The Royal Family and the War

CHAPTER CCLXV. THE ROYAL FAMILY AND THE WAR. THE SOVEREIGN AND "THE FORCES OF THE CROWN "-QUEEN VICTORIA-KING EDWARD AND FOREJGN AFFAIRS-KING GEORGE IN 1914-THE KING'S DAy-VISITS TO THE FRONT-A MEMORY OF CRECy-THE HOUSE OF WINDSOR-ROYAL VISITS TO MUNITION WORKS AND INDUSTRIAL CENTRES-THE KING AND THE NAVy-THE PRINCE OF -VVALES AS A SOLDIER-THE QUEEN'S UNTIRING WORK-THE THRONE IN 1918. HAT were the King and the Royal our old antagonist, was never broken, though Family doing during the Great War? it was often strained, and we had no share W What were the relations between His either in the American Civil War or in the Majesty and his people, his Army, three wars by which Bismarck made the and his Navy? How did he regard his duty, German Empire. Still less broken on the how did he perform it, and how were his surface was the reign of King Edward, whom efforts regarded at the front and in the country? the popular voice named "Peacemaker." How far did the young Princes do their share Soon after his accession the Boer War came to and the Queen and Princesses take a lead in an end; and from the date of the Peace of that multifarious war-work which, in the Vereeniging (May 31, 1902) to that of the hands of women, wa~ one of the wonders of King's lamented death in 1910, England was the country and th~ world? free from war altogether. Before speaking of King George in his What was the c,onstitutional position of relation to the Army, it will be well to look the Sovereign with regard to the Army and back upon some of the military and naval fea Navy during these reigns, and did it continue tures of the two preceding reigns. Both were unchanged? The answer is indicated with .in the main periods of peace, periods indeed of sufficient accuracy in the common description profound peace as compared with the period of these arms as "The Forces of the Crown." 'which closed in 1815 and that which began in It is indeed 'rather curious that, while we had 1914, though Queen Victoria had to face three for centuries possessed a "Royal" Navy, and serious wars-Crimeal India in 1857, and while our latest armed body was, during the South Africa-while "little wars" against Great War , officially nam.ed the Royal Air turbulent neighbours were a frequent and Force, we had no " Royal" Army. The omission perhaps inseparable accident of the rapid of the epithet is doubtless to be tr~ced to far growth of the Empire. But notwithstanding away historical causes, and is the outcome of the unhappy quarrel with Russia in 1854, that jealousy of standing armies which found England and her rulers passed safely through formal expression in the Bill of Rights (1689), many foreign storms and over many quick and remained a characteristic of Parliament sands. The peace between us and France, since the seventeenth century. The Bill of Vol. XVIII.-Part 225. 109 110 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. Rights declared that "the raising or keeping 1870-71 the spectacle of the Franco-German. of a standing Army within the Kingdom, " Tar stimulated Cardwell's reforms, did the unless it be by the consent of Parliament, is Duke's antiquated principles find it easy to against the law"; in other words, Parliament give way. At last, in 1895, public opinion must authorize the creation of the Army which grew too strong and too vocal, and the Duke,. Parliament was to pay. Still, though the then 76 years old, consulted the Queen as to· 'power of the purse always rested with Parlia- whether he should retire. She reluctantly, but ment, and though the organization of the Army, . very wisely, advised him to do so; and a Chief especially after Cardwell's reforms, ultimately whose fairness, industry, and devotion to his depended on a Parliamentary Secretary of work were universally recognized, made way State, no one ever seriously disputed that the for men more alive to the vital necessities of tjtular command belongs to the Crown. As the times. Lord Wolsel'ey wrote in 1887:< ;, From time Though, as has b;en said, the reign of King. immemorial the Sovereign has been the head Edward was a period of peace, it was marked of our Army, and it will be a bad day for by considerable efforts towards the strengthen England should this ever be changed." "Com - , ing of both the land and the sea forces. New mand, preferment, and honour come to the types of ships were built-Dreadnoughts and Army from the Crown," says a great lawyer; super-Dreadnoughts, battle-cruisers and de and such remained the legal position. Queen stroyers, for the torpedo was assuming the Victoria was always jealous of her military importance which the Great War so amply rights. She was fond of the Army. She was proved. Two great naval reviews in the surrotmded by officers, all of them well schooled Solent, one of them held in honour ot the in military etiquette. She was fond of re Emperor of Russia, were held by the King, calling the fact that she was a "soldier's and showed to all the world that the British daughter" -for the Duke of Kent had been a Fleet was more powerful than ever. In 1907 General and Field-Marshal, and had been in Mr. Haldane, who, as Secretary of State for military command in Canada and at Gibraltar. War, profited greatly by the wisdom of King Her hiographer calls her love for the soldiers Edward, brought forward and carried his. "a dominant sentiment." scheme for the creation, of a Territorial Army In one matter Queen Victoria carried on a county basis.. In October the King her regard for her Royal prerogative further summoned the Lords-Lieutenant to Bucking than military, or indeed national, opinion ham Palace, and addressed them in an aI,limated! justified. This was in her appointment of speech, pointing out that the new Act would her cousin, the Duke of Cambridge, as Com. revive much of the importance formerly mander-in-Chief, and in her maintaining him belonging to their office. The Territorial> in the post-altered, modified, and extended Force was intended for home defence;· from time to time-for 40 years. The side by side with it there was patiently tnuy scandalous state of the Army, m developed that Expeditionary Force of six respect both of military equipment and of Divisions of Regulars which, when the fated general organization, was cruelly revealed by lTIOment came, was transported to France the blunders and failures of the Crimean " Tar; "without a single casualty," an,d stemmed' let us do justice to the memory of the Queen's the first German rush. These were the husband, the Prince Consort, and freely admit Divisions of which Marshal Foch said that .hat he, perhaps more than any .single man, they were" the finest troops" that he petsonally· helped to bring about essential reforms. But had ever seen. neither then nor later did the Duke of Cam King Edward died on May 6, 1910, and three bridge heartily recognize their necessity. Again, days later his only surviving son was pro when the Volunteer movement was brought claimed King under the title of George V. into being, Prince Albert actually drafted the The first four years of his reign hardly concern "Instnlctions to Lords-Lieutenant," issued in us here, but one cannot pass them by without May, 1859, which were the regulations on which the reflection, qtw,ntula sapientia r-egitur or-bis the Volunteer forge was raised and organized. terTaTum. We now know that we, our country, The Duke of Cambridge, however, was always our Empire, nay, civilization itself, was on the doubtful as to the utility of a civilian army of slopes of a volcano; that threatening, ull.ll1is this type; nor, eleven years later, when in takable murmurs were clearly audible; anCL • TH E Tll\1E8 HISTORY OF THE WAR. 111 FUNERAL OF QUEEN VICTORIA LEAVING WINDSOR CASTLE FOR THE ROYAL MAUSOLEUM AT FROGMORE. yet we passed our time less in prepari. ng result was the persuasion in t he m inds of t h8 for the storm than in quarr elling with one Kaiser and his Generals t hat civil war in ' another. For those were t he years of the Ireland was impending, and t hat England angry disputes between Lords and Commons, would at least have her hands full if t he first ab out the Parliament Bill, and then, Central Powers attacked France and Russia. when it became an Act, about its application The issues of peace and war are closely to the problem of Irish Government. One related to the direction. of a n ation's foreign 225-2 112 THE :TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. pplicy, and it is necessary to re fer briefly to it was especially so in the case of the famom; the part taken by Queen Victoria and King despatch to Washington on the occasion of the Edward in regard to the foreign relations of Trent affair, which Prince Albert, already the country. Both fully accepted the principle, struck by mortal illness, strengthened, rewrote which had been ~aining ground ever since the in his own hand, and easily persuaded the Queen fall of Napoleon, that the ideal policy for to sign. That dispatch, with its combination England was a policy of non-intervention, of firmness and sOl.md argument, undoubtedly and it is to ' her desire of sa~~guarding this averted the very serious danger of war.

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