In A Scandal in Bohemia, Sherlock Holmes, in that wonderfully mystical way known only to himself, knows even before his masked1 visitor speaks that he is addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismund von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and hereditary King of Bohemia. That last phrase has always seemed a bit strange to me: aren't most Kings 'hereditary Kings'? It is not usually an elected office (well, sometimes it is and thereby may hang part of our tale).Why, then, is that seemingly redundant locution found in the King's title? One clue may reside in a phrase in Watson's description of the 'visitor' that has seemed not to draw much attention. After treating us to an extended description of his dress (and making it clear that he disapproves and no Englishman would dress that way), Watson concludes with a description of the part of the visitor's masked face he could see. "From the lower part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy."
This would seem to presage the King's character, but in truth the King seems less obstinate than inept, and instead of being resolute he seems quite happy to pass on to Holmes the task of bailing him out of his problems. I suspect that what Watson has given us here is a hint as to his true status, for if the lip in question was the lower lip, then that chin might well signal the presence of a feature commonly referred to as the "Hapsburg jaw". This is a hereditary feature prevalent in that remarkably inbred family which had once ruled Spain and was even now ruling the Austro-Hungarian Empire (into which Bohemia had been subsumed some centuries before). [Anent the illustration of Philip IV of Spain (to the left) which I have used to illustrate the appearance of a 'Hapsburg jaw,' Philip was rather famous for turning up the skirts of the ladies in his palace, causing one to wonder if this, too, might be a hereditary trait.]
This suggests to me two things: 1) the King (we may as well call him that) is a 'genuine' Hapsburg, having some actual blood tie to that Royal family; 2) he isn't really a king (just a Grand Duke, alas), the title being somewhat honorary, acknowledging perhaps that if history had gone differently, he might have been the 'King of Bohemia'.
('King of Bohemia' might have been retained in the family's titles much as 'Defender of the Faith' was retained by Henry VIII even after he broke with Rome.)
This of course assumes that the King was who he said (or claimed) he was. There is however another possibility, quite familiar to Sherlockians. Watson is concealing an identity: an identity more readily found in books of history.
If Watson is concealing an identity, then whose? The King's first name gives one possibility: the visitor was the German Crown Prince Wilhelm (shortly to become Kaiser Wilhelm II). In Dreadnought: Britian, Germany, and the coming of the Great War, Robert Massie, without the slightest thought of the "King," I am sure, characterized how William appeared to Englishmen by: "the German Emperor seemed flashy, operatic, unreliable, or -- the Englishman's ultimate word of centure -- tiresome." Watson's reaction to a 'T.' If the King was Prince Wilhelm in disguise(!) it might well be that what was in danger was not an upcoming marriage, but his ascension to the throne (which did take place later in 1888). In this case the dalliance with Ms Adler would not be pre-marital highjinks, but post-marital adultery -- whether or not this would have been a real problem I do not know, but the Germans did seem to be a 'stuffy' sort of folk at that time.
Another possibility is suggested by the King's height: "hardly ... less that six feet six inches in height." As it happens, this is the actual height of the Iron Chancellor, Otto Bismark himself. (And, as Paul Clarkson2 has shown, he was caught in a compromising photograph with a young lady.) It may be no more than coincidence, but it is a fact that Wilhelm dumped Otto not long after assuming his throne.
These are intriguing speculations, investigated at some length by Sherlockians far more qualified than I, but one question which has not been addressed (so far as I am aware -- the extent of Sherlockian literature is such that one always has to add that proviso) is, if Watson was concealing the identity of some real person, why did he choose to make him 'King of Bohemia'?
The simplest explanation might be no more that he had, not too long before, been reading Henri Murger's La Vie Boheme, and the title simply floated into his consciousness when he searched for a pseudonym for Holmes' client. But I prefer a more complex explanation, one rooted in English history and English literature.
If one were to go by the remarks of Neville Chamberlin, uttered after the 'Munich Crisis', when it was clear his appeasement policy had failed, one would gather that Englishmen knew nothing of Bohemians, for he described the conflict as occurring in "a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing." Mr Chamberlin was, of course, being totally disingenuous, after the universal manner of politicians, for the historical association between England and Bohemia runs surprisingly deep.
We (well, some of us) may in the Christmas season sing of "Good King Wenseslaus" ... he was, in case you did not know, one of the medieval Kings of Bohemia.
The views of the Englisman John Wycliff traveled to Bohemia, where they caused John Huss to rebel against the church and get himself burned at the stake.
Dr John Dee, a sort of science advisor to Elizabeth I, went to Prague to pursue his studies (in the occult, alas).
Shakespeare, knowing the name, but perhaps not the geography, set one of his scenes in A Winter's Tale (III,iii) on 'the sea coast of Bohemia' (a phrase which has led its own literary life).
The poor fellow (Frederick, Elector of the Palatinate) who accepted the Kingship of Bohemia (that is to say, he was elected to the post -- proving that some kings do get elected) in 1618 and thereby set off the Thirty Years War, was married to the daughter of James I of England (Elizabeth by name).
Watson is not, of course, known as an historical scholar, but his literary agent, one Arthur Conan Doyle, is known to have studied past English history (I believe there are some fictional books of his extant that attempt to recapture that past), and so perhaps it was from him that Watson received the suggestion: 'Make him a King of Bohemia'.
1. The mask is because the King is traveling "incognito." Am I the only person who thinks that a man who is six feet six, and is dressed in "barbaric opulence," is sadly misguided if he thinks a mask will give him anonymnity? Back
2. Clarkson, Paul S., "A Scandalous Case of Identity," Baker Street Journal 19:1 (December 1969). Back
