The Royal Family & WW1
Warfare
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The Relationship Between the King and the Public in the First World War
In World War I, there's a slightly different relationship between the monarchy and the army. The king is very much still seen not as kind of figurative commander in chief but as the actual commander in chief who has delegated his powers to the commander in chief in the field. So that creates a sense on the part of the king that he has to check up on his troops welfare,. That he should be going to see them at the front, which he does. And they spend a lot of time on the home front reaching out to parts of the population previously wouldn't have seen at the monarch in person.
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