Monarchy and corruption debates

Duration: 2024 – 2027

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), Bonn

The project

The 19th century was a significant test for the various monarchies of Europe. Under the influence of revolutions and the emergence of parliamentary systems, changes took place in society and politics. Part of this development was increasingly sharp criticism of corruption, which was directed against the ‘old’ and “corrupt”.

The project ‘Monarchy and Corruption Debates in the Long 19th Century’ examines corruption debates and the associated discourse on the legitimacy of monarchy. The subjects of investigation are both criticism of corruption against the monarchy and the defence or self-representation of the monarchy. On the one hand, characteristics of criticism of corruption are identified. To this end, various allegations of corruption and arguments are examined. The question will be asked which behaviours of rulers were condemned on normative, moral or other grounds. On the other hand, the study on the self-representation of the monarchy will examine how those in power reacted to allegations of corruption. The question is what options for action and staging strategies rulers and their supporters had at their disposal in corruption discourses and how they used them.

The project takes a comparative European approach, focusing on France, Great Britain and Germany (primarily Prussia and Bavaria). In addition to similarities between the individual corruption debates, country-specific characteristics are examined that arise from the very different histories of the respective monarchies.

The project is divided into two time-defined sub-projects:

Subproject 1 will focus on the period from 1780 to 1830. With the start of the French Revolution in 1789, a general re-evaluation of social and political systems spread across Europe. Criticism of corruption took on its basic structure during this period, which still exists today. It was also directed against established state structures and forms of government. In many cases, it aimed to characterise monarchy as an ‘outdated’ institution.
This subproject will examine the arguments used at the turn of the 19th century to delegitimise monarchies as ‘outdated’. It will also investigate the strategies employed by rulers to secure their power. In doing so, it will explore the reasons for the successful and less successful handling of corruption allegations. For example, the increasingly radical attacks against the French monarchy in the wake of the 1789 Revolution were conducted with considerable anti-corruption undertones, while the almost simultaneous debate on ‘old corruption’ in Great Britain generated enormous pressure for reform vis-à-vis the Crown. In the Prussian and Bavarian state reforms of the period around 1800, however, the rulers succeeded in placing themselves at the forefront of the process.

The illustration shows George III, on the left of the picture, surrounded by several men. While Lord North, directly behind the king, holds the king's hand comfortingly as he is lost in thought, the other men look and point maliciously at George III. Above the king flies ‘Corruption,’ depicted as a female figure with snakes in her hair, who takes the crown from George III's head. Around the image is the inscription ‘Mollia cum Duris, Sine pondere habentia pondus’ (‘The soft together with the hard, without weight they have weight’). The context of the image can be interpreted as the beginning of the corruption debates in late 18th-century England. These debates lasted until 1832 and criticised the practices of ‘old corruption’ established in the British government and the aristocracy, calling for reforms of the state. The English monarchy was also part of the corruption debates, so the loss of the crown through corruption in the illustration can be interpreted as a criticism of George III.

In the second subproject, Sarah Deck deals with the end of the long 19th century, which is defined here as the period from around 1890 to 1930. During this period, the monarchy manifested itself in various ways in the examples examined: while it remained stable in constitutional form in Great Britain, the German Empire ended with the proclamation of the republic in 1918. As a result, not only the monarchy of the empire but also all German kingdoms were now in opposition to the ruling system. Monarchist associations were formed with the aim of restoring the monarchies, both at the imperial level and in Bavaria. In France, no king ruled during the entire period under review, as the Third Republic had been in place since 1870. However, three families claimed the French throne: the Legitimists supported the restoration of the kingdom of Louis XVI, the Orléanists advocated the line of Louis Philippe, and the Bonapartists sought to restore the Napoleonic Empire. Of interest to all monarchies is their position on the growing fascist movements during the 1920s and the extent to which this was reflected in debates on corruption.

Throughout this period, public debate has been strongly influenced by corruption scandals, which serve as the starting point for the investigation: What role does the monarchy play in these scandals? How are monarchies perceived, and how do they position themselves? The focus is on scandals in which parliamentarians, members of the government or the press were involved in opaque and dubious financial and economic transactions, for example in the French Panama scandal, the English Marconi scandal, the German Kornwalzer scandal or the discussions about the Welfenfonds. In particular, the study will examine the extent to which these corruption debates affecting parliament have an impact on the perception and portrayal of monarchies: Can a positive counter-image to ‘corrupt’ politicians be identified here? A starting point here would be the role of George V in the Honours Affair of 1922. In addition, however, the extent to which the monarchy itself became the focus of corruption debates, as corrupting or corrupted, should also be examined. Examples include the payments made by Ludwig II from the Welf Fund or Edward VII's relationships with ‘plutocrats’. In addition, this study also considers debates that deal with corruption in the sense of a ‘moral corruption’ in contemporary perception, such as the Eulenburg scandal.

The study will be based primarily on public sources, i.e. mainly the rich collection of newspapers of various political orientations and parliamentary records. In addition, theoretical texts that go beyond the scandals and deal with the monarchy, monarchs and their families, and corruption will also be consulted.

This project is headed by Prof. Dr. Jens Ivo Engels (TU Darmstadt, Institute of History).

Markus Horbach (TU Darmstadt, Institute of History) is responsible for subproject 1.

Sarah Deck (TU Darmstadt, Institute of History) is responsible for subproject 2.