1850-1871

"Give me six hours' control of the Strait of Dover, and I will gain mastery of the world". -- Napoleon Bonaparte

Charlotte Susan Fullman was born on 27 September 1861 in the Kent town of Chatham, historic home of the Royal Naval Dockyard. Since the days of Henry VIII, Royal Navy ships had been provisioned and built on the River Medway in Chatham: many of the ships that defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588 sailed from there, and Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory, was built there. In Charlotte's day, the dockyards covered fifty acres and employed thousands of craftsmen, dominating the economy of the Medway towns (ie Chatham, Rochester and Gillingham). Charlotte - a twin - was the third of seven children born to Stephen and Frances Fullman, natives of the Medway Valley villages of West Farleigh and East Malling, respectively. Stephen was a Royal Navy veteran and Greenwich pensioner, whose sons attended the famous Greenwich Hospital School on the south bank of the Thames. Charlotte's future husband, Frederick Louis Wood, was also a native of Chatham. He was born in the town in 1856, and he too came from a family which made its living from the sea. (His father, George, was a shipwright at Chatham Dockyard).

Great Britain, with the county of Kent highlighted in red.

Map: The County of Kent (showing towns associated with the Wood family)

Photographs: H.M. Royal Naval Dockyard, Chatham

Chatham's Royal Naval Dockyard was closed down in 1984, but some of its historic buildings still remain. Left: The main entrance to the Dockyard, with the Sovereign's crest above the gate. Below left : Some of the old construction sheds, backing directly onto the River Medway. Below: The Upper Mast House.

When Frederick and Charlotte are born, England is well into the second decade of the long reign of Queen Victoria. Although over forty years have passed since Napoleon threatened England with invasion, France remains the single greatest power in Europe, and is England's natural enemy. With only a small, volunteer army to repel any invader who reaches British soil, Britain's defence policy is based on maintaining a powerful Royal Navy, capable of overwhelming any invasion fleet before it crosses the Channel. Britain's other traditional enemy is the Russian Empire, whose size and expansionist tendencies menace British possessions in India and China. The threat to British shipping in the Mediterranean posed by Russia's attempted take-over of the Dardanelles leads Britain to join the Turks against Russia in the Crimean War of 1854-56.

"France is, and always will remain, Britain's greatest danger" -- Lord Salisbury, future British Prime Minister, 1867

Despite her embroilment in the Crimea, Britain's preoccupation by the middle of the century is primarily with the overseas empire beyond Europe -- "a global scattering of peoples and territories, knit together by trade and sea power, with limited influence in peacetime on the continent of Europe, but unchallengeable on the seas" (Massie). Great Britain takes no position on the political conflicts and issues dividing the powers of continental Europe and, under Lord Salisbury, her Prime Minister, does not intend to do so. This policy of aloofness Lord Salisbury calls "Splendid Isolation". If Britain is isolated politically from the rest of Europe, her royal family nevertheless remains closely connected with the leading dynasties of Europe through marriage and descent. Between 1840 and 1857, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert have nine children, most of whom will marry into the other royal families of Europe. In 1857, Victoria's oldest daughter, Princess Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise (Vicky) marries Prince Frederick William (Fritz), oldest son of William I of Prussia. On 27 January 1859, Vicky and Fritz celebrate the birth of their first child and Victoria's first grandchild, Prince William, who is destined to become the future Kaiser William II, Emperor of Germany. But that is to look into the future because at the middle of the 19th century, the united German Empire still does not exist. For over fifty years, France has been the dominant power in continental Europe. Germany remains a loose and divided confederation of 39 separate states. Prussia is the single most powerful of the German territories, but the confederation as a whole is disunited and dominated by the neighbouring empire of Austria-Hungary.

The Principal States in the German Confederation, 1815-1866 (greatly simplified)

Key: 1. Prussia 2. Hanover 3. Mecklenburg 4. Baden 5. Wurttemberg 6. Bavaria 7. Saxony 8. Hesse-Darmstadt

The German states aspire to greater unity. German liberals - including Crown Prince Frederick and the Princess Victoria ("the English Party", as they are known at the Prussian court) - hope for unification through democratic, parliamentary means. But by 1862 the drive towards unity is headed by the conservative King William I of Prussia and his newly-appointed Minister-President , Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck's goal is a disciplined, military state, brought about through military victories.

"Germany does not look to Prussia's liberalism, but to her strength. The great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and the resolutions of majorities... but by iron and blood". -- Otto von Bismarck, 30 September 1862

For the first five years of William's reign, Austria-Hungary remains the dominant power in confederated Germany. But in 1866, Austrian-Hungary challenges Prussia's annexation of the Danish provinces of Schleswig-Holstein and, to the surprise of all Europe, is defeated by Prussia at the Battle of Sadowa. Austria-Hungary is forced to renounce all claim of influence over Germany. The northern German states are united into a Prussian-dominated North German Confederation, but remain in only loose association with the independent south German states - Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Baden, and Hesse-Darmstadt. The defeat of Austria-Hungary and the rise of Prussia threaten French hegemony over Europe. Tensions between France and Germany come to a head in 1869, when France - anxious not to be surrounded by German kingdoms - opposes the accession of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern to the throne of Spain. North and South German armies unite in opposition to France in the resulting Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and Bismarck proposes that their military unity should translate into political unification. The South German principalities consent to unite with the Northern German Confederation to form the German Empire. The united Germany is the strongest military power in Europe, and is dominated by Prussia, whose King becomes Kaiser (ie Emperor) William I. Bismarck's constitution for the new Empire allows the election of a parliament (Reichstag) by universal male suffrage, but the powers of this representative body are severely limited. Germany's military power is concentrated in the hands of the Kaiser, who also appoints and dismisses all Imperial Ministers. Foreign policy is under the direction of the German Chancellor (Bismarck himself), but the army and navy answer to Kaiser, who alone can declare war. In the relationship between Bismarck and William I, the Chancellor is the dominant figure, but in the event of a less assertive Chancellor or more aggressive Kaiser coming to power, there is a potential for power to become dangerously concentrated in the hands of the Kaiser. Germany's status as the most powerful nation in Europe is confirmed at Sedan on 2 September 1870, when the defeated Emperor Louis Napoleon of France surrenders to William I. William and his Army Chief-of Staff, von Moltke, insist on German annexation of Alsace and Lorraine as the price of ending the war, over the objections of Crown Prince Frederick and of Chancellor Bismarck, who foresee that France will remain a resentful and potentially hostile neighbour for as long as her eastern provinces are occupied by Germany.

"We are no longer looked upon as the innocent victims of wrong, but rather as arrogant victors". [Europe now regards Germany], "this nation of thinkers and philosophers, poets and artists, idealists and enthusiasts, as a nation of conquerors and destroyers". Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, 1871

or return to the Road To War home page