An unfamiliar Tudor
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Jessie Childs' biography of Surrey is excellent. He is probably one of the lesser known figures at the Tudor court, a poet, soldier and member of the powerful Howard family, Dukes of Norfolk. It's refreshing to have a book about someone other than the usual suspects, Henry & his Queens, Wolsey, Cromwell etc. Although little is known about Surrey compared to these other figures, Childs manages to make him come alive. His poetry is open to many interpretations and Childs is frank about the limitations of any attempt to interpret his work as personal. Yet, she does throw some light on his personality through his poetry. Similarly, his relationship with his wife is a mystery, yet Childs doesn't overburden the narrative with speculation. There are more portraits of Surrey than almost any other figure at Henry VIII's Court, yet only one chalk drawing of Frances exists. At least it's by Holbein! She has used the available information to present a picture of an arrogant, impulsive young nobleman which also exposes his vulnerabilities. Surrey's relationship with his father, Norfolk, is also a fascinating portrait of Tudor life. Norfolk was one of the great survivors at Court. He managed to survive two of his nieces marrying the King and then being executed. He only avoided his son's fate because the King died first. Yet, he comes across as an unfeeling father and husband and a past master at disowning responsibility for any problem. Surrey's insecurities don't seem so strange. A wonderful portrait of a young man who never really found his place in life.
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A brilliant and balanced biography on the Earl of Surrey.
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`Henry VIII's Last Victim: the Life and Times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey' is the debut work from historian Jessie Childs. This informative and well researched book is certainly a fantastic start for Childs.
The book examines the life and career of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey who lived during the reign of Henry VIII. Surrey is primarily remembered on two accounts; that he was a gifted advanced poet and for the fact that he was the last man executed on Henry VIII's orders (Henry literally signed the warrant on his deathbed whilst Surrey's father the Duke of Norfolk managed to escape by sheer luck that Henry died before signing his death warrant). However Childs strives to not only examine these important elements but also look at Surrey's career as a whole and discovers within this the diversity of his achievements. He was very intelligent which was acknowledged by several scholars and had a general passion for learning. He was also a soldier, as most noblemen were expected to be, and he took his military obligations seriously. Furthermore he had an immense love of poetry which ensured his admiration for Thomas Wyatt and that he too wrote poetry, which is careful examined throughout the biography. Yet simultaneously he was an aristocrat who was capable of behaving like a spoiled reckless youth.
Childs does not attempt to degrade Surrey's enemies or make him appear more powerful or important than he actual was. Nor does she try to romanticise his character which she mentions some Victorian writers have had a tendency of doing due to his vocation as a poet and his pathetic demise. Instead she attempts a balanced approach and greatly succeeds. We are presented with a young man who was intelligent, loyal to his country, was a gifted poet yet was also capable of severe arrogance, of believing greatly in his superiority and sometimes committing absolute reckless behaviour. For example Childs refers in detail to Surrey's several offences. We are told of the incident in Jan 1543 in which Surrey and his cronies went out after the London curfew, smashed windows of self-made men and insulted and throw stones at the prostitutes they spotted across the South Bank of the Thames. Naturally the evening ended with the company visiting an inn, oblivious to the damage they caused. As Childs reminds us, Surrey who had a passionate nature could not use poetry as a form of therapy to express such frustrations; instead his outlet was sometimes violence. As a result of the drunken night of vandalism or slapping the faces of various men at court, he was given punishment which didn't deal with his temper or attitudes in the long run. Childs also presents the other less admirable side to Surrey; his ambition that undoubtedly stemmed from his domineering and often detached father. For example Surrey's own sister, Mary Howard, admitted around the time Surrey was arrested in 1546 that her brother had urged her to become the king's mistress so that she could hold influence over him and win favours for her family. Child's examines the authenticity of the claim and comes to the brilliant conclusion that unfortunately the evidence weighs in favour for its validity and that previous biographers on Surrey who have rejected this are being to over zealous in their admiration.
That is not to say that the whole biography is dedicated to degrading Surrey; indeed it is more sympathetic than anything else. But what Childs brilliantly does is not let her admiration for Surrey and his literary work cloud all his mistakes. Instead he is presented as a human being in that he was capable of great achievements yet suffered from many weaknesses.
Overall Child's work on Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is fantastic in the level of research she has undergone not only in respects to his life but also into examination of his poems and their meanings. She stresses how advanced his writings were and throughout highlights the struggle Surrey had with living up to the responsibilities that came with his prestigious position. She also manages to examine well the important events throughout Surrey's life like Henry VIII's prolonged struggle for a divorce from his first wife, although her views on Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon are slightly too simplistic especially in regards to Anne where more criticism is applied than praise (Childs is particularly unfair to hint that Anne's piety was intentionally conspicuous for political purposes rather than being done out of general zeal for the reformist cause of which Anne had been interested in even prior to her relationship with Henry). However that aside, the biography is a superb account on the Earl of Surrey and is accessible and highly informative. It certainly promotes me to read other works by Jessie Childs.
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Awesome
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A thrilling read - history comes alive in the words of a young and brilliant author. Awesome ...
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