King Leopold's Ghostwriter: The Creation of Persons and States in the Nineteenth Century

by Andrew Fitzmaurice

Overview

A dramatic intellectual biography of Victorian jurist Travers Twiss, who provided the legal justification for the creation of the brutal Congo Free State

Eminent jurist, Oxford professor, advocate to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Travers Twiss (1809–1897) was a model establishment figure in Victorian Britain, and a close collaborator of Prince Metternich, the architect of the Concert of Europe. Yet Twiss’s life was defined by two events that threatened to undermine the order that he had so stoutly defended: a notorious social scandal and the creation of the Congo Free State. In King Leopold’s Ghostwriter, Andrew Fitzmaurice tells the incredible story of a man who, driven by personal events that transformed him from a reactionary to a reformer, rewrote and liberalised international law—yet did so in service of the most brutal regime of the colonial era.

In an elaborate deception, Twiss and Pharaïlde van Lynseele, a Belgian prostitute, sought to reinvent her as a woman of suitably noble birth to be his wife. Their subterfuge collapsed when another former client publicly denounced van Lynseele. Disgraced, Twiss resigned his offices and the couple fled to Switzerland. But this failure set the stage for a second, successful act of re-creation. Twiss found new employment as the intellectual driving force of King Leopold of Belgium’s efforts to have the Congo recognised as a new state under his personal authority. Drawing on extensive new archival research, King Leopold’s Ghostwriter recounts Twiss’s story as never before, including how his creation of a new legal personhood for the Congo was intimately related to the earlier invention of a new legal personhood for his wife.

Combining gripping biography and penetrating intellectual history, King Leopold’s Ghostwriter uncovers a dramatic, ambiguous life that has had lasting influence on international law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691241074
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	12/17/2024
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Andrew Fitzmaurice is professor of the history of political thought at Queen Mary University of London. He is the author of Sovereignty, Property, and Empire and Humanism and America.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

Part 1 Travers Twiss 29

Travers Twiss in Society 29

Oxford and King's College, London 55

The Doctors' Commons, the Church of England, and the Admiralty 74

Sovereignty in the Law of Nations and Ecclesiastical Law 89

Catholic Reform and Tractarianism 94

Part 2 Metternich 108

The Friendship between Twiss and Metternich 109

Schleswig, Holstein, and Prussia 124

Austria and Germany 128

The German Confederation and the Austrian Empire 138

Prussia and Germany 167

"The Social Problem" 173

Hungary and Public Opinion 178

The Coup d'État in France 195

The Crimean War 200

Napoléon III and Italian Unification 212

Global Revolution 221

Part 3 Agnes Willoughby and Pharaïlde van Lynseele 235

Metamorphoses 235

Agnes Willoughby 246

Pharaïlde van Lynseele 302

Part 4 King Leopold and the Congo 392

Revival through International Law 392

The Standing of "Oriental Nations" in International Society 406

Twiss and King Leopold 423

Diplomatic Negotiations 447

The Berlin Conference of 1884 and l885 458

The Congo Free State 475

Part 5 Civil Death 504

Conclusion 530

Bibliography 535

Index 551

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A heroic feat of archival reconstruction and intellectual rehabilitation, King Leopold’s Ghostwriter recovers Travers Twiss from obscurity and makes the case for his importance to global intellectual history. The story of his double life, precipitous fall from grace, and return to prominence is gripping. This is a model of intellectual biography.”—David Armitage, Harvard University

“King Leopold’s Ghostwriter combines intellectual and social history to highly original effect. With impeccable scholarship, Andrew Fitzmaurice offers an innovative and erudite account of the intersection of imperialism, law, and sexual morality in Victorian Britain.”—Duncan Bell, University of Cambridge

“There are few better ways imaginable to study the emergence of modern sovereign statehood and international law than through the lens of the life, works, and thoughts of Travers Twiss. Fitzmaurice’s brilliant biography achieves the tour de force of imbedding international legal history in the histories of Victorian liberalism, European diplomacy, and imperialism all at once, while producing a very readable and accessible book.”—Randall Lesaffer, Tilburg University

“In this meticulously researched biography, Andrew Fitzmaurice weaves together the public and private lives of Travers Twiss in a masterful way, taking the reader on a fascinating tour from Victorian England’s high society to its demimonde and on to the world of international diplomacy and the foundation of King Leopold’s private African empire. It is a story as enthralling as any Victorian novel.”—Michael Lobban, London School of Economics

Editorial Reviews

Shortlisted for the General History Prize, NSW Premier History Awards

Winner of the István Hont Book Prize, Institute of Intellectual History

From the Publisher