A NEW HISTORIC PEERA.GE.* TEE history of England daring the
four centuries which followed the Norman Conquest, as it appears in all bat a few recently written books, is the history of the English Baronage; and
• The Official Baronage of England, shelving the Succession, Dignities, and Offices of Every Peer feom 1006 te 1885. By James B. Doyle. 3 rots. London: Long. mono, Green. and Co.
though our constitution, and the rise and greatly increasing, importance of the Commons House of Parliament have fornearly a century past received an adequate treatment, and though the social condition of the people has, in our own days at least, begun to make its importance felt, yet the affairs and adventures of the Barons must ever, whether we like it or not, occupy the- greater part of all histories of the Middle Ages. Nor when we come to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, greatly- enhanced as is the prominence of the people, and ample as are the materials for tracing their social condition, are the Barons of less absolute, though certainly of less relative, importance. The great officers of State, and under the Stuarts even the minor ones, were still taken from the ranks of the Peerage ; and the historical drama is played by persons often called by the same titles, though seldom of the same families, as those who flourished under the Plantagenets. It follows that a " Peerage " is a necessary companion, and more than a com- panion, a guide, to every student of English history. We may laugh at genealogists, though, indeed, their vagaries often cause irritation rather than amusement ; but it is often of no little importance to ascertain and bear in mind whether an Earl of Warwick who may come on the stage is a Beauchamp, a Neville, or a Plantagenet, or the member of a vEhrxeurop U4ce enriched by the spoils of the Church under the Tudors, or by even lees creditable means under the Stuarts. SO much as this, indeed; we can learn from the works of Sir Bernard Burke. They inform us with tolerable correctness who is the person bearing a particular title at a particular period, what was his family, whom he married, and what was his relation to his predecessor and his successor. But for anything more than this our ordinary- " Peerages " are of little use. Where it is possible to go wrong in a date, they do so ; in the majority of cases where dates are wanted, they are omitted ; and it seems a pure matter of chance which, if any, of the children of any particular person shall be enumerated, and which omitted ; grandchildren are not unfrequently turned into children, and names, dates, and events which in one part of the book are credited to one person, are elsewhere given to another. Of Burke's Extinct Peerage, we desire to speak with the respect and gratitude which are its due ; it is the best book of its kind, it ought to be at the elbow of every serious student of English history ; yet we find whole pages with hardly any other dates than those of the deaths of the Peers, and not always even these. Nor are the offices held by the persons treated of given with sufficient accuracy; and when no date is appended to them, the information is almost wholly valueless. To record the successive offices which each Peer held, and the date of his appointment, and so to afford the reader the means of ascertaining who at any particular period filled any particular office, is a matter of the highest importance. Yet a book containing this information has hitherto been a desideratum, and the want of it often causes- to the student loss of time, and not unfrequently leads him to erroneous conclusions. In Courthope's Historic Peerage (based on the Synopsis of Sir Harris Nicolas) and Haydn's Book of Dignities, each an excellent and useful book, partial attempts have been made to supply this information ; yet neither of these works is exhaustive or nearly sufficient for the purpose.
In the three handsome volumes compiled by Mr. J. E. Doyle, the succession, the titles, the offices, and the marriages of all the Dukes, Marquises, Earls, and Viscounts of England from 1066 to 1885 purport to be included. The author justly remarks on "the great historical importance of ascertaining the dates at which the leading men of England attained the offices which gave them power and influence, and the further dates at which they lost power and influence ;" and we may certainly con- gratulate him on the success which he has attained. The book before us will, when completed by the Barons, not only super- sede the Historic Peerage of Mr. C, urthope, but will form a book the utility of which to the historical student cannot be over-estimated. But the most valuable feature of the work remains to be noticed ; for most of the facts stated, the authority is given in the margin. And these are real and original authorities, not the second-hand statements of modern compilers. The works published by the successive Record Commissions, the manuscripts of the British Museum, the Bodleian, and the Record Office, and the writings of contemporaries, constitute by-far the greatest part of the authorities, and the student has thus no difficulty in verify- ing, and where needful amplifying, each statement. Nor is it only the greater offices which Mr. Doyle has recorded; every official act, however insignificant, that he has been able to discover, as performed by a Peer, is inserted. The bearer of the Sword curtana at the coronations of our Sovereigns is duly recorded ; the date at which a Crusader assumed the cross ; of what castles the Baron in question was constable; in what military expedi- tions he took part, and with . what rank; missions and commis- sions of every description are included ; and last, though not least, and perhaps more important than anything else for following the course of our history, for the first time the different styles of the same person are given. Many readers would be puzzled to identify the person variously styled by our chroniclers and records Rannlf le Mesabi, Ranulf de Bayeux, the Viscount of Bayeux, the Viscount of Avranches, and the Lord of Carlisle, with Ranulf de Briqaesart, Earl of Chester ; while the names and titles by which his great-grandson, Ranulf de Blundeville, is variously called, are perhaps even more confusing.
But though The Official Baronage is primarily a record of names, dates, and events, it yet presents features which make it not only a book for the student, but one which may lie upon the drawing-room table, and be taken up not only with profit, but with amusement and interest, at any moment of leisure. Mr. Doyle has attempted to give a series as complete as possible of the early representations of the princes and nobles of England, and a portrait, in all cases where it could be pro- cured, of the men of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. They are excellent specimens of wood engraving, and judging from those whose features are familiar to us, are admirable representations of the originals, forming a more com- plete collection of the counterfeit presentments of the Peers of England than can, so far as we know, be found in any other single book ; while it certainly adds to their interest that they have been executed by the compiler himself, who is, we under- stand, a brother of the late Richard Doyle. To these are added personal descriptions taken from contemporary writers, in some cases several relating to the same individual, and giving entirely different views. They are always well selected, though we could have wished that Mr. Doyle had not excluded, as he states in his preface he has done, estimates of character. Added to these are fac-similes of the signatures of the Peers, in all cases where for the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they could be obtained, and subsequently for all important persons. In each case the arms are emblazoned, and for many early armorial bearings engravings are given, taken from a seal, a monument, or a contemporary drawing.
To say that the execution of the book perfectly carries out the author's design, would be to assert what could not possibly be true of any historical compilation of this character until it had passed through several editions and had received successive revisions and improvements ; and if we regret the sumptuous style in which the volumes are issued, it is because we fear that, for so costly a book, it must be some time before a new edition is demanded. But at the risk of being thought ungracious, we shall note a few points on which it seems to need revision or correction. The author expressly states that the work "deals with every department from the historical or recording point of view alone. It does not concern itself with questions of right." And he then goes on to instance a number of titles which seem to have been borne without any legal right. He has, we think, acted wisely in including such titles in his work. Thus, he inserts Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, and his two sons among the Earls of Derby, since they so styled themselves, though, as Dngdale says, they "had nothing of the title of Earl of Derby ;" while George Talbot, who from 1718 to 1733 called himself Earl of Shrewsbury, on the mistaken assumption that his brother, being in Holy Orders of the Church of Rome, could not succeed, is actually stated to have succeeded as thirteenth Earl. (The only fault we find with this is, that instead of the word "succeeded." which in the preface is defined as used with the sense entitled to succeed, which certainly George Talbot was not, the words "styled himself" should have been substituted.) The three persons—two Umfravilles and one Tailbois—who on a few occasions are called by our chroniclers Earls of ICynae, are also, but with more doubtful expediency, inserted. But this being the principle on which the book is based, how is it that the Earls of Banbury, from 1632 to 1813, and the Viscounts Purbeck, from 1657 to 1748, are omitted ? For nearly two centuries, the descendants of Elizabeth, Countess of Banbury, 'were styled, not only by themselves and all other subjects, but on many occasions by the Crown itself, in commissions of the peace, in commissions of the Army, and other offices, • no Book of ths Pig. By James Long. Illustrated by Harrison Weir and Earls of Banbury and Viscounts Wallingford. They successfully ttber Artists. London : L. Upcott Gill. pleaded their Peerage in the Court of King's Bench, and, in fact, enjoyed, until the decision of the House of Lords in 1813 as to the illegitimacy of the second soi.disant Earl, all the privileges of the Peerage, except that of actually sitting and voting in the House of Lords. The titles of the Viscounts Purbeck, though less universally, were certainly generally re- cognised. None of these persons, however, are to be found mentioned in The Official Baronage, though certainly upon the rule laid down in the preface, and acted upon in other cases, they ought to have been inserted. Again, why is the Bev. Theophilus Henry Hastings, de jure eleventh Earl of Hunting- don, omitted ? Not only was his right to the Earldom clear, but he actually assumed, though he never legally claimed, the title. (In the analogous case of the thirteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, Mr. Doyle has given the de jure as well as the soi.disant Earl.) Nor do we understand the principle upon which some Barons who had no higher rank are inserted and others ignored. The volumes purport to contain only information "pertaining to the Barons whose title remained the same after promotion to a higher grade in the Peerage, such as Abergavenny, Berkeley, and Delawarr." This is perfectly intelligible; but why, then, are the first twelve Barone Lovell of Tichmarsh omitted, and their record made only to commence with the thirteenth Lord, who was created Viscount Lovell ? (We shall be curious to see in the succeeding volumes how Mr. Doyle makes out all the twelve.) Why are not the Barons of Stafford and Wentworth of Nettlestead included? Their cases are precisely analogous to those of Abergavenny, Berkeley, and Delawarr. On the other hand, the illustrious house of Robinson is, for some reason which we are unable to fathom, specially and exceptionally favoured. Not only does it appear under the heading of De Grey, and also of Ripon, but again under that of Grantham, an article which, except in connection with Henry de Auverquerque, Earl of Grantham, is wholly outside any possible interpretation of the rules as to the scope of the work laid down in the preface, while in addition to portraits of Sir Thomas Robinson (the Duke of Newcastle's "Jack-boot "), " Prosperity" Robinson, and " Goody " Godericb, Mr. Doyle presents us with that of Thomas Earl de Grey twice over, once under that title, once under "Grantham."
The only Peerages of which we have noticed the omission are those of the Duchess of Inverness, the Countess of Cromartie, and of Melnsina von Schulenberg, Countess of Walsingham ; the other ladies (proper and improper) upon whom titles have been conferred seem duly chronicled. But the reader should not be allowed to suppose that the Earldom of Berkeley became extinct at the death of Frederick Augustus, fifth Earl, in 1810. The matter, however, in which improvement is especially required, is in the addition of authorities for all facts recorded before the commencement of the eighteenth century. Since that time it may not be so necessary. To about one-third of the entries no reference is appended, and the consequence is that they are of no value, and convey no information which can be of the smallest use. We presume that they are taken from some modern hook- a Peerage, perhaps—but even in that case, the authority, what- ever it is and however nnauthoritative, ought to be given. The same remark applies to the marriages. Many of those of early date are doubtful,—in some cases chroniclers of equal weight
state them differently ; but in no case of a marriage is the authority stated. Had this been done, and, wherever it was possible to ascertain them, the dates of the marriage and of the death of the lady also given, the utility of the book would have been greatly enhanced.
We look forward with much interest to the completion of the work by the volumes which are to comprise those Barons upon whom no higher rank with the same title was conferred. This will in some respects be the most difficult part of Mr. Doyle's task, for it is no easy matter to ascertain the date of the creation or the succession of many of the early Barons. We shall be
curious to see how Mr. Doyle overcomes the difficulties which the Baronies by teuure present ; but to judge from the three
volumes already issued, it is certain that the book, when com- pleted, will be not only a work of manifest utility and value, but one which will reflect a lasting credit upon its judicious and painstaking author.
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