Yes, he would have had to openly espouse beliefs he didn’t really hold in order to curry favor with somebody in power. Something Edmund Blackadder would never do.
What, you mean the line with King Edmund I in it?
“But that’s an alternate history” - so is the one with all of the other Blackadders in it; the entire premise of the first one is that the “princes in the tower” were not killed, one of whom ended up being Prince Edmund’s father, but for some never-explained reason, Henry Tudor (who actually lost at Bosworth Field) somehow regained the throne and retconned most of it out of history.
Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig- Competency? 
Haig was a blundering murderer of his own troops, likely one of the most incompetent bungler CinCs in the Modern era.
Sir Douglas Haig is certainly among the worst generals that have ever lived. Partly because of the heavy losses that resulted from his battle plans and partly because of his absolute inability to adapt to modern warfare. The decisions that he took concerning his men absolutely appal me and his resolutely stubborn attitude makes me want to rip my hair out. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little (just a little) , but I still think it’s pretty clear that Douglas Haig made some HUGE mistakes in his lifetime.….In the Battle of the Somme, dear Douglas Haig sent 110,000 British infantry-men into battle on the morning of July 1, 1916 (the first day of the Somme campaign), resulting in 60,000 casualties (nearly 20,000 of which were deaths) without any of the set objectives being achieved. This occurred after the British and French had suddenly stopped bombarding the Germans after five continuous days of artillery barrage (way to let the Germans know what to expect). Despite this heavy casualty rate, Haig decided to continue the offensive, resulting in over 400,000 casualties (actually 600,000 if you count French losses too) over the next four months. He just kept sending in infantry in a frontal attack in the hopes that they would break a hole in the German lines so his cavalry could finally storm in and save the day.
And yet Haig looks like Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar reincarnated compared to Luigi Cadorna:
His battles were planned?
Oh, extensively! Unfortunately most of the plans were for what the army would do after they had smashed the German lines and poured into their rear.
ETA: and at least Haig acknowledged after each failed offensive that the next attack plan would have to be tweaked just a bit. Cadorna placed the blame for the failure of his perfect attack plans on the cowardice and treason of his subordinates and troops.
“Would this brilliant plan involve us climbing out of our trenches and walking very slowly towards the enemy, sir?”
“How can you know that, Blackadder? It’s classified information.”
“It’s the same plan we used last time. And the seventeen times before that.”
“Exactly. And that is what is so brilliant about it. It will catch the watchful Hun totally off guard. Doing precisely what we’ve done eighteen times before is exactly the last thing they would expect us to do this time.”
I was thinking of a different scene, actually.
[Blackadder is informed that a German spy is stealing battle plans]
General Melchett: You look surprised, Blackadder.
Captain Blackadder: I certainly am, sir. I didn’t realise we had any battle plans.
General Melchett: Well, of course we have! How else do you think the battles are directed?
Captain Blackadder: Our battles are directed, sir?
Call me a bluff old traditionalist, but I was always taught to wait for the order to attack before attacking.
I thought of:
Lieutenant George: Great Scott sir, you mean, you mean the moment’s finally arrived for us to give Harry Hun a darned good British style thrashing, six of the best, trousers down?
Captain Blackadder: If you mean, “Are we all going to get killed?” Yes. Clearly, Field Marshal Haig is about to make yet another gargantuan effort to move his drinks cabinet six inches closer to Berlin.
Oh yes.
and this
- [Blackadder is informed that a German spy is stealing battle plans]
- General Melchett: You look surprised, Blackadder.
- Captain Blackadder: I certainly am, sir. I didn’t realise we had any battle plans.
- General Melchett: Well, of course we have! How else do you think the battles are directed?
- Captain Blackadder: Our battles are directed, sir?
- General Melchett: Well, of course they are, Blackadder, directed according to the Grand Plan.
- Captain Blackadder: Would that be the plan to continue with total slaughter until everyone’s dead except Field Marshal Haig, Lady Haig and their tortoise, Alan?
- General Melchett: Great Scott! Even you know it!
Again, good comedy, bad history.
Historians in recent decades have concluded
that Haig acquitted himself particularly well in the Hundred Days.
After he killed off some 400,000 Tommies with fruitless and bound to fail walking attacks. So, for 3 years and 9 months Haig was a bumbling incompetent who murdered his own men, but in the last few days, he apparently finally learned. Also note that Marshal Foch was in overall command, not Haig, and Pershing refused to let Haig order his Yanks into attacks. Haig also ordered over 250 men to be executed.
‘He’s a cheery old card,’ grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.
No it wouldn’t. In that role he would have had to have participated - in his usual cynical self serving fashion - in the mismanagement that resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of ordinary soldiers. It would not be funny.
It’s funny when in the earlier series his idiot schemes result in he and Baldrick losing out. It would not be funny if he was in the General Staff behind the lines being incompetent when in the back of our minds we would all be thinking “and as consequence of that cockup 20,000 soldiers died in the mud”.
It may be 110 years ago but it’s too soon for that to be funny.
Did you see the second season episode “Head”?
That’s the one where Blackadder is appointed Lord High Executioner (or as he puts it “Minister in charge of Religious Genocide”). He finds there are two people scheduled for execution on Monday and Wednesday. He moves the Wednesday execution up to Monday in order to take Wednesday off.
The Queen then decides to pardon the guy Blackadder has already executed and he has to figure out a way to conceal the fact that he’s already dead.
So I don’t think we can say the show doesn’t makes jokes out of death.
Yeah though I think there is a key difference between comedy that includes dark subject matter which Blackadder has always done and actual black comedy. Blackadder has never really been black comedy despite the subject matter the comedy was always pretty light and traditional, all hilarious mishaps and comedy misunderstandings. Even the first two seasons that did have dark endings were still played for laughs and not making any deeper point.
There is nothing in the preceding seasons that prepares the viewer for the end of the fourth series.
I disagree. Blackadder Goes Forth is indeed black comedy. The 1st series is silly slapstick, and the 3rd is dry sarcasm and wit.
Firstly in your example both the executees were going to die and all Blackadder did was change the timing.
Secondly, time and distance (social and geographical) turn tragedy into comedy. We can laugh about a couple of undeserving guys getting their heads chopped off 500 years ago. Make the same joke about 100’s of thousands of guys dying 110 years ago and we don’t laugh.