Mosley and the Monarchy
Up until the fateful day of Her Majesty's death, on Thursday the 8th of September, 2002, most of us had only known one monarch, Queen Elizabeth the Second. Conversely, Sir Oswald Mosley lived through SIX monarchs, being born during the reign of Victoria, growing up in the Edwardian age, and taking his vow as a military officer during the Great War, to King George the Fifth.
During the reign of that monarch, Mosley went on to form his British Union of Fascists [BUF] in 1932.
Against the backdrop of the horrific Red regicides seen in Russia at the close of the Great War, the economic crashes of the 1920s and the toppling of monarchy in various parts of Europe - when, then as now, socialists and anarchists sought to overthrow European civilisation - Fascism arose and stood firm as a bulwark and protector of both monarchy, culture and worker.
No surprise then that Sir Oswald would go on to state very clearly his pro-monarchy beliefs. In his brilliant manifesto, 'The Greater Britain', of 1932, he avows:- "constitutional monarchy is unaffected and indeed is strengthened by Fascist policy."
Alas, the abdication of Edward the Eighth in 1936 did not bode well for British Fascism. The King seemed to be sympathetic to fascist rule as it had appeared on continental Europe, and was very much a King of the people. However, it seems that those who were determined to cause a war between Britain and Germany were also involved in engineering the KIng's abdication, because his successor, his brother George VI, was much more pliable for the pro-war faction in the British Establishment.
No matter, the BUF continued to espouse, in clean lines, a proposed fascist government, and its opposition to another European war. And in his brilliant work of 1938, 'Tomorrow We Live', Sir Oswald reiterated in stark terms that "British Union is entirely loyal to the Crown."
As we know, the British establishment heeded Mosley not, and outlawed fascism, drove to war with Germany, and imprisoned Sir Oswald and his followers without charge or trial, despite their being completely loyal to the Monarch, and therefore to the nation.
The disaster of the Second War was apparent after 1945, as the British Empire crumbled and the Reds swallowed up Eastern Europe. But Mosley showed no bitterness, and rather kept moving forward with his ideas and his indefatigable patriotism. With the loss of Empire, Mosley modified his imperial fascist idea of the pre-war period, introducing the Union Movement [UM] and the new policy of Europe a Nation [first announced as early as 1947 in his groundbreaking book, 'The Alternative'].
Like the BUF, the UM was opposed to international finance and immigration, but was less military in its outlook and advocated a union of Britain with the main European powers, while allied to the Dominions.
Was Mosley's loyalty to the Crown diminished thereby?
Not at all.
In 1961 - and so within the reign of Queen Elizabeth - Sir Oswald stated explicitly:
"Yes, we are entirely loyal to the Crown. The position of the Crown within the European system we suggest would be unchanged. Each country making up the European union would naturally retain any such national institutions as it desired." ['Mosley Right or Wrong?']
As we know, a perverse, and at first tentative, imitation of Mosley's European idea followed the second war, culminating in the EU, to which no patriot could assent.
In his latter years, Sir Oswald and Lady Diana retired to France where their neighbours were Edward and Mrs Simpson, who became close friends of the Mosleys. Many have wondered - with not a little regret - what might have been if Edward VIII had not abdicated, and Sir Oswald have become the rightful British Leader under that monarch.
But such things are still possible in the future. We have seen with the recent accession of King Charles III in 2022, that the Crown still represents the beating heart of British patriotism. What is needed now, is only for the British political system to do the same;- and that the ideas of Sir Oswald Mosley still offer the best guidance for that path.
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