Skip to Main Content

Monarchy and the End of Empire: The House of Windsor, the British Government, and the Postwar Commonwealth

Online ISBN:
9780191746680
Print ISBN:
9780199214235
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Monarchy and the End of Empire: The House of Windsor, the British Government, and the Postwar Commonwealth

Philip Murphy
Philip Murphy

Director

Director, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London
Find on
Published:
5 December 2013
Online ISBN:
9780191746680
Print ISBN:
9780199214235
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This unique and meticulously researched study examines the triangular relationship between the British government, the Palace, and the modern Commonwealth since 1945. Through two principal areas of focus—the monarch’s role as sovereign of a series of Commonwealth realms, and her position as Head of the Commonwealth—it traces how, in the early twentieth century, the British government promoted the Crown as a counterbalance to the centrifugal forces that were drawing the empire apart. Ultimately, however, with newly independent India’s determination to become a republic in the late 1940s, it had to accept that allegiance to the Crown could no longer be the common factor binding the Commonwealth together. It therefore devised the notion of the Headship of the Commonwealth, as a means of enabling a republican India to remain in the Commonwealth while continuing to give the monarchy a pivotal symbolic role. In the post-war years of rapid decolonization, it became clear that this elaborate constitutional infrastructure posed significant problems for British foreign policy. The system of Commonwealth realms was a recipe for confusion and misunderstanding. Britain’s policy-makers increasingly saw it as a liability in terms of Britain’s relations with its former colonies, so much so that by the early 1960s, they actively sought to persuade African nationalist leaders to adopt republican constitutions on independence. The Headship of the Commonwealth also became a cause for concern, partly because it allowed the monarch to act without ministerial advice, and partly because it tended to tie the British government to what many within the UK regarded as a largely redundant institution.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close