Monday, January 11, 2016

A Monarchist Vision of Europe

As the real Europe of 2016 seems to slide further into the abyss, one can only retreat into fantasy. Here then is the Europe of my dreams. This, I think, is more or less how things should be, though rather than imagine that the World Wars etc. never happened (since in that case royal genealogy would presumably be completely different), this supposes that at some unspecified point since then Europeans somehow repent of their republican and modernist errors. The ten actual current monarchies are mostly as they are, though supporters of traditional male primogeniture will be pleased at the little changes I made to Sweden and Belgium, symbolizing a wider rejection of pathological egalitarianism. Seniority is retroactively dated to whenever the sovereign actually became head of their respective house. 

Recognizing that some things cannot be undone even in my imagination, I've invented new institutions for the German and Habsburg monarchies that take some contemporary realities into account. Very few changes to current borders are proposed, except for dividing Italy in two (a compromise between unionism and reactionary separatism that would probably satisfy no one), and returning most of Belarus and Ukraine to Russia (with part of the latter to the Habsburgs), and Kosovo and Macedonia to Serbia (or perhaps Greece in the latter case). (As much as I would love to restore historic Prussia to Germany, I don't see how this could be accomplished without repeating the horrors of 1945-50 in reverse.) As a gesture of moderation and compromise, I've implicitly allowed Iceland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland (as well as Switzerland & San Marino), to remain republics; I have ideas for a few of those but for this chart decided to confine my restorations to royal families commonly identified with their respective countries. In the disputed cases of France and the Two Sicilies, I've gone here with the genealogically senior lines only because the "Heir" question is less complicated. While some may wish to quibble with a few proposed details, I have no doubt that a Europe headed and perhaps even governed by these people would be better than what we actually have in 2016.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

"and returning most of Belarus and Ukraine to Russia" - Спасибо большое :),
Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland - part Russian Empire

Theodore Harvey said...

I see Belarus and Ukraine as fake nations, some of whose territory is intrinsically part of the Russian narrative, but the Baltics, Finland, and Poland as real ones whose independence should be respected and preserved.

Matthew Celestine said...

Does it not matter what the people of Ukraine actually want? You can't deny that most people in Ukraine have a sense of national identity.

Michael E. said...

Please forgive the ignorance, but which horrors from 1945-1950 do you mean?

Ludwig Károly said...

He's talking about the criminal post-WWII deportations of Germans throughout Central Europe (the so-called "Sudeten" Germans, the Germans living in Silesia, the Danube Swabians, the Transylvanian Saxons. etc.) to what are now Germany and Austria. In territories like Prussia and Silesia that went to Poland after 1945, they were in turn replaced with Poles that were themselves deported from the Kresy, e.g. Galicia, Lithuania, Belarus, etc.

Regarding the Republic of Macedonia, I personally think that should go to Bulgaria, as before Serbian rule the region had Bulgarian ties. But that's just me.

-known as AugieDoggie on Theodore's Monarchy Forum

Theodore Harvey said...

But a lot of other people in Ukraine identify more with Russia, which is why there's conflict. You can't please everyone. Certainly the Crimea at least is Russian and Kiev is part of Russian history.

Theodore Harvey said...

In any case, most Europeans in most republics sadly do not seem to be interested in restoring monarchies, so this whole thing depends on the assumption that sentiments somehow changed.

Matthew Celestine said...

I think I will respond to your views on my blog.

Matthew Celestine said...

Response on Ukraine here

Theodore Harvey said...

Direct link doesn't work but I found it. Maybe I could have phrased my comments on Ukraine more carefully but that really wasn't the main point of this post. At the top of the page on my website it says, "This is one of several possible solutions." What is important to me is that there be more monarchies and fewer republics.

Michael E. said...

I'll say one thing, Mr. Harvey:

You certainly make it seem as though Europe were still monarchical even in this day and age. You have a real talent for that, and I applaud you for it.

Theodore Harvey said...

Thanks. If only that could translate into shaping reality...

Michael E. said...

You're welcome. I believe it will--maybe not exactly as you envisioned it but I believe that within a generation, things will look very different. Of course I believe God will intervene directly--it's very unlikely that it will happen without that--and so things will get darker before they get lighter, but according to Catholic prophecy this age will end with an Angelic Pope and a Great Catholic Monarch. And combining that with other prophecies I suspect both of these two people are alive now.

  said...

Congratulations! Wish you could do a list for the rest of the world too.

Theodore Harvey said...

Rest of the world would be harder. In some cases there's no obvious heir.

This doesn't really address the disagreements above, but I made this alternate version with different choices for France and Italy:

http://www.royaltymonarchy.com/sovereigns/0000RestoredB.html

Michael E. said...

I wonder: as a Christian monarchist, who would you consider to be the rightful ruler of the Holy Land at the present time, or does that fall under its being harder and there being no obvious heir?