Foreignness and Monarchic Rule in the First World War: A Crisis of Transnational Monarchy, 1914-1927

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jörn Leonhard
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 410402546

The project studies the phenomenon of foreign monarchs and consorts in the age of nationalism. While national ideas increasingly gained influence during the nineteenth century, the transnationality of European monarchies increased at the same time. Because of the creation of new monarchies under foreign princes in newly founded nation-states as well as the intensification of transnational marriage patterns among the European high-aristocracy, the nineteenth century became a peak period of monarchic foreignness. The project systematically analyses foreign monarchies and transnational marriages and detailly examines how these phenomena were affected by the First World War as a crisis of transnational monarchy and period of xenophobic hysteria. In addition to the comparison of the main case studies Romania and Belgium, the project asymmetrically covers several other countries and thereby includes all dimensions of perception and discussion of monarchic foreignness. The tension between transnationality and nationalization was a characteristic element of nineteenth-century monarchy in Europe, which was further problematized by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. As aggressive war nationalism challenged monarchy’s traditional languages of loyalty, foreign-born monarchs and consorts were forced to privately and publicly re-define their relationships to their countries of origin and the nations they ruled. The project investigates accusations and suspicions against foreign kings and queens, researches new developed strategies of legitimation and examines the utilisation of monarchic foreignness. Through a multi-perspective approach to the international discourses around foreign monarchies and monarchical family networks, the project explains the importance of monarchic foreignness for the political processes of the time and shows the influence of the concept of foreign monarchy on the reorganization of the world after the war. Incorporating the interwar period, the project also illustrates that even after 1918 monarchic foreignness and transnationality continued to play a role in national and international politics. Thereby, the project contributes to the comparative study of monarchy and provides new perspectives to the research of nationalism, imperialism and democratization.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants