MovieChat Forums > The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) Discussion > The location of Ruritania in the novel

The location of Ruritania in the novel

posted 10 years ago by magolding
2 replies | jump to latest

In the novel Streslau, the capital of Ruritania, is on the railroad line between Dresden in the kingdom of Saxony in the German Empire and Prague in the kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian Empire, which gives a good idea of the location of Ruritania..

My opinion is that Ruritania might be based on the kingdom of Saxony in the German Empire Saxony had a bit of social and political upheaval: the socialist parties gained majorities in the elections and it became know as the "red" kingdom.

Another theory is that Ruritania may have been largely Lusatia. Perhaps both upper and lower Lusatia or merely lower Lusatia, with a bit of Saxony attached, since the capital Streslau, on the railroad from Prague to Dresden, would probably have been west of Lusatia.

In 1635 the Holy Roman Emperor and king of Bohemia gave the Lusatias, crown lands of Bohemia, to the elector of Saxony in return for support in the Thirty years War, A generation or so later Emperor Leopold I reward Elector Augustus the Strong of Saxony for support by helping him get elected king of Poland. Perhaps in an alternate universe Leopold instead rewarded Augustus the Strong by making Ruritania/Lusatia a kingdom, and Augustus later gave the kingdom of Ruritania to one of his illegitimate sons instead of his legitimate son.

If the capital was fifty miles south of the northern border, it might have been fifty miles south of the northernmost border in Lusatia, and a lot less than fifty miles south of the border directly north of Streslau, which may have been in a sort of panhandle sticking out to the west and south of Lusatia.

I believe that the train ride from Zenda to Streslau took about 90 minutes from 800 AM to 930 AM. At an average speed of ten to fifty miles per hour the train would have traveled about 15 to 75 miles.

If Ruritania was supposed to be part of the German Empire but not part of the kingdom of Prussia, then it was probably an ally of Prussia in 1866 and became part of the North German Confederation and the German Empire but not part of the Kingdom of Prussia.

But if Ruritania was an independent nation and not part of the German Empire or Austrian Empire that would be harder to explain.

One reason that Ruritania might not have been annexed to Prussia and/or to the German Empire was the catholic religion of Ruritania. Bismark didn't want a Germany with a Catholic majority and so did not try to annex Bohemia or Austria - which would have required a lot more fighting in 1866.

Saxony became protestant in the 1500s. When Augustus the Strong converted to Catholicism to help gain the Polish throne he did not reconvert Saxony to Catholicism. Perhaps Prisoner of Zenda is in an alternate universe where Saxony never became Protestant or was reconverted to Catholicism by Augustus the Strong.

The Lusatias were ruled by the Habsburgs from 1526 to 1635 but they were unable to keep the Lusatias Catholic. Perhaps Prisoner of Zenda is an an alternate universe where the Habsburgs did keep Lusatia Catholic.

Bohemia itself was largely Protestant a century before Martin Luther, but after winning the Battle of White Mountain against the Bohemian rebels in 1620 the Habsburgs were able to convert Bohemia to Catholicism. Possibly Ruritania contains a strip of land in the mountains of northern Bohemia with a Catholic population. I don't know when or how that strip would have become part of a separate kingdom in an alternate universe - possibly during the Thirty Years War.

One reason why the tiny princepality of Lichtenstein was not made part of the German Empire in 1866-1871 was the fact it was surrounded by Switzerland and Austria. A longer and bloodier war would have had to be fought against Switzerland and/or Austria in 1866 to annex lands up to and including Lichtenstein.

So perhaps Ruritania was a small Catholic land largely surrounded by Catholic lands ruled by Austria in 1866. Bismark would not have wanted to annex those Austrian Catholic lands so he might not have annexed Ruritania in the middle of them. Thus we can suppose that the Habsburgs retained Lower (or northern) Lusatia and Silesia and most of Bohemia
in 1866 and kept those lands mostly Catholic so Ruritania was surrounded on three sides by Austria. Possibly Ruritania and Austria ended up as the only members of the German Confederation left.

Of course this movie opens with a map of Europe and the camera moves east and south toward the Balkans, implying that Ruritania was a Balkan nation.

[–] snagletooth 8 years ago

And just a note about the movie versions of 1937 and 1952, The opening shows the course of the Orient Express placing Strelsau between Vienna and Bucharest, which would make it hazily around....Hungary. Zenda....Buda, kinda similar? Hungary doesn't have that much German cultural overlay on it though, I would think, even though part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th century. It was still determined to be its own (Hungarian-majority) culture.

[–] DrBenjaminTwist 8 years ago

Well nobody can accuse you of not thinking it through!

I think, though, that it's a mistake to look at the text and say "Ruritania is based on this bit of the world as it exists now (or existed then)". You mention the "alternate universe" theory and my belief is that we need to grab that theory and run with it. Perhaps you remember one of the early versions of the computer game "Simcity"? It included a feature called something like "geomorphing", where one could change the landscape. That, I think, is what Hope did in the novel. He didn't take an existing nation/land/area/whatever and use it to be Ruritania. Rather he "geomorphed" the existing land, sliding borders backwards to fit in a new and totally imaginary kingdom.

So, if Ruritania is on the line between Dresden and Prague, rather than saying "Ruritania is Saxony" we slide Dresden and Prague apart, and shunt Saxony East or West (or North or South... whatever.) Where Altenberg and Dubi are 10km apart in reality, we make them [insert number of your choice]km apart and slot Ruritania into the gap; rather than Dresden and Prague being 122km apart, we make them [insert number of your choice]km apart. Certainly, when I was a boy and produced my own destined-to-be-world-renowned-Magnum-Opus-to-astound-the-literary-establishment that is exactly what I did; I slotted my imaginary country in between Austria-Hungary and Yugoslavia. (Since it was little more than a poor re-writing of the Prisoner of Zenda, it's probably as well that it disappeared without trace...)

In terms of other suggestions, I think Ruritania was part of neither the German nor Austrian Empires; certainly I can see nothing in the book(s) to suggest it is. Rather, I think, it is a gloriously free and independent nation! I suspect it's for that reason that, regardless of what the author writes in the novel(s), I have always imagined Ruritania to be more of a southern nation. At a push, I might have put her somewhere in Bohemia, but in my mind, she has always been more Balkan - perhaps northern Croatia. This is a kingdom that just strikes me as very Yugoslav but without, perhaps, too much emphasis on the -slav! The Balkans, after all, have provided most of the truly Ruritanian kingdoms of history - Yugoslavia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania (especially Albania; King Zog and Queen Geraldine for heaven's sake!), Romania and the much neglected Moldovia! Her place names and titles may be very Germanic, but everything about her attitude is Slavic.

I have to add huge admiration for your post - fantastic thought about the Mitteleuropa that was my specialism at University AND about one of my favourite books. You have just become one of the most highly rated posters on IMDB on the Potts Scale. Thank you!