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Anatole France
There are twelve monarchies in Europe that remain today, despite the turbulence of many centuries: these are Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Vatican City and the UK.
Others such as France, Finland, Greece, Portugal and Russia became republics while others simply ceased to be when their country ceased to exist formally such as Prussia, Austria-Hungary or the Holy Roman Empire. The Electorates of the Holy Roman Empire largely became separate kingdoms with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Here we look at monarchy in Europe, how it is today and how it has changed. European Aristocracy It’s very clear that the principles that lie behind the development of the British nobility have also underpinned the aristocracy in Europe. Indeed, History shows very clearly how the aristocracy dominated the politics of Europe. Italy and Germany were largely collections of dukedoms each vying for greater influence with the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor. William the Conqueror was the Duke of Normandy before becoming King William I of England. The Reformation was largely possible because of the patronage of Martin Luther by Frederick the Wise, Prince-Elector of Saxony. The Electors were nobles designated by the Holy Roman Emperor to be those who chose the new Emperor: they were given territory and the title of Prince-Elector. King George I of Great Britain was the Elector of Hanover, a title which became the King of Hanover in 1814 following the demise of the Holy Roman Empire under Napoleon. The crown of Hanover was passed down as far as King William IV but to no future British monarch since the title could not be passed to his niece, Queen Victoria.
Many European duchies were kingdoms in all but name such as in the smaller states of Germany and Italy. Indeed, only one current monarch is a duke rather than a king and that is Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. In the Holy Roman Empire, there were Archdukes which occupied roles similar to kings within the Empire. When Austria became an Empire in itself, the role of Archduke became the title of the most senior royalty. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria became heir to his brother Emperor Franz Joseph I whose son, the Crown Prince Rudolf died in 1896. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914 and his death kickstarted the First World War which, itself would change the face of European Aristocracy forever.
The equivalent of earls in Europe were the counts or comptes. We often think of Count Dracula as a nobleman in Transylvania and we know that he was based on Vlad III Tepes the Voivode (prince) of Wallachia. Generally the rank of count varied across Europe but it was usually of a middle rank and, for the most part, dependent on the influence of the holder of the title. The word count came from the Latin comes meaning companion and thus the counts were seen as companions or lieutenants to higher nobles such as the dukes and were often awarded the title and lands by the sovereign. In what is now Germany, the equivalent of count was the Graf.
Much of the history of monarchies is bound up with the rise and fall of the Holy Roman Empire and we want to spend some time focussing on this monarchy because it foreshadows the fate of many of the modern monarchies.
Following the fall in AD480 of the Western Roman Empire which had largely been the focus of its authority, the Church looked for support to the Eastern Roman Emperors to help maintain the doctrine of the faith. Indeed it was the Eastern Roman Emperors who called the famous Seven Oecumical Councils of the Church. The major problem for the Church was the constant raids and skirmishes with the various barbarian kingdoms such as the Goths, Huns and Vandals. The Eastern Roman Empire was unable to provide sufficient military assistance in this period. It was when Charles the Great, King of the Franks took over the role of defending the Church that, in AD800, Pope Leo III crowned him the Holy Roman Emperor as the successor to the Eastern Emperor Constantine VI who had been deposed in AD797. This tied the position of Holy Roman Emperor with the Papacy in Rome.
The Holy Roman Empire occupied much of what is Germany today, though it also covered parts of modern France and modern Italy as well as much of central Europe. From the tenth century onwards, the Holy Roman Emperor was only partially hereditary in nature and the emperor chosen from various European royal families by Electors who were usually powerful dukes. The involvement of the Church in establishing the Holy Roman Empire meant the rise in importance of the Divine Right of Kings. This asserts that the sovereign is not accountable to any earthly authority because the right to rule comes from God’s divine authority. The Divine Right of Kings is responsible for many disagreements between monarchs and the Pope. Even the Holy Roman Emperor has been in conflict with the Pope such as the investiture controversy of the eleventh and twelfth centuries which arose due to disagreements as to who had the right to appoint bishops within the Holy Roman Empire. Since the Reformation, the Holy Roman Empire included Calvinists and Lutherans as well as Roman Catholics and yet the Emperors claimed a jurisdiction that extended through the established borders and into all of Christendom.
Like most empires, the fall of the Holy Roman Empire was a long affair. First, electing the Emperor was seen as odd among countries outside of the empire in which the monarch succeeded by primogeniture from royal families. This insistence on the universality of jurisdiction and election of Emperor meant that there was a lack of focus at the centre of the Empire and, especially, no centralised militia. Further, the Holy Roman Empire came into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church’s claim to universal jurisdiction over Christians. The break with the papacy came to a head at the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648.
The Reformation gave many European princes and monarchs the inspiration to impose their own religion on their kingdoms, giving rise to the phrase cujus regno ejus religio (whose realm, their religion). The Divine Right of Kings meant that monarchs could disregard the Pope as an earthly authority, not a heavenly authority. If the Divine Right could allow a monarch to disregard the Pope, then it could also allow a monarch to disregard an emperor claiming universal jurisdiction. To these new, post-Reformation monarchs, their jurisdiction meant the area that they could control. Since the Holy Roman Emperor could not control the whole of Christendom, he could not have universal jurisdiction.
Further, a new class in European society was growing following the expansion of the colonies to the Americas in the sixteenth century. These were the merchants, non-nobles, who became influential based on their own personal wealth which they had earned through their work, rather than through their inheritance. They were often richer than the nobility and, as a result, began to acquire political power and influence through their business empires. They became the inspiration for the working classes because the merchant class showed that one did not need to be born into the nobility but one could acquire power through hard work and common education. The nobility began to be seen as undeserving of their position. With the English Civil War as an example of the growing power of the common man, the Divine Right of Kings was breached and faith in the monarch bearing a divine right was transferred to the Government, although in the UK, the Sovereign retained a part to play in the government of the country in the form of Constitutional Monarchy. However, the seeds were sown for the events of the late eighteenth century.
The ferocity and sweeping French Revolution caused Europe to try and defend its monarchies from the same rebellious spirit which destroyed the aristocracy in France. Austria stationed troops on its French border and joined Prussia in demanding the safety of King Louis XVI. The stand-off was broken when Republican France won its first victory against the two monarchies at the Battle of Valmy. The Empire’s ability to defend itself collapsed when Prussia abandoned the war with France to fight its own battles with Poland. Negotiations for peace between France and some of the Empire States and the end of the wars demonstrated the impotence of the Holy Roman Empire which eventually fell to Napoleon in 1806. The former states of the Empire such as Hanover, Austria and Württemberg became independent kingdoms in their own right.
Following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, Europe had gained several new nations but, through the intermarriage of royal families, the monarchies became highly related. Certainly, with the accession of King George V in 1910 in the UK, the countries of the UK, and Germany were ruled by first cousins and shared relations with Greece, Norway and Denmark. With the First World War, however, the aristocracy was seen as being isolated from the heavy military casualties on all sides. Disillusionment with the aristocracy culminated with the Russian Revolution of 1917 ending the aristocracy in Russia, and the toll of the war fomenting the spirit of revolution caused Kaiser Wilhelm II and Emperor Charles I to abdicate and thus abolish the monarchies in Germany and Austria.
Ultimately, it was the constitutional nature of the British Monarchy that enabled it to weather the storms of revolution coupled with a largely popular monarchy. The fact that there was a democracy in the UK ensured that the middle classes could be involved in government, though the right to vote was extended to women as a result of the roles played by women in society during the war. The rise of communism in Russia and national socialism in Germany in the years after the First World War were popular movements seen as a solution to the economic problems of the common person. Ultimately, despite being seemingly democratic movements, they have proved to be anything but and, in combination, these two ideologies have caused the deaths of countless millions.
Only one European country has managed to reinstate its monarchy. The Kings and Queen of Spain have been famous in history and some were even elected as Holy Roman Emperors, notably Charles V (but Charles I as king of Spain) who was the nephew of Catherine of Aragon and who also managed to take Pope Clement VII hostage resulting, indirectly in King Henry VIII of England decision to break with Rome. The Spanish monarchy was abolished in 1939 under General Franco, head of the Nationalists and who essentially took on the role of Head of State until his death in 1975. In a situation not entirely dissimilar to the restoration of the monarchy in the UK, the monarchy was restored at Franco’s request with King Juan Carlos I who oversaw the return to full democracy in a constitutional monarchy. However, the constitution makes it clear that sovereignty lies in the people of Spain and not the monarch.
Title II, Article 56 of the Spanish Constitution makes clear what its monarchy is for: The King is Head of State, the symbol of its unity and permanence. He arbitrates and moderates the regular functioning of the institutions, assumes the highest representation of the Spanish State in international relations, especially with the nations of its historical community, and exercises the functions expressly conferred on him by the Constitution and the laws.
We can compare this with the constitution of the UK where the government is His Majesty’s Government, the Prime Minister is appointed by him provided that his appointment has the confidence of parliament, and the laws are enacted in his name.
What we see from the abolition of monarchies is a rejection of the notion of a divine right, the influence of the tycoons and businessmen, and forms egalitarianism which seek to equate authority with privilege, and rule with oppression. These tend to put forward individuals whose political interests are largely self-serving. One may contrast this with members of former and non-ruling aristocracies such as:
- Karl Habsburg, heir to the Austrian Empire, who, in 1990, personally led a convoy to Vilnius in response to the Soviet Union’s blockade following the Lithuanian declaration of independence and the next year organised international aid against the destruction of Dubrovnick in what was then Yugoslavia;
- Franz von Bayern, heir to the kingdom of Bavaria, patron of the artsand the expansion of the Bavarian research landscape;
- Carlo Emanuele Ruspoli, 3rd Duke of Morignano, who is involved in the Foundation for Sustainable Development and the New Future Association.
Many of the former aristocrats in France have been elected and served in governmental office, using their unique heritage to further the democratic processes of government. For the most part, an aristocracy has more investment in doing one’s duty due to their heritage. While they may no longer bear the title or influence, they still bear the history and the concern to do what’s best for the country in which their families once thrived.
There is a famous photograph taken after the funeral of King Edward VII of Britain in 1910 which shows nine kings of European countries. In that photograph are, King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, King Manuel II of Portugal, Kaiser Willhelm II of Germany, King George I of Greece, King Albert I of Belgium, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of Great Britain, and King Frederick VIII of Denmark.
Of these countries, Britain, Norway, Spain, Belgium and Denmark. While the monarchies of Germany and Russia fell with the First World war, other European countries found their monarchies abolished in the face of the Communist Regime. Countries like Albania, Greece and Bulgaria had been part of the Ottoman Empire while others like Hungary, Wallachia and Transylvania were vassals but, by the First World War, the Ottoman presence in Europe was much reduced allowing countries such as Bulgaria and Greece to gain some autonomy and appoint monarchs. However, following the end of the Second World War with the rise of Communism, many of these recently established kingdoms were brought to an end.
The Kingdom of Bulgaria was established in 1908 with Ferdinand I the first Bulgarian Tsar. In 1946, the last Tsar, Simeon II, was deposed and sent into exile. Born in 1937, Tsar Simeon reigned from 1943 became Simeon Borisov Saxe-Coburg-Gotha after his deposition, displaying in his name a shared heritage with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria of Britain. Simeon returned to Bulgaria after the fall of Communism and became the Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 2001 to 2005. While vowing to uphold the republic of Bulgarian, he is still known as Tsar Simeon II in the liturgies of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
King Manuel II of Portugal was the last reigning member of a monarchy that had been established in 1139. He ascended to the throne on the assassination of his father Carlos I by republican revolutionaries. It is unclear whether the target of the assassination was King Carlos or the Prime Minister João Franco whose unpopular policies were at the source of the growing political unrest. Since Manuel was such a young king and inexperienced in the government of a country, he was manipulated by the various political parties in Portugal. Finally, in October 1910, a coup d’état resulted in the abolition of the monarchy and the exile of Manuel II to Twickenham in London. He died childless in 1932.
The Kingdom of Greece was established in 1832 following the First Hellenistic Republic which existed in resistance to the rule of the Ottoman Empire. The first king, Otto Friedrich Ludwig von Wittelsbach was proclaimed king following the Conference of London which sought to establish stable government in Greece following the withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire. Otto was deposed in 1862 following a popular revolution, and replaced by George I who was a prince of Denmark. George I was assassinated in 1913 to be succeeded by Constantine I who abdicated in 1917. He was succeeded by his son Alexander who died in 1920 whereupon Constantine I was reinstated until 1922 when, at his death, he was succeeded by George II. George II was ousted in 1924 at the establishment of a second republic but restored by popular consent in 1935. After the successions in 1947 by Paul and then Constantine II in 1964, the monarchy was finally abolished in 1973 as a result of the Colonels’ Coup of 1967. His son, Paul (born 1967) is the present head of the Greek royal family.
What is most notable about the countries and their monarchs we have discussed above is the fact that the lives of these monarchs are intimately entwined with the history of their country. This illustrates the importance of monarchy, whether absolute or constitutional, in the life and identity of the nation. History illustrates well the idea we have already voiced in discussing the need for monarchy as embodying the results of the past to the present nation giving a direction to the future. While republicanism is a relatively new phenomenon with regards to the history of mankind, it remains to be seen how elected heads of state, prime ministers, presidents and protectors uphold that continuity of national history in the light of their decade of holding office, or whether they are committed to a nation of their own making rather than the nation that presently exists. The lives of Kings and Queens have not only affected the life of the nation but have been affected by the life of the nation. When monarchies end, with them departs a significant aspect of a country’s history and the uncertainty of a new regime which needs to prove itself to be truly representative of the national interests.
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