User:Stephen2nd/Disestablishments of WWI

Royal disestablishments of the 20th Century

In World War I and afterwards, leading up to the start of WWII, the crowned heads of 30 royal houses were deposed or abdicated. Defeat in WWI also brought about the collapse of four great Empires, three of which collapsed in 1917-1918; the Russian Empire under the Tsar Nicholas II in March 1917, the German Empire under the Kaiser Wilhelm II, including his numerous Kings, Princes and Dukes in November 1918, the Austrian Empire under the Emperor Charles I, who also lost his two other thrones as King Charles III of Bohemia, and King Charles IV of Hungary, also in 1918. The King and Kingdom of Finland, and Nicholas I of Montenegro suffered the same fate in 1918. The Ottoman Empire fell when the Sultanate was abolished in 1922, and its Caliphate was abolished in 1924. A few crowned heads managed to survive until the 1930’s, when Alfonso of Spain in 1931, then Zog of Albania abdicated in 1936. Carol of Romania fled in 1940 after WWII started. Although the British crowned heads narrowly missed these same fates, numerous members of their royal families, did not.

Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and predecessor of the Soviet Union. In 1866, it stretched from eastern Europe, across northern Asia, and into North America. At the beginning of the 19th century, Russia was the largest country in the world, extending from the Arctic Ocean to the north to the Black Sea on the south, from the Baltic Sea on the west to the Pacific Ocean on the east. Its government and 150 million subjects were ruled by the Emperor - Czar, as one of the last absolute monarchies in Europe. The end of the Russian Empire was brought about, due to the ultimatum of the Austrian Empire against Serbia, due to the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand in his own province of Bosnia. This ultimatum which began WWI drew Russia, as protector of the Slavs for 100 years, in defence of this tiny kingdom in the Balkans. The irreversible process of Russian mobilization plunged the Powers into war, which Russia was not prepared for. In 1917, in the last act of Imperial Russia, the Czar of the Russian Empire Nicholas II abdicated in favour of his brother, but Michael is said to have declined the crown. In October 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power. Almost the first action of the new regime was to bring the Romanov dynasty, and the war, to an end. The Czar and his family were taken to Yekaterinburg, and were all executed in July 1918, as were most of his relatives in 1918-1919, these deaths concluded the end of the Russian Empire, and the Romanov dynasty. (Louda, p 280) All the victims of the Bolsheviks were descended from lines of decent of the wife of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I (1796-1855), Charlotte (Alexandra) (1798-1860), the daughter of Frederick William III, King of Prussia. Subsequent other German Houses bred with the Russian Nobility include; the daughters of Louis II Grand Duke of Hesse; Joseph Duke of Saxe-Altenburg; Peter, Duke of Oldenburg; Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden; Prince Maurice of Saxe-Altenburg; and the wife of Nicholas II, daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. The list shows all of their descendants killed in 1918-1919. (Louda, table 139)

Great Britain
In 1893, according to Ottfried Neubecker of the Governing Board of the International Academy of Heraldry, “The princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were excluded from the British royal family in 1893.” ((Heraldry, Sources Symbols and Meaning. Ottfried Neubecker. ISBN 0-316-64141-3 ,p 96)) These S-CG princes in that year, had been accused of contriving to impose themselves as hereditary kings, upon Great Britain, Portugal, Bulgaria and Belgium. ((Lines of Succession. Louda & Maclagan. 1981. ISBN 085613-276-4, p 202)) The catalyst for these exclusions occurred in 1888, when Wilhelm II of the House of Hohenzollern became the German Emperor. Wilhelm II, was a successor to this excluded S-CG house, as a 1st grandson of Queen Victoria of the House of Hanover and Prince Albert of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Wilhelm II, as such, received the Oath of Allegiance, sworn by British parliamentarians &c, to the Queen, her heirs and successors. Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, accepted this constitutional relationship with the German Emperor Wilhelm, stating in a speech in Wales (1888), “We are a part of a community of Europe and we must do our duty as such”; ((ref)) He then enacted parliamentary procedures in 1888, to legislate a new Official Secrets Act 1889.

The order of succession changed in 1892, on the death of the Duke of Clarence. In 1893, the succession to the S-CG Duchy passed to the heirs of Prince Albert. His 2nd son Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, was Duke of S-CG till his death in 1900, whose only son and heir died in 1899, and was succeeded by his nephew Charles Edward (Louda p 202). who was symbolically deprived of his British dukedom of Albany in 1919, via a British Deprivation of Titles Act, 1917, and then abdicated his German Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1918, at the end of WWI. Likewise, Ernest Augustus, of the House of Hanover was also deprived of his British dukedoms of Cumberland and Teviotdale in 1917 and abdicated from the German Duchy of Brunswick in 1918. (Louda, p 198). After the succession of George V of Great Britain in 1910, another Official Secrets Act 1911 was enacted. In 1917, during WWI and Deprivation Act, most princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were disestablished, with exception of George V who decreed his House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha re-named as House of Windsor, and also in that same year, the House of Hesse-Battenberg was re-named as the House of Mountbatten (Louda, p 218).

German Empire
See: German monarchy 1918

Finland
The Grand Principality of Finland was a part of the Russian Empire until 1917.

Spain
Alfonso of Spain

Albania
Zog of Albania

Romania
Carol of Romania