CROWNS IN CONFLICT
The Triumph and Tragedy of European Monarchy, 1910-1918
Theo Aronson
Manchester, New Hampshire: Salem House Publishers, 1986
222 pp., $19.95
Crowns in Conflict is a "study of European monarchy in the final years of its last great flowering" before the First World War and a survey "of the twelve monarchs involved in the conflict of 1914-1918." The author claims his work represents the first time "the entire cast of embattled monarchs has been gathered together." As the drama unfolds in the book, subtitled The Triumph and Tragedy of European Monarchy, 1910-1918, hereditary kingship is abolished in five countries, the hierarchical social structure of half of Europe collapses, and the remaining rulers adapt to a new world.
In the prologue to Crowns in Conflict, Theo Aronson introduces two major themes that run throughout the book. The first one is the great prestige monarchy had before the war, in spite of a gradual undermining by more than a century of liberal revolutions. The second theme is the carefully cultivated familial relations of Europe's crowned heads, most of whom descended from Queen Victoria or Christian IX of Denmark. Aronson also hints at two complementary ideas revealed gradually throughout the war, namely, the lack of real power of Europe's rulers and the political irrelevance of their family ties. He writes:
The meetings, both public and private, between the sovereigns of Europe, were generally regarded as momentous occasions. Who could doubt that by their exchange of showy state visits or by their informal talks in some Continental spa these crowned cousins were making history? Surely these plumed and bemedalled sovereigns were settling matters of international importance? Surely these queens and princesses, with their aigrettes, feather boas and pouter-pigeon silhouettes, were planning further dynastic aggrandisement? Could those mammoth family gatherings on yachts or in family palaces, be anything other than occasions of great consequences?
Theo Aronson is well-suited to survey the rulers of Europe during the First World War. Since the early 1960s, the South African writer has published a dozen books about European royal dynasties of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He places his protagonists in political context but concentrates on their personal life. Aronson knows his way around the courts of Europe (past and present); he has followed the fortunes of dozens of royal figures and is well-versed in dynastic lineages and complex familial relationships. As a result, he understands the changing role and style of monarchy from the French Revolution to our day.
The Protagonists and the Setting
The first part of the book, called "The Old World in Its Sunset," presents the major kings whose countries would soon be pitted against each other, and sets the stage for the war. A chapter is dedicated to each of these six monarchs. They were aggressive and flamboyant Wilhelm II of Germany and his two first cousins, dependable George V of Great Britain, irresolute and fatalistic Nicholas I of Russia, as well as self-disciplined and old-fashioned Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary, modest and understated
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