# Robert Seton-Watson

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British political activist and historian (1879–1951)

Robert William Seton-Watson FBA FRHistS Born (1879-08-20)20 August 1879 London, England Died 25 July 1951(1951-07-25) (aged 71) Skye, Scotland Alma mater New College, Oxford Occupation Historian Years active 1901–1949 Known for Political activist Title President, Royal Historical Society Term 1946–1949 Children Hugh Seton-Watson[1] Christopher Seton-Watson Mary Seton-Watson Parent(s) William Livingstone Watson Elizabeth Lindsay Seton

**Robert William Seton-Watson** [FBA](/source/Fellow_of_the_British_Academy) [FRHistS](/source/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Historical_Society) (20 August 1879, in [London](/source/London) – 25 July 1951, in [Skye](/source/Skye)), commonly referred to as **R. W. Seton-Watson** and also known by the pseudonym **Scotus Viator**, was a British political activist and historian who played an active role in encouraging the breakup of [Austria-Hungary](/source/Austria-Hungary) and the emergence of [Czechoslovakia](/source/Czechoslovakia) and [Yugoslavia](/source/Yugoslavia) during and after the [First World War](/source/First_World_War).[2]

He was the father of two eminent historians, [Hugh](/source/Hugh_Seton-Watson), who specialised in 19th-century Russian history, and [Christopher](/source/Christopher_Seton-Watson), who worked on 19th-century Italy.

## Early life

Seton-Watson was born in London to Scottish parents. His father, [William Livingstone Watson](/source/William_Livingstone_Watson), had been a tea-merchant in [Calcutta](/source/Calcutta), and his mother, Elizabeth Lindsay Seton, was the daughter of [George Seton](/source/George_Seton), a genealogist and historian and the son of George Seton of the [East India Company](/source/East_India_Company).

He was educated at [Winchester College](/source/Winchester_College) and [New College, Oxford](/source/New_College%2C_Oxford), where he read modern history under the historian and politician [Herbert Fisher](/source/H._A._L._Fisher). He graduated with a first-class degree in 1901.

## In Austria-Hungary

After graduation, Seton-Watson travelled to [Berlin University](/source/Berlin_University), the [Sorbonne](/source/University_of_Paris) and [Vienna University](/source/Vienna_University) from where he wrote a number of articles on [Hungary](/source/Hungary) for *[The Spectator](/source/The_Spectator)*. His research for these articles took him to Hungary in 1906, and his discoveries there turned his sympathies against Hungary and in favour of the subjected [Slovaks](/source/Slovaks), [Romanians](/source/Romanians) and [Southern Slavs](/source/Southern_Slavs). He learned [Hungarian](/source/Hungarian_language), [Serbian](/source/Serbian_language) and [Czech](/source/Czech_language), and in 1908 published his first major work, *Racial Problems in Hungary*.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

Seton-Watson became friends with the Vienna correspondent of *[The Times](/source/The_Times)*, [Henry Wickham Steed](/source/Wickham_Steed), and the Czechoslovak philosopher and politician [Tomáš Masaryk](/source/Tom%C3%A1%C5%A1_Masaryk). He argued in books and articles for a [federal](/source/Federation) solution[3] to the problems of [Austria-Hungary](/source/Austria-Hungary), then driven by the tensions between its ancient [dynastic](/source/Dynastic) model and the forces of [ethnic nationalism](/source/Ethnic_nationalism).

## First World War and aftermath

After the outbreak of the [First World War](/source/First_World_War), Seton-Watson took practical steps to support the causes that he had formerly supported merely in print. He served as honorary secretary of the [Serbian Relief Fund](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Serbian_Relief_Fund&action=edit&redlink=1) from 1914 and supported and found employment for his friend Masaryk after the latter fled to England to escape arrest. Both founded and published *The New Europe* (1916), a weekly periodical to promote the cause of the Czechs and other subject peoples. Seton-Watson financed this periodical himself.[4]

Seton-Watson's private political activity was not appreciated in all quarters, and his critics within the British government finally succeeded in temporarily silencing him in 1917 by [drafting](/source/Conscription) him into the [Royal Army Medical Corps](/source/Royal_Army_Medical_Corps), where he was given the job of scrubbing hospital floors. Others, however, rescued him, and from 1917 to 1918, he served on the Intelligence Bureau of the War Cabinet in the Enemy Propaganda Department, where he was responsible for British propaganda to the peoples of Austria-Hungary.[5] He assisted in the preparations for the [Rome Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rome_Congress&action=edit&redlink=1) of subject Habsburg peoples, held in April 1918.

After the end of the war, Seton-Watson attended the [Paris Peace Conference, 1919](/source/Paris_Peace_Conference%2C_1919) in a private capacity and advised the representatives there of formerly subject peoples. Although on bad terms with the governments of the major powers, which he famously referred to as "the pygmies of Paris", he contributed to discussions of what the new frontiers of Europe should be, and he was especially influential in setting the postwar frontiers between Italy and the new state of [Yugoslavia](/source/Yugoslavia).

Although the British government was unenthusiastic about Seton-Watson, other governments were not and showed their gratitude after the conference. Masaryk became the first president of the new state of [Czechoslovakia](/source/Czechoslovakia) and welcomed him there. His friendship with [Edvard Beneš](/source/Edvard_Bene%C5%A1), now Czechoslovakia's foreign minister, was consolidated. Seton-Watson was made an honorary citizen of [Cluj](/source/Cluj-Napoca) in [Transylvania](/source/Transylvania), which had been incorporated into [Romania](/source/Romania) despite the claims of Hungary and in 1920 was formally acclaimed by the Romanian Parliament. Yugoslavia rewarded him with an honorary degree from the [University of Zagreb](/source/University_of_Zagreb).

## Between the wars

[Bust](/source/Bust_(sculpture)) of Robert William Seton-Watson by Vojtech Ihriský.

Seton-Watson had played a prominent role in establishing a School of Slavonic Studies (later the [School of Slavonic and East European Studies](/source/SSEES), now a faculty of [University College London](/source/University_College_London)) in 1915, partly to provide employment for his then-exiled friend Masaryk, and in 1922, he was appointed there as the first holder of the Masaryk chair in Central European history, a post that he held until 1945. He concentrated on his academic duties especially after 1931, when stock market losses removed much of his personal fortune, and he was appreciated by his students despite being somewhat impractical: according to Steed, he was "unpunctual, untidy, and too preoccupied with other matters. Pupils were advised not to hand over their work to him, for it would probably be mislaid".[6]

During this time, he founded and edited [*The Slavonic Review*](/source/The_Slavonic_and_East_European_Review) with Sir [Bernard Pares](/source/Bernard_Pares), to which Masaryk contributed the first article entitled ‘The Slavs After the War’.[7]

## Second World War

As a long-established partisan of Czechoslovakia, Seton-Watson was naturally a firm opponent of Prime Minister [Neville Chamberlain](/source/Neville_Chamberlain)'s policy of [appeasement](/source/Appeasement). In *Britain and the Dictators: A Survey of Post-War British Policy* (1938), he made one of the most devastating attacks on this policy. After Chamberlain's resignation, Seton-Watson held posts in the Foreign Research and Press Service (1939–1940) and Political Intelligence Bureau of the Foreign Office (1940–1942).

However, he had little influence on policy, partly because he did not have the access to decision makers that he had during the First World War and partly because he was not allowed to publish his writings.

## Later career

In 1945, Seton-Watson was appointed to the new chair of Czechoslovak Studies at [Oxford University](/source/Oxford_University). He was president of the [Royal Historical Society](/source/Royal_Historical_Society) from 1946 to 1949.

In 1949, saddened by the new Soviet control of countries to whose independence he had devoted much of his life and by the death of his friend [Edvard Beneš](/source/Edvard_Bene%C5%A1), Czechoslovakia's last noncommunist leader before the end of the [Cold War](/source/Cold_War), Seton-Watson retired to Kyle House on the [Isle of Skye](/source/Isle_of_Skye), where he died in 1951.

## Bibliography

Many of his books are online.[8]

- *Maximilian I. Holy Roman Emperor. (Stanhope Historical Essay 1911)* (1902)

- *Racial Problems in Hungary* (London: Constable, 1908) [online](https://archive.org/download/racialproblemsi00watgoog/racialproblemsi00watgoog.pdf)

- *Corruption and Reform in Hungary: A Study of Electoral Practice* (1911)

- *The Southern Slav Question and the Habsburg Monarchy* (London: Constable, 1911) [online](https://archive.org/stream/southernslavques00seto#page/n7/mode/2up)

- *The War and Democracy* (London: MacMillan and Co., 1914) [online](https://archive.org/details/wardemocracy00setouoft/mode/2up) [online](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10668)

- *Roumania and the Great War* (1915) [online](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005711505&seq=1)

- [*The Rise of Nationality in the Balkans*](https://archive.org/details/riseofnationali00seto/page/n5). London: Constable and Company Limited. 1917. Retrieved 2 October 2018 – via Internet Archive.

- [*Europe in the Melting-Pot*](https://archive.org/stream/europeinmeltingp00setouoft#page/n9/mode/2up). London: Macmillan and Co., Limited. 1919. Retrieved 2 October 2018 – via Internet Archive.

- *The New Slovakia* (1924)

- *Sarajevo: A Study in the Origin of the Great War* (1926)

- *The Role of Bosnia in International Politics 1875–1919* (1932)

- *A History of the Roumanians* (1934)

- *Disraeli, Gladstone and the Eastern Question* (1935)

- *Britain in Europe (1789–1914): A Survey of Foreign Policy* (1937) [online](https://archive.org/download/in.ernet.dli.2015.226175/2015.226175.Britain-In.pdf)

- *Britain and the Dictators: A Survey Of Post-War British Policy* (1938)

- *From Munich to Danzig* (1939) [online](https://archive.org/download/in.ernet.dli.2015.122753/2015.122753.From-Munich-To-Danzig.pdf)

- *TGM and his Legacy to the English People* (jointly with [Josef Josten](/source/Josef_Josten), 1942)

- *[Masaryk](/source/Tom%C3%A1%C5%A1_Garrigue_Masaryk) In England* (1943)

- *A History of the Czechs And Slovaks* (1943)

## Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-NYTimes-1984-12-22_1-0)** Saxon, Wolfgang (22 December 1984). ["PROF. HUGH STETON-WATSON, 68 – HISTORIAN OF EASTERN EUROPE"](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/22/obituaries/prof-hugh-steton-watson-68-historian-of-eastern-europe.html). *The New York Times*. Retrieved 21 December 2013.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Betts, R. B. (December 1951). "Robert William Seton-Watson, 1879-1951". *The Slavonic and East European Review*. **30** (74): 252–255. [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [4204301](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4204301).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** PRECLÍK, Vratislav. Masaryk a legie, váz. kniha, 219 pages, first issue - vydalo nakladatelství Paris Karviná, Žižkova 2379 (734 01 Karvina, Czechia) ve spolupráci s Masarykovým demokratickým hnutím (cooperation with Masaryk democratic movement, Prague), 2019, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-80-87173-47-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-80-87173-47-3), pp.12 - 25, 77 - 83, 140 - 148, 159 - 164, 165 - 190

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Arthur J. May, "Seton-Watson and the Treaty of London." *Journal of Modern History* 29.1 (1957): 42-47. [Online](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/237965)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["SSEES"](https://web.archive.org/web/20070927080839/http://www.ssees.ac.uk/archives/sew.htm). Archived from [the original](http://www.ssees.ac.uk/archives/sew.htm) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 4 September 2007.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Steed, DNB

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Masaryk, Thomas G. (1922). ["The Slavs after the War"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4201583). *The Slavonic Review*. **1** (1): 2–x. [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [4201583](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4201583).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** See [Internet Archive.](https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%28%20Seton-Watson%2C%20R.%20W.%20%29)

## References

- Hugh and Christopher Seton-Watson, *The Making of a New Europe: R.W. Seton-Watson and the Last Years of Austria-Hungary* (Taylor & Francis, 1981) [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-416-74730-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-416-74730-2), [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-416-74730-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-416-74730-0)

- Hugh Seton-Watson, *R.W. Seton-Watson and the Romanians* (1971)

- Péter, László. 'R. W. Seton-Watson's Changing Views on the National Question of the Habsburg Monarchy and the European Balance of Power'. Slavonic & East European Review, 82:3 (2004), 655–79.

- Marzik, Thomas D. 'A splendid Scottish-Slovak friendship: R.W. Seton-Watson and Fedor Ruppeldt'. In Cornwall, Mark; Frame, Murray (ed.), Scotland and the Slavs (Newtonville (MA) and St Petersburg: Oriental Research Partners, 2001), 103–25. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-89250-351-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-89250-351-3).

- Bán, András D. 'R.W. Seton-Watson and the Hungarian problem in Czechoslovakia, 1919–1938'. In Cornwall, Mark; Frame, Murray (ed.), Scotland and the Slavs (Newtonville (MA) and St Petersburg: Oriental Research Partners, 2001), 127–38.

- Angerer, Thomas. 'Henry Wickham Steed, Robert William Seton-Watson und die Habsburgermonarchie: ihr Haltungswandel bis Kriegsanfang im Vergleich' [Henry Wickham Steed, Robert William Seton-Watson and the Habsburg monarchy: a comparison of their changes in attitudes down to the outbreak of war]. Mitteilungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung, 99 (1991), 435–73.

- Miller, N. J. 'R.W. Seton-Watson and Serbia during the re-emergence of Yugoslavism, 1903–1914'. Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, 15 (1988), 59–69.

- Calcott, W. R. "The Last War Aim: British Opinion and the Decision for Czechoslovak Independence, 1914–1919." *The Historical Journal*, Vol. 27, No. 4. (Dec. 1984), 979–89.

- Evans, R., Kováč, D., Ivaničová, E. "Great Britain and Central Europe 1867–1914", Veda – Publishing House of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, 1992.

- May, Arthur J. "R. W. Seton-Watson and British Anti-Habsburg Sentiment". *American Slavic and East European Review*, Vol. 20, No. 1. (Feb. 1961), 40–54.

- Steed, W.; Penson, L. M.; Rose, W. J.; Curcin, Milan; Sychrava, Lev; Tilea, V. V. 'Tributes to R.W. Seton-Watson: a symposium'. Slavonic & East European Review, 30:75 (1952), 331–63. [online](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4204339)

- Steed, W. "Seton-Watson and the Treaty of London." *The Journal of Modern History*, Vol. 29, No. 1. (Mar. 1957), 42–47.

- Torrey, Glenn. Review of *R. W. Seton-Watson and the Romanians, 1906–1920*, by Cornella Bodea and Hugh Seton-Watson, *The American Historical Review*, Vol. 95, No. 5 (Dec. 1990), 1581. [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [2162826](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2162826)

## External links

- Media related to [Robert William Seton-Watson](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Robert_William_Seton-Watson) at Wikimedia Commons

- Works by or about [Robert William Seton-Watson](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Robert_William_Seton-Watson) at [Wikisource](/source/Wikisource)

- [Works by Robert Seton-Watson](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/40517) at [Project Gutenberg](/source/Project_Gutenberg)

- [Works by or about Robert Seton-Watson](https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20Robert%20William%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20Robert%20W%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20R%2E%20W%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Robert%20William%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Robert%20W%2E%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22R%2E%20W%2E%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20Robert%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Robert%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Robert%20William%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Robert%20W%2E%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22R%2E%20W%2E%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22R%2E%20William%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20Robert%20William%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20Robert%20W%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20R%2E%20W%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20R%2E%20William%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Robert%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20Robert%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Robert%20William%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Robert%20W%2E%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20title%3A%22R%2E%20W%2E%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Robert%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Robert%20William%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Robert%20W%2E%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20description%3A%22R%2E%20W%2E%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20Robert%20William%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20Robert%20W%2E%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Robert%20Seton-Watson%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Seton-Watson%2C%20Robert%22%29%20OR%20%28%221879-1951%22%20AND%20Seton-Watson%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at the [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive)

- Scotus Viator (pseudonym), [*Racial Problems in Hungary*](https://web.archive.org/web/20091027014122/http://uk.geocities.com/gogastransylvania/Seton-Watson/RacialProblems.htm) at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) (archived 27 October 2009), London: Archibald and Constable (1908), reproduced in its entirety on line.

Academic offices Preceded by Frank Stenton President of the Royal Historical Society 1946–1949 Succeeded by Theodore Plucknett

v t e Presidents of the Royal Historical Society 1871–1872 George Grote 1873–1878 John Russell, 1st Earl Russell 1878–1891 Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare 1891–1899 Sir M. E. Grant Duff 1899–1901 Sir Adolphus Ward 1901–1905 Sir George Prothero 1905–1909 William Hunt 1909–1913 William Cunningham 1913–1917 Sir Charles Firth 1917–1921 Sir Charles Oman 1921–1925 Sir John Fortescue 1925–1929 Frederick Tout 1929–1933 Sir Richard Lodge 1933–1937 Sir F. M. Powicke 1937–1945 Sir Frank Stenton 1946–1949 Robert William Seton-Watson 1949–1953 Theodore Plucknett 1953–1957 Hale Bellot 1957–1961 David Knowles 1961–1965 Sir Goronwy Edwards 1965–1969 Robin Humphreys 1969–1973 Sir R. W. Southern 1973–1977 Sir Geoffrey Elton 1977–1981 Sir John Habakkuk 1981–1985 Sir J. C. Holt 1985–1989 Gerald Aylmer 1989–1993 Michael Thompson 1993–1997 Sir Rees Davies 1997–2001 Sir P. J. Marshall 2001–2005 Dame Janet Nelson 2005–2008 Martin Daunton 2009–2012 Colin Jones 2012–2016 Peter Mandler 2016–2020 Margot Finn 2020-2024 Emma Griffin 2024-present Lucy Noakes

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