It's Rarely Simple

[poliphilo]

The Daily Mail has called in a mind lip reader and can now reveal that the Queen and her mother were just waving at the camera. Of course; how could it have been otherwise!

And when Lord Rothermere- owner of the Mail-  swung his paper behind Mosley's Blackshirts he was- what exactly? Come on DM, there must be some wholly innocent explanation. Perhaps- I don't know- he was just commending their sartorial elegance.

The Guardian, more seriously, has an article by a historian which spells out the British royal family's German connections and sympathies. They are multitudinous. The Second War- like the First- was- from the point of view of the royal houses and aristocracies of Europe- a family quarrel.

The 20s and 30s of the 20th century were an age of ideology. The old certainties had been flattened by the Great War and new political movements and religions fought it out in the wasteland. The most powerful of these ideologies were Bolshevism and Fascism, the first hostile to monarchy, the second happy to accomodate (and use) it. No wonder then that aristocrats and royals should have inclined to Fascism. They weren't the only ones. W. B. Yeats, the greatest poet of the century, wrote marching songs for Ireland's own fascist wannabes, Ezra Pound, the greatest theorist of modernism, put his weight behind Mussolini and came very close to having his neck stretched for treason.

We need to a be a little kind to our former selves. They didn't know how fascism was going to turn out and many- once they'd wised up- withdrew their support. The British royals may have been fellow travellers before the war but- with the exception of the pitiful Edward VIII- afterwards fought against it. The historical record is what it is- some of it embarassing, some of it honourable. Lets have it all out in the open. We should be grown-up enough by now to cope with a little complexity.

Comments

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I like nuances...

And you can't really fault the Windsors during the war, so there. They did have an allegiance, and it wasn't to any ideology but to a constitutional monarchy. And in many ways Queen Elizabeth II still tows the line for whatever government happens to be in place - as she should, given that this is what she's handsomely paid to do.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They kept the show on the road. The flirtation with fascism was also about keeping the show on the road. If one thinks keeping the show on the road is a good thing then the Queen has done a pretty good job.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Well, it's their job... Whether one agrees with the institution of monarchy or not.

(I mainly don't, but then our queen and her prince consort made a first translation of one of Simone de Beauvoir's books into Danish, which is pretty awesome. We could have done worse for a queen.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I wish one of our royals would do something as clever. I find it irksome that they're mostly so dull. I except Prince Charles from the charge of dullness- but then he's
interesting in all manner of peculiarly annoying ways.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Our Crown Princess is an Austrailian commoner - which is inherently cool - and the Crown prince is... Well, he used to be pretty and now he's on the bloody Olympic Committee, which is rather a dirty place to be. And our Prince Consort writes rather lovely poetry in French - his last collection of poetry is called "In my blissful nights" and it's basically a declaration of love to his wife. How awesome is that? Can't see Prince Philip matching that any day soon... And of course the Queen paints and does stage sets for the Royal Ballet and designs mantels for the bishoprics - and she illustrated Lord of The Rings under a pseudonym.

If we're going to pay for a family to be extremely privileged figure heads, I think we're doing all right in Denmark so far. The Crown Prince will most likely be a dull king, but his wife is all kinds of awesome and hugely involved with a whole range of charities relating to children. Also, Australian royalty... That's just funny!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's impressive.

Members of our royal family have been known to produce not very good watercolours. Otherwise they mostly care about horses.

Charles is the exception- an eccentric, egocentric man- with a wide range of interests- who isn't nearly as intelligent as he thinks he is.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's not fair to judge the past with the benefit of hindsight. When that film (which I haven't actually seen yet) was made, the evils of Nazism were only just beginning and no one then new what the future would hold.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think we'd be better protected against the return of fascism if we recognised the things about it which our ancestors found so attractive.

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

My biggest problem is that all of this should have been widely known, before seeing the 'evidence'.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's no secret that Edward VIII was a nazi sympathizer and that the Queen Mother may have dabbled, but- as they say- a picture is worth a thousand words.