Charles Kingsley

The English author and clergyman Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) became the ideal of "Muscular Christianity" through his books and active, many-faceted life.

The son of a country parson, Charles Kingsley was born on June 12, 1819. After attending several schools he entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1838. He was more sportsman than scholar. Shortly after graduation in 1842, he was ordained an Anglican priest. In 1842 he became rector of Eversley, the parish he served until his death in 1875. In 1844 he married.

Kingsley was a tall, thin, excitable man with a stammer. His enthusiasms pulled him in many directions, just as they drew famous people, including royalty, to him. In 1848, with Frederick Denison Maurice and J. M. Ludlow, he founded Christian Socialism. To support the movement he wrote many articles over the signature "Parson Lot" and two novels, Alton Locke (1850), about the plight of the urban worker, and Yeast (1851), about the ills of the rural poor. However, Kingsley's opinions were far more Christian than socialist. Certainly he never wanted to upset the established social order.

Turning to history, Kingsley wrote two historical novels, Hypatia (1853) and Westward Ho! (1855). He grew interested in biology and wrote Glaucus (1855), a nonfictional description of the wonders of the shore. These books as well as his Christian Socialism fit the term "Muscular Christianity," but Kingsley was a poet too. In Andromeda (1858) he wrote the "very best English hexameters ever produced," according to George Saintsbury. However, perhaps his best-loved book was The Water-Babies (1863), a children's story in which he combined his interests in natural science and religion.

In 1859 Kingsley was appointed chaplain to Queen Victoria, and in 1860 he became regius professor of modern history at Cambridge. A man of so varied activities was hardly a scholar, but Kingsley's lectures, more about men than politics or economics, were popular. In 1861 he tutored the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, in history.

From the first Kingsley had been anti-Roman Catholic. In 1864 he entered into a controversy with John Henry Newman, about whether Newman taught that truth was no virtue among Roman Catholic priests. The controversy led to an exchange of pamphlets, a public apology by Kingsley for misrepresenting Newman, and Newman's great autobiography, Apologia pro Vita Sua.

In 1869 Kingsley resigned his professorship of history and was appointed canon of Chester; in 1873 he became canon of Westminster. He died on Jan. 23, 1875.

Further Reading

Mrs. Kingsley, Charles Kingsley: His Letters and Memories of His Life (1877), is a one-sided biography. Another study is Una Pope-Hennessy, Canon Charles Kingsley (1948). A good introduction to his life and work is Robert Bernard Martin, The Dust of Combat (1960).

Additional Sources

Chitty, Susan, Lady, The beast and the monk: a life of Charles Kingsley, New York: Mason/Charter, 1975, 1974.

Colloms, Brenda, Charles Kingsley: the lion of Eversley, London: Constable; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1975. □

Kingsley, Charles (1819–75), rector of Eversley in Hampshire. He was professor of modern history at Cambridge (1860–9) and canon of Chester and Westminster. His blank verse drama The Saint's Tragedy (1848) deals with the conflict between natural affections and asceticism, and its introduction attacking celibacy strikes an anti-Tractarian note that recurs throughout his work. At this period he was much influenced by F. D. Maurice and Carlyle. He contributed, over the signature ‘Parson Lot’, to Politics for the People (1848) and to its successor, The Christian Socialist (1850–1).

In 1850 he published his first novel, Yeast (serialized in Fraser's Magazine, 1848), and Alton Locke. Both are reforming novels, showing his concern with the sufferings of the working classes. A visit to Germany in 1851 inspired his first historical novel, Hypatia, or New Foes with Old Faces (1853), set in 5th-cent. Alexandria, published in Fraser's in 1851. Newman's Callista was written in part to correct its hostile portrait of the early Church. His next novel, Westward Ho! (1855), was set in the Elizabethan period; its hero, Devonshire seaman Amyas Leigh, wages war against the Armada and the Spanish captain Don Guzman, his rival in love. Two Years Ago (1857) returns to the theme of social reform; and Hereward the Wake (1866) is a historical novel based on the exploits of the legendary outlaw.

Kingsley's other works include The Heroes (1856) and The Water-Babies (1863). The latter displays his interest in underwater and seashore life, as does his earlier work Glaucus: or The Wonders of the Shore (1855). Many of his songs and ballads remain popular; these include ‘Airly Beacon’ and ‘The Sands of Dee’, and many of his lines, such as ‘Be Good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever’ (quoted in Two Years Ago) and ‘For men must work and women must weep’, from ‘The Three Fishers’, have become proverbial. Kingsley also wrote tracts on many topics, published lectures and sermons, and his At Last (1871) is a record of a long-desired visit to the West Indies.

Kingsley seems to represent some of the central paradoxes of his age. A keen sportsman who was tender to animals, a champion of the working man who despised Negroes, a muscular Christian who wrote much (like his friend T. Hughes) of the virtues of ‘manliness’ and who nevertheless held an unusually explicit passion for his wife, he was both Philistine and artist; his strong didacticism, while it mars many of his works, is inseparable from them.

Charles Kingsley 1819–75, English author and clergyman. Ordained in 1842, he became vicar of Eversley in Hampshire in 1844. From 1848 to 1852 he published tracts advocating Christian socialism . These views were embodied in his first two novels, Alton Locke (1850) and Yeast (1851), both of which deal with contemporary social problems. In his subsequent novels, including Hypatia (1853), Westward Ho! (1855), and Hereward the Wake (1866), he used historical settings to communicate his ideas. A statement denigrating the Roman Catholic clergy, made by Kingsley in an article, started a controversy with John Henry Newman that resulted in Newman's famous Apologia. In 1859, Kingsley was made chaplain to Queen Victoria. From 1860 to 1869 he was professor of modern history at Cambridge and in 1873 was appointed canon of Westminster. Several collections of his sermons were published during his lifetime. Included among his other notable work is the well-known children's book The Water Babies (1863).

Bibliography: See Letters and Memories (ed. by his wife, 2 vol., 1877, repr. 1973); biographies by M. F. Thorp (1937, repr. 1969), U. Pope-Hennessy (1948, repr. 1973), and B. Colloms (1975); study by A. J. Hartley (1981); S. Harris, Charles Kingsley: A Reference Book (1981).

Kingsley, Charles (1819–75). Vicar of Eversley (Hants), social reformer, novelist, and ‘muscular Christian’. Influenced by F. D. Maurice and Thomas Carlyle, Kingsley became a leading spirit in the Christian socialist movement of 1848–54, and under the pseudonym ‘Parson Lot’ contributed to Politics for the People (1848) and The Christian Socialist (1850–1). His novels Yeast (1848) and Alton Locke (1850) were sympathetic middle-class descriptions of working-class life. Kingsley looked to co-operation, education, and sanitary reform rather than radical politics for amelioration of the working classes. He was paternalistic and averse to monasticism, clerical celibacy, and all forms of asceticism, emphasizing instead the virtues of manliness, sport, and a ‘muscular’ type of Christianity. Kingsley was not an intellectual (despite his ludicrous appointment as professor of modern history at Cambridge, 1860–9) and was no match for John Henry Newman, whom he rashly accused of lying and whose reply led to the publication of the latter's Apologia (1864).

John F. C. Harrison

Kingsley, Charles (1819–75), social reformer and novelist. In 1844 he became vicar of Eversley, Hants, where he spent most of the rest of his life. He was a leading spirit in the Christian Socialist Movement, but he looked to educational and sanitary reform rather than political change for improvement in the condition of the people. He was at first the main pamphleteer of the group, writing under the pseudonym ‘Parson Lot’. Averse to all forms of asceticism, he was a critic of Tractarian ideals. An ill-considered jibe at J. H. Newman in 1863 led to the publication of the latter's Apologia. His own works include Westward Ho! (1855), The Heroes (1856), and The Water-Babies (1863).

Kingsley, Charles (1819–75). Vicar of Eversley (Hants), social reformer, novelist, and ‘muscular Christian’. Influenced by F. D. Maurice and Thomas Carlyle, Kingsley became a leading spirit in the Christian socialist movement of 1848–54, and under the pseudonym ‘Parson Lot’ contributed to Politics for the People (1848) and The Christian Socialist (1850–1). His novels Yeast (1848) and Alton Locke (1850) were sympathetic middle‐class descriptions of working‐class life.

Kingsley, Charles (1819–75) English writer. He was one of the first clerics to support Charles Darwin, whose ideas he partly incorporated into The Water Babies (1863). His popular historical novels include Hypatia (1843) and Hereward the Wake (1866).