This chapter traces the twisted path of armistice negotiations between the Italians the Austro-Hungarians and the collapse of the old monarchy. The role of the army, various ethnic groupings and Emperor Karl are described. The birth of the Austrian Republic in turmoil and starvation are covered through the Bela Kun communist regime and the attempts of both the Austrian and Hungarian governments to find recognition in the world and recover from the war. Militias, disarming, unfriendly neighbors. Growing disillusionment in the Austro-Hungarian Army, civil war in spring 1919.

In Chapter 6, the disastrous Carpathian winter war battle in early 1915 is described in detail including its significance and detailed description of some of the worst battlefield conditions ever witnessed in the history of warfare. Many soldiers succumbed to the “White Death,” or freezing to death. The point is made that the battle should never have been fought. The drawn-out negotiations with Italy and then the first four Isonzo River battles are presented. The great Central Power victory of Gorlice–Tarnow is described, followed by the disastrous Habsburg Rovno campaign. Finally, the chapter describes the German-commanded Serbian campaign and its repercussions for the Central Powers.

Chapter 4 describes in detail the three disastrous Serbian campaigns, emphasizing the challenges posed by the terrain, weather and underestimation of the Serbian enemy. General Potiorek’s fatal strategies are shown, as well as the overall effect of the Habsburg defeats in the Balkans and with its ally Germany. The lack of effective training and false blaming of Czech soldiers for the initial defeat is emphasized.

The partial recovery of the Austro-Hungarian Army in allied offensives is chronicled, as is the portrayal of the Germans as the monarchy’s savior both in the opening battles, as well as throughout the remainder of the war. Also discussed in detail are the bloody travails of failed Habsburg attempts to relieve the besieged Fortress Przemyśl. The significance of the fortress in Habsburg decision-making through 1914 is also explained, including the resultant suffering in the futile wintertime sorties launched to break out to the field armies. The Battle of Limaova-Lapanov, the first Habsburg victory on the Eastern front, is chronicled.

The four bloody Isonzo battles are detailed as well as Conrad’s failed Straf offensive during May 1915. The Austro-Hungarian Army is devastated by the surprising Brusilov offensive June through September and the absence of effective command leadership. The German ally is forced to become involved in order to prevent total defeat, just as it had in 1914 and 1915. Romania’s disastrous entry into the war and a German-led victorious campaign is described. The rapidly declining home front situation is causing increasing starvation and a stirring among the various ethnic groups.

This book set out with several aims. It sought to show the extent to which the British monarchy and British monarchism mattered during the First World War. Monarchism was not unimportant or mere rhetoric; the monarch was not a token figurehead. In fact, it was one of the central British belief systems of the age. More broadly, throughout Europe and its empires monarchism, like socialism or communism or liberalism, was a significant ideology in the public sphere. This book has also aimed to contextualise monarchism as a historically contingent phenomenon, manifesting in different ways in specific historical moments. First World War monarchism, it has shown, merits being assessed not only as a political framework but also as a distinct belief system which existed during the war period and its aftermath.

This chapter examines the relationship between King George V and his troops during the First World War and monarchist culture in the British army. It assesses the impact of the king’s visits to the front and their propaganda depiction as well as looking at the meaning of soldiers’ oath of allegiance to the monarch.

This chapter analyses the ways that the royal family embodied wartime gender roles and promoted them. It considers the role of the monarchy in creating new narratives around war disability and the monarchy’s engagement with the war wounded. It also looks at Queen Mary’s visit to the front in 1917 and the wartime role of Princess Mary. It argues that the war saw new cultural discourses of the royal ‘touch’ and of the ‘perfect’ royal body emerging.

This chapter examines the political power of the British monarchy during the July Crisis (1914) and the First World War. It suggests that David Lloyd George’s attempts to reduce royal power, while important, had a relatively limited impact.

This chapter explores the role that monarchist beliefs played in war recruitment in Britain and in the British Empire. It looks at the ways that monarchist beliefs appeared in wartime propaganda, songs and recruitment campaigns as well as the monarchy’s importance to British legal and religious cultures. It examines how the first two years of the war saw the monarchy’s position consolidated and sacralised in Britain, arguing that the monarchy was central to British identity and associated with ideals of ‘honour’.