Richard Eales

The subject of this volume is an important one and the range of issues which these fine essays cover far exceeds the mere study of genealogy and inheritance, interesting though those subjects are in their own right. The aspirations and ideologies of both royal and powerful aristocratic dynasties are inevitably central, but the book also considers the lives of merchant and clerical families and those of the lower aristocracy; the ideological role of genealogy in both advancing and justifying claims to inheritance and in announcing pride in an ancient descent for its own sake; and the importance of patronage for dynastic reasons, of the church, of art and of books. In addition to the pursuit of power and prestige, the perennial problem of wealth, its accumulation, its management and its inevitable inadequacy, is frequently explored. The index reveals the enormous scope of the volume in terms of the number of families considered and their geographical distribution throughout England. Many of the families examined in this volume show a remarkable resilience to adversity. They could rise in favour as quickly as fall from it, but the shock of disinheritance which faced many families during political reversals, especially after failed bids for greater power, is balanced by their not infrequent recovery of title, sometimes decades later. In both their aspirations and their failures, families frequently stood together. Individuals, though they appeared to hold or pursue titles alone, still shared their success with their relatives, and their relatives often stood to lose it with them. Yet another theme presents itself throughout this book, however, which is the tension between loyalty to one's family and loyalty to a wider principle. For some families the society of the county or the church balanced their family ties, while for others it was loyalty to a class (arguably an extension of their family), to the family's sense of its own history, to the king, or even to the realm of England as a whole. There are eleven essays and the volume concludes with a comprehensive index of names and places.… (mais)