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Royal Losses, Symbolic Politics and Media Events in Interwar Europe: Responses to the Accidental Deaths of King Albert I and Queen Astrid of Belgium (1934–1935)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2015

CHRISTOPH DE SPIEGELEER
CHRISTOPH DE SPIEGELEER*
Affiliation:
Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Department of History, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels; [email protected]
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Abstract

This article examines the public and private responses to the accidental deaths of King Albert I and Queen Astrid of Belgium in 1934 and 1935. The public and private mourning for Albert and Astrid and the impact of their deaths and funerals can only be understood when we analyse these events against the background of structural transformations in national identity, international and national politics and media culture in interwar Europe. The analysis of the responses to these events thus offers unique insights into the relationship between the Belgian monarchy, politics and modern mass media in the 1930s. The memory of the war experience permeated both funerals through the massive presence of war veterans. Condolence letters to the royal court show how Astrid's popularity made the Belgian monarchy more human and approachable than it had ever been, while their sudden deaths simultaneously stimulated the mystification of both royal figures. Albert's funeral even constituted an event of symbolic significance in the interstate relations of Belgium with France. The meaning of both these high-profile deaths was negotiated within the mass media.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 155 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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14 I refer to the untimely passing of the first Belgian Queen Louise-Marie in 1850, and the deaths of three young heirs to the throne in 1834, 1869 and 1891.

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19 ‘Het overbrengen van het stoffelijk overschot’, De Standaard (DS), 20 Feb. 1934; ‘La translation’, LDH, 20 Feb. 1934; ‘Le conseil du cabinet’, LDH, 19 Feb. 1934.

20 ‘Le Défilé des combattants’, LDH, 23 Feb. 1934; ‘Het begin van de lijkplechtigheden’, DS, 23 Feb. 1934. For the ‘divided family’ of war veterans in interwar Belgium, see Colignon, Alain, Les anciens combattants en Belgique francophone, 1918–1940 (Liège: Grommen, 1984)Google Scholar.

21 Le Soir, 29 Jun. 1936.

22 ‘M. Bovesse devant le micro’, LVS, 3 Sept. 1935.

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29 Letter by Secretary of the Confédération Nationale des Anciens Combattants, not dated, NA, MBZ, DP, 23, map ‘officieux’.

30 Report for the mayor with press article, Le Soir, 5 Sept. 1935, CA, PA, D7/142, map ‘rapports’.

31 Note Adolphe Max, 6 Sept. 1935, CA, PA, D7/142, map ‘Instructions et notes de M. le bourgmestre’.

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33 Van Ginderachter, ‘Public Transcripts of Royalism’, 234.

34 ‘L’hommage emu du peuple belge’, LDH, 3 Sept. 1935.

35 ‘Een indrukwekkende lijkstoet’, HLN, 4 Sept. 1935.

36 See Pascal Dayez-Burgeon, La reine Astrid; ‘In dagen van droefheid en algemene rouw’, HLN, 31 Aug. 1935; ‘Un malheur effroyable’, LDH, 30 Aug. 1935.

37 See letters, 65/1, Kabinet Leopold III (KLIII), RA.

38 For example a letter written by two Polish children to the little princes and princess of Belgium, 3 Sept. 1935, 63, Grootmaarschalk Leopold III (GLIII), RA and a letter of a Swiss eight-year old to Princess Charlotte, 28 Nov. 1935, RA, GLIII, 64.

39 Schwarzenbach, Königliche Träume, 49.

40 For example Steverlynck to Leopold III, 6 Sept. 1935, RA, GLIII, 56; Joris to Leopold III, 30 Aug. 1935, RA, KLIII, 65/1.

41 LDH, 4 Sept. 1935; Le Peuple (LP), 4 Sept. 1935.

42 Alexis Schwarzenbach, ‘Rêves royaux’, 28, 40; William Merrin, ‘Crash, Bang, Wallop!’, 43. See letters from French citizens to Leopold, RA, KLIII, 65/2.

43 ‘Heiligverklaring Boudewijn niet voor morgen’, HLN, 28 Jul. 2008; William Merrin, ‘Crash, Bang, Wallop!’, 45–6.

44 Reynebeau, Marc, ‘Mensen zonder eigenschappen’, in Gobyn, Ronny and Spriet, Winston, eds., De massa in verleiding. De jaren ’30 in België (Bussels: ASLK, 1994), 28Google Scholar.

45 L’Invalide Belge, 5 July 1936; Schwarzenbach, ‘Rêves royaux’, 37.

46 For example, Marne to Archbishop Van Roey, 17 March 1936, III, 19, Archives Van Roey (AVR), Archives Archdiocese, Mechelen (AA); Mulder to Leopold III, 6 July 1937, RA, GLIII, 69.

47 For letters with this protecting saint-rhetoric, sent to Leopold, see RA, GLIII, 167 and 168.

48 See letters from monasteries to Elisabeth, RA, AE, 3013, boxes 6–7; Royal Chaplain to van der Cruysse, 31 May 1934, VII/16, Secretariaat Leopold III (SLIII), RA; Woyave to Van Roey, not dated, AA, AVR, III, 32.

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54 ‘Het Fransche leger zal vertegenwoordigd zijn’, DS, 21 Feb. 1934.

55 See for example L’invalide Liégois, 1 March 1934.

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57 The Journal of the 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, 6, 5 (1935), 98–100.

58 Telegrams between the minister of foreign affairs, the Belgian ambassador in Paris, the prime minister and the royal marshal, 9–10 May 1932, 44, Grootmaarschalk Albert I, RA; Medard to Queen Elisabeth, 19 Feb. 1934, 3013/6, AE, RA; ‘Bruxelles a fait à M. Le président Doumergue une réception enthousiaste’, LVS, 11 Oct. 1929; ‘La visite de M. Doumergue’, La Libre Belgique (LLB), 12 Oct. 1929; Van Ypersele, Le roi Albert, 82–3.

59 ‘L’exposition du souvenir de la Reine Astrid à Paris’, L’Indépendance Belge, 23 May 1936.

60 LLB, 16 Jun. 1936. For the use of art in symbolic diplomacy, see De Potter, Céline, ‘Du temps où les artistes étaient nos “meilleurs” ambassadeurs: art et politique étrangère dans les relations Belgique-France de 1919 à 1939’, Pyramides, 15 (2008), 203–26Google Scholar.

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65 Testimony Georges Lebecq, Mar. 1935, in Bulletin Spécial de l’Association des Anciens Combattants de 1914–1918: les Poilus de France de Bruxelles, RA, GLIII, 784; ‘L’inauguration du monument élevé à la gloire d’Albert I’, Le Figaro, 13 Oct. 1938.

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69 ‘Un vif incident à la Chambre’, LP, 23 Feb. 1934.

70 Gerard, Emmanuel, ‘Omstreden Democratie’ in Gobyn, Ronny & Spriet, Winston, eds., De massa in verleiding. De jaren ’30 in België (Brussels: ASLK, 1994), 83Google Scholar; ‘Een historisch moment’, Ons Vaderland, 24 Feb. 1934; ‘Aan het Vlaamsche volk’, De Schelde, 23 Feb. 1934; ‘Een nieuwe golf van chauvinistische en monarchistische furie’, De Roode Vaan, 31 Aug. 1935; ‘Rond den dood van Koningin Astrid’, De Roode Vaan, 7 Sept. 1935; ‘Nog rond den dood van Koningin Astrid’, De Roode Vaan, 21 Sept. 1935.

71 ‘Een korte Kamervergadering’, DS, 23 Feb. 1934; ‘Bij den dood van Koning Albert’, De Schelde, 20 Feb. 1934; ‘Un vif incident à la Chambre’, LP, 23 Feb. 1934.

72 ‘Nationale grootheid en Vlaamsche trouw aan Koning en Troon’, DS, 24 Feb. 1934.

73 ‘Wat de jeugd uit Koning Albert's leven heeft te leren’, DS, 21 Feb. 1934.

74 For the role of the radicalisation of the Flemish movement in the crisis of Belgium's Catholic Party in 1934–1935, see Gerard, Emmanuel, De Katholieke Partij in Crisis. Partijpolitiek leven in België (1918–1940) (Leuven: Kritak, 1985), 413–8Google Scholar.

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76 Poster, CA, PA, D7/137, funérailles de SM Leopold II.

77 ‘Les groupes socialistes de la Chambre et du Senat decidèrent de participer à la rédaction de l’adresse au nouveau roi’, LP, 19 Feb. 1934; Haegendoren, Mieke Van, Van werken krijg je vuile handen. Geschiedenis van de Belgische Werkliedenpartij, 1914–1940 (Gent: Acco, 1989), 150Google Scholar.

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84 Reynebeau, ‘Mensen zonder eigenschappen’, 48.

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89 Rice to Queen Elisabeth and Clegg to Queen Elisabeth, 22 Feb. 1934, RA, AE, 3013/1.

90 Different testimonies sent from France to Elisabeth about this audible experience are kept in RA, AE, 3013/6.

91 Sigismond Chamiec, ‘Les Relais Internationaux’, Radiodiffusion, 1 Oct. 1935, 56–61.

92 Jaarverslag van het N.I.R.: dienstjaar 1934, 54; ‘De Radio-Omroep en de Nationale Gebeurtenissen’, Radio. Maanschrift voor radio-vulgarisatie, amateurisme en techniek, 15 Mar. 1934.

93 Jaarverslag van het N.I.R.: dienstjaar 1935, 31.

94 Jaarverslag van het N.I.R.: dienstjaar 1934, 17, 50–4; ‘De radioreportage: het NIR en de begrafenis van Koningin Astrid’, Radiobode, 15 Sept. 1935.

95 ‘De Koningin op haar praalbed’, HLN, 31 Aug. 1935.

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99 ‘A propos des actualités’, LLB, 25 May 1935; ‘Hun aantal breidt zich uit’, HLN, 10 May 1935.

100 Vanderstichelen to Van Zeeland, 10 and 24 Sept. 1935; de Bitche to Van Zeeland, 17 Sept. 1935, RA, GLIII, 63.

101 Katz and Dayan, Media events, 10.

102 Copy meeting of General Council of the National Institute for Broadcasting, 19 Feb. 1934, Notulen Raad van Beheer en Permanent Comité binnen Raad van Beheer NIR, microfilms overgedragen door de VRT en rechtsvoorgangers (1930–2007), NA.

103 Katz and Dayan, Media events, viii; Wardle, Claire and West, Emily, ‘The Press as Agents of Nationalism in the Queen's Golden Jubilee: How British Newspapers Celebrated a Media Event’, European Journal of Communication, 19, 2 (2004), 195–214CrossRefGoogle Scholar; James Thomas, ‘From people power to mass hysteria’, 365; Pantti, Mervi and Sumiala, Johanna, ‘Till death do us join: media, mourning rituals and the sacred centre of society’, Media, Culture and Society, 31, 1 (2009), 119–135CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

104 LDH, 23 Feb. 1934; LP, 23 Feb. 1934.

105 ‘Le discours prononcé par M. Lippens à l’INR’, Le Soir, 22 Feb. 1934.

106 ‘Een toespraak tot de jeugd’, HLN, 3 Sept. 1935; ‘Wat de jeugd uit Koning Albert's leven heeft te leren’, DS, 21 Feb. 1934.

107 See Deneckere, Gita, ‘Oudstrijders op de vuist in Brussel. Het amnestieconflict tijdens het interbellum’, Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwse Geschiedenis, 25, 3–4 (1994–1995), 273–327Google Scholar.

108 Deneckere, ‘Oudstrijders op de vuist in Brussel’, 303.

109 ‘The unsolved case of Leopold of the Belgians’, Life, 27 Mar. 1950, 47–8; Schwarzenbach, Königliche Träume, 235–6.

110 Van Ypersele, Le roi Albert, 327; Conway, Martin, The Sorrows of Belgium. Liberation and Political Reconstruction, 1944–1947 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 371CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Baudouin's funeral see Le Paige, Hugues, Questions royales: réflexions à propos de la mort d’un roi et la médiatisation de l’événement (Brussels: Labor, 1994)Google Scholar.