Kings, Queens and Fallen Monarchies: Royal Dynasties of Interwar Europe (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781399035422)

Among the great hidden narratives of twentieth-century history are the movements in Europe which, between the two world wars, aimed to restore the royal and imperial houses forced out of power in 1918 (or, in Portugal's case, eight years earlier). These efforts acquired media coverage and, often, strategic importance far greater than would be now supposed from the cursory, often dismissive, treatment which they have received from most historians since.

Campaigns to reinstate such dynasties as the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburgs, the Wittelsbachs, the Bragan?as, and even France's House of Orl?ans, were taken seriously at the highest governmental and journalistic levels in London and Paris, not to mention the Holy See. Upon the whole phenomenon, this book seeks to shed light. It discusses both the phenomenon's 'soft power' manifestations (the designs of newspaper tycoon Lord Rothermere upon the Hungarian throne for his son, for instance) and the phenomenon's 'hard power' manifestations, among which probably the most dramatic were the successful monarchical campaigns in Albania and Greece.

With a cast that includes not only the monarchist candidates themselves but Churchill, Lloyd George, Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco, this is a drama that embraces a continent and forces thorough reappraisals of events which we thought we knew. No one can read it without acquiring a firmer grasp of political power's very nature and the sheer narrowness of the gap between victory and defeat.

Author: Robert Stove
ISBN-10: 1399035428
ISBN-13: 9781399035422
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Language: English
Published: 12/30/2024
Pages: 256
Format: Hardcover