Campion Towers by Patricia Beatty

First published: 1965

Type of work: Historical fiction

Themes: Religion, family, and politics

Time of work: 1651-1652

Recommended Ages: 13-15

Locale: Campion Towers, Worcestershire, England, and Salem Town, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Principal Characters:

• Penitence (Pen) Hervey, a solemn, Puritan girl living in Salem, Massachusetts
• Douglas Sutton, her spoiled, jealous cousin, who is her only youthful companion
• Grandfather Killingtree, the English patriarch who grudgingly admires Pen’s spunk
• Julian Killingtree, “a gallant soldier and a slippery devil” (as characterized by Cromwell), who wins Pen’s love
• Oliver Cromwell, protector of her faith, whose terrible and awesome position affects many of Pen’s rash acts
• Charles Stuart, a merry yet exiled contender for the throne, whose daring spirit wins Pen’s aid

The Story

Penitence Hervey’s Puritan routine in Salem, Massachusetts, is shattered when a letter from her mother’s family in England begs her to visit her grandmother, who is dying. At the insistence of her harsh stepmother, who is eyeing the inheritance, her father agrees to the journey. Penitence is warned of the dangers her faith will meet. Landing in England to an unfriendly welcome, Penitence is escorted to Campion Towers by a Catholic woman, accosted by a strange highwayman, and insulted by her grandfather. Her grandmother, however, greets her warmly and reaffirms her inheritance of the Aylmer land and jewels.

The timing of Pen’s arrival plunges her into the civil war between Oliver Cromwell and Charles Stuart. Her resentment and fear of the Catholic faith (which she assumes is embraced by the family), as well as her one-sided view of her own Puritan faith, leads her to actions she would never have dared in solemn Salem.

Uncovering a secret passage, Pen discovers the presence of Charles Stuart (although she first thinks him to be a Catholic priest come to bury her grandmother). His outrageous attempt to kiss her, followed by a not too cousinly kiss from Julian Killingtree, begins to melt her rigid system of beliefs. Nevertheless, she rides to Cromwell to inform him of Stuart’s plan to hide at Campion Towers following the battle. The sights of the battle and the awesome intensity of Cromwell further confuse her.

During her return to Campion Towers, Pen gets caught behind Stuart’s Cavalier lines and is rescued by Julian. She regrets having betrayed Stuart. Returning to Campion Towers, she makes amends with her family. Stuart sends for her and, taking her inherited family jewels, she goes to him. Pen, Julian, Stuart, and others, pretending to be peasants, make their way to Scotland, where the king and Julian can find safe passage to France. She gives one of the jewels to Julian as pledge of her love. Some others she gives to the king to support his cause.

Returning to Salem, Penitence invests the remainder of the inheritance, thereby gaining status and better treatment from her stepmother. With great satisfaction, she receives word from Julian and the king of their safety. Julian tells of his impending visit to the colonies and signs the letter “with love.” Penitence is content.

Context

Campion Towers is the second book published by the Beatty husband-and-wife team. It appeared between two other books relating to adventurous attempts to retake the English throne. At the Seven Stars (1963) and The Royal Dirk (1966) each feature a heroic boy caught in political intrigue. Campion Towers, however, seems less historical and more introspective. Perhaps the use of a female as the main character has made the difference. In any event, the story is less brutal, making this novel more suitable for early adolescents. Although modern readers may find the extreme religious prejudices hard to understand, each person holds prejudicial beliefs that need to be tested by contact with real people instead of imagined ideas.

The authors’ notes at the end of each of their historical fiction books provide support and clarification for the plot. This careful attention to detail was appropriate for John Beatty, whose position as professor of history at the University of California, Riverside, particularly embraced the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He and his wife, Patricia, who also had taught history, spent time in England, researching these periods.

Campion Towers may remind the reader of Johnny Tremain (1943), by Esther Forbes, another book in which a young person is thrust into a war and chooses to take part in the action. The problem of divided loyalty, however, is more closely reflected in a later book, My Brother Sam Is Dead (1974), by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier. Tim, Sam’s brother, expresses that he will not be on anybody’s side, because neither side is wholly right. Pen and Tim both reflect truths too often ignored—that there is more than one side to every conflict and that there are good and evil people on each side.

At the time this book was published (1965), the United States was still hurting from the assassination of its president, John F. Kennedy. The nation was also beginning to feel the underswell of protest over the increasing hostilities in Vietnam. It was a time to examine loyalties and, as was so often the case, to feel that right or wrong did not necessarily draw the dividing line between sides. In this novel, a fictional voice reminds the reader of other times when issues were unclear and personal loyalties needed to be examined carefully.