A rare Rurtanian find

Nearly 10 years into my Ruritanian research, I have discovered a map!

I found it in a scan of the first two chapters of a French edition of 'Rupert of Hentzau', but the annotations are all in English. It seems that the map was produced for use in one of the English editions but was then used for the French edition.

There is a small amount of information available, along with some illustrations from the various books, at the Ruritanian Resistance website. I visited this several times many years ago (it's one of the sites in the Links section in the bottom left) but I've never come across the map before. However, it is there (a colourised version). Perhaps it has been added fairly recently, or maybe I just never noticed it.

According to the info from the Ruritanian Resistance, it seems to be a map from 1923, prepared for the Grosset & Dunlap edition of 'Prisoner...'.  I haven't been able to find out anything about Howard Ince yet, nor have I been able to decipher whatever is written under the signature.

Illustration by Howard Ince, possibly 1923

The text is not so easy to read, so I have transcribed it:

Reference to Plan

I The Old Castle
II The Keep
III The Chateau
A The Moat
B The Drawbridge
C Gateway where de Gautet was Killed
D Stair to the King’s Cell
E Guard-room
F The King’s Cell
G Jacob’s Ladder
H Hall of the Chateau
K Door which Johann was to open
L Black Michael’s Apartment
M Apartment of M. de Maubin
N Window from which Hentzau leaped into the Moat
O Tree to which the rope was made fast
P Road to Tarlenheim
Q The Avenue

The map is the first I have come across for the Castle of Zenda, and doesn't make me feel so bad about my own attempts to map it. These are my sketches of the castle. I have left the drawings pretty much as is but changed my captions. I think my representations of trees are clear enough, but there is no way I would make anyone try to read my handwriting.

Preliminary sketch

Second more detailed sketch: The boxed area around the tree (on the 'southern' bank) required moving to the west, as being on the opposite side to the drawbridge

Upper and lower floors of the 'King's Cell' area, The door closest to the drawbridge in the first sketch is the same door as is shown in the second. Originally these were positioned to the south side but I realised that they needed to be on the right-hand side when looking from the new to the old portions of the castle.

Inset of chateau in second sketch

Apart from the fact that I have assumed that the avenue approaches the castle from the east (it is described as looping around the hill but no starting point is given), my sketches I think show the basics: there is an island in the moat, the castle is in three parts, there is an broad avenue and so on.

Composite sketch, mostly rotated through
90 degrees, annotated using Ince's key.

One thing I notice that I did do from the first to the second sketch of the whole castle was change the relationship of the 'Keep' and the 'Ruins/Another Portion'. This is probably an error, and in the second sketch the area marked 'Keep' is probably the 'Ruins' from the first. However, this part cannot be too ruined as the guardroom is above the King's Cell, and so on.

I have tried to rationalise all of the sketches into a single plan, and because I can, I've annotated it using Ince's key. The only thing that he has included that I do not is the window from which Rupert jumped in the moat. My 'Black Micheal's Apartments' and 'Mme. de Maubin's Apartments', however, are not shown on the ground-plan as they are on the first floor, which is why I've marked their locations (thus).

I shall of course, from now on, use Ince's map. Mine were only intended to help me visualise the place.

Researching the fictional far-right in 1930s Britain...

This is my 100th post on this blog. Hurrah.

Now, I really don't want this blog to just be about fascist groups, but people write about them more than communists.

One thing I have been doing is watching 'Endeavour', the prequel series to 'Inspector Morse' and 'Lewis'. These I have found fascinating.

In an episode I saw earlier this year concerned, in part, an aristocratic family who had been Fascist sympathisers in the '30s, and included one of the police officers telling another character that her husband

'...should have hanged with Spode, Webley and the rest of them'.

As well as our old friend Roderick Spode, 'Webley' is surely a reference to Everard Webley, leader of the Brotherhood of British Freemen, a proto-fascist group from 'Point-Counterpoint' by Aldous Huxley (as mentioned in a post from 18 months ago, which co-incidentally also mentions this very episode of Endeavour). The aristocratic family (part of it at least, the family relationships are complicated) was called 'Creighton-Ward' - the name of Lady Penelope from the Thunderbirds, though the lady in question's title is 'Lady Bayswater'. I shall have to watch the episode again to find the name of her husband, and whether he died recently or some time ago. Anyway, I shall refer to him as 'Lord Bayswater' until I find out any different.

The murder that sparks the police investigation had been committed at an Army base - that of the fictional South Oxfordshire (Light Infantry?) Regiment. While at the regimental HQ, Morse is involved in a conversation about regimental history when mention is made of '...the boy who saved the Colours at M'boto Gorge'. As every fan of Blackadder knows, the engagement at M'boto Gorge was fought c.1892, probably in West Africa, and included (as well as the South Oxfordshire Regiment featured in the episode) the 19/45th East African Rifles, which is Edmund Blackadder's former regiment, along with General Haig (who was presumably at that point a Lieutenant or Captain). There is reference in Blackadder to an attack with 'a particularly vicious piece of mango'. Haig at this point was a cavalry officer, which implies that along with regular and colonial infantry, some cavalry was also present.

This is one of the most astonishing things about 'Endeavour' - the depth and background that go into the writing and world-creation are the equal of anything we do as world-creators.

Anyway, this got me thinking about Mosley analogues, so I went to the Oswald Mosley wiki-page to see if I could find more.

From the wiki entry on Mosley (which also lists both Spode and Webley as fictional characters inspired by Mosley, though as Point-Counterpoint was published in 1928, before Mosley turned to Fascism, it is not in fact likely that he was the model for Webley):

"... In H. G. Wells's 1939 novel The Holy Terror, a Mosley-like character called Lord Horatio Bohun is the leader of an organisation called the Popular Socialist Party. The character is principally motivated by vanity and is removed from leadership and sent packing to Argentina...

In the 1993 The Remains of the Day film the character of Sir Geoffrey Wren is based loosely on that of Sir Oswald Mosley..."

So there seem to be three other fascist leaders of the 1920s-'30s. More names to flesh out the list of 'Spode, Webley and the rest of them'?

'Lord Horatio Bohun' has little information about him. 'The Holy Terror' follows the life of one Rud Whitlow, and seems to go from Wells' recent past (presumably around 1910) to the near future (perhaps around 1955). Bohun at any rate is the founder and leader of the Popular Socialist Party: he is successfully challenged for control of the party by Whitlow and his associates in 'The Group', who are the main characters of the novel. Presumably, this is around 1940. The post-1938 portions of the novel may then be regarded as merely plans or musings on the possibility of taking over the world, and perhaps Bohun is not sent to Argentina at all...

I can only find reference to 'Sir Geoffrey Wren' listed in the information on the film version of 'The Remains of the Day', rather than the book itself. All I know is that he attended at least one of Lord Darlington's parties and praised Nazi Germany's Racial Purity Laws, leading to the dismissal of two women from Lord Darlington's employ - they were German-Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. So, presumably some time after the Nazis began implementing the Racial Purity Laws, which were really put into effect from the Summer of 1936 onwards. Wren was also a vegetarian. However, Lord Darlington himself is also somewhat sympathetic to the Nazis (in both book and film - the incident of the dismissal of the German-Jewish women occurs in both). Like the husband of Lady Bayswater, Lord Darlington survives the war; 'The Remains of the Day' is a kind of memoir of Lord Darlington's butler from the viewpoint of the late 1950s, after Lord Darlington's recent death.

So these two references, combined with the information from 'Endeavour', allow a certain amount of speculation as to the fates of various Fascist leaders of the '20s and '30s.

Roderick Spode - The Saviours of Britain (The Blackshorts) - hanged c. 1943
Everard Welby - The Brotherhood of British Freemen (The Greenshirts) - hanged c. 1943
Lord Horatio Bohun - Popular Socialist Party - hanged c. 1943? Or exiled to Argentina c. 1939?
Rud Whitlow - Popular Socialist Party, 'The Group' - fate unknown, possibly hanged c. 1943?
Sir Geoffrey Wren - organisation unknown - hanged c. 1943?
Lord Darlington - organisation unknown - died c. 1955.
Lord Bayswater - organisation unknown - died before 1967.

These snippets then can be the framework on which the 'British League of Fascists' can take shape. If the Greenshirts, the Blackshorts and the Popular Socialist Party came together around 1936 (perhaps it is Bohun's refusal to do this that leads to some younger and more ideologically-committed members of his party, organised as 'The Group', to oust him from the leadership) then this could indeed be the 'British League of Fascists'.

Jolly updates...

On the VSF front: I have recently taken delivery of a large quantity of Prussians Ruritanians from Northstar - a pack of 24 Infantry, two cannon with crew, and 10 Hussars. These (along with the dozen or so Ruritanians, composed of Zendarian Troopers from Westwind, and some officers from various places, that I already posses) will form the basis of my long-delayed Ruritanian forces.

I have made a provisional decision on colour-schemes. A long time ago, I discussed on Lead Adventure the notion that Ruritania should look 'chocolate box-y'. As such, using Prussian minis from 25 years before the general setting will not be out of place. Also, for 'colourful medley' effect, each regiment will have its own tunic-colour. The now traditional 'Ruritanian Gold' jackets (which in themselves are a reference to Colonel Mustard, rather than anything in the Zenda books) will remain the uniform of the Ruritanian Infantry. Artillery will be dressed in purple tunics, I think. That will I believe look 'well natty'. The Hussars I'm thinking will be uniformed in pale blue; I'm not sure about their hats yet. Future additions to the force may include Uhlans or Cuirassiers, or both, if they aren't the same thing, I'm really not too knowledgeable about this stuff. Rudolf Rassendyl is definitely described in Zenda as wearing a white Cuirassier uniform, perhaps something like this rather natty illustration:

Image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Anton_von_Werner_-_Garde-du-Corps-K%C3%BCrassier.jpg

This implies that Prussia at least had some! So maybe I just need to look harder for the minis. Should I source any, they will be dressed in white (a damn tricky colour to paint effectively, I'll agree). If I can't, then the Uhlans will have to stand in, though Northstar's Uhlans don't have breastplates, which is rather what defines 'Cuirassiers' as far as I'm concerned. Also in the pipeline, some Jaegers, as Commodore Lethbridge-Stewart (the mini is another Westwind Zendarian, one of the Vampire Slayers) has a lovely dark green jacket, and can lead them when they have been purchased. However, I spent my Christmas-and-birthday money on the latest batch, and can't really justify getting more toy soldiers at the moment.

In other news, I'm finally reading Vile Bodies and have a little more information on the 'ex-King of Ruritania' featured in its pages. Vile Bodies is set around 1928. The ex-King is a godson of the Archduke of Austria (he does not say which), was a reigning monarch, and refers to the end of the monarchy being occasioned by WWI. This means he is likely to have been an adult before 1918, so at absolute minimum he was born before the turn of the century. He has a wife, called Maria Christina, currently in a lunatic asylum somewhere in southern England; his Uncle Joseph was assassinated at the opera, by people throwing bombs (likely, Anarchists); his unnamed sister also foiled at least one assassination attempt on herself involving bombs; there was indeed a plague of political bombing in Ruritania before the War; there was a Liberal minister in Ruritania called 'Count Tampen' who stole the King's favourite pen (a gift from his godfather); and the Prime Minister at the end of the war (it is not stated whether this is Count Tampen or not) was thrown from a window by an angry, indeed rebellious, mob. That is as far as I can get at the moment, but it does provide some clues to the post-Rudolfian history of Ruritania which I am trying to tie together with the other info.

What I would like to be the case is that I can make the chronology fit with the ex-King being the eldest son of Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein and Princess Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen of Scandinavia. This would tie the events of Zenda with those of Scandal in Bohemia... except, Wilhelm in this case is not King of Bohemia or even King of Ruritania... because Flavia is the reigning monarch. He may actually be King of Bohemia if this is not the same as Ruritania, and heir-apparent to Ruritania, perhaps, but I think I'll just demote him to Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein. Anyway, if their marriage was in 1888, as I think is perhaps the case, it is perfectly likely they had a son who was born in c. 1890, and was old enough to inherit the throne of Ruritania before the war. 'Uncle Joseph', perhaps Wilhelm's younger brother, was in this case probably assassinated around 1905-8.

The last thing I'm going to post today is a couple of newspaper clippings from the Strelsau English Gazette (Ruritania's only English paper!) that I made and then forgot about.

These are successive editions that relate to the projected beginning of the Ruritanian crisis. But perhaps nothing will come of it...

Happy Christmas

Various things for Christmas this year, including from my brother and sister-in-law (for research into Back of Beyond), Damien Wright's 'Churchill's Secret War with Lenin' which should give me some info on both the Malleson Mission and my side-interest of the Intervention around Arkhangelsk.

Of some interest on the VSF front, from Orc Minimus, a DVD of Karel Zeman's 'The Fabulous World of Jules Verne', a 1958 film from Czechoslovakia combining live-action and animation inspired by Verne's works. Go on, put 'The Fabulous World of Jules Verne' into google and hit 'Images' (other Search Engines are available). You won't regret it.

From Orc Maximus, I got a copy of Evelyn Waugh's 'Vile Bodies'. This, I think, has a reference to the Ruritanian Royal Family in it. I could be wrong, it's not really the point, but it may have some (perhaps tangentially) relevant information about Ruritania anyway.

Also, from my parents, 'Steampunk Soldiers' from Osprey. This is very nicely-illustrated book with a variety of troop types from Britain, France, Germany, USA and CSA, Japan and several other states... of course I now have a few more ideas for different units. As well as the units, it also makes reference to several military engagements and such like, which I think I will have to try to knot into the alternative history. And, as I also have some cash to spend, given by various relatives that despair of finding suitable Christmas presents, I shall likely be getting some minis in the New Year - very possibly, inspired by the units in the book...

Flags of Ruritania

Well, playing around with Scrontch of course...

Variations on a general theme of red and white, with a gold eagle. It should probably be two-headed but Scrontch doesn't support that. Obviously, I could go back and do most of these with a diamond not a roundel and other variations. I may do that another time. The last one is the problem for that as I haven't used a roundel anyway - I've actually used a white cross on a vertical-striped red-and-white background. This produces a flag divided into three, with a central white bar and two side-panels of white crosses on red. It actually looks a bit Danish to me. I've used the same technique (but reversed) to produce a VBCW flag with St George's crosses, that I've thrown in at the end as a bonus.

There are two with thin horizontal red and white stripes. One goes red-white-red... the other white-red-white... but they're so similar that they would be indistinguishable on the tabletop. They could only be used as variants I think, so I've listed them as 2a and 2b. When I get around to it, variations of these will be accompanying my Ruritanian troopers, who will see the light of day at some point I'm sure.

Ruritanian unit 1

Ruritanian unit 2a

Ruritanian unit 2b

Ruritanian unit 3

Ruritanian unit 4

Ruritanian unit 5

Ruritanian unit 6

Ruritanian unit 7

And, for a VBCW unit or something similar, perhaps Anglicans from Exeter given the tower motif and the St George's crosses...

South Devon Anglican Defence Force

Flags of Turkestan

I did a version of the flag of Turkestan, using Scrontch's Flag Designer and a little creative jiggery-pokery in Illustrator.

This is the 'real' flag:

And then I did a bunch of other versions for use by units of Turkmen cavalry. Not sure if all of these will be sufficiently different on the tabletop to be of use but they are offered anyway. If you can use them, as with all the flags I design, please feel free. If you use flags by other people that I put up for information purposes, then you're very naughty.

I'm going to try different versions of these with other backgrounds - keeping the red stripes but with pale blue, green etc backgrounds for the crescent-and-star, maybe putting those in yellow, and just generally faffing about to produce similar-but-different flags that could be used for Turkmen units. The problem is that the donkey-work actually takes a bit of time... so don't hold your breath!

Meh, more flags of Khemed

I had forgotten about these 'Khemedistan' flags until I was on the BoB facebook page today.

I realised that there were other combinations of crescent-and-star on green, with added red, that I hadn't tried so I did a few more. Theoretically there are loads more but some don't look very good, and some would only be very slight variations on what has already gone before, making it impossible to see the difference. These at least are sufficiently different I hope to be distinguishable on the table. Maybe the last two won't be. But, anyway, alternative flags with Khemed-inspired imagery.