By Kimball Worcester, Assistant Editor
In her classic work The Guns of August, historian Barbara Tuchman begins her exploration of the opening of the Great War with the funeral of King Edward VII of Great Britain. Tuchman believed, as do we, that the ceremony's grandeur and conspicuous participation by nine kings and long list of royals (some of whom were doomed to be deposed or murdered) was symbolic of the passing of a soon to vanish "Old Order" that had led Europe and the world for a millennium. Today, Roads to the Great War begins a two-part series of biographical sketches of ten of the attendees at the 20 May 1910 funeral who would play roles in the First World War of varied degrees and character.
Ten Who Were There (1–5)
1. Albert I, King of the Belgians (1875-1934)
He would become the most accomplished of any of the royals who attended the funeral during the Great War. Albert succeeded his uncle, Leopold II, as king of the Belgians, in 1909. He would become the most beloved monarch in Belgium's two centuries of existence through his determined war leadership, his rebuilding of the nation afterward, and his recognition of Flemish citizens' status.
During the Great War he would save his army from destruction and eventually link up with Allied forces to close and hold the Western Front on the English Channel for the war's duration. He attempted to remain independent of the Allied war aims merely seeking to protect Belgium's territorial integrity. In 1918, however, he modified his views and took the offensive, commanding the Flanders group of armies that included Belgian, British, French, and even two American divisions. King Albert was killed in a climbing accident in 1934 and was succeeded by his son, the less stalwart Leopold III.
2. Edward, Duke of Cornwall (1894-1972)
The grandson of Edward VII had not yet been invested as Prince of Wales at the time of the funeral. That would come a year later, with the ceremony held in Wales for the first time in centuries, in a ceremony designed by Welshman David Lloyd George. When the First World War (1914-18) broke out, Edward had reached the minimum age for active service and was keen to participate. He had joined the Grenadier Guards in June 1914, and although Edward was willing to serve on the front lines, Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener refused to allow it, citing the immense harm that would occur if the heir to the throne was captured.
Despite this, Edward witnessed trench warfare firsthand and attempted to visit the front line as often as he could, for which he was awarded the Military Cross in 1916. His role in the war, although limited, made him popular among veterans of the conflict. When his father died 1936, Edward became king. He remained popular with the country until he announced his intention to marrying the American Wallis Warfield Simpson, who was suing her second husband for divorce. Edward insisted that he had the right to marry the woman of his choice, despite -- with his being head of the Church of England -- her marital background making her unsuitable. The government, headed by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, saw a challenge to constitutional procedure and forced his abdication in 1936.
Edward was designated Duke of Windsor and married Wallis Warfield in 1937. His pre-World War II conduct included a controversial flirtation with Nazism and support of appeasement. During the war he was effectively exiled as Governor of the Bahamas. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor spent the rest of their lives as minor celebrities.
3. Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, Duke d'Aosta (1869-1931)
The son of King Amadeus of Spain (where he had been the crown prince) and a cousin of Italian King Emanuele III, the Duke of Aosta was a professional soldier in the Italian Army. During the war he would command the Third Army, the most important Italian formation along the lower Isonzo River sector, where Italy mounted eleven, costly and mostly failed offensives, 1915-1917.
His finest moment as a military commander may have been after the Caporetto fiasco, when he arranged an orderly retreat, saving his army for the subsequent successful defensive and, later, offensive operations against Austro-Hungarian forces. At Caporetto, the Third Army on the upper Isonzo -- Aosta's left flank -- had been utterly shattered in the opening attack. After the war the duke was named a marshal by Mussolini's government. He was buried in a crypt at the Third Army Memorial at Redipuglia, surrounded by the remains of 100,000 of his men.
4. Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este (1863-1914)
Franz Ferdinand became heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne through two untimely deaths. The first was of the Emperor's son, Crown Prince Rudolph, who killed himself (and his 16-year-old mistress) in 1889. The second was the death of Franz Ferdinand's father, Archduke Charles Louis, in 1896. Considered more flexible in matters of military and domestic affairs than his uncle Emperor Franz Josef, he was a reformist with new ideas to be put into practice when he ascended the Hapsburg throne. One of these ideas was "trialism" - the reorganization of the dual monarchy into a triple monarchy by giving the Slavs an equal voice in the empire. This would put them on an equal footing with the Magyars and Germans living inside the Austro-Hungarian borders. These politics were in direct conflict with those of the Serbian nationalists.
The archduke and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 (their 14th wedding anniversary) by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. The archduke's role of inspector general of the Austrian Army had brought him to Sarajevo for the summer maneuvers. Neither Emperor Franz Josef nor the Kaiser saw fit to attend the funeral. His death, however, would set off the series of diplomatic misjudgments known as the July Crisis of 1914, the immediate cause of World War I.
5. George I, King of the Hellenes (1845-1913)
The Danish-born King of Greece was elected king after the 1862 deposition of his predecessor, Otto I. He introduced a democratic constitution to Greece and expanded its territory in his near-50-year reign despite a disastrous defeat in the Ottoman War of 1897.
Never excessively concerned about personal security, George was assassinated by a socialist on the streets of Salonika in 1913. He would be succeeded by his son, Constantine I, who was also in attendance at Edward's funeral as Duke of Sparta. Constantine's reign would prove utterly tumultuous during the war. He opposed the Allies in World War I and was forced to abdicate in favor of his second son, Alexander. He was restored after Alexander's death, but in 1922 a military rebellion forced him to abdicate again.
Part II Tomorrow
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