Abstract
This chapter casts an entirely fresh light on a monarch often dismissed as weak and irrelevant. It argues for the importance of the British monarchy to the narrative of the Great War and its impact on the UK. This is achieved by an exploration of how George V sought to fulfil what he identified as a ‘traditional’ kingly duty, by acting as the leader of his armed forces, but in a modern context which stressed the symbolic dimensions to that leadership role. It considers the purpose and ultimate usefulness of this determination by the King to be a visible, if not militarily active, presence to his troops, using as a case study exemplar of this his determination to visit the Western Front and establish himself as a visible presence for the troops fighting in his name. Thus, as soon as the Front Line became (relatively) stable with the failure of the Schlieffen Plan, George V saw it as his kingly duty to visit his troops. His reasoning was that, after all, he was their Commander-in-Chief. Such a visit was, however, unprecedented for modern British monarchs, and its accomplishment would make him the first British King to visit his troops when on active deployment on the field of battle in over a century.
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Notes
- 1.
Other constitutional monarchies of the time included Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark as well as the Ottoman state, for instance.
- 2.
Matthew Glencross (2015) The State Visits of Edward VII: Reinventing Royal Diplomacy for the Twentieth Century (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan). The term ‘state visit’ is one that had, by the twentieth century, acquired a certain complexity. Formally, it remained a diplomatic visit overseas, arranged by the institutions of the state visiting and the state to be visited. Increasingly, however, it was a term also used for formal royal visits to locations within the United Kingdom and the British Empire, to distinguish between ‘private’ visits to locations like Nottingham, say, and ones where the monarch made a formal visit to a city and was received ‘in state’ by the civic authorities, who organised—in a way that echoed, to an extent, the formalities of an overseas state visit, with banquets, and other official events.
- 3.
Matthew Glencross (2016) ‘George V and the New Royal House’ in Matthew Glencross, Judith Rowbotham, and Michael Kandiah, eds The Windsor Dynasty 1910 to the Present: Long to Reign Over Us? (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan) pp33–57, 39–41.
- 4.
It is acknowledged that women also died in the cause, however in organisations like Queen Alexandra’s Royal Nursing Corps, the women who joined retained a quasi-civilian status and did not take an oath of loyalty to the monarch. The new women’s auxiliary institutions linked to the Army and Navy only came in at the end of the war, and so did not, immediately, affect the King’s thinking.
- 5.
For further on this, see Heather Jones (2016) ‘The Nature of Kingship in First World War Britain’ in Glencross, Rowbotham, and Kandiah, Windsor Dynasty, pp195–217.
- 6.
Glencross, ‘George V and the New Royal House’.
- 7.
G. A. Henty (1880) St George for England (Oxford: Latimer House).
- 8.
See, on this point, the discussions in Andrew Thompson (2011) George II: King and Elector (Yale University Press) pp7–8, 14–15, 19, 31–3, 44–6, 148–50.
- 9.
Ibid., pp147–8.
- 10.
Strictly speaking this started as a convention which has, over the centuries, become considered as a legislative reality. It first operated in the 1750s, when George II forbade his grandson, the future George III, from adventuring his person in battle in the Seven Years War, See for instance, Jeremy Black (2010) British Politics and Foreign Policy 1744–57: Mid-Century Crisis (Abingdon: Routledge) pp18; 21–3; James Draper (2005) Pitt’s ‘Gallant Conqueror’: The Turbulent Life of Lieutenant General William Draper (London: I.B. Tauris) pp9–10.
- 11.
For more discussion of this aspect, see the chapters in Brendan Simms and Torsten Riotte, eds (2007) The Hanoverian Dimension in British History 1714–1837 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- 12.
‘The Royal Tour: Reception at Melbourne’, The Times, 7 May 1901; ‘The Royal Tour: Auckland’, The Times, 13 June 1901; ‘The Royal Tour: Dunedin’, The Times, 27 June 1901; ‘The Royal Tour: Reception at Cape Town’, The Times, 20 August 1901; ‘The Royal Colonial Tour: Speech by the Duke: Ottawa’, The Times, 23 August 1901.
- 13.
Jones, ‘Nature of Kingship’, p209.
- 14.
On this point, see Frank Prochaska (1995) Royal Bounty: The Making of a Welfare Monarchy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).
- 15.
Charles Douglas-Home and Saul Kelly (2001) Dignified and Efficient. The British Monarchy in the Twentieth Century (London: Claridge Press) p42.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
The evidence suggests strongly that Lloyd George, who had no such military connections, actually avoided involving the King in any war strategy or other military-related discussions from 1916 onwards, when—with Kitchener gone, and Haig replacing French—the quality of the King’s connections at the highest levels of the military were lessened. The retirement of Grey would also have contributed to this. Lloyd George’s self-serving memoirs have a tendency to promote his own role at the expense of the contributions made by others, and in this, the King was no exception. See Keith Hamilton (2013) ‘Addressing the Past: The Foreign Office and the Vetting of Diplomatic and Ministerial Memoirs During the Years Between the World Wars’ in C. Baxter, M. Dockrill, and K, Hamilton, eds Britain in Global Politics Volume 1: From Gladstone to Churchill (Basingstoke: Palgrave) pp99–131.
- 18.
Charles Douglas-Home and Saul Kelly (2001) Dignified and Efficient. The British Monarchy in the Twentieth Century (London: Claridge Press) p42.
- 19.
Zara S. Steiner and Keith Neilson (2003) Britain and the Origins of the First World War (Basgistoke: Palgrave) p231.
- 20.
It was attended by Asquith, the Prime Minister, and John Redmond, the Irish Parliamentary leader, along with Lloyd George, Edward Carson and others, and with the Speaker of the Commons, James Lowther.
- 21.
However, it does need to be noted that he did have the (reluctant) support of his government in so acting, which was a constitutional requirement that he was careful to observe. See Vernon Bogdanor (1997) The Monarchy and the Constitution (Oxford: Oxford University Press) p77.
- 22.
‘The King and the Crisis’, The Times, 20 July 1914; see also ‘At the Royal Bidding’, The Times, 21 July 1914; ‘The King’s Stroke for Irish Peace’, Illustrated London News, 25 July 1914.
- 23.
See Chapter 1, Introduction, of this volume.
- 24.
Major-General, The Hon. Sir William Lambton KCB, CMG, CVO, DSO commanded 4th Division in WWI.
- 25.
Royal Archives, Windsor (RA): PS/PSO/GV/PS/WAR/QQ07/04745, Wigram to Lambton, 5 November 1914.
- 26.
RA: PS/PSO/GV/PS/WAR/QQ07/04745, Wigram to Lambton, 5 November 1914. I acknowledge the gracious permission of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to use quotations from the Royal Archives.
- 27.
See Glencross, State Visits of Edward VII; for an account of the Kaiser’s movements on the German front line see Catrine Clay (2006) King, Kaiser, Tsar, Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War (London: John Murray) p316.
- 28.
Although this can be gleamed from a number of sources a frank assessment of George V’s character can also be found in Christopher Hibbert (1980) The Court at Windsor (London: Longman) p256.
- 29.
Viscount Grey of Fallodon (1925) Twenty-Five Years, 1892–1916, 2 vols (London: Hodder and Stoughton).
- 30.
Churchill Archives Centre Cambridge: CHAR/13/22A/43 ‘Timetable of a Nightmare’.
- 31.
Medieval English Kings had long laid claim to the French throne, and even though the title was purely nominal after the ending of the Hundred Years’ War in 1453, the French monarchical title had remained in the list of British monarch’s official titles until 1800 (it was dropped by George III as part of the preliminaries leading to the Act of Union with Ireland). The Treaty of Troyes 1564 had finally evicted the English even from Calais.
- 32.
A royal presence with an army still creates a political issue today. When Prince William was deployed to the Falklands he was described by Argentina’s Foreign Minister as ‘arriving as a conqueror’ and served to raise the tension between the two nations close to the anniversary of the Falklands war http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-william/9053478/Prince-William-deploys-to-Falkland-Islands-as-tensions-rise-with-Argentina.html (accessed 19 August 2016).
- 33.
As has been commented upon earlier the King was the very symbol and mouthpiece of the British Empire on the international stage.
- 34.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/PS/WAR/QQ07/04745, Wigram to Lambton, 9 November 1914.
- 35.
Ibid.
- 36.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/PS/WAR/QQ7/04745, A Nicholson to Stamfordham, 17 November 1914.
- 37.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/PS/WAR/QQ07/4745, Diary of the King’s Visit to the Armies in the Field, 29 November to 5 December 1914.
- 38.
Details of Field Marshal Sir John French’s meetings with the King can be found in John French, Earl of Ypres (1919) 1914 (London: Constable and Company) p336.
- 39.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/WAR/QQ19/07110/5, Stamfordham to the Earl of Derby, 1 August 1918.
- 40.
Douglas Haig (2005) War Diaries and Letters (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson) p219.
- 41.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/PS/WAR/QQ06/4503, Wigram to General Peyton, 28 July 1916.
- 42.
CAC: Esher Papers/ESHR/2/15, Esher Diary, 4 October 1918.
- 43.
Field Marshal Foch (1931) The Memoirs of Marshal Foch (London: William Heinemann) p444.
- 44.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/WAR/QQ06/03330, Ponsonby to Brigadier General H.C. Lowther, 16 October 1915.
- 45.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/WAR/QQ06/03330, Ponsonby to Lady Dudley, 19 October 1915.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
David Lloyd George (1938) War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, 2 vols (London: Odhams) p1198.
- 48.
Glencross, ‘George V and the New Royal House’, pp39–41.
- 49.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/WAR/QQ06/03330, Ponsonby to Brigadier General H.C. Lowther, 18 October 1915.
- 50.
Matthew Glencross (2014) ‘The Influence of Royal Tours on the Conduct of British Diplomacy’ unpublished PhD thesis, King’s College, London, p291.
- 51.
It is not possible to pin this quote down to a specific incident, place or time as recorded in the press or other archive sources. However, it is so frequently cited and referenced in anecdotes of the King in France that it is likely it was a phrase he used many times, which also accounts for the slightly different versions to be found in various memoirs and memories.
- 52.
Glencross, State Visits, Chapter 2.
- 53.
Boris Kolonitsky (2013) ‘Insulting the Russian Royal Family: Crime, Blame and Its Sources’ in Judith Rowbotham, Marianna Muravyeva, and David Nash, eds Shame, Blame and Culpability: Crime and Violence in the Modern State (Abingdon: Routledge) pp184–98.
- 54.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/WAR/QQ06/03330, The Standard, 29 October 1915.
- 55.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/WAR/QQ19/07110/4, Earl of Onslow to Major E. G. Thompson, 6 August 1918, Reception of newspaper correspondents; and photographs of visit Earl of Onslow to Major Thompson, 6 August 1918.
- 56.
Kenneth Rose (2000) King George V (London: Phoenix Press) pp180–1.
- 57.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/PS/WAR/QQ06/0330-04602, Daily Sketch, 30 October 1915.
- 58.
Rose, King George V, p181.
- 59.
CAC: Esher Papers/ESHR 2/13, Diary, 18 December 1914.
- 60.
CAC: Esher Papers/ESHR2/15, Diary, 5 March 1916. The italics represent that section of the quote which, while still readable, had been later crossed out in the original diary entry and so, are not included in the published version of the Diaries.
- 61.
Edward, Duke of Windsor (1951) A King’s Story: The Memoirs of HRH the Duke of Windsor, KG (London: Cassell) p122.
- 62.
CAC: Esher Papers/ ESHR 2/13, Diary, 18 December 1914.
- 63.
CAC: Esher Papers/ESHR 2/15, Diary, 15 October 1915.
- 64.
Windsor, A King’s Story, p117. The quote the Duke chose to use included the three dots, which is why they have been included here.
- 65.
Although it must be remembered that it was his illnesses which kept Edward VII abroad. This however was kept from the public resulting in an image of laziness. A full account of Edward’s exact medical condition and the extent of the public’s knowledge of it can be found in ‘The Death of King Edward’ (1910) British Medical Journal 2576, 14 May, pp1183–6.
- 66.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/WAR/QQ20/07484/1, Balfour to Stamfordham, 18 November 1918.
- 67.
RA: RA/PS/PSO/GV/WAR/QQ20/07484/2, Letter to Monsieur Fleuriau, 22 November 1918.
- 68.
Glencross, Edward VII.
- 69.
Ibid.
- 70.
George V did, of course, receive some criticism thanks to the German origins of his family, and the numbers of German princes related to him present in Britain during the war. For more on this, see Glencross, ‘George V and the New Royal House’.
Select Bibliography
Black, Jeremy (2010) British Politics and Foreign Policy 1744–57: Mid-Century Crisis (Abingdon: Routledge).
Clay, Catrine (2006) King, Kaiser, Tsar, Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War (London: John Murray).
Douglas-Home, Charles, and Saul Kelly (2001) Dignified and Efficient. The British Monarchy in the Twentieth Century (London: Claridge Press).
Glencross, Matthew (2015) The State Visits of Edward VII: Reinventing Royal Diplomacy for the Twentieth Century (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Glencross, Matthew, Judith Rowbotham, and Michael Kandiah, eds (2016) The Windsor Dynasty 1910 to the Present: Long to Reign Over Us? (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Haig, Douglas (2005) War Diaries and Letters (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson).
Lloyd George, David (1938) War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, 2 vols (London: Odhams).
Prochaska, Frank (1995) Royal Bounty: The Making of a Welfare Monarchy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).
Rose, Kenneth (2000) King George V (London: Phoenix Press).
Steiner, Zara S., and Keith Neilson (2003) Britain and the Origins of the First World War (Basingstoke: Palgrave).
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Glencross, M. (2018). A Cause of Tension? The Leadership of King George V: Visiting the Western Front. In: Glencross, M., Rowbotham, J. (eds) Monarchies and the Great War. Palgrave Studies in Modern Monarchy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89515-4_6
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