A scene from the withdrawal / litestraboen.blogspot.com
Not everybody realises that in the First World War Italy fought on the Allied side. In the second ‘war to end all wars’ Italians were persuaded by Mussolini to side with Adolf Hitler, and this decision cost them dear. The battle of Caporetto also cost them dear, for they were fighting against Austro-German forces for nearly a month in the last months of 1917. (more…)
/ mundodescargas.com
Georges-Jacques Danton was another of those middle-class Frenchmen, trained as a lawyer like Robespierre, who flourished in what we are supposed to believe was a rising of the masses against regal and parliamentary authority at the end of the eighteenth century. It wasn’t of course: a small group of educated, in some cases moneyed radicals used the masses to promulgate and expand their radical ideas. More members of the rural and urban under-classes died during the Revolution than any other social group. (more…)
Matilda (or Maud) / simple.wikipedia.org
Even the best examinees in the History papers can become mixed up because of Empress Matilda. She was the English princess, daughter of Henry I, his only legitimate child, and named his heir (there being no Salic Law in England in 1127). She was called ‘Empress’ because she married the Emperor of Germany.
Henry died after a reign lasting thirty-five years and Matilda should have become Queen but her relative Stephen, a grandson of William I (‘the Conquerer’) seized the throne. Stephen was married to a girl with the popular but confusing name of Matilda. Henry I’s first wife was also called Matilda. Stephen had a daughter called Maud, but she was drowned in The White Ship incident; also drowned in this accident was William the Atheling, heir to Henry I – and married to another girl called Matilda! (more…)
Historians disagree about exact dates, but I believe it is generally accepted that the phrase ‘Middle Ages’ denotes the period in Europe from around 700 A.D. to around 1500. Before 700 were ‘The Dark Ages’ – dark in many senses but mainly because professional historians did not exist after the decline of the civilised Roman Empire in the west, and countless barbarian invasions/occupations in the 5th and 6th centuries after Christ. (more…)
In a recent post I put the word ‘democratic’ in this title between inverted commas, and a student has asked me why. Did I doubt, I was asked, that the GDR was democratic? Well yes I did. East Germany emerged in 1949 from the Soviet-occupied zone of recently defeated Germany. As an eastern European country it ceased to exist in October, 1990.
The Potsdam Conference had, among countless other disgraces, invented a country divided into four zones, each occupied by one of the victorious Allies. They were American, British, French and Russian, though why the French should have got a zone to themselves when they had hardly fired a shot in anger at the commencement of the Second World War is questionable. Three-fifths of France fell to the Nazis in 1940 but the French were permitted to govern the rest of the country as a ‘neutral’ state with its own government at Vichy. As Vichy collaborated with the Germans from day one the term ‘neutral’ is dubious. The Third Reich had by that time invaded the Polish Corridor, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, parts of Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands. (more…)
Berlin was the capital of Germany from 1871, though it was also the capital of Prussia. When the capital moved from Bonn after the Second War, Berlin became again the capital and hub of Germany, but after the War the city found itself 110 kilometres inside the Russian Zone of a Germany divided (at various hideous conferences) into four: Russian, American, British and French sectors. The city itself was divided into West Berlin (480 sq.km.) and East Berlin (403 sq.km.). West Berlin was administered and governed by the United States, Great Britain and France, each having their Sector and military HQ. East Berlin was governed by the Communist GDR, under the military eye of around 200 divisions of Russian troops. West Berlin could probably muster a division and a half, and had its own (American) military commander. There was a complete military imbalance in all the post-war period. (more…)
Queen Isabel II of Spain, unhappy daughter of Fernando VII
Isabel II was the daughter of Fernando VII, possibly the worst monarch Spain ever had; her reign contained two unpopular regencies and the Carlist Wars (q.v.). There were personal scandals, changes of government and a state of almost permanent conflict between factions. The crown was offered to no less than five possible candidates, among them Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a member of the Catholic ruling Prussian dynasty.
So far so indifferent, but William I, King of Prussia, was not keen on the idea. He knew well that France would dislike the idea intensely, as a Prussian on the throne of Spain would frighten them. Von Bismarck (q.v.) however approved, and persuaded Leopold to accept the proposition; he did so in June, 1870. Few statesmen and diplomats have enjoyed so much power as the ‘Iron Chancellor’.
Some historians believe that Bismarck persuaded Leopold precisely because he wanted war with France, while others deny this. It seems only too possible that the first group were right, and that Bismarck’s risky project would have led to war.
French foreign minister Gramont made it clear that the move would not be tolerated. At this point William of Prussia confirmed his dislike of the move to Leopold, and the family renounced the candidacy.
France enjoyed her brief diplomatic triumph, but both Bismarck and von Moltke, chief of staff of the Prussian army were utterly depressed, not a mental condition that could guarantee anyone’s peace of mind in Europe. Then Gramont made things much worse by asking William in a written message if he would please ensure that Leopold would not even think of renewing the candidacy! This was the perfect opportunity for Bismarck to make one of his lightning moves – he published the famous EMS telegram in which William had explained what was happening to Bismarck. The latter published a specially shortened version of the telegram, which made it seem as if the French demands were peremptory. William rather crudely rebuffed the French Ambassador and ended diplomatic relations with France. The stage was thus set for the Franco-Prussian War (1870/71) which could very easily have been avoided.
The Spanish throne was finally accepted by the Duke of Aosta, second son of Victor Emanuel of Italy. His name was Amadeus I but he might well have been Amadeus the Brief, for he reigned from 1871 – 1873, when he abdicated. Then the First Spanish Republic was declared.
Looking on with a certain detachment, and a good deal of philosophy, it might have been better all round if the Hohenzollern candidate had become the King of Spain. I join a few others who wonder if a mutually friendly Spain and Prussia might possibly have influenced William II enough around 1910 -1914 to have avoided the First World War. But who knows?
French Marshal Macmahon / wikipedia.org
At first sight our title might seem a misnomer, rather like ‘Benevolent Dictator’ or ‘Historical Novel’. But one was set up and lasted for eight years in France (1871 – 9). Following the capture of Napoleon III at Sedan, a republican government of National Defence was organised, one assumes to carry on with the not yet decisive Franco-Prussian War. (more…)
A crucial moment arrived in France when the much-sought revolution seemed to be petering out. Those who had staked everything on it, their fortune, their families, properties and reputations, stood in danger of failure through inanition. Foreign armies threatened the borders, there was civil war in the Vendée which looked unpromising, as the royalists could win it. Prices were high even for France and there was an economic crisis. Something radical (and nothing could be more radical than the club of the Jacobins) had to be done. It was. (more…)