Colonial expansion gave European (and some other) monarchs vast new domains – Queen Victoria, Empress of India, ruled over a fifth of humankind. But colonial monarchs often displaced indigenous ones. The leaders to whom colonial invaders were led were frequently emperors, kings, sultans and other hereditary rulers.

Some were killed in warfare while resisting the foreigners, others remained on their thrones as puppet ‘protected’ rulers, and still others were dethroned and forced into exile. In this episode of our series, joined by Dr Lorenz Gonschor of the University of the South Pacific, we focus on the islands of Oceania.

Hereditary monarchs reigned in many islands, especially in Polynesia, before the European incursions, but only one reigning indigenous monarchy survives in the South Pacific today.

Image - Portrait of Queen Pomare IV of Tahiti, Charles Giraud, 1851. (Creative Commons)

Image Link

Many monarchs and other royals have met violent deaths – on the battlefield, by execution after revolution or their coup, and by assassinations at the hands of terrorists or madmen. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were sent to the guillotine in 1793, and the Romanov royal family was massacred by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

Others have managed to escape with attempts on their lives. In this podcast, we look at some of them, but in particular at two who were not so fortunate, Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, shot by firing squad in 1867, and the Austro-Hungarian Empress Elizabeth, better known as Sissi, who was killed by an anarchist in 1898. We also consider the political motivations that led to their untimely demise, and the repercussions they produced.

Image - Édouard Manet, The Execution of Maximilian (1868) Creative Commons

Image Link

Scandals of various sorts have punctuated the history of royal dynasties, caused by family feuds, dubious financial arrangements, and frequently by sexual affairs and marriages considered incompatible with royal tradition and dignity.

Such scandals attract much public attention, but also raise questions about individual figures and the monarchies of which they are a part. Royals are also forced to devise strategies for surviving scandals.

In this episode, we offer some fresh perspectives on one of the most famous modern scandals – the relationship between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, and the king’s eventual abdication in 1936 – and see how it involved not only the British but made international news.

Image - King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson on holiday in Yugoslavia, 1936 (Creative Commons)

Image Link