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The Windsor Dynasty 1910 to the Present pp 195–216Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Nature of Kingship in First World War Britain

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Modern Monarchy ((PSMM))

Abstract

The nature of kingship as it was expressed by George V during the Great War is assessed in this chapter, particularly in relation to memorialisation of those who died ‘for King and Country’, remedying a lack in the cultural historiography of the conflict. It argues that the British royal family was central to both the practical mobilisation of the war effort and the cultural belief systems that underpinned contemporary British mentalities. It undertakes an examination of the extent to which the monarch was identified as a sacralised figure, and the implications of this for the King; as well as an exploration of how this affected the public media presentation of George V during the Great War. The purpose is to emphasise that ideas of kingship changed in ways that had implications for future inhabitants of the throne bearing the Windsor label.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Leading examples of the most insightful recent historiography include: Adrian Gregory (2008) The Last Great War. British Society and the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press); Jay Winter, ed (2014) The Cambridge History of the First World War, 3 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Another excellent study is Catriona Pennell (2012) A Kingdom United? Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in Britain and Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press) which briefly assesses the crowds who gather at Buckingham Palace.

  2. 2.

    For such new approaches to the history of leaders as mythologised symbolic figures, see Anna von der Goltz (2009) Hindenburg. Power, Myth and the Rise of the Nazis (Oxford: Oxford University Press); Robert Gerwarth (2005) The Bismarck Myth. Weimar Germany and the Legacy of the Iron Chancellor (Oxford: Oxford University Press); Lucy Riall (2007) Garibaldi. Invention of a Hero (New Haven: Yale University Press).

  3. 3.

    I am grateful to Alex Mayhew for his assistance in bringing some source material used in this chapter to my attention.

  4. 4.

    Ute Frevert (2007) ‘Honor, Gender, and Power: The Politics of Satisfaction in Pre-War Europe,’ in Holger Afflerbach and David Stevenson, eds An Improbable War? The Outbreak of World War I and European Political Culture before 1914, (Oxford: Berghahn Books) 233–55. On the cultural codes of bourgeois respectability see: James Connolly (2013) ‘Mauvais Conduite: Complicity and Respectability in the Occupied Nord, 1914–1918’ First World War Studies, 4(1), 7–21.

  5. 5.

    On cultural mobilisation in all four see: Pennell, A Kingdom United?

  6. 6.

    Royal Archives (henceforth RA), GEO/PRIV/DIARY/1914, 2 August.

  7. 7.

    RA, GEO/PRIV/DIARY/1914, 3 August.

  8. 8.

    RA, GEO/PRIV/DIARY/1914, 9 August.

  9. 9.

    Ernst Kantorowicz (1998) The King’s Two Bodies. A Study in Medieval Political Theology (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).

  10. 10.

    James Joll (1968) 1914. The Unspoken Assumptions (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson).

  11. 11.

    The National Army Museum (henceforth NAM) 2002-02-516-5, 9 July 1913.

  12. 12.

    Imperial War Museum (henceforth IWM) 90/17/1 Arthur Guy Osborn, 1st Birmingham Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Letter, 10 October 1914.

  13. 13.

    Lord Kitchener’s Guidance to British Troops, August 1914, http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/kitchener1914.htm, accessed: 7 December 2015.

  14. 14.

    RA PS/PSO/GV/C/Q/832/130, Sir Douglas Haig to King George V, 27 February 1917.

  15. 15.

    The Liddle Collection, Alfred Edward Burdfield, Liddle/WW1/GS/0222 (2/3 Battalion Royal Fusiliers).

  16. 16.

    Galit Haddah (2015) ‘La Guerre de 1914–1918, matrice du pacifisme féminin au XXe siècle’ in Nicolas Beaupré, Heather Jones and Anne Rasmussen, eds Dans la Guerre 1914–1918: Accepter, Endurer, Refuser (Paris: Belles Lettres).

  17. 17.

    Kenneth Rose (1983) King George V (London: Phoenix Press) p188.

  18. 18.

    Philip Williamson (2013) ‘National Days of Prayer. The Churches, the State and Public Worship in Britain, 1899–1957,’ English Historical Review, 128(531), 323–66.

  19. 19.

    Rose, George V, p179.

  20. 20.

    Ibid.

  21. 21.

    RA GEO/PRIV/DIARY/1914, 25 September.

  22. 22.

    ‘The King’s Return’, Daily Mail, 7 December 1914.

  23. 23.

    RA GEO/PRIV/DIARY/1914, 3 December.

  24. 24.

    H. G. Gilliland, ‘My German prisoners’, quoted in A. L. Vischer (1919) The Barbed Wire Disease. A Psychological Study of the Prisoner of War (London: Bale and Danielsson) p18.

  25. 25.

    RA PS/PSO/GV/PS/WAR/QQ7/4745, Wigram to Lambton, 5 November 1914.

  26. 26.

    RA PS/PSO/GV/PS/WAR/QQ7/4745, Lambton GHQ to Wigram 26 November 1914.

  27. 27.

    IWM 7310, Oral history account of Colonel Stewart Montagu Cleeve, interviewed 1983, reel 8, describing George V’s visit in August 1918.

  28. 28.

    RA PS/PSO/GV/PS/WAR/QQ7/4745, Clive Wigram to Colonel Sir Harry Legge, 9 December 1914.

  29. 29.

    RA PS/PSO/GV/C/Q/832/124, Douglas Haig to King George V, 20 August 1916.

  30. 30.

    RA PS/PSO/GV/C/Q/832/139, Haig to King George V, 2 April 1918.

  31. 31.

    Rose, George V, p169.

  32. 32.

    IWM, Memoir, [Con shelf], Major General V. G. Tofts, 2–8 Battalions Manchester Regiment, p14.

  33. 33.

    RA GEO/PRIV/DIARY/1914, 1 December.

  34. 34.

    IWM 01/21/1, H. T. Madders, 2/1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers, Diary, 3 April 1918.

  35. 35.

    IWM 75/78/1, L/Cpl later 2/Lt K.M. Gaunt, 1/16 Battalion London Regiment and 4 Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

  36. 36.

    In France, the phrase (translation: died for one’s country) also came with generous state welfare benefits for the bereaved families of those granted it the appellation.

  37. 37.

    Daily Mail, 12 November 1918, cited in Jon Lawrence (2007) ‘Public Space, Political Space’ in Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, eds Capital Cities at War, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 2, 280–312, pp308–9.

  38. 38.

    The Times, 21 July 1919.

  39. 39.

    Ibid.

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    Frank Prochaska (1999) ‘George V and Republicanism 1917–1919,’ Twentieth Century British History, 10(1), 27–51.

  42. 42.

    The National Archives (henceforth TNA) ADM 116/1683, VC’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace 1 January 1914–31 December 1920.

  43. 43.

    TNA ADM 116/1683, Mrs F. Spain to Admiralty, 20 June 1920.

  44. 44.

    TNA ADM 116/1683, Mrs E. G. Salford to Admiralty, 16 June 1920.

  45. 45.

    Stefan Goebel (2007) The Great War and Medieval Memory. War, Remembrance and Medievalism in Britain and Germany, 1914–1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp86–7.

  46. 46.

    Laura Wittman (2011) The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Modern Mourning and the Reinvention of the Mystical Body (Toronto: University of Toronto Press) p327.

  47. 47.

    Juliet Nicolson (2009) The Great Silence. 1918–1920, Living in the Shadow of the Great War (London: Grove Press) pp340–3.

  48. 48.

    Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds (1983) The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

  49. 49.

    Website of the Scottish National War Memorial, http://www.snwm.org/gallery/bronze-metal/ accessed 20 December 2015.

  50. 50.

    See the excellent Irish war memorial website: http://www.irishwarmemorials.ie/Memorials-Detail?memoId=84 accessed 20 December 2015.

  51. 51.

    On Elias’s definition see Jan Rüger (2009) The Great Naval Game. Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p188.

  52. 52.

    Ian F. W. Beckett (2000) ‘George V and his Generals’ in Matthew Hughes and Matthew Seligmann, eds Leadership in Conflict: 1914–1918 (London: Pen and Sword).

  53. 53.

    Queen Mary to the Duke of Windsor, July 1938. Cited in ‘King George and Queen Mary: The Royals who Rescued the Monarchy,’ episode 2, BBC2, aired 4 January 2012.

  54. 54.

    I have written on this elsewhere: see Heather Jones (2015) ‘A Prince in the Trenches? Edward VIII and the First World War’ in Heidi Merkhens and Frank Lorenz Müller, eds Sons and Heirs: Succession and Political Culture in 19th Century Europe (London: Palgrave Macmillan) pp229–46.

  55. 55.

    Ibid., p243.

  56. 56.

    RA EDW/PRIV/DIARY/1917, 3 June.

  57. 57.

    On the image of the Kaiser in Britain see: The German Historical Institute (2012) Many Faces of the Kaiser: Wilhelm II’s Public Image in Britain and Germany (London: The German Historical Institute); Lothar Reinermann (2008) ‘Fleet Street and the Kaiser: British Public Opinion and Wilhelm II’ German History, 26(4), 469–85; Lothar Reinermann (2001) Der Kaiser in England: Wilhelm II und sein Bild in der britischen Öffentlichkeit (Paderborn: F Schöningh); J. Rebentisch (2000) Die vielen Gesichter des Kaisers. Wilhelm II. in der deutschen und britischen Karikatur (Berlin: Duncker und Humblot).

  58. 58.

    Jones, ‘A Prince in the Trenches’.

  59. 59.

    Ibid.

  60. 60.

    On George V and religious supplication through national days of prayer during the war see Williamson, ‘National Days of Prayer.’

Select Bibliography

  • Ian F. W. Beckett (2000) ‘George V and his Generals’ in Matthew Hughes and Matthew Seligmann, eds Leadership in Conflict: 1914–1918 (London: Pen and Sword) 247–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ute Frevert (2007) ‘Honor, Gender, and Power: The Politics of Satisfaction in Pre-War Europe,’ in Holger Afflerbach and David Stevenson, eds An Improbable War? The Outbreak of World War I and European Political Culture before 1914, (Oxford: Berghahn Books) 233–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robert Gerwarth (2005) The Bismarck Myth. Weimar Germany and the Legacy of the Iron Chancellor (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Anna von der Goltz (2009) Hindenburg. Power, Myth and the Rise of the Nazis (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Adrian Gregory (2008) The Last Great War. British Society and the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Galit Haddad (2015) ‘La Guerre de 1914–1918, matrice du pacifisme féminin au XXe siècle’ in Nicolas Beaupré, Heather Jones and Anne Rasmussen, eds Dans la Guerre 1914–1918: Accepter, Endurer, Refuser (Paris: Belles Lettres).

    Google Scholar 

  • Stefan Goebel (2007) The Great War and Medieval Memory. War, Remembrance and Medievalism in Britain and Germany, 1914–1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds (1983) The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • James Joll (1968) 1914. The Unspoken Assumptions (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson).

    Google Scholar 

  • Heather Jones (2015) ‘A Prince in the Trenches? Edward VIII and the First World War’ in Heidi Merkhens and Frank Lorenz Müller, eds Sons and Heirs: Succession and Political Culture in 19th Century Europe (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ernst Kantorowicz (1998) The King’s Two Bodies. A Study in Medieval Political Theology (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jon Lawrence (2007) ‘Public Space, Political Space’ in Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, eds Capital Cities at War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 280–312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juliet Nicolson (2009) The Great Silence. 1918–1920, Living in the Shadow of the Great War (London: Grove Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Catriona Pennell (2012) A Kingdom United? Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in Britain and Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Rebentisch (2000) Die vielen Gesichter des Kaisers. Wilhelm II. in der deutschen und britischen Karikatur (Berlin: Duncker und Humblot).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lothar Reinermann (2001) Der Kaiser in England: Wilhelm II und sein Bild in der britischen Öffentlichkeit (Paderborn: F Schöningh).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucy Riall (2007) Garibaldi. Invention of a Hero (New Haven: Yale University Press).

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  • Kenneth Rose (1983) King George V (London: Phoenix Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jan Rüger (2009) The Great Naval Game. Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • A. L. Vischer (1919) The Barbed Wire Disease. A Psychological Study of the Prisoner of War (London: Bale and Danielsson).

    Google Scholar 

  • Laura Wittman (2011) The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Modern Mourning and the Reinvention of the Mystical Body (Toronto: University of Toronto Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jay Winter, ed (2014) The Cambridge History of the First World War, 3 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International History, London School of Economics (LSE), London, UK

    Heather Jones

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. King’s College London, London, United Kingdom

    Matthew Glencross

  2. Plymouth University, Plymouth, United Kingdom

    Judith Rowbotham

  3. King’s College London, London, United Kingdom

    Michael D. Kandiah

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Jones, H. (2016). The Nature of Kingship in First World War Britain. 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_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56455-9_8

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