Pillars of the Earth
Stormy Day, Arboretum, Washington, D.C.
Imagine…a country divided. Last Christmas I asked for and received, books from my family they’d read and found influential or interesting. I enjoyed each of them and initially thought I’d be done reading them in February, no later than March. But…not so fast. Ken Follet’s “Pillars of the Earth” 900 pages took me until June to finish. The book was fictional but grounded in historical “facts,” although facts may sometimes become a function of an author’s whim. “Pillars’” action takes place in 12th century England in what’s been called the “Anarchy” period…
My thoughts…
As the book starts, Henry I was King of England. His son and direct heir was lost in the Channel when the “White Ship” sank. After Henry died, two “siblings” battled for and traded claim to the throne for years. “Pillars’” plot centers around a community and its people. They built a cathedral and Kingsbridge, a busy industrial town out of a small, wooded, remote monastery. A stunning, world class cathedral was erected over decades in the social, economic, and governmental framework of the landed gentry surrounding the monastery. The changing politics, the weak-then-strong landowners, the piling-on cult like bonds of loyalty…all influenced the people in the story and the backdrop of the cathedral’s construction.
The Royal Courts of “Pillars” were intended to bring order and justice to the land and its people. However, Royal leadership changed often and with little notice. One day Queen Matilda and the next day King Stephen. True order and justice seemed unattainable except at the very lowest level, off the grid, and away from the Court’s center. Power and wealth were all that mattered…the Magna Carta was still years away.
Lesser Lords and knights would declare loyalty to whichever wannabe King was strongest at the moment. These bullies, Lords and Knights, would raid small villages and markets, raping and pillaging without risk of retaliation. No traditional justice was available because the rapists and pillagers were themselves the seats of justice. A fear of going to hell deterred some, however, the royals befriended priests who, also for power and money, would take the royal’s confession and forgive all…no matter what.
My present day naivete, my Pollyanna-like attitude, and my faith in justice-for-the-good were slowly squashed as I waded through those 900 pages. Imagine, inciting riots against the seat of government, reducing commoners to true pawns in a royal game of power, treating women like objects. Thank God we as a species have matured.