November 9, 1918: Abdication of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

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Abdication, Friedrich Ebert, Friedrich III of Germany, German Chancellor, German Empire, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Prince Maximilian of Baden, Victoria Princess Royal, Wilhelm II of Germany, World War I

Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; January 27, 1859 – June 4, 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from June 15, 1888 to his abdication November 9, 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe, most notably King George V of the United Kingdom and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia.

Wilhelm was born at the Crown Prince’s Palace, Berlin, to Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm of Prussia (the future Friedrich III) and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Britain’s Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Friedrich-Wilhelm IV was king of Prussia, and his grandfather and namesake Wilhelm was acting as Regent. He was the first grandchild of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, but more important, as the first son of the Crown Prince of Prussia, Wilhelm was second in the line of succession to Prussia, from 1861 onwards and also, after 1871, to the newly created German Empire, which, according to the constitution of the German Empire, was ruled by the King of Prussia. At the time of his birth, he was also sixth in the line of succession to the British throne, after his maternal uncles and his mother.

 

Accession and Reign

Kaiser Wilhelm I died in Berlin on 9 March 1888, and Prince Wilhelm’s father ascended the throne as Friedrich III. He was already suffering from an incurable throat cancer and spent all 99 days of his reign fighting the disease before dying. On June 15 of that same year, his 29-year-old son succeeded him as German Emperor and King of Prussia.

His reign would last to November 9, 1918. Despite strengthening Germany’s position as a great power by building a blue-water navy and promoting scientific innovation, his tactless public statements and reckless foreign policy greatly antagonized the international community and ultimately plunged his country into World War I. When the German war effort collapsed after a series of crushing defeats on the Western Front in 1918, he was forced to abdicate, thereby bringing an end to the Hohenzollern dynasty’s three hundred year rule.

Abdication

Wilhelm was at the Imperial Army headquarters in Spa, Belgium, when the uprisings in Berlin and other centres took him by surprise in late 1918. Mutiny among the ranks of his beloved Kaiserliche Marine, the imperial navy, profoundly shocked him. After the outbreak of the German Revolution, Wilhelm could not make up his mind whether or not to abdicate. Up to that point, he accepted that he would likely have to give up the imperial crown, but still hoped to retain the Prussian kingship.

However, this was impossible under the imperial constitution. Wilhelm thought he ruled as emperor in a personal union with Prussia. In truth, the constitution defined the empire as a confederation of states under the permanent presidency of Prussia. The imperial crown was thus tied to the Prussian crown, meaning that Wilhelm could not renounce one crown without renouncing the other.

Wilhelm’s hope of retaining at least one of his crowns was revealed as unrealistic when, in the hope of preserving the monarchy in the face of growing revolutionary unrest, Chancellor Prince Max of Baden announced Wilhelm’s abdication of both titles on 9 November 1918. Prince Max himself was forced to resign later the same day, when it became clear that only Friedrich Ebert, leader of the SPD, could effectively exert control. Later that day, one of Ebert’s secretaries of state (ministers), Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann, proclaimed Germany a republic.

Wilhelm consented to the abdication only after Ludendorff’s replacement, General Wilhelm Groener, had informed him that the officers and men of the army would march back in good order under Paul von Hindenburg’s command, but would certainly not fight for Wilhelm’s throne on the home front. The monarchy’s last and strongest support had been broken, and finally even Hindenburg, himself a lifelong royalist, was obliged, with some embarrassment, to advise the Emperor to give up the crown.

On 10 November, Wilhelm crossed the border by train and went into exile in the Netherlands, which had remained neutral throughout the war. Upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles in early 1919, Article 227 expressly provided for the prosecution of Wilhelm “for a supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity of treaties”, but the Dutch government refused to extradite him, despite appeals from the Allies. King George V wrote that he looked on his cousin as “the greatest criminal in history”, but opposed Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s proposal to “hang the Kaiser”.

It was reported, however, that there was little zeal in Britain to prosecute. On January 1, 1920, it was stated in official circles in London that Great Britain would “welcome refusal by Holland to deliver the former kaiser for trial,” and it was hinted that this had been conveyed to the Dutch government through diplomatic channels.

Wilhelm first settled in Amerongen, where on November 28, 1918 he issued a belated statement of abdication from both the Prussian and imperial thrones, thus formally ending the Hohenzollerns’ 500-year rule over Prussia. Accepting the reality that he had lost both of his crowns for good, he gave up his rights to “the throne of Prussia and to the German Imperial throne connected therewith.”

He also released his soldiers and officials in both Prussia and the empire from their oath of loyalty to him. He purchased a country house in the municipality of Doorn, known as Huis Doorn, and moved in on May 15, 1920. This was to be his home for the remainder of his life. The Weimar Republic allowed Wilhelm to remove twenty-three railway wagons of furniture, twenty-seven containing packages of all sorts, one bearing a car and another a boat, from the New Palace at Potsdam.

Wilhelm died of a pulmonary embolus in Doorn, Netherlands, on June 4, 1941, at the age of 82, just weeks before the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.

January 22, 1901: Death of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Empress of India.

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Empress of India, Frogmore, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Edward, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, The Duke of Kent, Victorian Era

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; May 24, 1819 – January 22, 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837 until her death. On May 1, 1876, she adopted the additional title of Empress of India. Known as the Victorian era, her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any of her predecessors. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III and Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the fourth daughter and seventh child of Franz Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf. After both her father the Duke of Kent and his father, King George III, died within a week of one another in January 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father’s three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue (King George IV died 1830, Frederick, Duke of York died 1827, King William IV died 1837).

The United Kingdom was an established constitutional monarchy in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, she attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

In February of 1840 Queen Victoria married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second son of Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet “the grandmother of Europe” and spreading haemophilia in European royalty. After Albert’s death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism in the United Kingdom temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

In July 1900, Victoria’s second son Alfred (“Affie”) died. “Oh, God! My poor darling Affie gone too”, she wrote in her journal. “It is a horrible year, nothing but sadness & horrors of one kind & another.”

Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent the Christmas of 1900 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Rheumatism in her legs had rendered her lame, and her eyesight was clouded by cataracts. Through early January, she felt “weak and unwell”, and by mid-January she was “drowsy … dazed, [and] confused.” She died on Tuesday January 22, 1901, at half past six in the evening, at the age of 81. Her son and successor, King Edward VII, and her eldest grandson, German Emperor Wilhelm II, were at her deathbed. Her favourite pet Pomeranian, Turi, was laid upon her deathbed as a last request.

On January 25, King Edward VII, Wilhelm II and her third son, Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, helped lift her body into the coffin. Her funeral was held on Saturday 2 February 2, in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park.

With a reign of 63 years, seven months and two days, Victoria was the longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning queen regnant in world history until her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II surpassed her on September 9, 2015. She was the last monarch of Britain from the House of Hanover. Her son and successor Edward VII belonged to her husband’s House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

When Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, her eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales became King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and, in an innovation, King of the British Dominio. He chose to reign under the name of Edward VII, instead of Albert Edward—the name his mother had intended for him to use —declaring that he did not wish to “undervalue the name of Albert” and diminish the status of his father with whom the “name should stand alone.” The numeral VII was occasionally omitted in Scotland, even by the national church, in deference to protests that the previous Edwards were English kings who had “been excluded from Scotland by battle”.

On this date in history: May 6, 1882. The 137th Anniversary of the birth of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany and Prussia.

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birth, Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Crown Prince Wilhelm, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany and Prussia, Crown Princess of Prussia, German Emperor, German Empire, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, World War I

Wilhelm, German and Prussian Crown Prince (Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst, May 6, 1882 – July 20, 1951) was the eldest child and heir of the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, and his wife Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.

HIRH Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany and Prussia

Wilhelm was the last Crown Prince of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. After the death of his grandfather, Emperor Friedrich III, Wilhelm became crown prince at the age of six, retaining that title for more than 30 years until the fall of the empire on November 9, 1918. During World War I, he commanded the 5th Army from 1914 to 1916 and was commander of Army Group German Crown Prince for the remainder of the war.

Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Wilhelm married Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (20 September 1886 – 6 May 1954) in Berlin on 6 June 1905. After their marriage, the couple lived at the Crown Prince’s Palace in Berlin in the winter and at the Marmorpalais in Potsdam. Cecilie was the daughter of Friedrich Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1851–1897) and his wife, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia (1860–1922). Their eldest son, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, was killed fighting for the German Army in France in 1940. However, during the early stages of his marriage the crown prince had a brief affair with the American opera singer Geraldine Farrar, and he later had a relationship with the dancer and spy the infamous Mata Hari.

Their children are:

1. Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1906–1940), who renounced his succession rights in 1933. He married 1933 Dorothea von Salviati and had issue.

2. Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia (1907–1994); married 1938 Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia and had issue.

3. Prince Hubertus of Prussia (1909–1950); married 1941 Baroness Maria von Humboldt-Dachroeden, 1943 Princess Magdalena Reuss and had issue.

4. Prince Friedrich of Prussia (1911–1966); married 1945 Lady Brigid Guinness and had issue.

5. Princess Alexandrine of Prussia (1915–1980), called “Adini.” She had Down’s syndrome.

6. Princess Cecilie of Prussia (1917–1975); married Clyde Kenneth Harris on 21 June 1949, and had issue

German and Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst

Crown Prince Wilhelm became head of the House of Hohenzollern on June 4, 1941 following the death of his father and held the position until his own death on 20 July 1951. To monarchists he was Wilhelm III, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

Kaiser Wilhelm II Dismisses Chancellor Bismarck: March 18, 1890.

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German Chancellor, Imperial German Chancellor, Kaiser, Kaiser Friedrich III, Kaiser Friedrich III of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm I, Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Otto von Bismark, World War I

Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg (Born von Bismarck-Schönhausen; (April 1, 1815 – July 30, 1898), known as Otto von Bismarck he was a conservative Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890 and was the first Chancellor of the German Empire between 1871 and 1890.

Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of the German Empire.

In 1862, King Wilhelm I of Prussia appointed Bismarck as Minister President of Prussia, a position he would hold until 1890, with the exception of a short break in 1873. He provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark, Austria, and France. Following the victory against Austria, he abolished the supranational German Confederation and instead formed the North German Confederation as the first German national state in 1867, leading it as Federal Chancellor.

This aligned the smaller North German states behind Prussia. Later receiving the support of the independent South German states in the Confederation’s defeat of France, he formed the German Empire in 1871, unifying Germany with himself as Imperial Chancellor, while retaining control of Prussia at the same time. The new German nation excluded Austria, which had been Prussia’s main opponent for predominance among the German states.

Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

With that accomplished by 1871, he skillfully used balance of power diplomacy to maintain Germany’s position in a Europe which, despite many disputes and war scares, remained at peace. For historian Eric Hobsbawm, it was Bismarck who “remained undisputed world champion at the game of multilateral diplomatic chess for almost twenty years after 1871, [and] devoted himself exclusively, and successfully, to maintaining peace between the powers”. However, his annexation of Alsace-Lorraine gave new fuel to French nationalism and promoted Germanophobia in France.This helped set the stage for the First World War.

In 1888 Kaiser Wilhelm I died, leaving the throne to his son, Friedrich III. The new monarch was already suffering from cancer of the larynx and died after reigning for only 99 days. He was succeeded by his son, Wilhelm II, who opposed Bismarck’s cautious foreign policy, preferring vigorous and rapid expansion to enlarge Germany’s “place in the sun.”

Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Bismarck was sixteen years older than Friedrich III; before the latter became terminally ill, therefore Bismarck did not expect he would live to see Wilhelm II ascend to the throne and thus had no strategy to deal with him. Conflicts between Wilhelm II and Bismarck soon poisoned their relationship. Their final split occurred after Bismarck tried to implement far-reaching anti-socialist laws in early 1890. The Kartell majority in the Reichstag, including the Conservative Party and the National Liberal Party, was willing to make most of the laws permanent. However, it was split about the law granting the police the power to expel socialist agitators from their homes, a power that had been used excessively at times against political opponents. The National Liberals refused to make this law permanent, while the Conservatives supported only the entirety of the bill, threatening to and eventually vetoing the entire bill in session because Bismarck would not agree to a modified bill.

As the debate continued, Wilhelm II became increasingly interested in social problems, especially the treatment of mine workers during their strike in 1889. Keeping with his active policy in government, he routinely interrupted Bismarck in Council to make clear his social views. Bismarck sharply disagreed with Wilhelm’s policies and worked to circumvent them. Even though Wilhelm II supported the altered anti-socialist bill, Bismarck pushed for his support to veto the bill in its entirety. When his arguments could not convince Wilhelm, Bismarck became excited and agitated until uncharacteristically blurting out his motive to see the bill fail: to have the socialists agitate until a violent clash occurred that could be used as a pretext to crush them.

Wilhelm countered that he was not willing to open his reign with a bloody campaign against his own subjects. The next day, after realizing his blunder, Bismarck attempted to reach a compromise with Wilhelm by agreeing to his social policy towards industrial workers and even suggested a European council to discuss working conditions, presided over by the Emperor.

Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Still, a turn of events eventually led to his breaking with Wilhelm. Bismarck, feeling pressured and unappreciated by the Emperor and undermined by ambitious advisers, refused to sign a proclamation regarding the protection of workers along with Wilhelm, as was required by the German constitution. His refusal to sign was apparently to protest Wilhelm’s ever increasing interference with Bismarck’s previously unquestioned authority. Bismarck also worked behind the scenes to break the Continental labour council on which Wilhelm had set his heart.

The final break came as Bismarck searched for a new parliamentary majority, as his Kartell was voted from power as a consequence of the anti-socialist bill fiasco, the remaining forces in the Reichstag were the Catholic Centre Party and the Conservative Party. Bismarck wished to form a new block with the Centre Party and invited Ludwig Windthorst, the parliamentary leader, to discuss an alliance. That would be Bismarck’s last political maneuver. Upon hearing about Windthorst’s visit, Wilhelm was furious.

In a parliamentary state, the head of government depends on the confidence of the parliamentary majority and has the right to form coalitions to ensure their policies have majority support. However, in Germany, the Chancellor depended on the confidence of the Emperor alone, and Wilhelm believed that the Emperor had the right to be informed before his minister’s meeting.

After a heated argument in Bismarck’s office, Wilhelm—to whom Bismarck had shown a letter from Tsar Alexander III describing Wilhelm as a “badly brought-up boy”—stormed out, after first ordering the rescinding of the Cabinet Order of 1851, which had forbidden Prussian Cabinet Ministers from reporting directly to the King of Prussia and required them instead to report via the Chancellor. Bismarck, forced for the first time into a situation that he could not use to his advantage, wrote a blistering letter of resignation, decrying Wilhelm’s interference in foreign and domestic policy. The letter, however, was published only after Bismarck’s death.

“Dropping the Pilot”, a famous caricature by Sir John Tenniel (1820–1914), first published in the British magazine Punch, March 29, 1890.

Bismarck resigned at Wilhelm II’s insistence on March 18, 1890, at the age of seventy-five.

On this date in History: January 20th, 1936. Death of HM King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India.

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Czar Nicholas II of Russia, Delhi Durbar, George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King George V of Great Britain, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain

 

On this date in History: January 20th, 1936. Death of HM King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India. The king had reigned for 25 years.

He was the second son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and the grandson of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria. From the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession behind his father and his own elder brother, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, until the unexpected death of his elder brother in early 1892 put him directly in line for the throne. On the death of his grandmother in 1901, George’s father became King-Emperor of the British Empire, and George was created Prince of Wales. He succeeded his father in 1910. He was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar.

His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. As a result of the First World War (1914–18) the empires of his first cousins Czar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany fell while the British Empire expanded to its greatest effective extent. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment. In 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had health problems throughout much of his later reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII.

Royal Grief: Part IV

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Edward VII, grief, Kaiser Friedrich III of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, The Duke of Clarence

Within seven months of the death of his mother, King Edward VII suffered the death of his sister, Victoria, Princess Royal, The Empress Frederick of Germany, eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Princess Victoria was born on 21 November 1840. She married Friedrich-Wilhelm of Prussia in 1858, a love match but also a dynastic alliance in the hope of helping liberalize Prussia. However, her father-in-law (Kaiser Wilhelm I) lived to be 90 and her husband was already terminally ill with throat cancer when he finally became Kaiser Friedrich III in March of 1888. Kaiser Friedrich III reigned for just 3 months and was succeeded by his eldest son Wilhelm II, a militaristic ruler in the mold of his grandfather. Victoria, who now styled her self The Empress Frederick,  and her son did not get along, and she was marginalized for the rest of her life, finally dying in 1901, a few months after Queen Victoria.
In the summer of 1900 Edward VII, then still Prince of Wales, spent much of the summer in Berlin with his sister, the Empress Frederick, as her health began to deteriorate. Edward VII had regular visits at the spa at Bad Homburg. He would not see his sister once again until February of 1901, a month after his succession to the throne. When he came to see his sister, it was not known how much longer she had to live. Edward brought with him his private secretary, Sir Frederick Ponsonby, and a couple of English doctors to help treat his sister.
Vicky did not have a great relationship with German doctors. She felt that they were partly responsible for the difficult delivery of her son, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II, and they mismanaged and treated her husbands (Kaiser Friedrich III) throat cancer. Indeed the Empress Frederick was kept in such pain because the German doctors gave her so little morphine for her pain. The English doctors were able to giver more pain relief much to the resentments of the German physicians in attendance.
When Kaiser Friedrich III died in 1888 his son, the new Kaiser Wilhelm II, surrounded the palace with his troops in order to secure any of his father’s documents and other writings and letters. It seemed history would repeat itself when the Empresses Frederick died. This was the main reason Sir Frederick Ponsonby was there. The letters and documents of the Empress Frederick were smuggled out of Germany in Ponsonby’s luggage and kept in his own private estates instead of the archives at Windsor in an attempt to out manouver the Kaiser.
The Empress Frederick died in Friedrichshof on 5 August 1901 ending a long illness that began in late 1898 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer that would eventually metastasize to her spine. She was buried next to her husband in the royal mausoleum of the Friedenskirche at Potsdam on 13 August 1901.
Edward VII and Vicky had been close all their lives. Altogether their parents had differing views of each child, Vicky was Prince Albert’s favorite child, while Bertie (Albert-Edward) was a great disappointment to his mother, this did not seem to affect their relationship.
This concludes the King’s year of grief…the loss of a nephew in 1899 then between July 30, 1900 to August 5, 1901 the King lost his brother, mother and sister. If we expand the time back ten years or so, the King lost his eldest son (Prince Albert-Victor, Duke of Clarence) in 1892 and another nephew, Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein in October of 1900. That is a lot of grief and loss for one person in that span of time.

Survival of Monarchies: Part X, Conclusions.

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Charles of Austria, Constitutional Monarchy, Emperor Carl of Austria, France, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Louis XVI of France, Royal Marriages Act of 1772, The Succession to the Crown Act of 2013, United Kingdom

This has been a very long series. Here is the conclusion. As stated in the beginning my premise for the survival of the monarchies that are extant is due to a more Liberal political view that allowed these systems to adapt and change with the times. These are also the reasons why these systems are continuing to survive. For example, the United Kingdom followed the direction the Scandinavian and Benelux monarchies have gone in regards to gender neutrality for the succession to the crown. In the future the eldest child will inherit the throne regardless of gender. For a further example, if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s new baby is a girl, she will follow Prince George and become fourth in line to the throne as she would have under the old laws. However, she will not be moved down in the succession by any future younger brothers. The Succession to the Crown Act of 2013 has finally gone into affect once Australia finally approved it. Other more Liberal provisions of the Act was to repeal the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 so now only the first 6th in line to the throne have to ask permission of the sovereign to marry. The Act also restored to the order of succession those who had married Catholics. So as long as a Prince or Princess married a Catholic they will no longer lose their place in the succession. However, if a British Prince or Prince converts to the Catholic faith or is baptized into the faith they will lose their place in the succession.

We have seen that in Britain they went from an almost absolute monarchy under the Tudors to the Constitutional Monarchy they have today. Although it was a very rough road to get to where we are today the monarchy did survive because it was able to adapt to the changing political philosophies of the day. We saw the same thing in Denmark although with much less bloodshed. In Denmark the king took over the power and when the people desired a Constitution with a monarch that had lesser power it was granted easily. When King Christian IX (1863-1906) tried to wield more power than he had he was very unpopular for it and almost lost his crown. His ability to adapt to how things were helped save that crown.

Russia, Austria-Hungary and the German Empire (and France) all fell during times of war but the staunch Conservatism and the inability to change lead to the downfall of each. Both Czar Nicholas II of Russia and King Louis XVI lost their thrones and lives during revolutions. Brief periods of Constitutional Monarchy were attempted but each monarch were used to centuries of personal autocracy and the sharing of power was seen as being beneath them. Plus, these bodies (Parliaments) were not very trusting of their sovereigns either. Kaiser’s Wilhelm II and Carl I-IV lost their thrones because the people no longer wanted them. I think this point cannot be over stressed. Both Germany and Austria-Hungry clung to a type of autocracy that had fallen out of favor over a century.

I think it brings up a good point to close with. It is important that monarchies bend to the changing times for the most important lesson learned with the collapse of these more Conservative regimes is that the monarchs govern by the will of the people and if and when the people no longer desire them they will be gone. I think today’s monarchs realize this very important fact. In that context I think these monarchies do provide their countries with something the people do need. I have gone over this briefly and I will restate it here: Symbolism and Patriotism are important to any country and having a head of state that is above the partisan game playing and bickering and who is a symbol and unifying factor can be of great value to the people. As long as they can find ways to remain meaningful in the lives of their country and adapt to the changing needs of the country and remaining an anchor for stability then the people will desire to keep them around.

Aftermath of the Assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand

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Austria, Austria-Hungary, Austrian Empire, Franz-Ferdinand, Franz-Josef, Gavrilo Princip, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany

Aftermath of the Assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand

One of the sad things for me is that even in death the insults and snubs to the Archduke’s wife Sofie continued. Alfred, 2nd Prince of Montenuovo, Emperor Franz Joseph’s Chamberlain, hated Franz Ferdinand and Sophie passionately and decided to turn the funeral into a massive and vicious snub. Foreign royalty had been invited to the funeral and planned to attend. Generally when an heir to the throne had passed away there were would be a large funeral attended by many royal heads of state. However, on this occasion they were pointedly dis-invited and a much smaller funeral planned with just the immediate imperial family, with the dead couple’s three children excluded from the few public ceremonies. The officer corps was forbidden to salute the funeral train, and this led to a minor revolt led by Archduke Karl, the new heir to the throne. The public viewing of the coffins was curtailed severely and even more scandalously, Montenuovo tried unsuccessfully to make the children foot the bill. Also during the viewing the Archduke’s coffin was set higher than Sofie’s to remind all that she was not an equal to her husband. The Archduke and Duchess were interred at Artstetten Castle because his wife could not be buried at the Imperial Crypt.

Of course the largest aftermath was War. However, I wanted to share what happened to the assassin, Gavrilo Princip. Like his fellow assassin Čabrinović who tried to swallow the cyanide pill but vomited instead, Princip had the same experience with his cyanide pill. It seems they had purchased stale cyanide that was out of date. Princeip was arrested and in October of 1914 was convicted of his part in the murder of the Archduke and his wife. Princip was too young to receive the death penalty, being only twenty-seven days short of the 20-year age limit required by Habsburg law for the death sentence. Instead, he received the maximum sentence of twenty years in prison. He was held in harsh conditions and squalor which were worsened by the war as supplies went to the war effort. While in prison he contracted tuberculosis. He died on April 28, 1918 at Terezín 3 years and 10 months after he assassinated the Archduke and Duchess. At the time of his death, Princip, weakened by malnutrition and disease, weighed around 40 kilograms (88 lb; 6 st 4 lb). His body had become racked by skeletal tuberculosis that ate away his bones so badly that his right arm had to be amputated. Now I am not happy that this man assassinated the Archduke and Duchess, but his treatment in prison was inhumane.

As the saying goes “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”? He’s their freedom fighter. Well in Serbia Princip is still regarded as a national hero and on the 100th anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke and Duchess Bosnian Serbs erected a statue of Gavrilo Princip.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/27/gavrilo-princip-statue_n_5538356.html

War broke out on July 28th, 1914 when Austria fired the first shots in its invasion of Serbia. Russia mobilized against Germany, while Germany invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, causing Britain to declare war on Germany. Closer to July 28th I will focus on what the three emperors, Franz-Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Nicholas II of Russia and Wilhelm II of Germany, did to either prevent or encourage the war.

Prince Ernst-August II of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland

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Austria, Christian IX of Denmark, Duke of Cumberland, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, German Empire, Gmunden, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Edward VII of Great Britain, King Frederik VIII of Denmark, King George I of Greece, Prince Ernst-August II of Hanover, Prussia, Queen Victoria, Titles Deprivation Act, World War I

I wanted to revive an old feature, where I would focus on one monarch or prince/princess. The problem with that in the past was that it was difficult for me to keep it brief. I ended up writing way too much for a blog post. So, I will revive this feature and see if I can keep it brief!!

HRH Prince Ernst-August II of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland. He was born in 21 September 1845 the eldest son of King Georg V of Hanover and Marie of Saxe-Altenburg. He was the grandson of Queen Victoria’s uncle, King Ernst-August I of Hanover. Prince Ernst-August’s father, Georg V of Hanover, lost the throne when it was annexed to Prussia in the 1866 war against Austria. As a descendant of King George III of Great Britain, Elector of Hanover, Prince Enrst-August II was heir to the vacant throne of Hanover and the Duchy of Brunswick as well as a British Prince and as Duke of Cumberland he was a British Peer.

Because of Hanover’s annexation to Prussia Ernst-August had long deep-seated prejudice and hatred toward all things Prussian and the House of Hohenzollern. For that reason he took Princess Thyra of Denmark as his wife. Thyra was the youngest daughter of  Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. The Danish Royal Family lost a war against Prussia in 1864 so they all shared a common hatred of Prussia. This marriage also made him the brother-in-law to King Frederik VIII of Denmark, King Edward VII of Great Britain, Emperor Alexander III of Russia and King George I of Greece.

Queen Victoria appointed the Duke of Cumberland a colonel in the British Army in 1876 and promoted him to major-general in 1886, lieutenant-general in 1892 and general in 1898. After his time in the British Army he lived in Gmunden, Upper Austria. Although he never renounced the succession to the thrones of Hanover and Brunswick Ernst-August II was eventually reconciled to Prussia when his eldest surviving son, Ernst-August III, married Princess Victoria-Luise of Prussia, the only daughter of German Emperor Wilhelm II in 1913. That same year his son was created the reigning Duke of Brunswick by Wilhelm II.

As a British and German Prince, Ernst-August II lost his British peerage in 1917 when all German relatives of the British Royal Family lost their British titles during World War I when King George V issued the Titles Deprivation Act. Prince Ernst August, the former Crown Prince of Hanover and former Duke of Cumberland, died of a stroke on his estate at Gmunden in November 1923. He was 78 years old.

Abdication, a royal tradition?

Tags

1936 Abdication Crisis, Abdication, Charles V, Czar Nicholas II, Elizabeth II, Grand Duchess Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, King Felipe II of Spain, Kingdom of the Netherlnads, Marie-Adélaïde, Philip II of Spain, Queen Elizabeth II

With the abdication announcement from Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands earlier this week I began to look at the history and tradition of abdication within all monarchies, not just the Netherlands. I grabbed a note-book and began listing the Emperors, Empresses, Kings and Queens etc, that have abdicated through the centuries. Wow, there were many more than I realized. Too many to mention in this blog post. One thing I have noticed is that there were many forced abdication in the past centuries and few voluntary abdication. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, King of Spain is an example of a voluntary abdication. In the past, abdication were overwhelmingly done for political and not personal reasons.

For a few years Queen Christina of Sweden (1632-1654) desired to abdicate citing she wanted to rest and she was tired of being pressured into marriage. At first her councilors objected but in 1654 she abdicated in favor of her cousin who became King Carl X Gustaf of Sweden. Health problems, in the form of gout, moved Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to abdicate his thrones. He gave spain to his son who became Felipe II of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire went to his brother Ferdinand.

These are a couple of examples of voluntary abdication. Often monarchs have abdicated because they had little choice. Emperor Nicholas II of Russia is a prime example. His country was in shambles because of World War I and he was not popular and with the rise of the provisional government his abdication was essential for a smooth transition. His cousin, German Emperor Wilhelm II (1888-1918) refused to abdicate the throne as his empire was crumbling at his feet. His Imperial Chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden, announced the Emperor’s abdication for him, which outraged the Emperor. Wilhelm II eventually signed abdication papers weeks later after he was in exile.

I see the abdication of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a semi-voluntary choice. Yes, he had a choice and as we all know he chose to abdicate to be with the woman he loved. He lived in a time were marrying an American who was twice divorced was socially unacceptable. He did have a choice but one that really wasn’t fair in my opinion.

It was in the 20th century where monarchies began to see abdication by voluntary means. Luxembourg has a tradition of abdication that began with the abdication of Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg in 1919. Marie-Adélaïde’s abdication to her younger sister Charlotte was not voluntary. It was due to political pressure resulting from her cordial relationship with the Germans that occupied Luxembourg during World War I. In 1964 her sister, Grand Duchess Charlotte voluntarily abdicated to her son Jean. In 2000 Grand Duke Jean abdicated the throne in favor of Henri, Luxembourg’s reigning Grand Duke.

In Britain Elizabeth II will never abdicate. The abdication crisis left a sour taste in her mouth and her coronation oath and her dedication to duty will not leave abdication as an option. This is the case for most of the remaining monarchies of Europe. Next week I want to look more in-depth at the Kingdom of the Netherlands where a tradition of abdication has developed. I also want to look at the pros and cons of abdication itself.

Tuesday I will continue my examination of the Legal Succession to the throne and on Thursday of next week I will continue to look at the concept of Abdication.