Herbert Butterfield is one of the controversial English historians of the twentieth century. It is partly due to his dual roles of a historian and a religious thinker, to his controversy with the Namier school, and to the contradiction between his former and latter interpretations of English history. Therefore, it is not surprised that he could be categorized as a Tory, a Whig, a Liberal, a New Whig, or a Conservative. As a matter of fact, he could hardly be said to have fit any one expected category. The purpose of this essay is to discuss Butterfield's study and use of English history, especially his criticism and use of the Whig history in his two famous books, The Whig Interpretation of History and The Englishman and His History. By revealing the change of criticisms, and the controversies between Butterfield and his critics, we can know Butterfield's special personality, his various ideas, the influence of his time, his reaction to his time, and, most of all, the change of his role from a technical historian to a Whig historian.