Brilliana Harley's dilemma
Am researching the life of Brilliana Harley (1598-1643) for a book on her to be released I hope this summer.
What a dilemma she faced: her loyalty to her King (Charles I) was deeply tested when his religious policies clashed with her Puritan convictions. She and her husband, Sir Robert Harley (among other things, the head of the Committee for the Demolition of Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry), were staunch Presbyterians. And although Robert Harley fought in the early stages of the Civil War against the King and the Royalists, he was totally opposed to putting Charles I on trial. Not surprisingly, he was among those whom Cromwell purged from Parliament in December of 1648.
When the King’s soldiery had besieged Brilliana and Robert’s castle at Brampton Bryan in the summer of 1643, she refused to surrender it to her monarch (Robert was away the entire time of the siege), all the while protesting she was a loyal subject. Charles I actually penned a letter to her personally demanding the surrender of the castle. He refusal is classic.
What a dilemma! It is a tremendous story of courage, vim, and vigour.
As the 19th century editor of some of her letters, Richard Ward, noted when reading her correspondence: “we are in the presence of a true woman, one who was brave but not fearless, prepared to sacrifice herself to her sense of duty, and ready, when called upon to defend her principles, to rise to the loftiest heights of heroism.”