Jersey As It Is - Part 3

This Friday is a blog in which I have transcribed a translation of an essay called "Jersey as It Is", published in 1844, as the result of a winning entry by F. Robious de La Trehonnais which won first prize in the competition of the Jersey Emulation Society.

This third extract takes us from Henry IV to Henry VII of England. It is interesting, because the author sides with what we would call "progressive" forces of reform against what he calls the "oppression of feudality". I really like his description of the people of Jersey as "a people, attached to the principles of legitimate constitutions, who will yield neither to triumphant usurpations, neither to force nor intrigues ; but who will always act after their conviction, founded on justice and loyalty." That's us in a nutshell!

His father was Jean-François Robiou de la Tréhonnais, of a noble lineage in France, and who Gilbert tells me was "a chouan hero", who fled from Brittany , to Jersey, in 1789, as he wanted to escape the French Revolution.

Something of the scale of numbers fleeing during that time is mentioned in Michael Monteil's book "French Immigration to Jersey". He states:

"A century after the arrival of many religious refugees from France, Jersey became the destination, or at least the passing-through point, for a new group of French people in considerable numbers: those fleeing the Revolution of 1789. In this group were the nobility and their families. and supposedly ‘defiant’ (réfraclaires) priests who refused to swear their allegiance to the new Republic."

"At the time, Jersey would have had a population of slightly over 20,000 people. In the space of a few months, somewhere between three and four thousand people landed in the island, equating to between a sixth and a fifth of the local population. This would be like England or France seeing between ten and twelve million refugees arriving today!"

Jersey As It Is  - Part 3

Under the reign of Henry the Fourth, frequent descents were made on the islands ; and, though they had no other importance but that of mere plundering expeditions, they caused, however, great disasters among the inhabitants. The leaders of these bands were mostly lawless adventurers, who, palliating their piracy under the pretence of the war then raging between France and England, roved about the channel, having no other aim but to enrich themselves by blood and plunder.

During the reign of Henry the Fifth, though hostilities between the two countries were in their highest paroxysm of fury, the French did not attempt any enterprise of a more serious character than those I have mentioned. The king of France had enough to do then in defending his own kingdom, and had no leisure to attack the enemy on his territory.

Under Henry the Sixth important events happened. It was at the time when that unfortunate quarrel was kindled between the houses of York and Lancaster, a quarrel which caused the most disastrous results to our island. Margaret of Anjou went over to France to solicit help from Louis the Eleventh : this crafty prince, to whom no means appeared unavailable, however unlawful, as long as they forwarded his views, did not dare to declare himself openly for this princess; but set on foot an intrigue, which ended in a treaty between Margaret and a Norman lord, named Peter de Breze, count de Maulevrier, who bound himself to march against her enemies, and, as a reward for this service, he was promised the sovereignty over the Channel Islands.

Some historians, as I have mentioned, pretend that this treaty was the result of the intrigues of Louis the Eleventh, who coveted the ownership of these islands, of which his predecessors had failed to possess themselves by armed expeditions, and which he thought to obtain by means of his crafty machinations. It is certain, however, that a treaty of such importance could not have been settled without the approval of this monarch, as being the feudal master of this Norman adventurer.

The Count de Maulevrier, having left for England, sent one of his officers to take possession of his future dominions. The commander of the castle, who belonged to the party of the Queen, allowed himself to be surprised, and the garrison having been disarmed, the authority of the new lord was proclaimed throughout the island. It was not long before Maulevrier himself arrived ; he assumed all the manners of a despot, enacted laws, and publicly acknowledged his allegiance to the crown of France.

But the principle of loyalty, which until then had characterized the Jerseymen, could not be annihilated by the tyranny of the new master. The part of the island nearest to the castle was constrained to bend to his iron yoke; but the hearts of the inhabitants which the power of kings cannot crush, never ceased to kindle at the thoughts of liberty.

All the western part obstinately refused to yield to the Norman chief. Philip de Carteret, the worthy representative at that time of his heroic family, whose name always brightens the finest pages of Jersey history, and which is always seen where there has been an act of courage and heroism, placed himself at the head of this handful of inhabitants, and maintained for six years the sovereignty of Great Britain.

What a singular contrast is there exhibited within the narrow compass of so small an island! On the one hand, this new chief, morally propped by the sanction of a queen, and physically supported by a powerful monarch, who could succour in a few hours the instrument of his policy ; on the other, a faithful and gallant troop, far from the mother country, itself torn and weakened by factions, resisting the usurper, not only by their convictions to which they sacrificed all their interests, but by their gallant resistance whenever the sire of Breze attempted to crush them.

Edward the Fourth having at last mounted the throne of England, it was thought earnestly of purging the island from the presence of the Normans. Sir Harliston, who cruised in the channel with an imposing fleet, secretly communicated with Philip de Carteret, and they resolved to combine an attack, by land and by water, on the castle of Mont-Orgueil. The Normans, surprised, sustained for some time this formidable storm with astonishing bravery, and even repulsed their opponents ; but at last numbers prevailed, and, all communication with France being intercepted, they capitulated, and the British flag again waved over the whole surface of ancient Caesarea.

As a reward for so much attachment and bravery, Jersey received a new charter, the English admiral was appointed governor, and no doubt, though history does not mention it, the gallant de Carteret was included in this share of gratitude which manifested itself in so striking a manner.

Nothing important happened until the reign of Henry the Seventh. This prince, when he was only Duke of Richmond, driven by the misfortunes which attended his youth, was obliged to take a momentary refuge in the island.

During his exile he soon made himself acquainted with the laws and constitution by which Jersey was then governed, and, with his usual acuteness of observation, be quickly discovered their faults, which he remedied as soon as he came to the throne. He enlarged the charter and restrained the power of the governors : however, the evil, though apparently lessened, became at last so unbearable, and the exactions of the governors took such an alarming character that Helier de Carteret, then Bailiff of the island, went himself to London and did so well by his energetic protestations, that the governor was recalled.

Another evil remained still, so much the more formidable, as it was more difficult to uproot,-I mean the oppression of feudality.

This question, which has lately been revived, even rendered superfluous the royal authority, and the king of England was obliged to appeal to Pope Sixtus the Fourth, whose spiritual power obtained at last what the arrests of the court of justice, and the regal puissance had failed to achieve.

This page of the history of the island, already so bright and glorious, and which I have so summarily sketched; these noble defences against foreign invasion; this fidelity, proof against all seductions, all attempts to alienate its tendency : this page, so free of all the spots which stain the history of other nations, remains comparatively insignificant, compared with the one which is to follow.

For it will no more be a people sacrificing their fortunes or their lives to the religion of an oath, which binds them to a powerful country; it will no more be a struggle between foreign invaders and a handful of heroes, who fought for their independence ; it will be a people, attached to the principles of legitimate constitutions, who will yield neither to triumphant usurpations, neither to force nor intrigues ; but who will always act after their conviction, founded on justice and loyalty.

The cause for which they had so many times confronted death was too powerful a stimulus not to have created in the breasts of the Jerseymen all that heroism which a similar cause could not have failed to produce in any other people.

The comparative nothingness of their islet, the limited number of their population, caused them to seek, as a natural result, a protector, whom they had once chosen, and to whom they clung with a resolute courage, against which their neighbours' insinuations and powerful attacks never could prevail. This new epoch in their history will present quite a different motive to their fidelity.