchest supporters of Charles I, and Chancellor under Charles II.  His History of the Rebellion is naturally written from the Royalist standpoint.  This statement concerning “the editors” can only be intended by Defoe to give colour of truth to his story of the manuscript.

p. 10, l. 17.  England had been nominally at war with Spain since the beginning of the reign of Charles I. Peace was actually made in 1630.

p. 12, l. 3.  A pistole was a gold coin used chiefly in France and Spain.  Its value varied but it was generally worth about fifteen or sixteen shillings.

p. 14, l. 5.  Cardinal Richelieu, one of the greatest statesmen of the seventeenth century, was practically supreme in France during the reign of Louis XIII.

p. 14, l. 16.  The cause of the war with Savoy is told at length on page 23.  Savoy being the frontier province between France and Italy it was important that France should maintain her influence there.

p. 14, l. 18.  Pinerolo was a frontier fortress.

p. 14, l. 36.  The queen-mother was Mary de Medicis who had been regent during the minority of Louis XIII.

p. 15, l. 3.  The Protestants or Huguenots of Southern France had been tolerated since 1598 but Richelieu deprived them of many of their privileges.

p. 15, l. 21.  In 1625 when England was in alliance with France English ships had been joined with the French fleet to reduce la Rochelle, the great stronghold of Protestantism in Southern France.

p. 16, l. 7.  The Louvre, now famous as a picture gallery and museum, was formerly one of the palaces of the French Kings.

p. 17, l. 16.  The Bastille was the famous prison destroyed in 1789 at the outbreak of the French Revolution.

p. 18, l. 13.  In the seventeenth century Italy was still divided into several states each with its own prince.

p. 18, l. 22.  Susa was another Savoyard fortress.

p. 19, l. 17.  A halberd was a weapon consisting of a long wooden shaft surmounted by an axe-like head.

p. 21, l. 30.  The Cantons were the political divisions of Switzerland.

p. 23, l. 7.  Casale, a strong town on the Po.

p. 25, l. 14.  A dragoon was a cavalry soldier armed with an infantry firearm and trained to fight on foot as well as on horseback.

p. 27, l. 25.  Saluzzo a town S.E. of Pinerolo.

p. 29, l. 12.  This truce prepared for the definite “Peace of Cherasco,” April 1631, which confirmed the Duchy of Mantua to the Duke of Nevers but left only Pinerolo in the hands of the French.

p. 31, l. 12.  This refers to the Treaty of Baerwalde, 1631, by which Gustavus Adolphus promised to consider the interests of the French (who were the natural enemies of the Empire).