The King killers & me
As you might expect of one of Britain’s grandest aristocrats – guardian of Northamptonshire’s beautiful Althorp estate, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales and uncle to Princes William and Harry – Earl Spencer has personal links to the English Civil War, which began in 1642 and culminated in the king losing his head seven years later.
As well as being related to Charles I himself, one of the Earl’s 23-year-old ancestors died at the Battle of Newbury after being struck in the nether regions by a cannonball.
But like so many of those who fought for the king in Britain’s bloodiest conflict – according to the National Archives, 3.6 per cent of the population (180,000 people) died from fighting, accidents and disease, compared with 2.6 per cent in the First World War – Earl Spencer isn’t a firebrand royalist. In fact, reading his book one rather gets the impression that he’s sympathetic to, even admires, some of the regicides.
‘I think my ancestor [killed at Newbury] was a very reluctant royalist, which I understand,’ he says. ‘In those days, kings were seen as God-anointed and representing Him on earth. It was one thing to oppose a king because you didn’t like his views politically, but it was quite another to draw your sword against him. My ancestor was actively against the crown during the run-up to the war but felt he couldn’t actually fight his king.’
AN END TO THE BLOODSHED
Given the sheer scale of the slaughter, he even appreciates why many believed Charles I – who defiantly resisted reform – ultimately had to die.‘I believe that they did have a right to put the king to death because I hadn’t appreciated before researching this book just how terrible the bloodshed was…
‘Many of the regicides were army officers, so they had seen the bloodshed themselves. They were not going to be romantic about dealing with the king. They were going to be quite practical… it wasn’t personal. The court that tried Charles I was effectively a military tribunal and they were trying to bring an end to the bloodshed and start again.’
A Hiroshima moment, then; a brutal, last attempt to extinguish a war seemingly without end? ‘Well, yes.’
But despite his sympathies for the parliamentarian cause, how would Earl Spencer, who comes across as affable, entertaining company, have got along with Old Ironsides himself, the surly future Lord Protector and signatory of Charles’s death warrant, Oliver Cromwell?
‘You’ve got to admire Cromwell for his political and military ability, but there’s a side of his character that I’m sure I wouldn’t have enjoyed… his religious and military bigotry, that gave him, in his view, the licence to behave in a blood-curdling way, in Ireland for example. He really did believe that the Catholics were a sort of Untermensch… and that therefore he was able to do as he wished without any pricking of his conscience…
‘That level of hatred for somebody because of their religion doesn’t sit very well with most people today.’
Indeed, while profligacy and a sense of entitlement did run through elements of the royalist ranks, the parliamentarians had more than their fair share of bad eggs, too. In fact, some of the Puritan factions were outright religious fanatics. Perhaps even the Taliban of their day?
‘Well, I agree. I think there is that. It is amazing how little human nature changes over the centuries. It is the danger of anyone believing that their religion is the one and only… the intolerance of competing religions.
‘Certainly, to have lived under the Commonwealth [established under Oliver Cromwell between the reigns of Charles I and II] would not have been much fun.
‘There was this virulent hatred of everything, all the symbols… so banning Christmas and making everything dour and unpleasant. They hated anything that was seen in any way to be superstitious or frivolous.’
In fact, ultimately it was all rather un-British, perhaps explaining why the nation so swiftly restored the monarchy following Cromwell’s death.
‘The British character really does gravitate towards a more rounded life than the one that was off ered under Cromwell,’ says the earl.
ATTITUDES ARE CHANGING
More than three centuries on, however, can the uncle of the future king ever see a time when the monarchy may again be abolished?‘Um, I’d rather skip that one, I think.’
And the aristocracy?
‘I think the aristocracy as it exists today is a fairly benign presence… there’s certainly no concept that they’re ruling and even their presence in the House of Lords is minimal,’ he says. ‘And I think that’s fair enough. When the hereditary principle in the House of Lords was abolished and very much reduced… I couldn’t fi nd a logical argument against that.
‘I don’t think that they’re really a threat to anyone… you only have to look at the Rich List now to see they have a very minimal hold in terms of wealth and power.’
Certainly attitudes towards the nobility appear to be changing – and changing for the better.
‘When I was young, the aristocracy was seen in a similar way to the most venal of hedge-fund managers now,’ he says. ‘They were the punchbags of the media.’
Earl Spencer takes very seriously his role as a guardian of a piece of Britain’s heritage and Althorp, which has been home to 19 generations of the Spencer family and is the resting place of the earl’s sister, Diana, is one of Britain’s great stately piles. It even puts Downton Abbey to shame.
‘Well, I don’t watch a lot of Downton Abbey but there’s a literary festival here and Julian Fellowes came to speak at it… he’s a very nice man and I did afterwards send him a clip from the Los Angeles Times with a review of a documentary on Althorp that said Althorp made Downton Abbey look like Downton Shabby.’
The earl, now 50, rather graciously puts much of this down to his staff, including three housekeepers, three gardeners, a plumber and, when the house is open to the public, 50 other employees, from wardens to guides.
‘We’ve incredibly dedicated household staff,’ he explains. ‘Our main housekeeper has been with me for over 20 years and everyone knows and loves her. It’s a wonderful piece of friendly continuity to have a housekeeper who’s part of the fabric of the place… In fact, recently, we had three staff members who retired after doing over 40 years.’
HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY
So Althorp sounds like a rather appealing place to work. ‘Well, I knew things had got slightly out of hand when my stepmother had a handyman who came to work in a Porsche, so I think some things needed looking at.’But what makes a great member of household staff? ‘It’s about anticipation and sensitivity, so for instance my family and I are, I think, quite low maintenance but every now and again we ramp it up with family and friends so it’s the flexibility to know that when there’s very little going on its okay to be a quieter presence. It’s also knowing the right sort of familiarity… that sounds so pompous.’
Of course, after inheriting the estate and title aged just 27, he must fulfil his role, too. ‘There is the very real duty of keeping together an art collection that is part of the national heritage, not just my family, and making sure the house is in good nick. I re-roofed it, I redid the exterior, I’ve redone everything, I think: fire alarms, decorations, plumbing, heating, everything during my 20 odd years here, it’s just a matter of keeping on top of it all, really.’
And one day he will pass it on to his heir, Louis. Twenty- year-old Louis is the fourth of Earl Spencer’s seven children and has three older sisters. So does he ever think it unfair that the family legacy must run along the male line? ‘Well, when we had my first child, a daughter, I wasn’t remotely worried about it. I thought if we only have daughters then my eldest will have the inheritance because I do believe that it should go down one funnel, otherwise you have three generations and it’s all gone.
‘I’ve never really been concerned about which direction it goes in but having myself been the fourth child and the eldest son, I would not go against the traditions that have come my way.’
Of course, Earl Spencer came to public prominence when he gave a deeply moving and emotive speech at Diana’s funeral. In fact, while he avoids talking about his sister, speaking per se is one of his undoubted gifts – he even offers coaching in it. So what’s the secret behind a great piece of oratory?
‘What’s most important is to know your own character… there’s no point if you’re Roger from accounts in trying to become an overblown speaker and equally if you’re some sort of master of the universe, you can’t pretend to be humble and shy. It’s suiting the speech to your own character. You also need to know what your audience needs to hear. It doesn’t mean you need to give them everything… know what they need to hear so you can address that or not. So I think it’s a fundamental honesty that whatever you present is you and is to the point.’
Sound advice – just be careful what you do with it. After all, it was just such fundamental honesty in one’s beliefs that led to the Civil War – and Earl Spencer’s ancestor taking a cannonball in his nether regions.
Killers Of The King, by Charles Spencer, is published by Bloomsbury, priced £20.
EARL SPENCER ON BLOODY LONDON
‘I’m not sure what it says about human nature, but public executions were phenomenally popular in [17th century] London and they were a sort of concept of a good death. The crowd was right behind you if you were brave – or drunk enough to be brave… Equally, if you died in a way that I’m pretty sure I’d die – a gibbering wreck – you were looked down on forever.‘It’s not nearly as visceral but a lot of reality television is, on a much lighter note, about trying to see how people react under certain circumstances of duress… I think people do enjoy seeing other people squirm a lot and obviously when it comes to hanging, drawing and quartering, they’ll love it.
‘Thirty years ago, I started working for NBC in the States and one of the veteran journalists took me aside and told me there’s only three reactions you’re trying to get from your audience: “Hey, that’s me”, “Hey, I wish that was me”, and “Hey, I’m glad that’s not me”. In this case, it was the last of those three.’