Quarrel with the King:The Story of an English Family on the High Road to Civil War (2008) is set
between 1540 and the 1640s. It is about the Pembroke family from Wiltshire, one
of the most influential families in British history.
The time was Tudor
England, and the first Earl of Pembroke was William Herbert, a Welshman. Before
he became earl, William, a murderer-in-hiding, married Anne Parr, lady-in-waiting
to royalty. Her sister became the sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII – she
was Katherine Parr, Queen of England. In 1540 William moved into Wilton House
in Wiltshire, with a 21-year lease, when he worked for the King. He was
knighted Earl of Pembroke, and his wife became Keeper of the Queen’s Jewels. In
1543, King Henry gifted the Pembroke couple Wilton House for their lifetime
only. ‘William Herbert had wheedled his way into the confidences of the king’ –
through marriage. Wilton House is central to the rise of the family. That’s how history
started.
King Henry VIII died in 1547, and left the throne to his nine-year-old
son, Edward VI, while William Herbert was ‘gathering power.’ William’s wife
died in 1552 when she was 36, leaving three children: Henry, Philip, and Mary. Henry
became the second Earl of Pembroke when his father died in 1570 – he was the
richest man in England, but weak. His third wife, Mary Sidney, twenty years his
junior, was not. She became the glamour of the manor. Meanwhile in the
palace, King Edward VI was sickly, died at the age of 15, and was succeeded by
Mary, who died in 1558, leaving Elizabeth I the Queen of England.
When Henry of Pembroke
died in 1601, his eldest son Will become the third Earl. To keep Wilton House,
he had to marry before he turned 21, which he did. Will died in 1630 at the age
of 50, leaving the estate to his brother Philip, the fourth Earl of Pembroke,
who left the estate to his son, also Philip, now the fifth, and last, Earl of
Pembroke.
After Elizabeth I
ended her reign in 1603, James I from the House of Stuart ascended the throne
until 1625, followed by Charles I. And this is the decline of the Pembroke
family. Philip, the fifth Earl, entered Parliament. He was
dismissed for ‘rough and uncourtly behaviour’ – mainly for quarrelling. King
Charles also quarrelled with the Parliaments of England and Scotland over the
‘divine right of kings’ while the public wanted a constitutional
monarchy, leading to Civil War (1642-1651). Charles I was executed for high treason in January 1649, abolishing the monarchy and
establishing the Commonwealth. Nicolson goes to great lengths to describe the
meaning of common wealth.
Not only had the
monarchy collapsed, but the Pembrokes were deep in debt. The central parodox is
‘nearly everything they had came from the king, but the more they had, the more
they could afford to oppose him.’
Quarrel with the King:
The Story of an English Family on the High Road to Civil War is a most
befitting title. The quarrel with the king was both a personal catastrophe and
one that changed the monarchy of England. The history and entanglement of
Scottish and English politics, the monarchy, and their relationships with
Europe, is a modern story today.
Comprehensive and
detailed, Nicolson documents almost every minute of the rise and fall of the Pembroke
family. The facts are not dry, nor boring, but enhance an understanding of
wealth, power, status, greed, and above all, the ownership of land. This is
history in the telling that Shakespeare (1564-1616) – living during these
events – would be proud to call his own, if he had written a novel. But not even
the great bard could have predicted such a dramatic fall.
[Note: The British monarchy
was eventually restored in 1660 with Charles’ son, Charles II.]
Comments
Post a Comment