Royal Boys' Clothes

European and American Children's fashions, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries were strongly influenced by the way royal families dressed their children. Queen Victoria was especially influential as so many of her children and grandchildren maired into royal familes throught Europe. Kaiser Wilhelm II, for example, was the Queen's grandson. While the British House of Windsor was the most influential in this regard, other royal families also had great influence, at least in their own countries.

Figure 1.--This photograph of the Austrian Habsburgs was taken about 1925, about 7 years after the fall of the monarcy. Prince Otto on the far right still wears short pants. Two years later in 1927 he was photographed in a knicker suit.

The geneology of European royalty is a huge under taking, given the large number of countries and principalities. Major changes have ocurred over time with countries created, dismantleted, and reappearing. Some royal lines extend more than a millenium, others only a few generations. Royal lines can be looked up on the internet with a convenient search engine.

Royal Houses

The following information is available on the royal houses in various countries around the world. Our research has primarily focused on Europe, but we have some information on other areas as well.


European Monarchies

Europe since the fall of the 500-year old Roman Republic in the first century B.C. was ruled by various monarchial systems, ranging from tribal chiefs to the absolutism of Louis XIV, France's famed Sun King. The Christian monarchs which emerged in first Western and then Eastern Europe and Russia claimed that they were anointed by God, the divine right monarchy which dominated Europe for a millenium. Some monarch were able to exert absolute control, symbolized the French bourbons which inherited a weak monarchial system and built a system of absolute control. Elsewhere in Europe, limited monarchies developed out of the struggle between monarchs and the nobility. In some countries, such as Poland, a strong monarchy never developed, in the end leading to the disappearance of Poland from the European map in the 18th century. In other countries this lead to the emergence of modern constitutional monarchies, such as in Britain (the United Kingdom). Democratic institutions appeared in many countries, including Imperial Germany. Led by able advisors like the Count von Bismark, the German Kaiser was able to dominate still weak democratic institutions. In other countries, such as Russia and and Austria-Hungary, the monarch still reigned with virtual absolute power at the turn of the century.

The 20th century was not kind to the great royal houses of Europe. The turn of the 20th century saw a Europe still largely dominated by monarchial government. The only important republic was the France. All other European states, with only minor exceptions, were ruled by hereditary monarchs. This vast monarchial system was virtually swept away in a few years by the malestorm of the First Word War. More than half of the monarchs were forced to abdicate. The Romanovs were shot. Most of the monarchs steped down peacefully in the face of poopular outrage over the war. At the time it was seen as a progressive democratic step, but the nationalistic passions unleased play a major role in the horrors of the Second World War. Monarchies in Austria, Italy, Germany, and Russia were replaced or eclipsed by totalitarian regimes of the left and right that were to challenge the very principle of democratic ruke. And as seen still today in the Balkans, where the First World War erupted, the ultr-nationalist excesses that were once constrained by European mnarchies have still not yet fully played out.

The fall of the European monarchies left a large numbers of prentenders to vanished thrones. Details on these individuals are included in each of the national pages above.

Clothing

European royals had placed an often excessive emphasis on outward forms. This often expressed itself in an almost obsessive concern with clothing, military uniforms, medals, and other decorations. This varied over time, but through World War I when many royal reigns ended, it tended to be the case. It of course varied from monarch to monarch and there were great differences between kindoms. It was not always the more important monarchs that dressed the most formally, although they could of course best afford it. Such diverse personalities as Britain's Edward VII and Germany's Kaisser Wilhelm II were greatly concerned with proper dress. In some cases monarchs even designed their queens' dresses--although usually with little success. In most cases it was the queens who selected the children's clothes, especially when they were younger. Some kings also took an interest here. Britain's George V, for examole thought the only suitable children's attire were sailor suits and kilts.

Clothes Selection

One interesting question about the royal children picture in these pages is who selected their clothes. One would imagine that the quuen rather than the king had more to do with the boys' clothing. Some queens may have done it mostly themselves. at least one king took an nterest in the children's clothes--Grorge V. In other cases the palace staff may have been involved. The authors have no information on this, but hopefully will eventually find some pertinent sources. The choices could be complicated. More was involved than just what the queen though stylish. There were political considerations. Queen Victoria by having the young princes wear kilts presumably improved the popularity of the monarchu in Scotland. The Dauphin when he wore a long pants skeleton suit was making an important political statrement in 18th century France. Monarchs who wore ruled multi-ethnic populations might adopt ehtnic influenced attire for the princes and princesses. Many monarchs had to be careful not to allow the children to appear in outfits that might be considered foreign.

Political Connotations

One does not normally consider the political conotations of boys wear, but in fact the way some boys were dressed had definite political conotations. The ones that most prominently come to mind are the ways that royal youngsters were dressed. Their parents commonly used the children, especially the boys, to help improve the image of the ruling houses. There may be some non-royals as well, but none occur to HBC at this time.

Modern Royals

When we now think about kings of kings we generally think about Europe before the 20th century. European history from the fall of Rome to the 20th century is often viewed, rightly or wrongly, trough the study of the rise and fall of royal dynasties. The royals, of course, have not disappeared even in the 21st century. The modern royals, however, have very different life styles from their precessors who kept themselves and their children apart from their subjects.

Biographical Informaton

These pages will focus primarily on the chilhood of the royals in an effort to describe their clothes and life style. Some basic background is also provided to show their accomplishments and impact on the following generation. Greater details are available on many interest sites. There are some excellent search engine for biographical information on the royals. Readers who know of other useful sites are encouraged to let us know so we can add links here.


Sources

HBRC has consulted a variety of books on the lives of individual monarchs. These works are noted on the individual pages where the information was used. There are, however, many books with general information about European monarchs as boys.

Van der Kiste, John. Childhood at Court (Sutton Publishing, 1995).

Unidentified Images

HBC has acquired a number of images of European royalty, but can not identify all of them. If you know who the individuals in these images are or can add any other information, HBC would be most interested in your insights.

Contributions

We hope you will find our HBRC wesite of interest. Because of the substantial hosting fees, we need to ask your support to maintain our site. The images in particular require considerable bandwith. We have had to limit access to the images to those readers who help support HBRC. We are also very interested in any information that readers may be offer to help expand tghe information about royals we have already began to work on or additional royals we have not yet covered.





HBRC







Created: June 2, 1998
Last updated: 11:19 PM 12/5/2007