Major Michel's 'Henry of Monmouth or the Field of Agincourt' 1841

Saunders and Otley first edition - 1841

If I am about to read a book (novel or non-fiction) by an Author I have not come across before, I usually try and find out a bit about him/her.  There are two or three excellent sources to go to for nineteenth century works. Begun in 2007, At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837-1901 provides a biographical and bibliographical database of 19thc British fiction. The database is hosted by the Victorian Research Web and contains entries for 22,670 titles, 5,155 authors, and 710 publishers as well as information about genres, illustrations and serializations. It has rarely 'failed' me. Yet, as far as Major Michel was concerned, not only did the database not have a separate heading on him but it had placed 'his' two novels - Henry of Monmouth and Trevor Hastynges - in another author's list! Admittedly, the names were remarkably similar: Nicholas Michell (1807-1880) was a Devonian, who wrote both verse and novels and earned a place in the Dictionary of National Biography. I emailed Troy J. Bassett, the Associate Professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, who runs the Database and is the author of The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Three-Volume Novel (2020) - which I have just ordered! - who emailed back to say, You are quite correct: the five books are written by two different men...the former [Nicholas Michell] is reasonably well known, but the latter is not. I did some looking, but I didn't find much on the mysterious Major. So, back to square one.

There was nothing in John Sutherland's Victorian Fiction (Longman, 1988), on either man, or in any of my other books. The single-page advertisement for Henry of Monmouth at the end of Volume II of Trevor Hastynges has quotations from three reviews of the former: "A good manly work, at once soldierly and scholarly. We consider the account of the battle of Agincourt the very best we have ever met with." (Metropolitan); "It is highly creditable to the talent, the genius, and the research of its author." (John Bull); "An animated and effective narrative." (Morning Herald). Perhaps a deeper look at those three sources might produce information about Major Michel. That he was in the Army there can be no doubt. One of his most heartfelt passages is worth quoting in full:

"...but weak are they all  (the pauper being left thousands, the lover being told he is loved...), to the ecstatic pleasure which the soldier feels when returning from captivity, he sees by the ready hand of his comrades, by the ready cheer of his men, the satisfaction they enjoy for his return! - Oh, that I, who indite these pages, could have felt such bliss. Oh! that by gallant deeds I could have merited such a reward.. Are there none who read my pages, who have felt, as I do, a yearning after fame, which must be denied. I am a soldier; would I never been so. Fame is to be gained, but not by the British soldier of to-day...Since England was a country when was such a peace? - when a peace of twenty-five years' duration? (1815-1840)...But now my hopes have perished; my heart beats strongly when I listen to the tale of glorious deed, the tear glistens in my eye. - Alas! all to me is past. Hang on Major, the Indian Mutiny, the Crimean War etc. are not far ahead.

In some ways the title is a misnomer, even though Henry - by now King Henry V - is well described and a participant in the novel's scenes involving the Southampton Plot, the Siege of Harfleur, the Agincourt campaign and the Wooing of Princess Catherine. In his Preface, the author states: It was originally intended that the Earl of March, who was de jure Sovereign of England, should be the undoubted hero of the tale; but as it proceeded history forbad the truth. Dead, as when living, Henry of England usurped the claim of precedence, and thus were these volumes entitled "Henry of Monmouth, or the Field of Agincourt". Notwithstanding this, I feel that, at the very least, the Earl of March is a joint hero. Agincourt also takes up but a small portion of the novel.

The mixture of fact and fiction - usually called 'faction' - is not really a problem, although it can be a little confusing. More problematical is that the author (perhaps to fill the dreaded three-decker) gets bogged down in passages which could have been cut to the story's advantage and the flow of the narrative. All too often it is not the highway of Henry V but the byways of the Earl of March, who seems to have a penchant for being captured, by both brigands and young ladies. Sir Walter Scott's influence looms large throughout, with the tales of secret passages, dungeons and, particularly, a tournament.

There are several 'heroes' spread across the tale. Owen Glendower is clearly admired: Patriotism like the snow-ball in its course, gains fresh solidity from its onward progress. Such was the love Glendower bore towards his native land...little can the cold and calculating many understand the inward pangs that rend the heart of a banished patriot. David Gamme, the real-life warrior is well described, but Mary his daughter is fiction - the real life one being Gwladys ferch Dafydd Gam (d.1454); whilst Constance de Hugueville, who is passionately pursued by the Earl of March and who marries him at the end of Volume III, is fictitious. March, in fact, had married Ann Stafford, daughter of the Earl of Stafford and another descendant of Edward III. Moreover, the marriage had occurred before the Agincourt campaign. No matter Major, you tell a good love story.

There is a walk-on part for Sir John Oldcastle, who delivers a powerful Lollard sermon - And what is the antichrist of Rome? is he not clay, yea, and viler than clay, for he deludes the souls of men? With his abominations he defiles the Christian world... - before being arrested. I found that I occasionally got lost trying to recall 'who was who' amongst the French cast; it did not help that there were more than one 'baddie', or shades of badness!

Major Michel regularly wears his heart and trenchant opinions on his sleeve. To give but one example: It is a remarkable feature in the history of Paris, that in every age she has sided with the rebellious faction, or the party opposed to her sovereign! Vide the days of the League and of the Fronde, and lastly the history of the French revolutions of 1789 and 1830. More were just round the corner!

I quite enjoyed the read. Michel was not feted to join the ranks of the first-rate, but he constructs a worthy tale. Let's hope it helped to palliate the lack of excitement in his army career.