Florene S. Memegalos's George Goring (1608–1657): Caroline Courtier and Royalist General is one of the most recent forays into political and military biography of early modern Englishmen. The Sussex gentleman was ubiquitous in the various political, social, economic, and cultural developments of his age. Without question, controversy seemed to follow him while serving as a soldier, politician, and diplomatic envoy. In her work, Memegalos shows that men like Goring, who have eluded “serious attention” in contemporary accounts and modern biography, were not only a product of their times but also central in shaping them.

The foremost task that Memegalos sets out to accomplish is to rescue Goring from historical narratives that brand him a “notorious drinker and gambler” and a “negligent general”; such was the reputation of a man for whom contemporary royalist historian Sir Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, had lamented early in his chronicles, “And it were to be wished that there might be no more occasion to mention him hereafter” (quoted on 1–2). Hyde, however, had shared many of the same aspirations as Goring; in their own respective ways, both men were diligent in their pursuit of royal preferment and had dutifully espoused the cause of their king—not to mention the plight of the monarchy as a whole—as their own. However, as Memegalos discusses in the context of the civil wars, sharing the same moral principles was much more difficult in practice than in theory. From the recollection of endless political maneuvering that courtiers and country gentry alike were compelled to make to the exhaustive detailing of military strategizing and campaigning, Memegalos aptly describes the highly charged conflicts that arose between men of the same cause that were deeply imbued with a sense of honor and duty—to the extent that personal affronts to these principles could, and often did, lead to verbal tussles and violent exchanges. For Goring as well as for most gentlemen of his time, indictments against their integrity and loyalty were as potent a weapon as any early modern armament. Memegalos sides comfortably with contemporary and later chroniclers, as well as with modern military historians, who laud Goring as an ambitious and capable soldier whose military acumen was an unquestionable asset to the royalist side.

Memegalos largely shies away from the role of apologist in her attempt at salvaging the reputation of George Goring by seeking answers to why it was that he, if not guilty of the dereliction that Hyde claims, often did little to evade unfavorable criticisms heaped upon his character. His often disagreeable nature and occasional recalcitrance, although not necessarily peculiar for men on either the royalist or parliamentarian side, placed him at odds with most of his colleagues and duly perplexed those who supported him. Despite Goring's shortcomings, Memegalos is able to contextualize the behavior of men like Goring, who were confronted with situations that left little room for fleeting fancies and novel affections but instead placed their overall well-being and survival at stake. Throughout her work, Memegalos humbly wrestles with the question: What if George Goring was able to write his own memoirs?

One of the most intriguing aspects of Memegalos's study is her attention to the third George Goring (later created the Earl of Norwich in 1644), which she notes as a “secondary story” to that of his son. Memegalos begins her work with the modest early sixteenth-century origins of the Gorings as a gentry family in Sussex, which would eventually see its patriarch, the third George Goring, at both the Jacobean and Caroline courts. The elder Goring was obsessed with securing family wealth and inheritance and exhaustive in his pursuits of various founts of patronage. It was arguably the father's influence and resourcefulness that helped to pave the way for the son's dynamic career as a soldier and courtier. The elder Goring was able to enhance his eldest son's inheritance by procuring a favorable marriage arrangement with the daughter of a prominent Irish nobleman, and he even went so far as to press his son's suit when marital discord arose. Granted, Memegalos depicts this hands-on approach to fathering as shrewd political and economic calculation, yet she allows for an interpretation that sees the father's pragmatism as a sincere attempt at alternately admonishing and holding accountable the son for bouts of erratic or compulsive behavior. Perhaps the younger Goring's military gallantries and political exploits make for a more riveting narrative. Yet, one may ponder whether Memegalos should have undertaken a family study of the Gorings since the life and times of father and son were so inextricably linked.

Memegalos's approach to military and political biography of the colorful and historically contentious figure of Sir George Goring is as cumbersome as it is enlightening. The author expends boundless energy recounting events of the period in order to place her subject within its times, all the while engaging past and recent political and military historiography at every turn. She appears most at ease when teasing out the intricacies of military politics. However, her attention to details might be overwhelming even to the specialist reader. Memegalos indeed provides some candid insights into early seventeenth-century court patronage, networking, maneuvering, and the occasional frivolity that these efforts may entail. However, her treatment of conspicuous consumption and high court culture is never fully integrated into her narrative and perhaps could have been omitted altogether. Nevertheless, Memegalos is highly persuasive in resuscitating Sir George Goring from the reductive epitaph of “swearing, roaring, whoring Cavalier” and very successful in her overall attempt at situating him as “a man of his times” (367). As such, this book is a useful read for those interested in the peculiarities of English political culture and military politics of the early to mid-seventeenth century.