Abstract
Why is it important to look at monarchy in modern or contemporary history? Is monarchy relevant? The answers to these basic questions have been assumed by much modern scholarship, but this Introduction explains why this volume challenges this easy assumption by exploring aspects of the reasons for establishment of the Windsor dynasty, the processes of its establishment and the marketing of the Windsor ‘brand’ since its formal establishment in 1917. The essays in this collection reveal the complexity of the monarchical role in the political and cultural life of the United Kingdom, and Empire/Commonwealth, by questioning the extent to which the Windsors have successfully responded to challenges to the role of monarch, and to public criticism of that role. The survival of the Windsor dynasty after 1918 is argued to have its roots in the ways in which, even before 1914, there were shifts already under way which made that monarchy seem one fit for purpose in a post-war world, enduring into the twenty-first century. The question is set up for the chapters in the volume of how, and why, and whether there is likely to be a continuation of Windsor success within the United Kingdom.
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Notes
- 1.
Charles Douglas-Home and Saul Kelly (2000) Dignified and Efficient: the British Monarchy in the Twentieth Century (London: Claridge Press); Philip Murphy (2013) Monarchy and the End of Empire: the House of Windsor, the British Government and the Postwar Commonwealth (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- 2.
See Zara S. Steiner (1969) The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy 1898–1914 (London: Ashfield Press); George Monger (1963) The End of Isolation. British Foreign Policy 1900–1907 (New York: Greenwood Press) in particular. Both these works are obviously influenced by Bagehot’s argument and have been used to bolster the work of subsequent diplomatic historians of the period. Walter Bagehot (1883) The English Constitution, and other essays (London: D. Appleton).
- 3.
David Cannadine (2001) Ornamentalism (London: Penguin); David Cannadine (1983) ‘The Context, Performance and Meaning of Ritual: The British Monarchy and the ‘Invention of Tradition’ c. 1820–1977’ in E. J. Hobsbawm and T. O. Ranger, eds The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- 4.
Vernon Bogdanor (1995) The Monarchy and the Constitution (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- 5.
Antony Best (2008) ‘The role of diplomatic practice and court protocol in Anglo-Japanese relations, 1867–1900’ in Markus Mosslang and Torsten Riotte, eds The Diplomats’ World: The Cultural History of Diplomacy, 1815–1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp231–53.
- 6.
Johannes Paulmann (2000) Pomp und Politik: Monarchenbegegnungen in Europa zwischen Ancien Regime und Erstem Welkreig,(Paderborn: Schoningh Verlag).
- 7.
Karina Urbach, ed (2008) Royal Kinship: Anglo-German Family Networks 1815–1918 (Munich: deGruyter).
- 8.
Here it is stressed that the term British is used deliberately—because the emphasis of the Windsor dynasty has been on a Greater Britain, with its interest in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland as well as England. This also has wider implications for the post-imperial Commonwealth, with the emphasis that when in Canada, for instance, members of the royal family depict themselves as Canadians, rather than Britons.
- 9.
Paulmann, Pomp und Politik.
- 10.
G. King (2007) Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victoria During Her Diamond Jubilee Year (New York: John Wiley and Sons)—this volume, however, challenges King’s conclusion that royal ceremonial was then in its twilight, in terms of public importance. See also Christopher Hibbert (2010) Queen Victoria. A Personal History (London: HarperCollins).
- 11.
Matthew Glencross (2015) The State Visits of Edward VII: Reinventing Royal Diplomacy for the Twentieth Century (London: Palgrave Macmillan); see also Roderick McLean (2001) Royalty and Diplomacy in Europe 1890–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- 12.
See Mike Ashley (1998) British Monarchs, The Complete Genealogy, Gazetteer and Biographical Encyclopedia of the Kings and Queens of Britain (London: Robinson) in particular, but also David Starkey (2010) Crown and Country: A History of England Through the Monarchy (London: HarperPress).
- 13.
To name but a few, see Paulmann, Pomp und Politik; David Loades (2012) The Tudors: the History of a Dynasty (London: Bloomsbury); Allan Massie (2011) The Royal Stuarts: a History of the Family that Shaped Britain (New York: St Martin’s Press); Jeremy Black (2004) The Hanoverians: the History of a Dynasty (New York: St Martin’s Press); Sean McGlynn and Eleanor Woodacre, eds (2014) The Image and Perception of Monarchy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press); J. Shennan (2007)The Bourbons: the History of a Dynasty (London: Bloomsbury); D. J. Raleigh and A. A. Iskenderov, eds (1996) The Emperors and Empresses of Russia: Rediscovering the Romanovs (London: Routledge); A. Wheatcroft (1996) The Hapsburgs: Embodying Europe (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books).
- 14.
See, for example, John Van der Kiste (2013) Crowns in a Changing World: the British and European Monarchies 1901–1936 (Stroud: History Press).
- 15.
Adam Kozuchowski (2013) The Afterlife of Austria-Hungary: the Image of the Hapsburg Monarchy in Interwar Europe (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press).
- 16.
Consider, for example, Kevin Sharpe (2013) Reading Authority and Representing Rule in Early Modern England (London: Bloomsbury); Hannah Smith (2006) Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture 1714–1760 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press); James H Burns (1996) The True Law of Kingship: Concepts of Monarchy in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford: Clarendon Press); John McDiarmid, ed (2007) The Monarchical Republic of Early Modern England: Essays in Response to Patrick Collinson (Aldershot: Ashgate). Douglas-Home and Kelly, Dignified and Efficient; Murphy, Monarchy and End of Empire remain notable modern exceptions.
- 17.
See, for instance, Kozuchowski, Afterlife of Austria-Hungary; also Sebastian Balfour (1997) The End of the Spanish Empire 1898–1923 (Oxford: Clarendon Press); Catrine Clay (2006) King, Kaiser, Tsar, Three royal cousins who led the world to war, (London: John Murray); John Rohl (2004) Wilhelm II. The Kaiser’s personal monarchy, 1888–1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- 18.
See, for instance, Julian Wright and H.S. Jones (2012) Pluralism and the Idea of the Republic in France (London: Palgrave Macmillan) pp70–2.
- 19.
Matthew Seligmann and Roderick McLean (2000) Germany from Reich to Republic 1871–1918 (London: Palgrave Macmillan).
- 20.
Henry VII’s claim to the throne by inheritance was not substantial; there were other more direct heirs. Prior to his marriage to Elizabeth, by then accepted as the heiress of the House of York, Parliament had already confirmed his possession of the throne and his right to pass it on to his heirs. See William Blackstone, ed. Samuel Warren (1837) Select Extracts from Blackwell’s Commentaries (London: A Maxwell) p121.
- 21.
Stephen Haseler (1993) The End of the House of Windsor (London: I. B. Tauris), back-cover paragraph.
- 22.
Antony Taylor (1999) Down with the Crown: British Anti-Monarchism and Debates about Royalty Since 1790 (London: Reaktion Books) p1.
- 23.
Ibid.; see also Haseler, End of the House of Windsor; Edgar Wilson (1987) The Myth of the British Monarchy (London: Pluto Press); David Nash and Antony Taylor, eds (2000) Republicanism in Victorian Britain (Stroud: Sutton Publishing).
- 24.
See, for instance, the examination of this episode in the collection edited by Jennifer Van Heerde-Hudson, ed (2014) The Political Costs of the 2009 MPs Expenses Scandal (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
- 25.
The flourishing of anti-monarchical sentiment in the late 1990s, for instance, could potentially be linked to the popularity of New Labour and Prime Minister Tony Blair, managing to make the monarchy seem ‘stuffy’ and outdated by contrast. See Jim McGuigan (2010) Cultural Analysis (London: Sage) p31.
- 26.
Christopher Lee, ‘Why Prince George Will Never Be King’, New Statesman, 20 October 2013; ‘Royal Family will NOT last another 100 years, claims Princess Diana’s Brother’, Daily Express, 20 January 2015.
- 27.
This was achieved under the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, which was also endorsed across the Commonwealth in those states which still retain the monarch as head of state.
- 28.
Prince George of Cambridge, first cousin to Queen Victoria, and 2nd Duke of Cambridge, was rejected by Victoria as a potential husband because of his scandalous life style, which he crowned by ‘marrying’ (in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, so it was not legal) an actress, Sarah Fairbrother, known for playing breeches roles on stage. Interestingly, the marriage did not (see Chapter 7) have a morganatic status, and there is no contemporary indication that this Prince George ever sought it for his wife.
- 29.
Matthew Glencross, ‘What’s in a Name? Naming Baby Cambridge’, History & Policy, 10 June 2013, http://www.historyandpolicy.org/opinion-articles/articles/whats-in-a-name-naming-baby-cambridge, accessed 1 March 2016. The choice of Charlotte for their second child has also a resonance, if with the Georges of an older tradition. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, of course, was the much-loved wife of George III, another Princess Charlotte, the eldest daughter of George III became a much-loved Princess Royal, and Princess Charlotte of Wales was, until her death in childbirth, heir apparent to her father, the later George IV. Even if not a Windsor name, it is a name linked to royal women who have been beloved and popular.
- 30.
See Cannadine, ‘The Context, Performance and Meaning of Ritual’.
- 31.
See, for instance, W. Heun (2011) The Constitution of Germany: a Contextual Analysis, (Hart); M. Fausold and A Shank, eds (1991) The Constitution and the American Presidency (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press); David Marrani (2013) Dynamics in the French Constitution: Decoding French Republican Ideas (Abingdon: Routledge).
- 32.
Kenneth Ruoff (2011) The People’s Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy 1945–1995 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
- 33.
See Glencross, Edward VII; Kinley Robey (1975) The King, The Press and the People. A Study of Edward VII (London: Barrie and Jenkins).
- 34.
A Gestrich and M Schaich, eds (2015) The Hanoverian Succession: Dynastic Politics and Monarchical Culture (Aldershot: Ashgate).
- 35.
Matthew Dennison (2013) Queen Victoria: A Life of Contradictions (London: HarperCollins), piii.
- 36.
Paul Readman (2005) ‘The Place of the Past in English Culture c.1890–1914’, Past and Present 186(1)147–200; Vera Nunning, Jan Rupp and Gregor Ahn, eds (2014) Rituals and Narrative: Theoretical Explorations and Historical Case Studies (Berlin: transcript Verlag).
- 37.
Only representatives of foreign powers, and not actual heads of state or fellow monarchs attended coronations: the monarchs there were all heads of dependant (or colonial) states. Ian Dunlop (2004) Edward VII and the Entente Cordiale (London: Constable) pp191–2.
- 38.
See Chapter 2.
- 39.
The personal relationship between Charles and Diana may have broken down, but even after their divorce she was still perceived as doing a royal ‘job’ in terms of her public impact, and doing so very well. A widespread perception of the failure of the royal family to appreciate Diana’s ‘work’ was at the heart of the powerful popular reaction, we would argue. See Chapter 6.
- 40.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2661447/King-Spain-s-day-throne-Juan-Carlos-eve-abdication-Spain-rushes-Charles-Diana-style-chintzy-memorabilia.html accessed 13 November 2015. Japanese emperor Akihito has recently sought to change the constitutional base for that monarchy. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-37007106asia-37007106, accessed 14 August 2016.
- 41.
Hibbert, Queen Victoria, p150.
- 42.
Simon Heffer (1998) Power and Place: The Political Consequences of Edward VII (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson) p98.
- 43.
Duke of Windsor (1999) A King’s Story: The Memoirs of HRH the Duke of Windsor KG (London: Prion Books, originally published 1951) pp44–50. He stresses the dullness and boringness of growing up in York Cottage, as opposed to the pleasures of his grandfather’s house at Sandringham.
- 44.
Ibid., p46, where the Duke of Windsor recounts the overseas state visits of his grandfather in terms that demonstrate he understood them as ‘sojourns’, or holiday jaunts, rather than as matters of state. The Duke fails to mention, for instance, the Entente Cordiale as part of the trip to Paris.
- 45.
Ibid.
- 46.
There were other choices of royal dukedoms that could have been made for him, including Duke of Sussex, but the creation of such a significant nomenclature for the new royal duke suggests a desire to en-title him in a way that was inclusive. It should be remembered that this reflected the situation in 1936. It was only after the creation and confirmation of the title that doubts began to arise about his capacity to be an asset to the country, as a result of his subsequent behaviour and the popular belief amongst many politicians at least that he was a threat to national interests because of his apparent sympathy with the Nazis, for instance.
- 47.
A Benson and F Morley (1924) Everybody’s Book of the Queen’s Dolls’ House (London: Daily Telegraph); with views of it also available online: https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/windsorcastle/what-to-see-and-do/queen-marys-dolls-house, accessed 10 August 2016.
- 48.
Recently, for example, see ‘Queen pays Edward and Sophie ¼ million to quit jobs’, Daily Mail, 20 May 2011.
Select Bibliography
Mike Ashley (1998) British Monarchs, The Complete Genealogy, Gazetteer and Biographical Encyclopedia of the Kings and Queens of Britain (London: Robinson).
Walter Bagehot (1883) The English Constitution, and other essays (London: D. Appleton).
Vernon Bogdanor (1995) The Monarchy and the Constitution (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
David Cannadine (2001) Ornamentalism (London: Penguin).
Charles Douglas-Home and Saul Kelly (2000) Dignified and Efficient: the British Monarchy in the Twentieth Century (London: Claridge Press).
Ian Dunlop (2004) Edward VII and the Entente Cordiale (London: Constable).
Matthew Glencross (2015) The State Visits of Edward VII: Reinventing Royal Diplomacy for the Twentieth Century (London: Palgrave Macmillan).
Simon Heffer (1998) Power and Place: The Political Consequences of Edward VII (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson).
Stephen Haseler (1993) The End of the House of Windsor (London: I. B. Tauris).
Christopher Hibbert (2010) Queen Victoria. A Personal History (London: HarperCollins).
E. J. Hobsbawm and T. O. Ranger, eds (1983) The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Roderick McLean (2001) Royalty and Diplomacy in Europe 1890–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Jim McGuigan (2010) Cultural Analysis (London: Sage).
George Monger (1963) The End of Isolation. British Foreign Policy 1900–1907 (New York: Greenwood Press).
Markus Mosslang and Torsten Riotte, eds (2008) The Diplomats’ World: The Cultural History of Diplomacy, 1815–1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Philip Murphy (2013) Monarchy and the End of Empire: the House of Windsor, the British Government and the Postwar Commonwealth (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
David Nash and Antony Taylor, eds (2000) Republicanism in Victorian Britain (Stroud: Sutton Publishing).
Johannes Paulmann (2000) Pomp und Politik: Monarchenbegegnungen in Europa zwischen Ancien Regime und Erstem Welkreig (Paderborn: Schoningh Verlag).
John Rohl (2004) Wilhelm II. The Kaiser’s personal monarchy, 1888–1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
David Starkey (2010) Crown and Country: A History of England Through the Monarchy (London: HarperPress).
Zara S. Steiner (1969) The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy 1898–1914 (London: Ashfield Press).
Antony Taylor (1999) Down with the Crown: British Anti-Monarchism and Debates about Royalty Since 1790 (London: Reaktion Books).
Karina Urbach, ed (2008) Royal Kinship: Anglo-German Family Networks 1815–1918 (Munich: deGruyter).
Edgar Wilson (1987) The Myth of the British Monarchy (London: Pluto Press).
Duke of Windsor (1999) A King’s Story: The Memoirs of HRH the Duke of Windsor KG (London: Prion Books, originally published 1951).
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Glencross, M., Rowbotham, J., Kandiah, M.D. (2016). Introduction. In: Glencross, M., Rowbotham, J., Kandiah, M. (eds) The Windsor Dynasty 1910 to the Present. Palgrave Studies in Modern Monarchy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56455-9_1
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