Have any national leaders been kept unaware of their own wars?
score:12
It really depends on what you mean by "supposed to be practically in charge". Supposed by whom ? If the war rages on and the leader does not even know, then one can confidently say that the leader does not hold the actual power, which is instead in the hands of people who perfectly know that the leader is not actually leading.
One situation which is similar to what you are looking for is what happened at the siege of Szigetvár in 1566. On September 6th, the attacking party's leader (none other than Suleiman the Magnificent) died in his tent. We don't really know the actual cause (he was more than 70 at that time, so it may very well have been a "natural cause"). The inner circle of councillors kept that death secret, and the siege kept on; the day after, the Ottomans actually broke through the defences and stormed the city. For a few weeks, the war continued, and the nominal leader was unaware of it because he was already dead at that time.
If you want a situation where the nominal sovereign is kept in his closed palace, pampered by some prime minister or general, and kept aloof of the external world to the point of not knowing what happens at all, then plausible candidates are the late Merovingian kings in what would later on become France. As Wikipedia describes for the last one, Childeric III:
Childeric took no part in public business, which was directed, as previously, by the mayors of the palace. Once a year, he would be brought in an ox cart led by a peasant and preside at court, giving answers preprepared by the mayors to visiting ambassadors.
The power was really held by the mayor of the palace, an hereditary charge held by the lineage from which issued the Carolingian kings, in particular Charlemagne. We don't have day-to-day accounts of the life of Childeric III, but it is quite possible that he was not kept informed of anything except through the yearly ceremonial, in which his role was little more than that of a trained parrot.
Upvote:1
One example, though not quite as drastic, was Andrew Jackson's conquest of Florida from the Spanish.
Upvote:3
If you class the coup in the USSR in the later days of the Gorbachev regime there as a civil war, that's probably the latest such incidence (and the only one I can come up with).
Gorbachev was head of state, and not aware of the coup (or the organizing of resistance to it by Yeltsin and the Moscow garrison) until some time after it started, being incommunicado in his dacha in the Crimea.
When communications were cut off with center he started to suspect something was out of the ordinary, but it took hours (and according to some accounts more than a day) until he was fully aware that there'd been a coup and fighting was going on in the streets of Moscow.
Any other recent (as in, since the invention or radio) example would almost have to be under similar circumstances.
And older examples would be most likely border conflicts in remote areas that were over before news of them could reach the government(s). And I seriously doubt you're going to find people admitting to those in the history books, governments don't like it known that they're not in full positive control over their armed forces at all times, however impossible that would be to establish in actuality.
Upvote:4
Song chanceller Jia Sidao apparently kept information on the Mongol invasion from Song Emperor Duzong. The story goes that one day a palace maid told the Emperor that Xiangyang had been besieged for years, after which Jia Sidao had the maid executed.
See this source, or Wikipedia's articles on the Battle of Xiangyang, Jia Sidao, and Emperor Duzong.
More post
- 📝 WWI trench tactics using shields?
- 📝 Where did Germany get their oil during WW2?
- 📝 What can be said about conditions of slaves owned by George Washington?
- 📝 Why was Madagascar settled by far-flung Austronesian seafarers?
- 📝 How often did city-destroying floods happen in Mesopotamia?
- 📝 Why were the Maya's cities abandoned?
- 📝 Did monasteries hold land and collect rent in medieval Europe?
- 📝 What impact did Trotsky's armoured train have on the Russian civil war?
- 📝 How can a megalith be dated via the C14 method?
- 📝 Has a book ever secretly been written with gold ink?
- 📝 Were US Navy WWII-era submarine crewmen allowed on deck?
- 📝 Did medieval Icelanders write with runes?
- 📝 Who is responsible for the oldest known calendar?
- 📝 Did Rome conquer the Parthian Empire during the conquests of Trajan?
- 📝 Did the Japanese try to start peace negotiations while in a position of strength in WWII?
- 📝 What did the paper money of the Ilkhanate look like?
- 📝 Battle of Vienna & Morean War : what was Russia's position?
- 📝 Is there evidence that working for the Pony Express was dangerous, or not dangerous?
- 📝 What are the intellectual roots of the "French Republican identity" pursuit?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this uniform, approximate year, and aircraft?
- 📝 Why did Sir William Stanley support Perkin Warbeck?
- 📝 What were the military justifications for the bombing of Dresden?
- 📝 What sort of architecture existed in Catholic Eastern Europe around the late 1100's and very early 1200's?
- 📝 Is this inscription in the Jefferson memorial consistent with Jefferson's views?
- 📝 How could I determine the value of a a 1921 Yuan Shikai Chinese silver dollar?
- 📝 Were there many foreigners fighting during the American civil war?
- 📝 At the Battle of Augusta, how did the French learn that de Ruyter was mortally wounded?
- 📝 How was a line looped under a sailing vessel for keelhauling?
- 📝 Can a country only have one indigenous population?
- 📝 How was the reichmarks to deutschmarks supported?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Have any national leaders been kept unaware of their own wars?
- 📝 Have there been any efforts by the countries of Europe to restore their monarchies?
- 📝 Have there been any countries that voted themselves out of existence?
- 📝 Are there any examples of technologies have been lost over time?
- 📝 Have there been any notable battles fought with steel vs. bronze weapons?
- 📝 Has any U.S. Vice President cast a tie-breaking vote against their own administration?
- 📝 Have any kings ever been serving admirals?
- 📝 How much of an impact did the Roman emperors' civil wars have on their decision to debase the coinage?
- 📝 Have breasts been proudly and publicly uncovered, in any culture, without general disapproval?
- 📝 Have any armies equipped/fed their officers and enlisted men equally?
- 📝 Did 20th century militaries have their own fire-fighter units?
- 📝 Have any artifacts or archaeological remains from the White Ship disaster of 1120 ever been recovered?
- 📝 Have there been any nuclear accidents in the US at nuclear facilities which were not "commercial"?
- 📝 Have there been any joint US-Russia/Soviet military engagements post WW II?
- 📝 Have primary voters in US overseas territories or their delegates ever had a noteworthy influence in any primary election or convention?
- 📝 Throughout history, how many wars have there been between Russia and Japan?
- 📝 Why did some colonies of the British Empire have their own currencies?
- 📝 How many wars have there been in Europe since WW2?
- 📝 Has there ever been a revolution backed by a royal or a noble against their own family?
- 📝 Did Soviet Republics like Kazakstan and Azerbaijan have their own military units?
- 📝 Apart from the White Ship in 1120, have there been any other maritime disasters in which an heir to a throne and/or many notable people died?
- 📝 Are there any battles that have been extensively studied across the world?
- 📝 When would the Japanese have been able to recognize their archipelago?
- 📝 Have any spies ever managed to keep their identity secret from their handlers?
- 📝 Have fashionable hair lengths ever been reversed from their current styles?
- 📝 Has there been any culture where men typically have longer hair than women?
- 📝 In the late 18th century, would any of the southwestern area of Germany used Franks instead of their own currency?
- 📝 Have there been any major disagreements between historians over what sources should be used to interpret an event?
- 📝 Did any nation have a demonstrable qualitative advantage in their soldiers of the 18th century, and how did they achieve this?
- 📝 Which leading Serbs and Croats argued against their own extremists in the wars 1992-95?