Caroline Hibbard on Ambition and Failure in Stuart England
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Ian Atherton. Ambition and Failure in Stuart England: The Career of John, 1st Viscount Scudamore, 1620-4. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999. 300 pp. $79.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-7190-5091-6. Reviewed by Caroline Hibbard Published on H-Albion (May, 2001) Ian Atherton. Ambition and Failure in Stuart later stages of Scudamore's life, key elements of England: The Career of John, 1st Viscount Scud‐ which have to be retrieved from preceding chap‐ amore, 1620-4. Manchester: Manchester Universi‐ ters. ty Press, 1999. 300 pp. Index. $79.95 (cloth), ISBN: Atherton identifies his central aims as three‐ 0-7190-5091-X. fold: to provide "a case study of how an ambitious Biographies have not been a format much gentleman sought to forge a political career on a used of late for organizing scholarly exchange; variety of levels"; to look at religion, divisions at and Scudamore, an ambassador but not otherwise court, and foreign policy in the 1620s and 1630s, a courtier, is scarcely a household word even and to contribute to ongoing debates in those ar‐ among early Stuart historians. So it is a little sur‐ eas; and to seek to explain a zealous supporter of prising, but gratifying, to report that this book is royal policy and government, a lay Laudian, and a quite successful in casting light on important in‐ supporter of the Duke of Buckingham (p. 18). terpretive issues. Scudamore was a royalist and a Atherton himself is clearly on the other side of the Laudian, but also essentially a country gentleman. political fence from Scudamore, a point that Atherton is correct that this "type" has been de‐ emerges almost off-handedly at an early stage picted as rare and, thus, not much studied. A good where he refers to "the clear immoderation and deal more attention has gone to the activist godly unconstitutionality of both King Charles and types, such as Sir Robert Harley in Scudamore's Archbishop Laud" (p. 19). One must all the more own county of Hereford. Although it is organized admire the massive and meticulous research in in a roughly chronological fashion, treating suc‐ both central and local sources that the author has cessive stages of Scudamore's life and the issues devoted to his subject, and the care with which he associated with them, the book is not a straight‐ attempts to explain his character and views. forward biography. The departure from a chrono‐ Atherton takes as a sort of unifying theme the logical scheme leads to some confusion over the idea that there were "varieties of honour" and H-Net Reviews corresponding varieties of self-fashioning. Al‐ The family seat at Holme Lacy was host to though the opening chapter on the "rhetorics of learned and well-travelled visitors, and the chap‐ honour and advancement" is a wonderfully nu‐ ter on the viscount's intellectual and religious anced examination of 17th century ideas about world helps recover a relatively neglected section honour and ambition, I am not sure that the idea of the intellectual/political/religious world of the of multiple self-fashionings does much to advance 1630s. Aristocratic fgures of this period who were our understanding of Scudamore's character or genuinely learned no longer look like anomalies career. I am much more persuaded by his discus‐ to us, in large part because of Linda Peck's study sion of how self-assertiveness and even aggres‐ of Northampton and work on other noblemen. An sion were intrinsic to the aristocratic honour avid reader of divinity, Scudamore was also "on code--something he might have more frmly con‐ the borders" (p. 52) of several scientific and philo‐ nected with his discussion of ambassadorial be‐ sophical circles: those of Mersenne, Hartlib and havior in a later chapter. The gentry code of ser‐ Grotius. He was an early and highly successful vice to crown and commonwealth is a theme that agricultural innovator, developing a strong cider is often and rightly invoked. that became both a luxury item and a "large-scale The second chapter describes the descent of enterprise" (p. 55), and working to advance other the Scudamores of Holme Lacy, and the regional fruit and berry production in Herefordshire. context of the Welsh marches, where in the 16th Atherton suggests that there was a spiritual side century the Scudamores profited from court office to this practical husbandry, "God and Christ the and monastic spoils to build estates and local gardeners" (p. 57) serving as exemplars for Chris‐ power in Herefordshire and neighboring coun‐ tians on earth. Moreover, Scudamore shared with ties. The Scudamores emerged by the 1620s as the George Herbert and Henry Vaughan a sense of the richest family in a county with no resident peers, physical world (and the English landscape in par‐ who were powerful at court though no longer res‐ ticular) as manifestations of God. Atherton fur‐ ident there after the accession of James I. When ther connects this, persuasively to my mind, with the future viscount's father died in 1619, a few the sacramental character of Scudamore's piety. years after his own marriage to a marcher The picture of Scudamore as a practicing Lau‐ heiress, his grandfather set about to establish him dian is pursued convincingly and at length, in a in the local offices due to the family--captain of chapter that is worth careful attention. Scud‐ the county horse, JP, custos rotulorum, deputy amore's piety was "built around two main pillars: lieutenant, MP for the county--an inheritance the the special or sacred nature of the church and all viscount would prove unable to pass on to his things dedicated to it, including the clergy; and heir in the Restoration. The viscount's martial ac‐ the importance of the sacraments, especially the tivities, or "military self-image"--a theme of this eucharist, in his devotions" (p. 59). Reparation of chapter--were mainly in the lieutenancy, unlike churches such as Abbey Dore was the reparation his two younger brothers who were career sol‐ of sacrilege, and the church he rebuilt there was diers. The single speech to the Herefordshire gen‐ altar-centered, carefully graduated, with a series try at musters might seem a slender basis on of hallowed spaces, and the clergy separated from which to build a putative world-view for Scud‐ the laity. Concern that it was sacrilege to hold for‐ amore, but Atherton skillfully deploys it to reveal mer monastic lands was not unique to Scud‐ his subject's very rigid and hierarchical social vi‐ amore. Yet at considerable cost to himself he sion. made elaborate amends through the restoration of tithes to clergy and churches. He believed in "hallowed times" such as Lent, and from the 1620s 2 H-Net Reviews through the 1650s he supported numerous local records for the 1620s and 1630s have been lost), clergy and those sequestered by the parliamen‐ but in the context somewhat digressive. As JP and tary or Interregnum regimes. He "shared none of custos rotulorum for Herefordshire from 1622 to the puritan concern for a preaching ministry" (p. 1628, as subsidy commissioner in the mid-1620s, 69) and supported pluralist, non-resident minis‐ as a forced loan commissioner in 1626-27, and as ters. He aimed at monthly communion, made the major fgure in county government up to elaborate preparations for it, and practiced auric‐ 1642, Scudamore is seen alternately trying to ular confession; he performed acts of charity in browbeat and inspire the county gentry to re‐ connection with the Eucharist, made frequent spond to the government's demands and initia‐ gifts of altar plate and eucharistic implements. All tives. The long account of the collection for re‐ these features of his piety were on display in his building St. Paul's is probably the best we have for ambassadorial chapel in Paris in the 1630s, which any county, but it reveals that Scudamore, who scandalized both visiting English Protestants and might have been expected to wax eloquent on this French Huguenots. particular subject given his enthusiasm for restor‐ Although rhetorically moderate, he was not a ing churches, was relatively mute. Local suspi‐ waverer towards Rome; rather he was a "prayer‐ cions of crown intentions, cited by Atherton (and book" member of the Church of England. In addi‐ many historians) as an important drag on this as tion to the influence of Laud, Atherton traces that well as other local collections, indicate a mistrust of Lancelot Andrewes, adding to the voices of Pe‐ of the king not shared by Scudamore. Subsequent ter Lake, Peter McCullough and Anthony Milton in chapters reinforce an impression of naivete, not placing a renewed emphasis on Andrewes's influ‐ to say even stupidity, on Scudamore's part. ence in the early 17th century period. Scud‐ In his chapter on "the search for preferment" amore's "religious self-presentation" underlay Atherton does an excellent job of showing how Charles I's good opinion of him and this would Scudamore (and local politicians like him) culti‐ help bring him preferment despite his dubious vated patrons at court so as to protect their coun‐ successes as a local governor; in Hereford his reli‐ ty position. In the process, he explains Scud‐ gious style was comfortably supported by the con‐ amore's "virtually insatiable appetite for news in servative environment which his puritan neigh‐ the 1620s and 1630s" (p. 153), which bequeathed bor Sir Robert Harley so often lamented. such a treasure trove of newsletters to later histo‐ The chapter on Scudamore as a local gover‐ rians. It is not clear when or why Scudamore de‐ nor seemed less successful to me, in part because cided that he should aim at more than a county it uneasily yokes the 1620s and the 1660s, in part role--a misguided decision as it turned out, al‐ because his role here is reactive rather than cre‐ though Atherton treats it as almost inevitable.