Why a new Blog on Europe's lost kingdoms?

Have you ever wondered how Savoy was a county, ruled for 400 years as a fiefdom by the House of Savoy; and then a Duchy of Savoy for another 400 years before disappearing into the borderlands of Italy France and Switzerland? Or who controlled Pomerania before it was incorporated into the new German Empire in 1871? If, like me, these questions are of interest to you then I hope this new blog may be of passing interest. My first blog ran from 2014 to 2019, marking the centenaries of the events and campaigns of World War One (WW1 – I was there in Spirit. https://seansww1blog.blogspot.com/). 

One of the aspects that most interests me about WW1 is the way the maps of Europe and the Middle East were re-drawn after the Treaty of Versailles. But of course Versailles is only one example, albeit a significant, of how politics and wars rotate the kaleidoscope of the European land mass (and its associated islands). Europe today consists of around fifty countries, more than half of which are members of the EU. For most of them it is easy to see how the events of two world wars and the cold war have got us to the point of the current version of its map (See above). However the map is multi-layered, and stripping away the consequences of major historical events or eras reveals very different patterns. My previous blog focused on WW1, but within that it was plain that many of the factors influencing events arose from earlier wars – Franco-Prussian War; Napoleonic Wars; French Revolutionary Wars; the Great Northern War; the Ottomans v the Habsburgs etc. etc. So how far back do you go?  Certainly to Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire, and maybe to the greatest of all – the Roman Empire of the Caesars.

During the WW1 blog I encountered numerous unknown (to me) countries, regions and kingdoms that do not appear on the above map. To name a few: Carinthia, Ruthenia, Trentino, Galicia, Bessarabia, Wallachia. My interest was caught, and moving backwards in time to try and understand the Napoleonic Wars I encountered many more. The balance of power that to some extent prevented major wars in Europe lasted only 100 years and arose from the Congress of Vienna as Napoleon was exiled to Elba. It had a bad start when he returned to France for his 'hundred days' campaign, but after Waterloo it got back to business. The 'great powers' of Russia, Britain, France, Austria and Prussia held the reins of influence and peace uneasily. In the fault lines between them (and often within their borders) many fascinating kingdoms and principalities. They were unstable and vulnerable. Most became assimilated into larger countries, others have to all intents and purposes vanished.

My intention is to look at these places through the lenses of onset and outcomes of WW1. Some of the links are bound to be tenuous and speculative, but any jigsaw pieces that help to build up a picture to understand better the catastrophes of the 20th century might be worth pursuing. the first episode will follow soon.