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The Pity of War: England and Germany, Bitter Friends, Beloved Foes
In 1613, a beautiful Stuart princess married a handsome young German prince. This was a love match, but it was also an alliance that aimed to meld Europe's two great Protestant powers. Before Elizabeth and Frederick left London for the court in Heidelberg, they watched a performance of The Winter's Tale. In 1943, a group of British POWs gave a performance of that same play to a group of enthusiastic Nazi guards in Bavaria. Nothing about the story of England and Germany, as this remarkable book demonstrates, is as simple as we might expect.
Miranda Seymour tells the forgotten story of England’s centuries of profound connection and increasingly rivalrous friendship with Germany, linked by a shared faith, a shared hunger for power, a shared culture (Germany never doubted that Shakespeare belonged to them, as much as to England), and a shared leadership. German monarchs ruled over England for three hundred years—and only ceased to do so through a change of name.
This extraordinary and heart-breaking history—told through the lives of princes and painters, soldiers and sailors, bakers and bankers, charlatans and saints—traces two countries so entwined that one German living in England in 1915 refused to choose where his allegiance lay. It was, he said, as if his parents had quarreled. Germany’s connection to the island it loved, patronized, influenced, and fought was unique. Indeed, British soldiers went to war in 1914 against a country to which many of them—as one freely confessed the week before his death on the battlefront—felt more closely connected than to their own. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished papers and personal interviews, the author has uncovered stories that remind us—poignantly, wittily, and tragically—of the powerful bonds many have chosen to forget.
Miranda Seymour tells the forgotten story of England’s centuries of profound connection and increasingly rivalrous friendship with Germany, linked by a shared faith, a shared hunger for power, a shared culture (Germany never doubted that Shakespeare belonged to them, as much as to England), and a shared leadership. German monarchs ruled over England for three hundred years—and only ceased to do so through a change of name.
This extraordinary and heart-breaking history—told through the lives of princes and painters, soldiers and sailors, bakers and bankers, charlatans and saints—traces two countries so entwined that one German living in England in 1915 refused to choose where his allegiance lay. It was, he said, as if his parents had quarreled. Germany’s connection to the island it loved, patronized, influenced, and fought was unique. Indeed, British soldiers went to war in 1914 against a country to which many of them—as one freely confessed the week before his death on the battlefront—felt more closely connected than to their own. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished papers and personal interviews, the author has uncovered stories that remind us—poignantly, wittily, and tragically—of the powerful bonds many have chosen to forget.
528 pages, Hardcover
First published October 30, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 8, 2016
I’m not sure why this book hasn't received more attention, as I found it extremely interesting, and it’s a shame there are not more reviews to attract other readers. It’s an exploration of the bonds that have existed between England and Germany over the centuries and how those bonds were almost destroyed due to two devastating wars. Political, intellectual and family ties had kept the two countries firmly linked until then. In fact so many were the links that the book sometimes suffers from too many characters dropping in and out – I could have done with a handy list - and occasionally I felt the book lost focus and rambled a bit. Nevertheless it’s an impressive work of research and scholarship, presented in an accessible way, and will appeal to the general reader and amateur historian, if not to more academic readers.
May 8, 2016
English historian Miranda Seymour's new book "The Pity of War: England and Germany, Bitter Friends, Beloved Foes", begins slowly and a bit half-dashed, but the final 3/4 of the book are right on-point. If you're beginning the book and are less than impressed by the writing, keep going, it gets better.
Miranda Seymour is the granddaughter of British diplomat Richard Seymour on her father's side and has German relatives on her mother's side. She explores the cultural, educational, and religious ties that have bound Germany and England for centuries. These ties have lessened during times of war and the years leading up to them but have gained strength afterwards by the active work of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Seymour begins her book by looking at the 18th and 19th centuries when the Hanoverian kings were on the British throne and many people were traveling between England and those areas that would eventually coalesce into Germany. Commercial trade, education and appreciation for the arts, and love all contributed to the back-and-forth between the two countries. The marriage of Britain's Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840 and the birth of nine children, many of whom married German princes and princesses, further cemented relations between the two. The most important marriage was that of Victoria, the Princess Royal, and Frederick, the heir to the Prussian throne. Their marriage was a true meeting of two minds who believed in liberal rule, but, produced Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was truly of two countries. It is with "Willy" and his odd relationships with his grandmother, Victoria, and his uncle, Edward VII, that Seymour gets her book going
But Wilhelm II was not the only product of a German father and a British mother (or vice-versa). There were many children who grew up as dual citizens and when war was declared, first in 1914, and again in 1939, many were of the mind, "I feel as though my mother and father have quarreled." Miranda Seymour does an excellent job examining the time period of 1900 to 1950 when the Allies learned from the reparations they imposed on Germany after 1919 and Germany suffered under their harshness. She shines when she writes about the post-WW1 period in the 1920's and the 1930's, when Hitler came to power and families were divided in loyalties, both in Germany and in Britain.
"The Pity of War" is very well written after you leave the initial several chapters where Seymour's sort of throwing "names" and their relations at the reader. She also makes a couple of historical errors I caught; one she wrote that Ernst Rohm was shot in his hotel room during the Night of the Long Knives, but he was shot at Stadelheim Prison in Munich. That's a little mistake but one that shouldn't be there.
I recommend "The Pity of War" to the history buff looking for another piece in the puzzle that is 19th and 20th century European history.
Miranda Seymour is the granddaughter of British diplomat Richard Seymour on her father's side and has German relatives on her mother's side. She explores the cultural, educational, and religious ties that have bound Germany and England for centuries. These ties have lessened during times of war and the years leading up to them but have gained strength afterwards by the active work of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Seymour begins her book by looking at the 18th and 19th centuries when the Hanoverian kings were on the British throne and many people were traveling between England and those areas that would eventually coalesce into Germany. Commercial trade, education and appreciation for the arts, and love all contributed to the back-and-forth between the two countries. The marriage of Britain's Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840 and the birth of nine children, many of whom married German princes and princesses, further cemented relations between the two. The most important marriage was that of Victoria, the Princess Royal, and Frederick, the heir to the Prussian throne. Their marriage was a true meeting of two minds who believed in liberal rule, but, produced Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was truly of two countries. It is with "Willy" and his odd relationships with his grandmother, Victoria, and his uncle, Edward VII, that Seymour gets her book going
But Wilhelm II was not the only product of a German father and a British mother (or vice-versa). There were many children who grew up as dual citizens and when war was declared, first in 1914, and again in 1939, many were of the mind, "I feel as though my mother and father have quarreled." Miranda Seymour does an excellent job examining the time period of 1900 to 1950 when the Allies learned from the reparations they imposed on Germany after 1919 and Germany suffered under their harshness. She shines when she writes about the post-WW1 period in the 1920's and the 1930's, when Hitler came to power and families were divided in loyalties, both in Germany and in Britain.
"The Pity of War" is very well written after you leave the initial several chapters where Seymour's sort of throwing "names" and their relations at the reader. She also makes a couple of historical errors I caught; one she wrote that Ernst Rohm was shot in his hotel room during the Night of the Long Knives, but he was shot at Stadelheim Prison in Munich. That's a little mistake but one that shouldn't be there.
I recommend "The Pity of War" to the history buff looking for another piece in the puzzle that is 19th and 20th century European history.
December 30, 2021
A view of the friendship between Germany and England, and how it suddenly broke down into war. WW-I started for some really dumb reasons.
January 27, 2015
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that most of the heads of state during World War I—which began a mere century ago—were related. Queen Victoria, only recently passed, was called “the grandmother of Europe,” but her funeral in 1901 brought together powers—including her son, Britain’s Edward VIII, and her eldest grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II—who would soon be at each other’s throats.
But Miranda Seymour’s examination of the relationship between Britain and Germany, The Pity of War: England and Germany, Bitter Friends, Beloved Foes, goes further, detailing just how complex and long the tugs of war and love have been between the two states. Seymour uses narratives of individual lives, both royal and common, to show how closely tied the two nations are; the term “Anglo-Saxon” goes back to the fifth century, when the first merging of the peoples occurred. ...
(Full review on Lit/Rant: http://litrant.tumblr.com/post/108345...)
But Miranda Seymour’s examination of the relationship between Britain and Germany, The Pity of War: England and Germany, Bitter Friends, Beloved Foes, goes further, detailing just how complex and long the tugs of war and love have been between the two states. Seymour uses narratives of individual lives, both royal and common, to show how closely tied the two nations are; the term “Anglo-Saxon” goes back to the fifth century, when the first merging of the peoples occurred. ...
(Full review on Lit/Rant: http://litrant.tumblr.com/post/108345...)
October 23, 2014
England and Germany have been both close allies and bitter enemies over the past two hundred years. In this book Seymour looks at the parallel histories of two great nations through the lives of a series of interesting and sometimes outrageous characters whose stories encompass this relationship.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book because although the history was known, the experiences made it seem so much more grounded in reality. In particular the sufferings of the German nationals during the Second World War and the antics of the naive youth of the 1930s who visited Germany and became entranced by Hitler.
Little vignettes of extraordinary lives bring history alive!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book because although the history was known, the experiences made it seem so much more grounded in reality. In particular the sufferings of the German nationals during the Second World War and the antics of the naive youth of the 1930s who visited Germany and became entranced by Hitler.
Little vignettes of extraordinary lives bring history alive!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews