From Robber Barons to Courtiers

From Robber Barons to Courtiers. The Changing World of the Lovells of Titchmarsh (Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley, 2021).

Watch the book launch here.

Francis Lovell is without a doubt the most famous - if not the only famous - Lovell of Titchmarsh. In 1483 he was he was made a viscount by Edward IV, the first Lovell to be raised into the titled nobility. He is most famous for being the chamberlain and close friend of Richard III, the 'dog' of William Collingbourne's famous doggerel. Though Francis Lovell is the best known member of his family, the Lovells were an old aristocratic family, tracing their roots back to eleventh-century Normandy. Aside from the Battle of Hastings, a Lovell can be found at virtually all important events in English history, whether it was the crusade of Richard I, the Battle of Lewes, the siege of Calais, the Lambert Simnel rebellion against Henry VII, or the downfall of Anne Boleyn. Over the centuries the Lovells rose in wealth and power through service to the crown, rich marriages, and, to a considerable degree, luck. Charting the history of the Lovells of Titchmarsh, from their relatively obscure beginnings in the border region between France and Normandy to a powerful position at the royal court, not only illustrates the fate of this one family but also throws an interesting light on the changes and developments in late medieval England as well as important aspects of medieval aristocratic families, as for example, the profit and perils of service to the crown, the influence of family tradition and personal choice, loyalty and opportunism, and the role of women for the family.

Quote from Matthew Hefferan, ‘Review Monika E. Simon, From Robber Barons to Courtiers: The Changing World of the Lovells of Titchmarsh’, Speculum 98/3 (2023), 934-935. 'Monika E. Simon sets herself a difficult task in this book. Indeed, tracing the fortunes of a single noble family across five centuries in just 168 pages is a tall order.… Overall, this book achieves what it sets out to do: it engagingly tells the story of the Lovell family from their beginnings in Normandy in the eleventh century through to their fall in the late fifteenth and sixteenth. While it would have benefited from one or two additional thematic chapters that further explored pertinent themes, it nevertheless represents a useful contribution to our understanding of the nobility of medieval England.'

It's been quite a while since my book was published, there have been few reviews and the sales are not good either. For one thing, my book is about a rather niche subject. Even Francis Lovell, the only famous Lovell, is not really well-known. He is no Anne Boleyn or Napoleon. The fact that there were still Covid-related restrictions in place, when the book was published, prevented me from travelling to the UK to promote my book. The fact that I am lousy at self-promotion did not help either. On Amazon, there are only two ratings, no actual reviews. (Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Amazon.fr all have 2 ratings, namely 1 five-star and 1 four-star-rating.) Goodreads has a few more reviews, most give the book a mediocre rating. The word 'information dump' appears in almost all of them. There are too many names in the book, and all so similar, and too many complex family relationships. No doubt, there is plenty of room for improvement, and not only with regards to spelling and punctuation. I am very sorry that the genealogies are a pain to look at in the e-book version. Of course, a lot depends on what one expects from a book. This was never meant to be an easy read. Multiple, complex relationships between noble families were just what happened when a relatively small group of people continued to intermarry. I personally find these fascinating, hence also the many genealogies. Others probably think this is just boring. The Lovells, like almost all noble families, were very conservative with naming their offsping. Additionally, a handfull of names were chosen by the vast majority of nobles. Everywhere you look there are Thomases, Richards, Johns. Therefore, I am always delighted when I come across a man like Marmaduke Constable. But fashions changed then as now and so did traditions. In the late 14th century, the name Robert was first chosen as a name for the younger son of John Lovell VII and Maud Holland, whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather were called Robert. From John Lovell I who was born around the year 1200 to John Lovell VIII born in 1378 all heirs of the family had been called John. It is simply not known whether John VIII's heir William had had an elder brother called John who died before his father or whether John Lovell VIII and his wife Eleanor broke the family tradition in naming their eldest son William. William's heir was another John. But his heir was named Francis. It is possible that John Lovell IX and his wife Joan choose the name because their son was born on the feast day of St Francis (4 October). It is however equally possible that he was named after an unknown godfather, that their eldest son was called John and died as an infant, or that they simply had a penchant for unusual names. After all, they named one of their daughters Frideswide. Interestingly, while there were few men called Francis in the 15th centry, in the 16th century quite a few notables were, including Francis Drake and Francis Bacon. It is my considered opinion that a non-fiction book like mine should not indulge in speculations. It certainly makes the text drier, but, for example, we simply don't know whether any marriage discussed was good or not. There may be some indications, as when a widow remained unmarried or a wife accompanied her husband on long journeys. A widow may want to remain unmarried because she loved her husband very much, as the epitaph of Elizabeth de la Pole, the widow of Henry Lovell, Lord Morley claims. However, a widow who remained unmarried may be simply enjoy being a 'femme sole'. Another possibility is that her first marriage was such a disaster that she never wanted to be married again. In the end, the book is what it is. A study of 500 years of the history of a not particularly prominent noble family with a penchant for the name John. Even their most famous were more fame-adjacent than famous. But the lives of these men and women were more typical for the nobility as a whole than the higher and titled nobility. Researching how their lives changed through time was, I thought, worthwhile.

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