Lord Dunsany's Dean Spanley

A gentle tale of Edwardian spiritualism set in Imperial England where upper lips are always stiff and men from the Colonies are not entirely to be trusted. The perfect winter warmer, says Tom Woollen.

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Touring the Countryside, 1887

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"With emotion, to the man I used to be"

Emile Verhaeren (1855-1916)
THE PROUD TOWER built up through the great age of European civilization was an edifice of grandeur and passion, of riches and beauty and dark cellars. Its inhabitants lived, as compared to a later time, with more self-reliance, more confidence, more hope; greater magnificence, extravagance and elegance; more careless ease, more gaiety, more pleasure in each other's company and conversation, more injustice and hypocrisy, more misery and want, more sentiment including false sentiment, less sufferance of mediocrity, more dignity in work, more delight in nature, more zest. The Old World had much that has since been lost, whatever may have been gained. Looking back on it from 1915, Emile Verhaeren, the Belgian socialist poet, dedicated his pages, "With emotion, to the man I used to be."

— Barbara Tuchman, The Proud Tower, A Portrait of the World before the War

A Reading by Emile Verhaeren (1903) - Emile Verhaeren as seen from the back in his red jacket

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Positively Edwardian

Hair to the throne. A bearded, pheasant shooting Prince in the future mould of an Edward VII or a George V is perfectly fine by me. Bring back the old British kings!

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Scenes of Edwardian London

Because this blog sometimes has the profound spiritual satisfaction of an Edwardian Gentlemen's Club, dating roughly back to 1904, I thought it would be useful to show our viewers what it was like to take a blissful stroll in Imperial London during the summer of that very year.

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"Gentlemen, you may smoke"

THE LONG BAN ON SMOKING mercifully came to an end with the demise of Queen Victoria in 1901. During that long reign - the longest ever - smoking was frowned upon and not allowed at court. The Empress encouraged an anti-smoking society throughout Victorian England, even while chimney sweeps and gentlemen clubs cluttered the imperial capital. That all changed overnight when Edward VII ascended the throne at the beginning of the 20th Century, and after dinner on his first day as King pronounced, "Gentlemen, you may smoke".

Perhaps that is why a fine cigar is a guilty pleasure for an English gentleman - it goes back to that day when eminent men in their black clad awe were mourning the passing of an era, and then that moment of embarrassed exhilaration arrives when the new King enters the room and declares that men should characterise their gravitas by puffing away! Oh, what sad and strange elation is this, the Edwardian era has arrived!

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Marienbad: Where Emperors Met

It was a reign that knew not Royal Assent to Parliament Bill 1911. It was a reign that knew not the Great War, nor the pervasive government of the post-WWI world. It was a reign that knew not the Yekaterinburg slaughter, nor the following millions of Communism’s victims. It was a reign that knew not the Amritsar Massacre. It was a reign that knew not the rise of Nazism. It was the reign of Edward VII.

It was in Marienbad in the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Two Emperors met. The Emperor of India. The Emperor of Austria.

104 years ago today. August 16, 1904. Two days before the Austrian Emperor’s 74^th birthday. It is indeed peace. A war that was to destroy this old order was quite unthinkable.

The Herald [today’s International Herald Tribune] reported:

MARIENBAD: The Austrian Emperor arrived here today by special train at 2.15 this afternoon to formally return the visit paid to him by King Edward at Vienna last year. The King, wearing the uniform of an Austrian field-marshal, and attended by his suite, awaited the Imperial visitor at the station platform. A large crowd thronged the station entrance, and as the train steamed in an enthusiastic cheer was raised. The Emperor, wearing the uniform of a British field-marshal, at once alighted from his saloon, and stepped towards the King, who advanced with outstretched hand. A sensational incident occurred during the drive through town. A woman suddenly threw off her cloak and rushed towards the carriage containing the two monarchs. Before anyone was able to prevent her, she raised her arm and hurled something towards King Edward. The greatest excitement prevailed but the gendarmes quickly seized the woman and led her away. The missile proved to be a letter to King Edward, the contents of which have not been divulged.

His Britannic Majesty was fond of the spa town of Marienbad, a favorite recreational spot, which he frequently visited.

Yes, the Emperor Francis Joseph formally returned a visit in his own Kingdom of Bohemia.

This in our times would be equivalent to Her Britannic Majesty having a favorite recreational spot in, e.g., Bruges in the Kingdom of Belgium, going on a visit to Amsterdam, and it being formally returned by the Queen of the Netherlands to Bruges. This is something quite unthinkable in this day and age. One can only imagine the outcry it would cause in Her Britannic Majesty’s non-residential Commonwealth Realms of a representational residence in a non-Commonwealth country.

Comparing the cosmopolitan Old Order with modern day cries for “national” heads of state does indeed give some perspective.

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The Royal Shooting Party

With the Glorious 12th near upon us, the monarchist naturally looks to the English moors for a healthy crop of birds and a Royal Shooting Party. Unfortunately old Edwardian photographs of royals gathered for the beginning of the grouse hunting season are hard to come by, but I managed to find what must be one of the oldest, with the future King Edward VII seen here as a young man in his late twenties. Most fascinating is the elderly man to the far right, one Sir James Clark, Queen Victoria's famous royal physician, who was born in the year 1788! He died very close to the time this photo was taken in 1870.

Royal Shoot circa 1870: King Edward VII (as Prince of Wales) and his shooting party, General Charles Grey, Major Grey, General Seymour, the Prince of Wales, Prince Christian, Sir James Clark. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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Pugnacious Defender of Emperor Charles

Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt, C.B.E., D.S.O. (1874-1948), formidable Alpiner, fierce partisan of the Old Order and fervent protector of Blessed Charles, the "last" Austro-Hungarian Emperor

Lt.-Col. Strutt died 60 years ago today
To paraphrase what Pierre Berton said of Sam Steele, some men are fortunate in the accident of their names, but few are more furtunate than Edward Lisle Strutt. That marvellous surname, rendered both blunt and familiar – suggestive of an unyielding and pontificating aristocrat – was utterly appropriate to the man who bore it. The two names Edward Strutt fitted him as neatly as his puttees; in tandem they sing like a well-tempered sword whirling in battle, and the sound they make is the sound of command – a born leader: bold, resolute, keen-eyed and barrel-chested, all the cliches apply, "erect as a pine tree and limber as a cat".

The Great War

Strutt was born the same year as Churchill as a grandson of the first Baron Belper – after whom he was named – and a future cousin of the third Baron Belper. He was a devout partisan of the Old European Order. Lt.-Col. Edward Lisle Strutt fought in the Boer War between 1900 and 1902, for which he was decorated with Queen's Medal and King's Medal, and where he was mentioned in despatches. He fought in the First World War between 1914 and 1919, where he was wounded and mentioned in despatches four times. He gained the rank of Temporary-Lieutenant and GSO(1) in 1916. He was decorated with the Companion, Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.) in 1918. He was decorated with the Officer, Legion of Honour. He was decorated with the Croix de Guerre (French). He was decorated with the Chevalier, Order of Romania. He was decorated with the Chevalier, Order of Leopold of Belgium. He was decorated with the Croix de Guerre (Belgian). He was invested as a Commander, Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) in 1919. He gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the service of the Royal Scots. He held the office of Allied High Commissioner in Danzig in 1920. In 1922 he was the second in charge of the Everest Expedition. He died on 7 July 1948 at age 74, sixty years ago today, without issue.

The Situation in Austria

The Great War had ended. The democratic republican age was dawning. The monarchical age was setting. Whilst the latter had been challenged for quite some time, the war had completely destroyed the monarchical order’s immune system. This was with “good” help from Woodrow Wilson’s crusade to make the world safe for democracy, but this crusade was of course not the only contributing factor.

The Austrian Emperor had renounced power on November 11, 1918, but without abdicating. His Imperial and Royal Majesty signed a similar declaration as King of Hungary two days later. He had gone with his family into internal exile at Eckartsau – at the hunting lodge there.

That summer the Eastern Emperor and his family had suffered the tragedy at Yekaterinburg. At the Britannic Court in London, King George V reproached himself for what had been allowed to happen to the Russian Imperial Family. There was fear that a similar fate was about to overtake the Western Emperor and his family. With the armed radicals running around in Austria at the time, this was no unfounded fear.

Also, Emperor Charles was remembered as the Emperor who had sought peace and the Archduke who represented the old Emperor Francis Joseph at His Britannic Majesty's own coronation. This indeed gave memories of an old peaceful order that now brutally had been destructed.

At the personal initiative of His Britannic Majesty, the Austro-Hungarian Imperial-Royal Family is put under British protection.

The Background and Sentiment of Strutt

Lieutenant-Colonel Strutt was a Catholic, like the Emperor he was sent to protect. He was educated in Windsor and at Oxford, and in Innsbruck, Austria. In addition to his native English, the Lt.-Col. was fluent in German and French.

Strutt was, as Gordon Brook-Shepherd noted, a British officer who served the double eagle and the Habsburg black and yellow colors with a fervor second only to the loyalty to His Britannic Majesty.

In addition to having served in the Great War, he did service in the Boer War (1900-1902), for which he was also honored and decorated.

Edward Lisle Strutt was a partisan of the Old European Order. He was a symbol of personal powers of a monarch, as he was sent on the monarch’s personal initiative. He was a symbol of solidarity between monarchs. Strutt was on the fringe related to the Habsburgs. On arrival at the hunting lodge in Eckartsau, he found a photo of the late Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, and himself.

As a grandson of the first Lord Belper, Lt.-Col. Strutt was a British aristocrat. The Belper motto was and is Propositi tenax (‘Firm of purpose’). There was indeed purpose with the Lt.-Col.

Strutt was to have a life-long passionate devotion for the Habsburg family. He was a life-long friend of the Archduke Otto.

On Mission in Austria

A few officers preceded Lt.-Col. Strutt in this protection mission. Strutt arrived at Eckartsau on February 27, 1919.

On March 17, Strutt received advice from the War Office in London that the Emperor should depart Austria for Switzerland, without any guarantees for the journey.

The new republican government was talking about abdication, exile, and internment.

On March 20, as an officer of the Royal Scots on the territory of a defeated ex-enemy, Lt.-Col. Strutt walks into the office of the republican government’s Chancellor, Dr. Karl Renner, and demands: “Please stand up in future when I enter your room!” Renner immediately jumped to his feet. Not much later he ordered an Imperial train to be assembled. The Emperor was to leave as, yes, Emperor!

Chancellor Renner shortly before the departure demanded that the Imperial-Royal family and their luggage be searched. Strutt refused, and Renner wanted to send a “High Commissioner.” The officer of the Royal Scots replied that the Chancellor could very well send such a commissioner, but he also promised that such a commissioner would be shot, and by Strutt himself. The republican Chancellor backed down.

On the eve of the departure though, Lt.-Col. Strutt was called to Dr. Renner’s office, where the Chancellor required the Emperor to abdicate in order to be allowed to leave the country. Then comes the Royal Scots officer’s best bluff on this mission. Strutt had drafted a telegram beforehand, stating:

To Director Military Intelligence London
     Austrian Government refuses permission for departure of Emperor unless he abdicates. Consequently give orders to re-establish blockade and stop all food trains entering Austria.

No more conditions were demanded. The Emperor and his family were to go Imperially. The Imperial train left for the Austro-Swiss border on March 23 with Strutt in charge and an NCO and six British Military Policemen accompanying the Imperial and Royal Family and members of what was left of the Court.

On March 24 the train arrived at the Austro-Swiss border. The Emperor issued the Feldkirch Manifesto, declaring the November 11 power renunciation null and void, and denouncing the authority of the republican government.

The old order may have lost the war, but it certainly won the Austrian departure.

Order of the British Empire

On May 30, 1919, on the occasion of His Britannic Majesty’s birthday, Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt was appointed as Commander of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Later in Life

In 1920, Lt.-Col. Strutt served as High Commissioner of the Free City of Danzig.

In the spring of 1921 he returned to the Habsburg site of exile in Switzerland, and he helped the exiled Emperor-King in preparations for the spring Hungarian restoration bid. After the failure of the second Hungarian restoration bid that year, the British officer helped with communication between the Imperial-Royal couple aboard the HMS Cardiff and their children in the Helvetic Confederation. Lt.-Col. Strutt also served as messenger to the Habsburgs of an offer to let a house in Madeira.

After retiring from the military, Strutt was second-in-command of a 1922 British Everest expedition. Mountaineering continued to engage Edward Lisle Strutt. He was active in the Alpine Club, where he also served as President and editor.

He died on July 7, 1948, after also having seen the war that indeed and sadly cemented the destruction of Old Europe.

Conclusion

The now 95 year old Archduke Otto, who not long ago still thought of Strutt with great respect and gratitude, was once asked if he was not full of resentment against the British for their treatment of his father, the Emperor. The Archduke replied:

But after all, there was Colonel Strutt.

Lieutenant-Colonel Strutt most definitely serves as a hero for those on the Allied side who did not and do not second the crusade against, or the dismantling of, the Old European Order. Our hero is a shining example that one did not need be a new order crusader to serve on the Allied side.

Lt.-Col. Strutt was loyal to his Sovereign, and he did what he could for the order that the modernists had destroyed. Had Lloyd George been anything close to Lt.-Col. Strutt in character and sentiment, the old order just might have survived.

We salute the memory of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt, C.B.E., D.S.O. on this day, 60 years after his passing.


Elsewhere: LewRockwell.com, Wilson Revolution Unplugged

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