I am reading a book on Post WWI Germany and it talks alot about the fall of many royal families during or after WWI. All I can think of are the Wilhelms, Romanovs, and Savoys. What other families were not around (or in power is a better way to put it) after WWI?
Thanks,
Ben
the Habsburgs
A gateway to information and genealogy of most of the major royal houses (European and non) can be found at
http://home1.gte.net/eskandar/monarchistsociety.html#houses
Almost every land in Germany, some extremely small, had a royal family who remained as monarchs under the Second Reich, but subject to the “federal” government of the Hohenzollerns.
Spain retained the House of Borbon until 1931; Greece was under a branch of the Danish royal house for most of the period. Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, the three Scandinavian nations and the three Benelux nations all had monarchs (the last two sets still do).
Hungary, incidentally, threw out the Hapsburgs but retained the monarchy, with Admiral Horthy serving as regent for the (non-existent) king, until the end of WWII.
The German royal family deposed at the end of WWI was the “Hohenzollerns”, not the Wilhelms. Wilhelm was the Christian name of the last kaiser.
The Italian House of Savoy survived WWI, since Italy fought on the winning side, and was not deposed until after WWII.
Other than the aforementioned Hapsburgs, and the minor German houses, the only other family deposed as a result of WWI was that of Turkey, formerly the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman sultanate lingered on in an impotent state until 1922, but its ultimate deposition was a clear result of the Turkish defeat in WWI.
WWI did help create several new monarchical states with local leaders in the Middle East, such as the Persian Gulf states and the Jordanian Hashemites. The Hashemites of Iraq were overthrown in 1958, but if Dick Cheney has his way, they may come back yet again!
Syria also had a Hashemite monarch for about a year after WWI.
Effectively true – but I’d have to pick one nit: Nicholas of Montenegro lost his throne in late 1918 when Montenegro was integrated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia).
Polycarp-while Nikola did indeed lose his thrown, it was his grandson, through his eldest daughter, who became King of Yugoslavia. So technically, his family still had it. (His grandson was pissed because Nikola had run off to Italy instead of allowing Montenegro to defend their land)
Yeah, Guin, but only because she’d married the Karageorgevich heir to Serbia, so that the kid was the eventual heir to both countries. As for running off to Italy, it’s been a tradition in monarchies that the king/queen/prince regnant/grossherzog/whatever has a choice between staying and sharing the fate of his people or fleeing to an ally to head up (or serve as figurehead for) a government-in-exile. In WWII Scandinavia, Sweden maintained neutrality by agreeing to supply the Nazis with raw materials only if not infiltrated, Christian X of Denmark stayed, and Haakon VII of Norway escaped to London. The King of Belgium stayed as a self-proclaimed prisoner of the Nazis (who were embarrassed by him making that claim) while Wilhelmina took off for London. (Norway and the Netherlands both made significant contributions to the Allied cause despite having been overrun by Nazi Germany, the first by its navy and particularly its Merchant Marine, the second through exports from its colonies.)