A Wreath to Clio: Studies in British, American and German Affairs

226 Pages·1967·18.276 MB·English

by  Sir John W. Wheeler-Bennett K.C.V.O., C.M.G., O.B.E. (auth.)

A WREATH TO CLIO
Br thesame author
Brest-Litovsk: TheForgottenPeace,March 1918
John Anderson, Viscount Waverley
King George VI, HisLifeand Reign
Munich: Prologue to Tragedy
The NemesisofPower: The German Armyin Politics,1914-1945
Hindenburg: The Wooden Titan
A WREATH TO
CLIO
STUDIES IN BRITISH, AMERICAN
AND GERMAN AFFAIRS
SIR JOHN W. WHEELER-BENNETT
K.C.V.O., C.M.G., O.B.B.
PalgraveMacmillan
1967
ISBN978-1-349-81663-7 ISBN978-1-349-81661-3(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-1-349-81661-3
©JohnW.Wheeler-Bennett 1967
Softcoverreprintofthehardcoveristedition1967978-0-333-08021-4
MACMILLAN AND COMPANY LIMITED
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Contents
Acknowledgements page VI
BRITISH STUDIES
Introduction 3
I. The Crown 5
2. The Empire 19
3· The Commonwealth 39
4· The Sovereign'sPrivate Secretary 63
5· ARegentand Counsellors ofState 71
Bibliography 81
AMERICAN STUDIES
Introduction 87
6. A. P. Hill: A Study in Confederate Leadership 89
7· Why Gettysburg? 100
8. The Trent Affair: How the Prince Consortsavedthe
United States 110
Bibliography 128
GERMAN STUDIES
Introduction 131
9· Men ofTragic Destiny: Ludendorffand Groener 133
10. Three Episodesin the LifeofKaiserWilhe1mII 167
11. TwentyYearsofRusso-GermanRelations, 1919-39 189
1940
Introduction 209
12. Britainacceptsthe Challenge 211
Index 219
v
Acknowledgements
THEauthor and publisherswould like to thank the following for
their kindness in giving permission to use copyright material:
Cambridge University Press, for ThreeEpisodes intheLift ofKaiser
Wilhelm 11(TheLeslie StephenLecture, 1955); Foreign Affairs,for
'Twenty Years of Russo-German Relations, 1919-39', from the
issue of October 1946, copyright by the Council on Foreign
Relations,Inc.,New York; History Today, for 'WhyGettysburg?'
and 'The Trent Affair',from theissuesof]ulyandDecember 1961;
and the Virginia Quarterly Review, for 'A. P. Hill: A Study in
ConfederateLeadership', from XXXVII, no. 2 (Spring1961).
vi
BRITISH STUDIES
THEfirstthreeofthesestudiesconstitutethePage-BarbourLectures
which I was invited to give at the University of Virginia in the
springof1966. Iam deeplygrateful toProfessorLewisHammond
and the members ofhis comrnittee for their invitation to do this.
The invitation was the more gratifying to me because, since the
inauguration oftheselecturesin 1896, comparatively few English
men have been thus honoured, and I confess that it was with
considerable awe and diffidence that I found myself following in
the footsteps of such luminaries as Lord Bryce, T. S. Eliot and
W. H. Auden.
I would acknowledge with most sincere gratitude the gracious
perrnission and approval which Her Majesty the Queen gave to
me, asa member ofher Household, to deliver theselecturesunder
the title and on the subject of "The Crown, the Empire and the
Commonwealth'.
In their preparation I was most fortunate in having the criticism
ofmy friends,and Iwould thank particularly SirMichaelAdeane,
the Queen's Private Secretary, Lord Cobbold, the Lord Chamber
lain, Sir Burke Trend, Secretary to the Cabinet, SirPatrick Dean,
Her Britannie Majesty's Ambassador at Washington, and Mr
Robert Blake of Christ Church, Oxford. All of them read my
text in whole or in part and greatly assisted me by their comments
and their counsel.
I am alsomuch indebted to Mr B. Cheeseman, Librarian ofthe
Commonwealth Officeand ofthe Colonial Office,and to thestaffs
ofboth theselibraries. Finally,I would acknowledge with much
appreciation the successful efforts of my secretary, Miss Frances
Coulson, to cope once again with a manuscript in my execrable
handwriting.
The last two ofthe British studieswere first published in 1958
as appendices to my Life of King George VI. They represent
original contributions to two important aspectsofthe monarchy,
the appointment ofaRegentand CounsellorsofStateand the vital
officeofPrivate Secretaryto the Sovereign. They have bothbeen
3
A Wreath toClio
revised and brought up to date and I am most grateful to Sir
Philip Allen,Permanent Under-Secretary ofthe Horne Office,for
bisassistancein thisconnection.
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