When they were young...

Article by Sam Nicoresti. Edited by Stephen Woodward. Additional Research by Ellie Veryard.

In these modern times, youth is one of the newest and most exploitable markets for both capitalists and politicians alike. Everything revolves around the young in much the same way the sun used to revolve around the earth, that is to say, it’s a matter of perspective, and it depends who you ask. It is however, undeniable that the idea of ‘youth’ as a separate social class is a relatively recent phenomenon, permitted by an age of affluence that bought the young their freedom.

Money brings independence, it encourages the growth of social scenes, fashions tailored towards specific groups, music and record sales, emblems of a uniform. All of which is meant to represent the culture of the individual, one of the many contradictions inherent in the reverie of teenage years. 

The extension of universal suffrage, the baby boom, the rise of popular politics, activism, all of these have led, amongst others, to the rise in importance put on ‘the youth’ by politicians seeking party allegiance. The old are for the most part too set in their ways, the middle aged are perhaps too controlled by their own economic position and self-interest, but the young have that most resourceful and malleable of things, a newly forming ideology. 

All considered together, this is perhaps why today ‘the youth’ are paraded in front of us in television talent shows, have their own distinct culture, markets, social scenes, and are constantly evoked by politicians as a synonym for future, as though past the age of 30 you lose all relevance and use to mass society, (who here’s seen Logan’s Run?). 

‘The youth’ are either venerated for their potential, their talent, their ability to spend their parent’s money, or they are scorned for being drunk, promiscuous, violent, and dumb. There are points in between, but they don’t pull in as many ratings. The young we are exposed to through the wonders of new media today have their own language, their own fashion, they make their own hollow statements about themselves and then appear on their own panel shows to discuss them. 

However, as Bobby Kennedy once said: 

‘The answer is to rely on youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease’. 

In this vein I would like to present to you a few examples of historical figures when they were young, in the hope of illuminating the above quotation, and of providing a little perspective one some of history’s high achievers.

1. Joan of Arc – Possibly the most famous example of young historical figures, and the one that no doubt jumps instantly to mind. As Lao Tzu once said, “The flame that burns twice as brightly, burns half as long”, and this is certainly true of Joan of Arc, both figuratively in life as literally in death she burned, as Tyrell once quipped, “so very, very brightly”. Joan was born around 1412, and at age 12 she had her first vision, of ghostly saints who commanded her to drive out the English and restore the House of Valois to the French throne. 

At age 17 she convinced the clearly desperate Dauphin Charles that she could lead the French army to victory and save the regime. The extent to which Joan was involved in military tactics and leadership is debated, but it is clear that within a very short time of her arrival the tide of the war was turned, the siege of Orleans was broken, and the French enjoyed several important victories at Jargeau, The Battle of Patay, and the Siege of Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier. 

She was captured by the Burgundians in 1430 and sold to the English to be put on trail for heresy. On 30th May 1431, she was burned to death in Rouen at the age of 19, her charred remains were exposed to the crowd, twice reduced to ashes, and cast into the Seine. 

However, despite her early departure, she had a lasting and crucial impact upon the course of the war. The newly crowned King Charles VII succeeded in retaining his legitimacy to the throne, the English-Burgundian alliance fell apart, and the English never recovered their military of political might. She was canonised in 1920, and remains one of the most popular Roman Catholic saints to this day. Not bad for a teenager. 

2. William Pitt the Younger – As his epithet would suggest, William Pitt the Younger is a perfect candidate for this article, although of course he was so named in order to distinguish himself from his father, William Pitt the Elder, and not for any renowned youthfulness, though he did begin to distinguish himself from an early age. 

Pitt was born into power; his father had held the office of prime minister, anachronistic as the term is, and his mother was the sister of George Grenville, another former prime minister. Pitt was plagued by illness as a child, as he was to be for the majority of his life. He was home schooled, and showed from very early on a ferocious aptitude for study. He was called up to Pembroke College, Cambridge, when he was just fourteen, to study nothing less than political philosophy, classics, mathematics, trigonometry, chemistry, and history. Whilst there he even managed to find the time to cultivate a social life, get a reputation for his rapier wit and quiet charm, and befriend a young William Wilberforce. 

Illness proved detrimental to Pitt’s studies, but fortunately, as was the spirit of the age, he was allowed to make use of a get out clause available to the son’s of nobility alone, allowing him to graduate without sitting any examinations, which, considering the amount of subjects he was taking, was rather nice of them.

After that Pitt entered politics, and, following in the family footsteps, became Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1783, at just 24 years of age, the youngest person ever to have held the position. In parliament he was renowned for his ‘acid tongue’, it was said that very few could match him in debate, and no one could best him. 

He remained in power for 17 years, and then returned to the post a few years after that, though by then he was crippled by depression and showing the signs of mental collapse. Evidently the weight of his intellect was too much to be borne by age, but in his youth he truly was one of the brightest early risers Britain has ever produced. 

3. Hereward the Wake – Hereward is possibly one my all time favourite all-historical action figures. The tale of Hereward’s life is basically like the Hollywood remake of Robin Hood starring Mickey Rourke, with a healthy dash of romanticism, Norse mythology, epic battles, ridiculous feats, and heaps upon heaps of testosterone fuelled hijinks. 

Little reliable information can be sourced about Hereward’s life, it’s difficult to determine when in his life events took place, if at all, but for sheer entertainment alone Hereward deserves a place on this list. If the Gesta Herewardi can be trusted, which it probably can’t, then we can safely say that Hereward was a roughish, roguish kid. He got into so many scraps, brawls and dangerous adventures as a youth that when he was 19 his father had to go to Edward the Confessor in order to have him exiled from the community, in the hope of saving the neighbourhood. 

So begins the deeds of Hereward, which include slaying magic bears, disembowelling the toughest man in England, winning the hearts of two of the most beautiful women ever seen, playing the harp so beautifully as to be lavished with lands, men, and gold, and really sticking the boot into William the Conqueror at the Siege of Ely. 

In one segment, he distinguishes himself so well in battle as to reconcile the two opposing armies simply by virtue of inspiring awe in the hearts of the leaders on both sides. In another he disguises himself as a peasant in order to gain access to William’s court, where he kills several minor characters and manages to escape by subsequently disguising himself as a Norman boat man. Hereward is the archetypal hero, master of disguise, unbeatable warrior, irresistible wooer, and military tactician. 

As I quoted at the beginning, youth is ‘not a time of life but a state of mind’ and, to my mind, nobody embodies this better than Hereward, who relentlessly sought adventure despite overwhelming danger, ventured straight into the mouth of Hell and came out singing, and distinguished himself as one of the most respected warriors of the 11th century. 

Other high achievers in youth include among others: 

• Lucrecia de Leon- a sixteen year old girl prophetess in sixteenth century Madrid whose fame and purportedly subversive content of her dreams had her interrogated by the Spanish Inquisition. 

• William Garrow, an eighteenth-century lawyer whose aggressive style at the bar made him one of the most well known lawyers of the day. Despite later becoming Attorney General, his most successful career was as a barrister during his twenties. 

• Alexander the Great, who was left regent in his father’s absence at the age of 16 and successfully suppressed a revolt by the Thracian Maedi and founded the City of Alexandropolis.

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