Battle Song!

 My review of Battle Song by Ian Ross, part one of a new trilogy set during the Montfortian era in England. 

I usually wince a bit when reading novels or watching screen dramas set in this period; the events and people are all very complicated, but tend to be painted in very broad strokes. Happily, Ian has too much skill and respect for the subject to deal in cliché. 

"Battle Song is the first book of a barnstorming new trilogy by Ian Ross, an author who has previously focused on Constantine the Great and the later Roman Empire. In this he has switched to the equally bloody and complex complex world of 13th century England, a time of great upheaval, seismic political reforms and murderous civil strife. 

 The trilogy follows the story of Adam de Norton, a (fictional) young squire in the service of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, who dreams of knighthood and recovering his late father’s lands. After the death of his father in Wales, Adam’s inheritance was snatched away by strangers, leaving him without any great name, fortune or ancestral estate. His personal misfortune plays out against the wider canvas of the year 1261; after several years of bitter wrangling, it seems Henry III has curbed the power of his rebellious barons, led by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Yet the respite is only temporary, and storm-clouds are poised to engulf the kingdom. 

After a fatal hunting accident, Adam is transferred to the service of Sir Robert de Dunstanville, a ruthless knight with a bad reputation, who needs a squire to accompany him on the tournament circuit in France. Ross particularly excels in describing the bloody chaos of tourneys in this era, very different from the more decorous jousts of the later period. Tourneys were pitched battles, essentially, which often degenerated into free-for-alls and spilled over into the crowd. The idea was to capture knights for ransom, but crippling wounds or even death were commonplace. Adam witnesses the brutish violence and strategy at first, and saves the life of a certain Edward Longshanks, who scarcely needs any introduction. This episode is based on the reality of Edward’s painful early experiences on the French tourney circuit, where he was gravely wounded on several occasions. 

From here on, Adam is increasingly drawn into the battle for power in England, as well as his own private entanglements. This is not merely a story of battles and men at war, although that would be no bad thing: Adam gets romantically involved with Robert’s niece, Joanne de Quincy, adding emotional depth to the tale. The story gradually builds in scope and intensity, as Adam finds himself embroiled in full-scale battles and sieges, including an epic set-piece at Rochester and the showdown at Lewes, where Simon defeated the royalists and took Henry and Edward prisoner. Ross is a master at describing the grim reality of war, up close and personal, the sweat and cramp and terror of being trapped in contending battle-lines, or the hellish danger of scaling castle walls under a storm of rocks and missiles. 

While none of the conflicts are resolved (it is only the first book, after all), this reader was left keen to discover how things play out—even though I am well aware of the period, and the fate of the historical characters. These are all very well-drawn, especially Simon and Edward, whom Ross presents (quite properly) as formidable, alluring and yet repellent at the same time, as engaging as they are untrustworthy. The subtlety of these depictions, with the author refusing to paint with primary colours, is another tick in the novel’s favour. It is all too easy to portray controversial figures as simplistic heroes and villains, but Ross has too much skill, as well as passion and respect for the subject, to stoop to crude caricature."