Vanished Kingdoms

Norman Davies' weighty book on the “drastic phenomenon of states that cease to exist” is that wonderful thing - a popular history book that is easy to read and yet makes you think about not only the past, but the possible futures. Essentially a series of essays on various European states that no longer exist, some will be familiar to the reader (USSR, Eire, Burgundy), while others may not (Alt Clud, Tolosa, Sabaudia).

To most people who look at a map of Europe today it must seem as if things have always been this way: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, the UK etc. But even fairly recently states such as Yugoslavia and the USSR have ceased to exist, leading to the reappearance of countries such as Estonia, Lithuania, Serbia and Montenegro that had been consumed by totalitarian states. Go back further and we see the Free State of Ireland, Galicia or Prussia. Further still and we get the Holy Roman Empire, Burgundy, Aragon and the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania. Nothing last forever, countries least of all. This is the central message of Vanished Kingdoms.

I found this a fascinating read, especially when Davies deals with countries I had not heard of before such as Alt Clud (The Kingdom of the Rock) in Dumbarton, or the Grand-Duchy of Lithuania which morphed into the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, once the largest country on mainland Europe. Splitting each chapter into three parts (modern day, history from birth to collapse, aftermath) Davies squeezes a huge amount of information into these essays. But they are never dry. He keeps the prose immensely readable and sketches in the historical figures involved in each story with great skill.

The conclusions he draws will provoke debate, but history tends to prove that nothing is permanent. Britain once had an Empire. As did Austria-Hungary. As did Rome. Now we see processes in motion that will lead to the break up of the United Kingdom. A process which Davies contends started in 1922 with the foundation of the Free State of Ireland. Brexit has only sped up the inevitable.

The map of Europe has been redrawn many times down the centuries, and will be redrawn again, no doubt. Read this book and glory in the Crown of Aragon, the sad tale of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, the rise and fall of the Habsburgs. Highly recommended.