700 Years
Battle Royal. By Sir Tufton Beamish. (Muller, 35s.)
ALL countries cherish their myths. We in par- ticular believe, and with some reason that parliamentary government surt,:d on the banks of the Thames. So, of course. it has to have an 'onlie begetter': otherwise. how could the Post- master-General know when to issue a com- memorative series of stamps? Nothing, not even Tufton Beamish's admirable book, will shake the claim of Simon de. Montfort, Earl of Leicester, to the title of Father of the House. He wasn't, of course. No one was. Representa- tative government 'just grow'd.' Probably the man with the best claim was Edward 1, who, as Prince Edward, was one of the defeated com- manders at Lewes in May 1264, and in command of the Royalist forces who defeated and killed de Montfort at Evesham in August 1265. As Sir Winston Churchill wrote, 'Yet de Montfort had lighted a fire never to be quenched in English history. . . . In this way de Montfort's purposes survived both the field of Evesham and the re- action which survived it, and in Edward I the great earl found his true heir.'
Sir Tufton Beamish, Member of Parliament for Lewes for twenty years, as his father had been before him, set out as a soldier to write an account of the Battle of Lewes, and as a politician to describe the 'first' Parliament. Un- fortunately, if turned out that there was very little hard fact about the battle and (apart from the wording of the summons) less still about the Parliament that met in January 1265 and dis- persed in March. Tufton Beamish might well either have abandoned his idea or produced a (very) slim volume on the original theme. Instead, he widened his canvas until he was com- mitted to what is in fact a study of the reign of Henry III. It was a risky decision, and it should be said at once a successful one. Battle Royal is a fascinating account of life in England at the court of the king in the thirteenth century.
De Montfort's Parliament had few if any of the essential characteristics of a modern assembly. There was no Opposition; or, in another sense, there was nothing but Opposition, because only those who supported de Montfort were sum- moned. So the gathering had only a sprinkling of the nobility, a strong representation of the Church and 'two knights from the loyal, honest and discreet knights of each shire,' plus two of the burgesses from the principal towns. They were there as reporters rather than as partici- pants. No one asked their advice, no one ex- pected them to tender any. No one even welcomed the new idea. The 'members' did nothing there. But they were there.
Tufton Beamish manages to make a real person out of Simon de Montfort. The proud adventurer of Norman-French stock, who was brother to the Constable of France, and who managed to establish a shaky claim to the Earldom of Leicester and the High Stewardship of England, managed also to cement his position by seducing and marrying the sister of the King. Somehow he managed to become the leader of the revolt against Henry III, and to attract to himself support from the Church and the City of London. He was an excellent commander. He was also arrogant and ambitious. The myth will endure. Simon de Montfort on the whole de- serves it.
LAIN MACIE0D
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