Charles Kingsley wrote his most popular work, the patriotic Westward Ho!, for adults, although it quickly fell into the category of children’s literature. While Kingsley had long been a political radical, the onset of the Crimean War, which many British protested, converted him to a conservative. Imperialism is an overt theme in the novel, and he made clear his support of old-fashioned heroism and ardent devotion to England, at a time when the Manchester school countered the war for reasons economic and humanitarian.

A far-reaching historical novel, Westward Ho! celebrated England’s victory over Spain in the days of well-known figures that appear as characters in the novel, including Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the poet Edmund Spenser, celebrator of Queen Elizabeth I. It proved a great adventure story, affecting British children for decades with its romance notions of the country and its real-life heroes.

Kingsley incorporated his affection for the North Devon coast into the setting, his appreciation for physical prowess into the plot, and his enduring admiration of courage in the face of danger into the shaping of his characters. Religion was also a theme, as Kingsley reveals his prejudice against Catholics in his focus on the Inquisition and the suffering it caused. His bias toward Protestantism remains realistic for the era and is featured in the novel when Jesuits inflict gruesome torture on prisoners, roasting them alive. Protestant heroes correct such injustices, battling what appear to readers as the dark forces of evil.

To those who protested that Kingsley made his protagonist, Amyas Leigh, and his brother Frank, who in the novel serves with Sir Philip Sidney, too exaggerated to prove acceptable, supporters of the novel reminded readers to recall the “high types” that lived in England in 1588. As an example, the character Sir Richard Grenville tells his godson Amyas early on, “To conquer our own fancies, Amyas, and our own lusts, and our ambition in the sacred name of duty; this it is to be truly brave, and truly strong; for he who cannot rule himself, how can he rule his crew or his fortunes?” Readers know what follows will highlight men who live by those rules.

To be expected, the narrative includes broad stereotypes, especially of women, with both Rose Salterne, the wealthy mayor’s daughter, and the young “beautiful vision,” half-English and half-Spanish Ayacanora, as examples. Rose serves as the focus of a band of young men who label themselves the Brotherhood of the Rose, vowing to forever serve her and one another, as knights did for the wives of their lords in feudal days. Rose remains dedicated to her Christian faith. Along with Frank, Rose will be burned in the Inquisition, providing sacrificial icons around which Amyas will rally, swearing revenge against the Spaniards.

Ayacanora falls in love with Amyas, but in the romance tradition, he ignores all passion except for vengeance. At the novel’s conclusion, when Amyas returns from upholding his nation’s honor, Ayacanora begs him to “let me fetch and carry for you, tend you, feed you, lead you, like your slave, your dog!” Amyas agrees, and a symbolic peace, represented by Ayacanora’s mixed blood, also represents the literal peace the Amyas Leigh, now a captain, feels.

Once joined to Amyas in marriage in a country temporarily free of strife, Ayacanora’s ability to sing returns, and her voice soars “as on a skylark’s wings, into the highest heaven.” Kingsley’s hyperbole is not unexpected, as he writes in the style of medieval romance, clearly indicated in the novel’s complete title: Westward Ho! or The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Rendered into Modern English by Charles Kingsley. Kingsley supports well his ruse of paraphrasing a true medieval tale by including all those elements of a heroic legendary past, which he so valued.

Bibliography
Hartley, Alan J. The Novels of Charles Kingsley: A Christian Social Interpretation. Folkestone, U.K.: Hour-Glass Press, 1977.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

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