PEDIGREES AND PREJUDICES

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27404, 17 July 1954, Page 3

PEDIGREES AND PREJUDICES

They Came with the Conqueror. By L. G. Pine. Evans Bros. 231 pp. Pedigrees hold a fascination for some people, and the phrase “his people came over with the Conqueror” kindles a feeling of awe in many a mind. Mr Pine, the editor of “Burke’s Peerage,” has indulged in a piece of scholarly entertainment pn the subject of William’s companions and their descendants. The facts that he puts forward will no doubt cause as much pleasure and pride in some quarters as they may cause chagrin in others; The popular conception of Norman ancestry as a sign of aristocratic descent is as ill founded as many other popular ideas. Many claims of Norman ancestry are so slightly based that (to quote Mr. Pine) “If I had £5 for every alleged case of Norman ancestry that came within my cognisance—a very few years would yield £1000.” “I doubt,” he says “whether in the whole of the peerage there are 20 genuine cases of Norman ancestry —lf one seeks Norman ancestry he is more likely to find evidence of it in the telephone or Post Office guide than in the pages of the Peerage or Landed Gentry. Many artisians and labourers bear old Norman names. Their ancestors were probably among the Barons who forced the King to grant Magna Carta.” Mr Pine examines the descent of the present holders of Dukedoms and finds only 12 of undoubted Norman descent. He adds some interesting chapters on the pedigrees of other members of the peerage and of the somewhat mixed group who now qualify as “landed gentry” among whom he suggests only 20 or 30 could prove their Norman descent. Americans and colonials will no doubt pore eagerly over the chapters on Normans in America and in the British Dominions. This part of the work is interesting and, based as it is upon a considerable knowledge of genealogy, can be regarded as a fair presentation of the facts. The parts of the book that discuss the history of William and his invasion are less easy to accept. Mr Pine appears to have a dislike of William and the Normans that is little short of fantastic. To quote an example: “The consequence (of the conquest) have permeated into every part of English life. The kindly Christianity of the White Christ worshipped by the English gave way to a Judaistic religion of forms far removed from any connexion with morals and based on an Italian agency operating for financial considerations.” Such nonsense makes the historical parts of the book quite worthless. It is indeed surprising that any man seriously claiming to be an historian of any sort could have written them.