** --- Means they get more than one view besides the Union and the Confederates.
Reputations of Pre-Secession (Pre-POD) Individuals: Part 3 - Monarchs during the American War of Independence
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^^^ George III --- English --- Ruler of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Elector of Hanover, from 1760 until his death in 1820.
He was one of the longest reigning monarchs in British history, beaten only by Queen Victoria. His reign as king was marked by numerous wars in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, from the Seven Years War, The American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars, and finally the Napoleonic Wars. Britain became a world power during his time despite losing the American Colonies, going on to conquer more of India, to defeat Napoleon, and to experience the start of both the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. Toward the end of his life, after slowly suffering from severe bouts of madness, he permanently slipped into that mental state and withered away until his death in 1820.
Union --- In the United States, even after the War of Secession, King George III was still looked upon by US citizens as a tyrant incapable of understanding the grievances of an independent-minded people thousands of miles away in his castle in the British Isles. His eventual slip into a permanent state of madness is played up in US history books as a result of him being unable to cope with the loss of the American Colonies. Indeed, US scholars and citizens after the Second Mexican War and just before the Great War could look upon the American Revolution as "The War that Broke King George". US soldiers joked after the Great War of whether or not the current monarch in Britain also went "Mad like George" after losing Canada and Caribbean to the United States.
Confederacy --- King George III is looked upon with some complication in the Confederacy. On one hand many Confederates share the sentiment that independence from Great Britain was inevitable and entirely justifiable. On the other, in light of the Confederacy's very close and special alliance with Great Britain, it was deemed prudent and necessary to not paint the British in a bad light. By extension this meant that King George III was looked upon in a rather nuanced yet respectable way. While the tale of American colonists breaking away from an overbearing and unfair form of governance is still taught in schools as way to parallel the Confederacy's eventual break away from the US Federal Government under Lincoln, George is portrayed as a monarch performing his duty and merely
defending the right of an elected British Parliament to levy taxes, rather than seeking to expand his own power. In turn the colonists, especially any southern politicians, are portrayed in a rather gentlemanly fashion as firmly yet respectfully expressing their grievances for being taxed unfairly and requesting that they be allowed to govern their own affairs as an independent nation. George's slip into madness, while talked about, is not openly mocked or taken advantage of for propaganda purposes. It is viewed with nuance as a result of the pressures of ruling during a very turbulent time in world history.
Great Britain** --- It is likely that the Confederacy's views on King George III are highly influenced by Great Britain's views about its own king. Over the years George's reputation has run the gauntlet of praise, ridicule, sympathy, and indifference, with scholars tending to frame their views on him from the interpretations of his actions during his life. As a result, like so many British monarchs, he is looked upon in a rather balanced light, but even during his time, when he slipped into madness, he garnered both support and distain. Records based on his personal letters and correspondence, essentially a wealth of invaluable historical records detailing his life in his own writing, were tragically destroyed when London was annihilated by atomic weaponry.
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^^^ Louis XVI --- French --- Bourbon King of France from 1774 until his execution in 1792, referred to as Citizen Louis Capet in the months before his death. When he took power in 1774 he attempted to reform his government. Heavy bureaucracy and corruption had resulted in poor management of French finances over the years and despite attempts to reform these Louis was met with open hostility by the nobility and clergy, who successfully blocked his attempts. Efforts to deregulate the grain market also led to failure which led to food scarcity in France for the lower and middle classes. His support for and funding of the American Patriots in their war for independence from Britain further pushed France into financial debt. Despite Louis' efforts his indecisiveness, lack of firmness, and conservatism in some areas for governance led to the people believing he represented everything wrong with absolutism in France. After the Fall of the Bastille and his Flight to Varennes his popularity continue to plummet among his people as France was gripped in revolution. He was executed for in 1792, ending nearly a thousand years of monarchical rule in France and ushering in one of the bloodiest stages of the French Revolution.
Union --- Even during Louis' time his death, and by a larger extension the French Revolution, was an intensely debated subject in the United States. Federalists such as Hamilton and Adams feared the growing unrest and radicalization of the revolutionaries in France, worried that their example and victories in Europe would cause upheavals at home. The advocated for stability and trade as a neutral party. Public support was with the French revolutionaries and attempts by Edmund-Charles Genet, the Minister for the United States, to use American ports to commission privateers to fight for France against Great Britain were exposed, resulting in him being sent back to France and a treaty to be signed with Great Britain to remain neutral in the conflict in Europe. Louis' death in 1792 was an ill omen as France's radicalization reached fever pitch and leaders around Europe took steps to clamp down democratic French ideas. For Federalists such as John Adams his presidency was marked by the Quasi War with France and the creation of the US Navy to preserve US trade and travel on the high seas. In the years after the War of Secession, with the First Mormon Revolt and the rise of the Remembrance Movement, the memory of Louis was seen as something of a cautionary tale in the United States, a tale of the dangers of rebellion, indecisiveness, and infirmness. And the United States drew its own lessons from the ever complex and ever enduring legacy of the French Revolution. Paradoxically the US drifted further way from its democratic ideals as the rest of the world seem to embrace them over the years. A need for strong and firm leadership in the face of adversity, backed up by strong military forces, was coveted above all. Louis' decisions and example would be the nagging little thought every US leaders' mind, of the consequence of weakness in the face of more rebellion and revolution. The thinking was this --- they had lost the South, and they had lost land and prestige in the process, with enemies on all sides; they would not lose again, or risk annihilation.
Confederacy --- Even during Louis' time his death, and by extension the circumstances of the French Revolution, was an intensely debated subject in the United States. It polarized the American public to such a degree that the first political parties were formed, allowing individuals such as Hamilton, Adams, and Jefferson to organize their ideas advocate in favor for them with support from like minded people. Jefferson and anti-Federalists favored supporting France in its Revolution and public support for France seemed to reflect that. Jefferson himself, while Minister of France, closely worked with and advised Lafayette as the latter helped to draft the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Jefferson's support of France and by extension is beliefs in in republicanism persisted even into France's Reign of Terror, with him stating "To back away from France is to back away from the cause of republicanism in America". Jeffersons career during this time, along with his intense rivalry with John Adams, is looked upon with intense interest by Confederates. As a result, his views and support for the Revolution in France, as well as the lessons he would take away from them, seeped into the Confederacy over the years. Louis himself was not looked upon as a tyrant, but as a king out of his depth and incapable of the task before him that suffered a terrible fate at the hands of his own people. Confederate leaders and citizens would draw their own lessons from the ever complex and ever enduring French Revolution and of the death of the Louis XVI. Like the United States they would draw lessons in leadership during times of crisis, but it was the complicated legacy of the French Revolution that would endure in Confederacy and what that meant for its government, its people, and its future moving forward. In a way, even after the War of Secession, it was a subject of debate and comparisons to the Revolution in France with events in the Confederacy over its history affected the public's perception on whether those events were good or bad. Memories of the ever volatile food market in the Confederacy during the War of Secession drew parallels to the French Revolution, where the price of bread was high and food grew scarce. In times of peace the ideals of freedom and republicanism, as well as freedom from ever present tyrants, was expounded upon. Again, during the Red Rebellions of 1915 the fear of a "black" Reign of Terror in the Confederacy should the Reds win prompted some Confederate officials to clamp down hard, with some fear their heads would roll just like Louis XVI. Even during the Freedom Party's rise to power allusions to the French Revolution were drawn. In a sense the French Revolution and Louis XVI continued to be viewed with nuance in the Confederacy until its very end in 1944.
France** --- In Louis' time the circumstances around his execution was a hotly debated issue and the final decision to execute him was agreed upon only by a very slim margin. Many in France at the time feared what precedence it would set if a king could be executed by his own people. To some, that precedence set the stage for the Reign of Terror and the bloodshed from executions that was to follow. To scholars in France during the Monarchical Restoration of 1931 with Charles XI ascending to the throne, Louis was looked upon in a much more sympathetic light. To them a lack of compassion at that moment contributed to a radicalization of revolutionary violence and to greater divisiveness among Frenchmen, an execution that signaled the end of the role of God in history. Despite failed efforts in 1820 to have Louis XVI canonized another
memorandum was proposed during Charles' reign to have Louis canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church. The Pope at the time, however, declared it an impossibility by proving that Louis had been executed for political reasons rather than religious ones.
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^^^ Charles III --- Spanish --- Previously the Duke of Parma in 1731 as Charles I, the King of Naples as Charles VII in 1734, and the King of Sicily as Charles V in 1735, he became King of Spain in 1759 until his death in 1788. He was an enlightened monarch and was a major proponent of the sciences and academic research. He also modernized agriculture in Spain, facilitated trade, and promoted reforms in his government to decrease the influence of the Catholic Church. He was a seasoned leader with experience in ruling several kingdoms and was tested battlefield commander from campaigns in Italy. He oversaw Spain's participation in the American War of Independence by siding with the Patriots due to a rivalry with the British in the Caribbean, capturing of Nassau in the Bahamas, West Florida, and Menorca in the Mediterranean.
Union --- To the majority of the United States public, Charles III is virtually unknown to them and would seem irrelevant. Despite his country's role in the Revolutionary war as a co-beligerent, Spain's participation in the war, and consequently Charles' reasons for siding with the Patriots, is not taught in classrooms. It would take a scholar or university student studying history to ascertain this monarch's role in the Independence of the United States.
Confederacy --- Confederate citizens in Florida and Cuba are taught at a young age the history of their states and as result Charles III's role in the American Revolution is most prominent in these region of the Confederacy. He is given a fairly balanced and nuanced look and his country's rivalry with Great Britain at the time is taught in depth so that students can understand the king's reason for capturing the state, largely as just another part of the never-ending game of politics and war between the European Powers. In Confederate Cuban classrooms Spanish rule is further expanded upon with Havana's capture in 1762 by the British, an event that took part under Charles' reign as part of the Seven Years War, largely as a way to demonstrate Spain's weakening grasp in the Americas and to compare the oppressive Spanish rule with the more beneficial Confederate statehood that occurred in the 1870s. Outside of these regions however, Charles is almost as unknown to Confederates as the Yankees are to him.
Spain** --- Under Charles III, Spain began to be recognized as a united nation rather than a collection of separate kingdoms ruled by a common monarch. He declared the "Marcha Real" as the national anthem of Spain, created the colors and general design of the current flag of Spain, and built up Madrid to such an extent as to be worthy of the title of a capital city, with new road systems that connected the city to the rest of the country. He was, in many regards, considered a capable and able king.
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@cortz#9 @Allochronian @Historyman 14 --- Here you go! The monarchs! I won't lie, Louis XVI's reputation was difficult to interpret and I found now way to talk about him without talking about the French Revolution, which is in itself still a complicated topic. Here it is though!
