Historical Romance and the Mythology of Charles I in D’Israeli, Scott and Disraeli

ABSTRACT

The mythology surrounding the figure of Charles, forged during the unique events of his time, was often employed in response to socio-political situations and debates of the late eighteenth and then the nineteenth century. Isaac D’Israeli, Sir Walter Scott and Benjamin Disraeli, writing at a time when the interpretation of history was dominated by Whig historiography, sought to negate, counter or dismantle those representations of modern British history by referencing Charles and his fate. Against the Whig premise that the Glorious Revolution heralded, in fact was, the exordium to British modern history, D’Israeli and Scott saw the need to construct agonistic, Tory interpretations of the past, countering Whig interpretations of history relating to the Civil War, and to the regicide specifically, by reinventing the mythology of Charles I. Benjamin Disraeli employed the mythology of Charles I differently from its use by his father and by Scott: in order comprehensively to denounce and dismantle Whig interpretations of history from medieval to then-contemporary times, and to construct an alternate, inherently Tory perspective on the social ills of his time in his fiction and non-fiction.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Dani Napton http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6860-6859

Notes

1 On this topic, landmark discussions are Sharpe, Reading Authority and Representing Rule; Sharpe, Image Wars; Sharpe, “So Hard a Text?”

2 Benjamin Disraeli changed his name from D’Israeli in 1822—Bernard Glassman surmises to differentiate himself from his father more easily. See Glassman, 100.

3 The political aftermath of the war with France brought the Whigs into power again; their political ascendancy accompanied by a literary one. Whig interpretations of seventeenth-century history included: Brodie's History of the British Empire (1822); Hallam's Constitutional History of England (1827); Godwin's History of the Commonwealth of England (1824–8); and Forster's biographies of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1830–49). The following scholars, among others, provide useful insight into the nature of Whig and Tory historiographies: Burrow, Butterfield; Hart; and Mayr.

4 Macaulay, History of England, 1.

5 Breisach, 250.

6 Of course, this is not to deny Scott's mastery of the historical romance narrative for which his fiction was renowned and that Macaulay took for his model. Indeed, in “History” Macaulay highlights the need for historians to infuse their work with “the charm of historical romances” specifically referencing Scott's fictional works as exemplars of that critical historical romance narrative.

7 Reference throughout this essay is made to the following editions: D’Israeli's Curiosities of Literature (1867) (hereafter Curiosities) and Commentaries on the life and reign of Charles the First (1851) (hereafter Commentaries); Scott's “Tales of a Grandfather” (hereafter “Tales”) in his Prose Works (1836), Letters (1932–7) and Woodstock (2009); Disraeli's “Vindication of the English Constitution” in Whigs and Whiggism (2006) (hereafter “Vindication”) and to Sybil (1927).

8 D’Israeli, Commentaries, vol. 1: v.

9 Scott, “Tales,” vol. 24: 42.

10 Like his son (in his political and literary works) and Edmund Burke in his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), D’Israeli explores here the social conditions of the period, illustrating the socially beneficial organic growth of the governance model underpinning the English constitution prior to these times of political upheaval; unlike Burke, he supports Charles’ belief in and commitment to the divine authority inherent in kingship.

11 D’Israeli, Commentaries, vol. 1: 1, 2, 3.

12 Scott, “Tales,” vol. 23: 275.

13 Macaulay, “History,” 307.

14 D’Israeli, Commentaries, vol. 1: 3.

15 Scott, “Tales,” vol. 23: 345–6, 374.

16 D’Israeli, Commentaries, vol. 1: 369.

17 See, specifically: “The Secret History of Charles the First, and His Queen Henrietta” from Curiosities and “The Influence of the Queen on the King's Conduct” from Commentaries.

18 D’Israeli, Commentaries, vol. 1: 4; vol. 2: 574–5.

19 Ibid., vol. 1: 4; vol. 2: 580.

20 See “Charles the First's Love of the Fine Arts” in Curiosities, and “Private Life of Charles the First—Love of the Arts” from Commentaries.

21 See “The Plunder of the Arts in the Seventeenth Century” in Trevor-Roper for more insight into the significance of the arts for European royalty.

22 In his own works, Charles creates his image as a mediator between God and his people, as God's vice-regent on earth, and as the figurehead of justice. See Sharpe, Remapping Early Modern England, esp. 183.

23 D’Israeli, Curiosities, 300.

24 D’Israeli, Commentaries, vol. 1: 418–9.

25 Ibid., vol. 2: 490.

26 Ibid.

27 Kelly, 65.

28 It is perhaps not surprising that these coetaneous conservatives and antiquarians shared a fascination with James I that resulted in each publishing a book on him: D’Israeli's An inquiry into the literary and political character of James the First (1816) and Scott's The Fortunes of Nigel (1822).

29 While not foregrounded in any of Scott's novels, yet this monarch's fate was a potent presence throughout those novels set within the years prior to his kingship and succeeding the Interregnum. In The Fortunes of Nigel, for example, Scott considers those aspects of James’ reign and of Charles’ character that may have contributed to the political upheavals during Charles’ own rule and thence to the regicide. A Legend of Montrose (or A Legend of the Wars of Montrose, Scott's original title, which was reinstated in the 1995 Edinburgh Edition), the only Waverley novel set in Charles I's reign, considers the tearing apart of both British nationalism and society throughout the Civil War, again contemplating the many events leading towards the scaffold. Charles I's ghost permeates Peveril of the Peak as his son attempts to meld the conflicting loyalties splitting the kingdom of his restored monarchy.

30 In The Fortunes of Nigel there is no attempt to portray Charles I presciently as the tragic hero of Woodstock or of Peveril of the Peak. Scott, depicting him as the ascendant sovereign body politic, focuses on the exaggerated dignity, formality and inflexibility of will which, it is implied, contributed to the looming Civil War and his own demise. Scott represents Charles I in his Letters similarly, noting his virtue “in a private capacity” but, in reference to his body politic, considering him to have “sow[n] the wind [and thus] God knows he reaped the whirlwind” (Scott, Letters, vol. 5: 310–12).

31 Scott, Woodstock, 94.

32 Ibid., 372.

33 Ibid., 246.

34 Ibid., 249.

35 Scott, “Tales,” Chapter 45, vol. 24: 66–8.

36 Firth, 40.

37 D’Israeli, Commentaries, vol. 2: 575.

38 Disraeli, “Vindication,” 127.

39 Skinner, 82.

40 Disraeli, Sybil, 196.

41 Disraeli's overwriting of Whig history has been analysed by many critics, most commonly in the context of Sybil. See, for example, Brantlinger, The Spirit of Reform; ibid., “Tory Radicalism”; Pereiro; Kirk, Chapter 7; O’Kell; Bivona; Daniel R. Schwarz; Bodenheimer; and Bill Schwarz.

42 Fleeting mention of Charles I is made in Coningsby and is limited primarily to a religious focus, either explaining Church reform parallels between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries or hypothesising the fate of the Stuarts, had Prince Henry had lived and Charles been therefore Archbishop of Canterbury.

43 Pereiro, 323.

44 See Disraeli, “Vindication,” 125–34.

45 Charles I was, of course, a familiar historical character for Benjamin Disraeli, having revised and edited a new edition of his father's Commentaries on the life and reign of Charles the First in 1851 and Curiosities of Literature in 1881.

46 Matthew 26: 36–45 (authorised version). “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

47 Disraeli, “Vindication,” 128.

48 Ibid., 128–31, severally.

49 Ibid., 127.

50 Ibid., 128.

51 Ibid., 130.

52 Ibid., 129.

53 Pocock, 232.

54 Disraeli, “Vindication,” 131–2. While D’Israeli and Scott both construct a positive representation of Charles by demythologising Cromwell, Disraeli refuses even to name him in “Vindication”; he is merely a military despot and arguably one of many.

55 Disraeli, Sybil, 316.

56 Ironically it is generally acknowledged that the ancestors of bloodhounds were brought from Europe to England by Normans in the years after William of Normandy's conquest in 1066.

57 Disraeli, Sybil, 267–8.

58 Ibid., 317–18.