Leopold James Maxse was an English amateur tennis player and journalist and editor of the conservative British publication, National Review, between August 1893 and his death in January 1932; he was succeeded as editor by his sister, Violet Milner.
20 Facts About Leopold Maxse
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Leopold Maxse was the son of Admiral Frederick Maxse, a Radical Liberal Unionist, who bought the National Review for him in 1893.
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Leopold Maxse was educated at Harrow School and King's College, Cambridge, where he took no degree.
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Leopold Maxse was a close friend of journalist and neo-Jacobite Herbert Vivian at Cambridge, and both were frequent visitors at Oscar Browning's apartment.
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Leopold Maxse married Kitty Lushington, at St Andrew's Church, Cobham in 1890.
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Leopold Maxse was deeply involved in the Dreyfus affair and almost single-handedly via the National Review made the affair a cause celebre in the United Kingdom.
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Leopold Maxse was firmly convinced of the innocence of Captain Dreyfus, whom he described as the victim of an anti-Semitic conspiracy and was relentless in championing his cause.
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At a time of Anglo-French tensions caused by the Fashoda Incident, the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, expressed the wish that Leopold Maxse cease annoying the French government with his claims there was an anti-Semitic conspiracy to frame Dreyfus as a spy for Germany and the real spy was another French Army officer, Ferdinand Esterhazy.
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Leopold Maxse ignored Salisbury's request and continued with his Dreyfusard campaign.
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Leopold Maxse sought to win the sympathy of the readers of the National Review by publishing in English translation the letters written by Dreyfus from his prison cell on Devil's Island to his wife and vice versa.
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Leopold Maxse was a member of the Coefficients dining club of social reformers set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb, but would then go on to be one of the most prominent and influential of the tory Die-Hards.
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In 1903 Leopold Maxse became an ardent supporter of Joseph Chamberlain's Tariff Reform proposals.
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Leopold Maxse supported the Entente, demanded rearmament and a strong policy against the German Empire, which he considered to be the greatest threat to the British Empire.
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Leopold Maxse eagerly welcomed the Great War, but was critical of the government's failings.
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Leopold Maxse argued that the 1918 victory against Germany gave the Allies a fleeting opportunity to destroy German power.
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Leopold Maxse viewed the Treaty of Versailles as ineffectual towards that aim and blamed Allied politicians, Lloyd George especially, for bowing to President Wilson's pressure to make the treaty less harsh.
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Leopold Maxse believed Germany was still able to restore itself as the dominant European power.
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Leopold Maxse vehemently opposed the League of Nations: in his view the League was a "front-bench affair hurriedly adopted and recklessly advocated simply and solely to please President Wilson".
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Leopold Maxse claimed Hindenburg and Ludendorff controlled Germany from behind-the-scenes, regardless of which politician was in office, and that it was unnecessary to appease Germany to prevent her from going Bolshevik because Prussian militarism was still the dominant force.
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Leopold Maxse became an outspoken critic of British Zionism, condemning attempts to occupy Palestine.