Abstract
This chapter focuses on a different monarchical experience, one more in line (superficially) with the traditional expectations of monarchs in time of war. Albert I, King of the Belgians, was not the only sovereign Commander-in-Chief during the First World War. He was also a monarch who actually led his army in the field throughout the conflict. He did so in difficult circumstances, with Belgium largely occupied and his army and refugee people beholden to Belgium’s powerful allies, who constantly urged him to abandon Belgium’s neutral status and formally ally with them. The circumstances of the war obliged Belgium to fight, while the politics of Belgium enjoined defence of the country’s violated neutrality. Catholic, conservative and ‘bourgeois’ by temperament, Albert rose defiantly to the unexpected challenges of wartime, as diplomat, soldier and sovereign. An active leader and respected national figurehead, he managed the day-to-day politics of coalition and demonstrated a determined commitment to the integrity of his state and the welfare of his people. Neutrality meant careful negotiation with Britain and France over Belgium’s place in the coalition and future restoration, and a strict but solid military defence of the last area of national territory not under German occupation, until such time as the Allied armies could liberate occupied Belgium. Albert managed a difficult situation with aplomb, emerging on the winning side and with his reputation as a statesman and sovereign enhanced. This chapter examines Albert’s various wartime roles, and evaluates the effectiveness of his wartime leadership and contribution to Belgium’s ‘victory’.
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Notes
- 1.
There is an interesting echo here of George V, who only became heir presumptive on his elder brother’s death, though George was older and had already established a career, see Chapter 5, this volume.
- 2.
For the background see D. H. Thomas (1983) The Guarantee of Belgian Independence and Neutrality in European diplomacy, 1830s–1930s (Kingston, RI: D. H. Thomas Publishing).
- 3.
William Philpott (1996) Anglo-French Relations and Strategy on the Western Front, 1914–1918 (London: Macmillan) pp19–21.
- 4.
Ibid., pp2–12.
- 5.
However, the Belgian army did mobilise against Germany in July 1914, once it became clear what the latter’s plans were.
- 6.
Maj-Gen. The Rt. Hon. J. E. B. Seely (1930) Adventure (London: William Heinemann) p188.
- 7.
The Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston (1955) Reminiscences (London: Hutchinson) p90.
- 8.
Quoted, Granville Fortescue (1915) At the Front with Three Armies: My Adventures in the Great War (London: Andrew Melrose Limited) p241.
- 9.
As an example see the pamphlet, Anonymous (1914) The Case of Belgium in the Present War: An Account of the Violation of the Neutrality of Belgium and of the Laws of War on Belgian Territory (New York: Macmillan and Company, for the Belgian delegates to the United States).
- 10.
W. J. Philpott (2014) Attrition: Fighting the First World War (London: Little, Brown) pp61–6.
- 11.
In sharp contrast to his uncle Leopold II, whose crown-sponsored rapaciousness in the Congo had provoked an international outcry. See A. Hochschild (1999) King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (London: Macmillan).
- 12.
S. R. Williamson (1969) The Politics of Grand Strategy: Britain and France Prepare for War, 1904–1914 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) p216; Philpott, Anglo-French Relations, p6.
- 13.
This has been often repeated, but there is no solid provenance for those actual words, though clearly they represent the spirit of what Albert thought.
- 14.
Lt-Gen. E. J. Galet (1931) Albert, King of the Belgians in the Great War, trans. Maj-Gen. Sir E. Swinton (London: Putnam) p62.
- 15.
See Philpott, Anglo-French Relations, pp18–22.
- 16.
See C. Donnell (2013) Breaking the Fortress Line, 1914 (Barnsley: Pen and Sword).
- 17.
Marie-Rose Thielemans, ed. (2012) Émile Galet, Conseiller militaire du Roi: Journal de campagne, 26 Octobre 1914–11 Novembre 1918. Le Commandement de l’armée belge et la question de la paix (Brussels: Académie royale de Belgique, Commission royale d’histoire) pp2, 32–5.
- 18.
Ibid., pp41–2.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Galet, Albert, King of the Belgians.
- 21.
Thielemans, Émile Galet, pp37–9.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
The report, originally published in French, was translated and published as (1915) The War of 1914. Military Operations of Belgium in Defence of the Country, and to Uphold her Neutrality. Report Compiled by the Commander-in-Chief of the Belgian Army, for the Period July 31st to December 31st, 1914 (London: W. H. and L. Collingridge).
- 24.
Charles G. Dawes (1930) A Journal of the Great War (London: Allen and Unwin) 9 December 1917, p64.
- 25.
Hall Caine, ed. (1914) King Albert’s Book: A Tribute to the Belgian King and People from Representative Men and Women Throughout the World (London: Hodder and Stoughton).
- 26.
Raymond Poincaré (1931) Au Service de la France: Neuf anneés de souvenirs, 10 vols, VI: Les Tranchées, 1915 (Paris: Libraire Plon) 12 April 1915, p155.
- 27.
Thielemans, Émile Galet, Diary, 23 August 1915, p152.
- 28.
Poincaré, Au Service, VII: Guerre de siège, 1915, 24 August 1915, p56.
- 29.
Maréchal Joseph Joffre (1932) The Memoirs of Marshal Joffre, trans. T. Bentley Mott (London: Geoffrey Bles) pp309–10; Maréchal Ferdinand Foch (1931) The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, trans. T. Bentley Mott (London: William Heinemann) p126.
- 30.
Foch, Memoirs, p150.
- 31.
Joffre, Memoirs, p311.
- 32.
At least until spring 1918, when the German offensive obliged the French to trust the Belgians to hold their sector alone.
- 33.
See William Philpott (1999) ‘Britain, France and the Belgian Army’ in B. J. Bond, ed. Look to Your Front: Essays on the First World War Prepared by the British Commission for Military History (Staplehurst: Spellmount) pp121–36.
- 34.
Marie-Rose Thielemans, ed. (1991) Albert Ier: Carnets et correspondance de guerre, 1914–1918 (Paris: Éditions Duculot) Diary, 17 November 1915, p234.
- 35.
Thielemans, Emile Galet, Diary, 21 August 1915, p151.
- 36.
Thielemans, Albert Ier, Diary, 13 December 1915, p237.
- 37.
Michael Palo (1980) ‘Belgium’s Response to the Peace Initiatives of December 1916: An Exercise in Diplomatic Self-Determination’, The Historian 42, pp583–97, 587 including n14.
- 38.
R. Blake, ed. (1952) The Private Papers of Douglas Haig, 1914-1919 (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode) Diary, 4 February 1916, p127.
- 39.
War Ministry (1922–1939) Les armées françaises dans la Grande guerre (Paris: Ministère de la guerre, état-major de l’armée, service historique), 11 vols, IV/1: Verdun et la Somme (1926) Procès-verbal de la conférence tenu à Chantilly: 2e séance, 7 décembre 1915’, Annexes vol. 1, annexe 47, pp99–103. According to Douglas Haig, who was often casually dismissive of senior Allied generals, Wielemans was ‘a nice kindly old man, but quite stupid, and I should say, also very lazy’ which was why the dynamic Belgian War Minster chose him for the job, in Haig’s opinion. Blake, Douglas Haig, Diary, 12 March 1916, p136. In fact the King, advised by Galet, retained a veto over senior appointments recommended by the Minster. See for example Thielemans, Émile Galet, Diary, 7–11 August 1915, pp148–9.
- 40.
National Library of Scotland, Acc. 3155/104, Field Marshal Earl Haig of Bemersyde Papers, Diary, 7 February 1916. The King’s rationale is explained in Thielmans, Albert Ier, Diary, 7 February 1916, pp248–9.
- 41.
Thielemans, Émile Galet, Diary, 30 October 1915, pp173–4.
- 42.
Foch, Memoirs, p151.
- 43.
Ibid., p227. The army got through four Chiefs of Staff during the war, Generals de Selliers de Moranville, Wielemans, Ruquoy and Gillain. De Selliers de Moranville and Ruquoy were dismissed, the latter because the King ‘claims to no longer be able to influence him, that he tells him nothing, which amounts to the same thing; he no longer commands. There have been some heated exchanges.’ See Thielemans, Emile Galet, Diary, 10 April 1918, p405. Wielemans died suddenly while in post. Between de Selliers de Moranville’s dismissal in September 1914 and Wieleman’s promotion in August 1915, there was no Chief of Staff, Wielemans acting as Assistant Chief while the army was directed by a War Council chaired by the King, Thielemans, Albert Ier, p30.
- 44.
This is a regular refrain in his journal that year. See for example Thielemans, Albert Ier, Diary, 21 May; 10 June 1916, pp269, 271.
- 45.
Ibid., Diary, 11 September 1916, p281. In fact, at the moment Albert was writing, the Somme offensive was reaching is climax after two-and-a-half months and the German defence was almost at breaking point. See William Philpott (2009) Bloody Victory: The Sacrifice on the Somme and the Making of the Twentieth Century (London: Little, Brown) especially pp345–84.
- 46.
Philpott, Anglo-French Relations, p139.
- 47.
Thielemans, Albert Ier, Diary, 3 February 1917, p299.
- 48.
The fullest exposition of Albert’s wartime relations with his government is to be found in the introductions to Thielemans, Albert Ier; Marie-Rose Thielemans and Émile Vandewoud, eds (1982) Le Roi Albert au travers de ses lettres inédités, 1882–1916 (Brussels: Office International de Librairie).
- 49.
See for example Thielemans, Albert Ier, Letter, Albert to de Broqueville, 2 January 1918, pp435–6; Palo, ‘Belgium’s Response’ is a case study of one abortive peace initiative.
- 50.
Ibid., Letter, Albert to de Broqueville, 29 May 1918, p475.
- 51.
Fortescue, At the Front, p240.
- 52.
Ibid., p239.
- 53.
Curzon, Reminiscences, p91; ‘Albert Hall Concert’, The Times, 11 July 1918. See also Chapter 4, p87.
- 54.
Poincaré, Au Service, VII, Guerre de siege, 23 August 1915, pp52–3. Poincaré noted that George V had said the same to him.
- 55.
Ibid., VIII: Verdun, 1916 (1931) 13 March 1916, p119.
- 56.
Fortescue, At the Front, p240.
- 57.
Curzon, Reminiscences, p143.
- 58.
Ibid., p90.
- 59.
Poincaré, Au Service, VIII, 21 May 1916, pp230–1.
- 60.
Ibid., X: Victorie et armistice (1933) 17 April 1918, p127.
- 61.
Elizabeth Greenhalgh (2011) Foch in Command: The Forging of a First World War General (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp94–5.
- 62.
Quoted, Maj.-Gen. Sir George Aston (1929) The Biography of the Late Marshal Foch (London: Hutchinson and Company) p130.
- 63.
Ibid., p305.
- 64.
Poincaré, Au Service, X, 17 April 1918, pp128–9; Thielemans, Albert Ier, pp156–8.
- 65.
Thielemans, Albert Ier, pp158–9. A similar arrangement, command of a Franco-Belgian army group in the Flanders offensive, had been suggested in May 1917, but had been rejected as it would compromise the royal prerogative to command the Belgians and because Albert did not expect this offensive to succeed. See ibid., Letter, Albert to Pétain, 23 May 1917, pp410–11.
- 66.
Ibid., Albert to Curzon, 20 October 1918, Carnets et correspondance, pp497–8.
- 67.
Thielemans, Albert Ier, Letter, Albert to Curzon, 30 October 1918, p498.
- 68.
- 69.
Foch, Memoirs, p228.
- 70.
Winston Churchill (1931) The World Crisis, 1911–1918, Abridged and Revised (London: Thornton Butterworth) p210.
- 71.
Thielemans, Émile Galet, Letter, Galet to Queen Elizabeth, 26 February 1934, pp78–9.
- 72.
Lt.-Gen. Sir Tom Bridges (1938) Alarms and Excursions: Reminiscences of a Soldier (London: Longman Green and Company) p123.
- 73.
Ibid.
Select Bibliography
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Williamson, S. R. (1969) The Politics of Grand Strategy: Britain and France Prepare for War, 1904–1914 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
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Philpott, W. (2018). Albert I, King of the Belgians: A ‘Neutral’ Sovereign and Commander. 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_9
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