.png)
.png)
.png)
In July 1714, Anne, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, lay on her death bed in Kensington Palace. Despite 18 pregnancies, she had no surviving children, no heir to inherit the throne. Sure, there were plenty of relatives with a bloodline suitable to succeed her, plenty of Stuarts. But all of them were Catholic. And a Catholic could not rule Great Britain, not according to an Act passed some 13 years earlier. No, a Catholic king would not do. And so despite 57 people ahead of him in the line of succession, the throne passed to George I, a German. That’s how opposed Great Britain was to a Catholic king. They chose to import a ruler from a different country entirely. The people were, understandably, displeased at first. How could a German rule Great Britain? He barely even speaks English. He spends more time in Hanover than he does in London. How could he possibly have our best interests at heart? He’s not even one of us, not really. But George was only the first of 6 Hanoverian monarchs who would rule over Great Britain for the next 187 years. And did you know that by the end of their dynasty, ironically, these Germans had all but defined what it means to be British? Let’s fix that.
Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix, where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. Ah the British royal family. Why is it so dang interesting? It’s like a fairy tale soap opera but real. I’m not the only one who thinks this, my two part episodes on Henry VIII’s six wives remain my most listened to episodes by a lot. We collectively cannot get enough of these fools. Today we’re delving into a particular sect of the British royal family known as the House of Hanover or the Hanoverian dynasty. And this batch of monarchs, 6 of them in all, I find super interesting, mostly because they aren’t even British. I mean, not, not really. Not as much as they are German. Can you imagine if the next US President wasn’t even American? Like wasn’t born in the US, didn’t speak English as a first language or even very fluently at all, wasn’t a US citizen, just got naturalized later so that he could rule. Like if we imported a Canadian guy or a Mexican guy to be president. People would freak out. They would lose their minds. That’s basically what happened with George I. And I don’t think many people realize that. That Great Britain was ruled by Germans for 187 years and, spoiler alert, still kind of is. We’ll get more into the family tree later. First, let’s take a look at how German George found himself on the British throne.
Actually, JK, let’s look at the family tree cause we kind of have to to see how George became king. So, if you recall, Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII, died without any heirs, having never married or had children. That was the end of the Tudor dynasty. So when that happened her cousin twice removed, James I, took the throne. So that means James was her cousin’s kid’s kid. I have a few of these in my family, actually, crazily enough, big family. Anyway, James was a Stuart. He started the Stuart line that Anne would later end. For some context, he was king when Jamestown colony was established in Virginia, hence the name Jamestown after King James. After James died, his son Charles I became king. Charles is the unfortunate one who was beheaded during the civil war of 1642 when parliament took over and dissolved the monarchy for a minute. I’ve mentioned this on several occasions. I will make an episode about it someday. But after that weird 10 year blip of no king, Charles II takes the throne, then James II, both of these guys are sons of Charles I who got beheaded. They’re brothers. Then, William and Mary. Mary was James II’s daughter. And finally Queen Anne who was Mary’s sister. These are all Stuart monarchs, all direct descendants of James I who remember was cousin twice removed of Elizabeth Tudor. Okay, hopefully that all made sense.
Also please remember that Britain is decidedly anti-Catholic, ever since the antics of Henry VIII. Actually part of the reason Charles I fell out of favor so hard before he was executed is because he married a Catholic wife. And his son, King James II, was actually exiled in 1688 for trying to bring Catholicism back. They straight up kicked him out. They are done with Catholicism, done with Catholic kings, and in 1701 they make it official with the Act of Settlement which said that any future monarch had to be part of the protestant Church of England. They could not be Catholic. And so when Anne, the last Stuart monarch fails horrendously to provide an heir, she had 17 miscarriages you guys, and one surviving child who died when he was 11. She is in very poor health. She is dying actively for a while and they know this. And they’re looking at their prospects and they are all Catholic. The next 57 claimants to the throne are Catholic. Number 58 is actually a woman, Sophia of Hanover. She was the grandaughter of James I, the first Stuart king and she is not Catholic. But her mother was married off to a German guy and so now Sophia is ruling over Hanover. I’m saying German and Germany, I realize Germany wasn’t actually a country yet. It was just a collection of duchies, small kingdoms, with all different names, Bohemia, Hanover, Bavaria, Saxony. I’m just going to call it Germany to avoid a lot of confusion. Because that’s what it would eventually turn into. So Sophia, granddaughter of James I and part of the current ruling family of Hanover over in Germany is next in line for the English throne and she is stoked. But, she’s also 83 years old. So she dies actually just a few weeks before Queen Anne which leaves the throne to her son George.
Now when Anne hears this, cause Anne is still alive while they’re figuring all this out. She died a slow torturous death. She is not happy that George of Hanover is in line for the throne. Because George had actually turned her down as a marriage prospect back in 1680. She wanted to marry him and he was like “nah.” So, you know, she’s been scorned by him. She’s not a huge George fan. But as her health deteriorates more and more she has to accept that he is the heir to the throne. The best they’ve got if they want to avoid a Catholic monarch. And so she finally, reluctantly gives her approval and then dies on July 30, 1714.
At the time of Anne’s death, George was serving as Elector of Hanover. I wasn’t super familiar with the term elector. It’s a prince basically, ruler of a duchy, with the right to vote to elect the Holy Roman Emperor. But that title Elector of Hanover means he’s the top guy. He’s basically the King of Hanover if that were a thing. But now, upon Anne’s death, he’s also the King of Great Britain and Ireland. Now George was born and raised in Germany and he reportedly spoke only very broken English. This did not make him a popular choice amongst the people. According to Historic Royal Palaces quote “George was not thrilled to be King, and among his subjects and courtiers the feeling was mutual. When he arrived in Britain, the cheers quickly turned to jeers and he was variously insulted as ‘corpulent oaf’, King Log and most bizarrely, a turnip! The King’s frequent and prolonged trips home to Hanover didn’t go down well, either. At court, George angered bigoted members of English aristocracy by granting his loyal Turkish servants, Mehmet and Mustapha, the top jobs,” end quote.
He also came with an unconventional romantic situation. Soap opera, I’m telling you. He had married his German first cousin, Sophia Dorthea in 1682, shortly after turning down Anne’s marriage proposal. And they managed to have two children together, George and Sophia, but their relationship was tumultuous to say the least. Actually, so much so that I’m planning to tackle it in my next mini fix over on Patreon. Look for that on Wednesday. But to keep that story short for now, George divorced Sophia Dorthea in 1694 claiming that she had committed adultery which she had most likely but also, George had been openly and publicly committing adultery for years with his mistress with whom he had multiple illegitimate children that he flaunted around. Major, major double standard. So he had the marriage dissolved and then he quite literally imprisoned Sophia Dorthea in Ahlden Castle in another part of Germany for the rest of her life, for 32 years, and she was never allowed to see her children again. It’s nuts you guys. It’s a crazy story. Keep your eyes peeled for that mini fix.
So when George rolls up in London, his wife is long gone. He’s locked her up already. He arrives with his half sister and his mistress, the one he had the children with Melusine von Shulenburg. Historic Royal Palaces says quote “His curvaceous half-sister Sophia Charlotte was nicknamed 'The Elephant'; while his bony mistress Melusine was tagged 'The Maypole' end quote. Plus the two Turkish servants he favored over his British courtiers. So this was a slightly bizarre entourage. George was pretty shy and socially awkward, not unlike Louis the 16th. He also wasn’t much of a go getter but, unlike Louis, he was much better at delegating. So even though he wasn’t doing much to rule the country himself, the men he appointed were pulling it off. According to Historic Royal Palaces quote “The King’s trust in his government allowed men like Robert Walpole, his first minister, to run the country very well. George I's reign saw the Jacobite rising of 1715 and the first stock market crash. Yet the King’s common sense and the good judgement of those around him helped the country weather these storms,” end quote. So he wasn’t great but he wasn’t terrible. He’s pulling it off. While king he made major improvements to both Hampton Court Palace which was Henry VIII’s favorite hang out and Kensington Palace where George mostly lived. And then he died at the age of 67 while en route back to Hanover of a stroke. And the Historic Royal Palaces website says quote “Did you know? George I died from a stroke supposedly brought on by an excess of strawberries, on his way to Hanover,” end quote. And I’m fairly positive that that is not a thing so now I’m questioning everything. I don’t know if that’s like what they thought happened at the time or what. Uhh, strawberries don’t cause strokes, so no need to worry unnecessarily or anything. But if anyone can explain that little fun fact on the Historic Royal Palaces website that would be great. They kind of left me hanging there.
After the strawberries kill George I, his son with his imprisoned wife becomes King George II. George II had arrived with his father in London back in 1714 as the Prince of Wales and was quickly favored over his father by the people which was a problem. George I begins to resent his son and actually eventually has him banished from the palace and prevents him and his wife Caroline from seeing their children. What is it with this guy keeping kids away from their moms? It’s messed up. When George I died, their relationship was still so bad that George II refused to travel to Germany to attend his funeral. And this made the British like him even more. He was seen as a very courageous king because he personally led his troops into battle during the War of Austrian Succession. He was actually the last British monarch to do this, to lead troops into battle. But other than that, there’s not that much to love about him. He was kind of boring and short tempered. He was reportedly very into routines and facts and figures. I kind of think he was on the autism spectrum. British Royal Palaces says quote “As a man George found refuge in an obsession with facts and figures. The King would spend long hours describing obscure details of military uniforms and battles to long-suffering courtiers. According to one account, George II even had his underwear numbered according to days of the week!” end quote. This is giving high functioning autism for sure. But while he’s off boring people with long winded descriptions of uniform minutiae, his wife Caroline was busy being awesome. She is often remembered as one of the most enlightened, accomplished, intellectual women of Europe. She often invited writers, philosophers, and scientists to Kensington palace. She had all of her children vaccinated for smallpox which is crazy at this time. This is like super super early for that sort of science. So that shows her trust in science which has to have been very rare for a woman at the time, early 1700s. And she was just glamorous and lively. She brought the party to court. She was the vibe. Because her husband was insufferably boring without her. She was mostly a wholesome character except for this weird family drama with the oldest son Frederick.
Historic Royal Palaces says quote “The key to understanding the Georgian royal family is that eldest sons loathed their powerful fathers, and were loathed in return,” end quote. George I and George II had a terrible relationship and now George II and Frederick have a terrible relationship. And there isn’t like any one reason for that. They just clashed. They were both very strong willed. They disagreed politically. Frederick was seen as openly defiant and disrespectful. But also, he was raised in Hanover. Until he was 21 he lived in Hanover and his parents and younger brothers and sisters all lived in London. So there’s this separation, this lack of bonding. Plus, guess who was quite often in Hanover with him? George I, his grandfather, who didn’t like George II either. So it’s very possible that Frederick’s view of his father was tainted by the time he spent with his grandfather. I mean they really hated Frederick. His parents hated him. His mother Caroline once said quote “There he goes, that wretch, that villain! I wish the ground would open this moment and sink the monster to the lowest hole in hell,” end quote. Which, as a mother myself, I cannot imagine saying about my children, like for any reason. There is nothing they could do. And Frederick didn’t like do anything all that bad that I an find. He just didn’t get along with his parents and I guess that was enough for his own mother to condemn him to hell.
Frederick worried that his parents were secretly plotting to pass the throne to his younger brother William whom they clearly favored. But, in the end, it wasn’t passed to either of them. Frederick died at the age of 44 from what was thought to be a burst abscess in his chest when he was hit with a tennis ball or cricket ball but we now think it may have actually been a pulmonary embolism that killed him which is a blood clot in the lungs. So he dies before his father. And then when his father, George II dies, Frederick’s son becomes King George III so all the worry about William was for nothing. George III takes the throne at the age of 22.
This George, George III was the first in his line to be born in England and the first to speak English as his first language. He also never visited Hanover despite holding the throne there too. So this is a shift. Although he is still very much German, he seems a lot more British to the people. And he was a pretty good king at first. He was very into the arts and did a lot to develop the arts, founding the Royal Academy of Arts. He was also very into agriculture, so much so that he earned the nickname “Farmer George.” And during his reign there was a bit of an agricultural revolution which led to a huge growth in rural populations. But George was a bit of a control freak. He helicopter parented his 15 children with his wife Charlotte and he helicopter parented the colonies under his control. So much so that he pushed the 13 American colonies to a breaking point which resulted in the American Revolution and independence from Great Britain. Yes, this is the King George who was king during the Revolutionary war. This is the foil of our George Washington. Funny how they were both named George. I never realized that. Also both into farming. This is also the King George from Bridgerton if you’ve ever watched that show or the spin off show Queen Charlotte. This is that George and Charlotte.
Despite being a decent king, I mean he did lose the Americas, but otherwise he did okay, George III’s reign is mostly overshadowed by the mental illness that would plague him later in his life and come to define him really. George was one of my mad kings from way back in episode 11. His first bout of whatever this mental illness was, there are a few theories, happened in 1788 when he was 50ish. And then he sort of recovered from that. But then in 1801 and 1804 it returned and began to intensify. He suffered from periods of mania where he would talk non stop until he was foaming at the mouth. He had hallucinations and would sometimes become violent. He also had physical symptoms including frequent fevers, vomiting, and swelling of the hands and feet. And he eventually went blind. These symptoms have led some to theorize that he had porphyria which is a genetic liver based metabolic disorder that interferes with the body’s ability to make hemoglobin. But there are others who disagree with that and think it was possibly just severe bipolar disorder. And then there’s also arsenic poisoning in the mix. His hair was tested in 2005 and they found high levels of arsenic which was probably being used to treat his symptoms but definitely would have just made them worse. So we don’t really know why George lost his mind, but by 1811 it was determined that he could no longer run the country. His son George IV, took over as regent until George III’s death in 1820. George III had ruled for over 59 years which made him the longest reigning British monarch at the time. He would later be surpassed by Queen Victoria and more recently Queen Elizabeth II.
So George IV has already been ruling as regent for a while in his father’s place but he officially becomes the King after George III dies. And he’s kind of a character. If you recall, George III and Queen Charlotte had 15 children together and I don’t know what they were doing to these kids but they were all kind of, stunted, for lack of a better word. One source suggested that that overbearing, control freak tendency George had stifled his children’s independence. And George IV seems kind of like a man boy to me. He was real spoiled. For example, his coronation banquet cost 25,000 pounds when, at the time, an average British family could survive on 30 pounds a year. Historic Royal Palaces says quote “The fourth George had to wait a long time to come to power. Like a ‘golden apple’ he was attractive and promising at first, but by the time destiny finally called, he had grown old, lazy and rotten,” end quote. He was extravagant. He liked to party. He liked to indulge in the finer things. Sarah Roller writes for History Hit quote “Despite, or perhaps because of this, the Regency era has become synonymous with luxury, elegance and achievements across art and architecture. George embarked on several costly building projects, including most famously, Brighton Pavilion. He was nicknamed the ‘First Gentleman of England’ on account of his style. But, there is a down side to excessive indulgence and gluttony. This would ultimately destroy his health. According to Historic Royal Palaces quote “Inevitably, George IV’s over-indulgence caused him health problems, made worse by his liking for drink. This caused gout, hardening of the arteries and eventually the tumours that probably killed him,” end quote. And, unfortunately, George IV died without an heir. He did get married. He married his cousin Caroline of Brunswick and they had a daughter named Charlotte. But Charlotte died in childbirth, hemorrhaged after delivering a stillborn son at the age of 21, wiping out the next two heirs in line for the throne and, get this, despite there being 15 children in this family, Charlotte was the only heir. None of them had any legitimate children at the time of her death. And so when George dies he has no children and neither do most of his other siblings. Stifled independence, helicopter parenting, spoiled. They are grown up babies you guys. Don’t do this to your kids.
So the crown passes to George’s younger brother William. William was the third son. He never expected to be king but his two older brothers are dead and no one has any legitimate heirs so here he is. And he does pretty well. Roller says quote “William inherited the throne aged 64, and his reign saw much needed reforms, including the poor law and child labour legislation. Slavery was also finally (and almost entirely) abolished across the British Empire and the 1832 Reform Act removed rotten boroughs and provided electoral reform,” end quote. So he’s helping poor people and children and getting rid of slavery. I can get on board with all that. William’s okay. But, he’s kind of old already. And although he has 10 illegitimate children with his mistress, he has no legitimate heirs with his wife to pass the throne down to. So next it would have gone to his brother Edward, the next boy in the line of 15 children. But Edward’s already dead. However, right before he died, he did manage to have a child with his German wife, an actual heir to the throne named Alexandrina Victoria but she went by Victoria.
Victoria was only 18 years old when her uncle William died. But she was the heir to the throne. So they go to Victoria and they’re like “it’s you. You’re the queen.” And she’s like “are you sure? Cause I’m like, a little girl and I’m pretty far removed from who was actually supposed to do this.” And they’re like “yeah it’s you cause none of these other bozos did their jobs.” And she’s like “alright, whatever, I guess I’ll go run the country now.” And she does run the country, beautifully. Arguably better than all the Georges. Victoria will get her own episode some day don’t worry, cause there’s a lot more to her story than what I’m going to be able to cover in this episode. So Victoria becomes Queen of Great Britain and Ireland but she does not inherit the throne over in Hanover because she’s a woman and they have laws against that so it goes to someone else, some man. But whatever. Hanover who? She’s Queen of England.
The beginning of her reign was a little rocky. She was a teenager and had had a super sheltered childhood at Kensington palace so she had no idea what she was doing and relied heavily on the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. But Melbourne was kind of controversial and so this led to some discontent and scandal early on. Then Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840 and, although he was German, the Brits loved Prince Albert and so did Victoria. It was an arranged marriage but she was head over heels for him. This was back when marrying your first cousin was fine by the way so no one batted an eye at that and Victoria and Albert went on to have 9 children together. According to Roller for HistoryHit quote “The Victorian Era was one of immense change in Britain. The British Empire expanded to reach its zenith, ruling over approximately 1/4 of the world’s population. Victoria was granted the title of Empress of India. Technological change following the Industrial Revolution transformed the urban landscape, and living conditions began to gradually improve towards the end of Victoria’s reign. Many historians have seen Victoria’s rule as the consolidation of the monarchy as a kind of constitutional figurehead. She curated an image of a solid, stable, morally upright monarchy in contrast to previous scandals and extravagance, and this appealed to the increased emphasis on the family in Victorian England,” end quote. So she saved the reputation of the monarchy, basically. They went from a literal mad man to a gluttonous fool man child and now she’s swinging things back towards sanity and morality, she’s respectable.
After Prince Albert died unexpectedly of typhoid fever at the age of 42, Victoria was devastated. She grieved the loss of her husband for the rest of her life which is why she always wore black from then on. She ruled for 63 years, surpassing her grandfather, George III’s, previous record of longest reigning British monarch. And her reign pretty much defined Great Britain. Victoria is what it means to be British. And her character arc is incredible. She started her reign as a sheltered and inexperienced little girl and ended it as the “grandmother of Europe.” Because Victoria had 9 children and many grandchildren who went on to rule over 8 different European countries.
Victoria is technically the end of the Hanoverian dynasty in Britain. She was born a Hanover but her children were not. They were Saxe-Coburgs like their father Albert. But that’s only because she was a woman. If she had been a man, the Hanover name would have continued. Because Victoria’s son Edward VII took the throne next and then his son George V and then his son Edward VIII and then his other son George VI when Edward abdicated to marry an American divorcee. And after George came Elizabeth II and now Charles III. They are all technically Hanovers except they are actually named Saxe-Coburg. And you might be thinking “wait, I thought their name was Windsor?” Yeah, about that. That change came in 1917 when Germany started going all crazy with World War I. According to an article in the Telegraph by Camilla Tominey, quote “As attitudes to Germany soured in Britain, George V changed the German family name to Windsor and renounced all German titles, as did his cousin Ludwig von Battenberg, who renamed his family Mountbatten.”
Elizabeth married Prince Philip who was a Battenberg turned Mountbatten. He was super German. He spoke fluent German and held German titles which he gave up when he married Elizabeth. So Elizabeth came from the Hanovers and Saxe-Coburgs renamed Windsor and Philip came from the Battenbergs renamed Mountbatten. Roughly half of the current king’s ancestors are straight up German. He is a Mountbatten-Windsor which are both made up names. He’s really a Battenberg-Saxe-Coburg. The British royal family today is still very very German. And this has greatly influenced British society, customs, culture, language, all of it for the last over 300 years. The British National Anthem came from the Hanovers, Buckingham Palace Hanovers, Christmas trees. Great Britain is arguably as German as it is British. And this has actually gotten the royal family into some trouble in the past, when it became not a great look to appear sympathetic to Germany.
First of all, when World War I broke out, the UK was against Germany, right opposite sides of that war. George V, Victoria’s grandson was king of England and his cousin, another one of Victoria’s grandson’s, Emperor Wilhelm II, ruled Germany. George and Wilhelm’s parents were brother and sister, two of Victoria’s 9 children. They were cousins fighting in a war against each other. This is when the Saxe-Coberg name was changed to Windsor and George V renounced all of his German titles. But later, after the war was over, his son became the next king, Edward VIII. Now he would only be king for around a year. He gave up the throne so that he could marry who he wanted to marry, gave it to his little brother. But he remained a Duke even after that and in 1937 he and his wife paid a visit to Adolph Hitler. This is sort of before everyone knew what a monster Hitler was. Right before he started doing the super whack stuff that led to World War II. There is a photograph from 1937 of Edward and his wife smiling and shaking hands with Hitler. I’m going to put it on my instagram, @historyfixpodcast. According to a BBC article, there’s also evidence that they visited a concentration camp in its early stages of construction but quote “it is not thought evidence of mass murder was made clear to him,” end quote. Let’s hope not. So all of that is obviously not a great look in hindsight but, like I said, at the time we didn’t really know Hitler was evil yet. According to a journal entry by Deutsche Welle in the Indian Express, quote “At the time, the Nazis and Adolf Hitler had long since gained a firm grip on Germany, with the world watching the Third Reich with interest and skepticism,” end quote.
And then some video footage got leaked back in 2015 from 1933 or 1934, so still before we knew Hitler was bad. This is a video clip, a black and white video clip of Edward with his sister in law who was Queen Elizabeth’s mother, and Elizabeth is in this video as a child as well as her sister Margaret. It was filmed by her father, King George VI and it shows the four of them doing the like heil Hitler salute with their arms. So that’s really not good. But, once again 1933, 1934 based on the girl’s ages, Hitler was not a monster yet. He was just a guy, an up and coming politician in a country where they had a lot of roots, a lot of family, a lot of ties. Now, that video is horrifying, but it’s totally out of context. That BBC Article quotes a palace source saying quote “Most people will see these pictures in their proper context and time. This is a family playing and momentarily referencing a gesture many would have seen from contemporary news reels. No-one at that time had any sense how it would evolve. To imply anything else is misleading and dishonest,” and then it goes on quote “The Queen and her family's service and dedication to the welfare of this nation during the war, and the 63 years the Queen has spent building relations between nations and peoples speaks for itself,” end quote. And I agree with that, I think we have to be careful taking things out of historical context like that. Stig Abell, managing editor of the Sun which released the video told BBC quote “We are not using it to suggest any impropriety on behalf of them. But it is an important and interesting issue, the extent to which the British aristocracy - notably Edward VIII, in this case - in the 1930s, were sympathetic towards fascism. That must be a matter of national and public interest to discuss. And I think this video and this footage animates that very clearly,” end quote. Now Prince Harry wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party in 2005, that’s a totally different level of horrifying. But I think that’s more of a stupid kid being stupid thing and not actually consciously being intentionally hurtful. Not that that makes it okay but he has expressed a lot of remorse about that in his recent book and documentary. I know you’re not a Nazi Harry, it’s all good. But yar German. Yar real German.
I just find it so interesting that a family, a dynasty, we associate with a particular nation, right, England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom depending on the time period, for the last over 300 years was actually mostly a totally different nationality. Not only did they come from Germany, King George I back in 1714, they then continued to marry Germans and have German babies for centuries. George I’s wife was German, George II’s wife was German, George III’s wife was German, Victoria’s husband was German, George V’s wife was German, Elizabeth’s husband was German. They are so dang German. And that’s interesting to me because they are what we think of when we think of what it means to be British. They are red coats and white powdered wigs. They are Buckingham palace, and God Save the Queen. They are the British flag, the Union Jack as we know it today. They are Chicken tikka masala which is weirdly the national dish of England. They are sipping tea in fancy gardens wearing little fascinator hats. These are things we closely associate with being very British and yet they came from a bunch of Germans. And it’s not just the royal family either. According to a genetic study from 2015 reported on by Hannah Devlin in the Guardian, most white British people owe 30% of their DNA to the ancestors of modern day Germans. UK based history professor Patrick Major writes in a journal entry for the German History Society quote “It has become fashionable… to view self-identity as largely determined by a relationship to an outside ‘other’... British identity in the late twentieth century appeared to have been profoundly and negatively informed by its encounter with Germany. This was the nation Britons apparently loved to hate. Yet, as historians are apt to remind us, Britain's allies and arch-enemies have altered over time and have not been the fixed categories which reassuring stereotypes would sometimes have us believe. If the historical clock were rewound 250 years to the mid-eighteenth century, some of Britain's closest allies would be found on the North German Plain,” end quote.
So I guess the moral of the story here is, be careful who you choose to hate, who you cast as your archenemy, as the ‘others’. Because if you don’t know your history well enough, you may be pitting yourself against… yourself.
Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix.
Information used in this episode was sourced from Historic Royal Palaces, History Hit, Encyclopedia Britannica, BBC, PBS, the Guardian, the UK National Archives, The German History Society, the Telegraph, and The Indian Express. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.
Sources:
