While there were no identifiable Chinese leaders involved directly in the siege of the Legations, the Boxers and the Imperial soldiers were encouraged by Tzu Hsi (Cixi), the Empress Dowager and her cohort, Prince Tuan. Within the besieged compounds, the small band of defenders was ‘led’ by Sir Claude MacDonald, the British Minister in Peking, who assumed the duties of Commander-in-Chief during the siege. The first allied expeditionary force that set out for Peking was under the direction of Admiral Sir Edward Seymour; the subsequent relieving force was commanded by General Sir Alfred Gaselee, while Count von Waldersee assumed command of the allied occupation forces.
A Chinese portrait of the ‘Empress Mother’ Tzu Hsi, the Empress Dowager, from a plate published in Harper’s Magazine in September 1899. The Empress was an enigma to the allies for on the one hand she openly encouraged the Boxers whilst showing restraint against the besieged Legations. She was a ruthless leader of China who thought nothing of destroying anyone who stood in her way and in her final ten years of life her authority was not seriously challenged. (Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library)
While the Boxers had no clear leader, much of the blame for the siege of the Peking Legations was placed squarely at the feet of the Empress Dowager, Tzu Hsi. Her origins were simple and although born of a noble Manchu family, she was sold into slavery as a result of her family’s poverty. However, her beauty attracted the Emperor Hsien-Feng who made her one of his favourite concubines in 1850. The result of their union, Tung Chih, was named the heir to the throne. Tzu Hsi was a schemer and manipulator with a natural talent for intrigue and she was able to develop strong support in the palace. With the emperor’s death in 1861, some say by poison, Tzu Hsi assumed the role of regent until her son achieved his majority in 1874. Afflicted with poor health, the young emperor ruled for only three years before he too succumbed. Once again power shifted back to the Empress, who now acted as regent for her nephew, Kuang Hsü. Although he was to assume the position of emperor in 1889, the real power remained with the Empress, who virtually banished the young emperor from Peking. Indeed following a coup d’état in 1898, the Emperor’s powers were stripped away, and this resulted in a period of reaction which culminated in the Boxer Rebellion. While Tzu Hsi did not actually foster the anti-foreign movement, she at least turned a blind eye to its growth, and her complicity in the later phases of the rebellion is indisputable.
During the siege of the Legations, she issued a stream of edicts denouncing the foreign presence, but much of the army’s strategy was guided by Prince Tuan. With the final capitulation of Chinese forces in Peking, the Empress and her court were forced to quit the capital on 15 August 1900 and settle at Sian in Shensi Province where she was the de facto ruler of the country, finally returning to the capital on 6 January 1902. Tzu Hsi was to rule China for another six years until her death on 15 November 1908.
Born as Tsai I, Prince Tuan (Duan) inherited his rank in 1860 but spent the next thirty years in the political wilderness. However, in 1898 he emerged from isolation with other conservatives to defend the Empress Dowager, whose position was threatened. He was mainly responsible for purging the reformers, many of whom were beheaded. The Empress took kindly to his work and he became a court favourite no doubt helped by his connections to the royal family through marriage. Tuan’s own son, P’un Chun, was chosen to succeed the emperor, Kuang Hsü, who was faltering as ruler. This change in succession was viewed with considerable opposition by the foreign powers, who feared anti-foreign uprisings. There was also internal opposition to Tuan’s manipulations and Kuang Hsü managed to hold on to his power. Tuan, seeing this as a result of foreign pressure, became more xenophobic and threw in his lot with the Boxers.
By June 1900 Tuan had manoeuvred himself into a position of considerable power and influence in the court and his scheming led to a shake-up in the Tsungli Yamen, the Chinese Foreign Office, with the removal of the moderate Prince Ch’ing (Qing) and others on 10 June. Tuan himself now assumed control of this important office. It was this development which struck fear into the foreign residents in Peking and led to the organisation of defences in anticipation of anti-foreign riots. Throughout the duration of the siege Prince Tuan was the loudest critic of the foreigners, and commanded the 10,000 Boxers who assaulted the Peitang Cathedral for almost two months. Following the relief of the capital, a decree was issued naming him as one of the co-conspirators of the Boxers and removing him from office. While many no doubt urged his execution he along with his brother were banished for life to Xinjiang in the far north west of the country.
A contemporary photograph of Sir Claude MacDonald. A note in the Graphic summed up his efforts: ‘When the storm actually burst, Sir Claude, being a born soldier, showed at his best, and it may well be questioned whether the Legations would have survived but for his capable leadership. By unanimous consent he took command of the strangely assorted international assemblage of military and civilians.’ (Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library)
The son of an army officer, MacDonald was born in 1852 and like many of his class received military training at Sandhurst and subsequently joined the 74th Highlanders at the age of 20. He attained the rank of major in 1882, the same year that he saw action in the campaign against the Egyptians. Two years later he was serving in the Suakin campaign with the 42nd Highlanders and was wounded at the battle of Tamai, and although he was still in the army spent the next several years in consular and government positions in various parts of Africa where he displayed remarkable administrative and diplomatic qualities.
Following his retirement from the military in 1896, MacDonald was appointed to the position of British minister in Peking and his successes included the leases on Weihaiwei and the extension on Hong Kong, and the opening of various Chinese rivers to western trade and navigation. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1898.
His military experience made him the obvious choice to assume overall command of the defence of the Legations, and he was notably one of the few ministers in Peking to take an active part in the defence. Polly Condit Smith, one of the besieged, noted in her diary that he tried to do his duty but had difficulty giving orders to other nationals who envied his position and that of the British Legation. Nonetheless, he was able to maintain cohesion among the foreign nationals to the point where they were able to withstand various onslaughts from the Chinese until Peking was relieved in August 1900. For his efforts, he was promoted a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1901 and received the military KCB in the same year. The next four years were spent as the British consul in Toyko becoming Britain’s first ambassador to Japan in 1905. He negotiated the Anglo-Japanese naval treaty of 1905, retired in 1912 and died three years later in London.
Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, who commanded the first relief expedition. He was described as a ‘man of a singularly broad and humane outlook, with a particular capacity for appreciating the point of view of others; this contributed largely to the harmony of his relations with foreign officers serving under him’. (Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library)
Much of the credit for withstanding the fifty-five-day siege can be attributed directly to MacDonald’s tireless leadership. To create a defence force out of a ragtag body of soldiers and civilians and organise various committees to administer the day-to-day needs of the foreign community in Peking was no mean feat and MacDonald was the right man for the task. It is doubtful if the Legations would have survived but for his capable command. Someone remarked that ‘he brought the same quiet resource, diligence and wholeheartedness to the task before him’, but that he underrated the seriousness of the situation until too late; and that he failed like many others to quite ‘grasp the subtleties of Chinese character, and to foresee an impending crisis’.
The British admiral who would lead the first unsuccessful attempt to relieve the Peking Legations began his naval career as a midshipman on board HMS Terrible during the Crimean War in the Black Sea, being present at the bombardment of Odessa and Sebastopol. During the China War of 1857 he was on a launch from HMS Calcutta when the launch was sunk during the destruction of the Chinese flotilla at Fatsha Creek. Promoted sub-lieutenant in the same year, he achieved the rank of lieutenant in 1860. Seymour was severely wounded during an incident in the Congo River in 1870 when, as commander of the Growler, he rescued a British vessel from pirates. Twelve years later saw him in command of the Iris during the Egyptian revolt, and several years later he was promoted aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria. He was second-in-command of the Channel Squadron from 1892 until 1894.
Seymour was appointed to the post of commander-in-chief of the China Station in December 1897 in which capacity he was serving when he received news from Sir Claude MacDonald of the situation in Peking. The allied fleet which assembled in the Gulf of Pechihli off Taku Bar, consisting of 36 vessels from several nations, was placed under the overall command of Seymour, the senior naval commander, and it was his decision to land troops and send a relief expedition to the beleaguered city as well as to capture the Taku Forts at the mouth of the Peiho River. While the latter was successful, his expedition to relieve the Legations failed in the face of strong Chinese resistance at various places along the railway line to Peking.
The first decade of the twentieth century saw Seymour travelling to a number of foreign capitals in the company of various high-ranking British dignitaries. He retired from the navy in 1910 and died in Berkshire in 1929.
Seymour’s expeditionary force was notable in the annals of military history because it was one of the first multinational forces of the modern era. While it met with limited success, it proved that troops from different nations could fight together in spite of the language barriers and organisational difficulties. The admiral displayed gallantry and tact throughout the expedition, and Captain McCalla, senior officer of the United States contingent, remarked that during the almost continuous engagements, Seymour was ‘constantly with the advance guard, and so freely exposed himself that both his own officers and mine feared lest we should be deprived of his conspicuous skill in directing movements …’ Another colleague and friend, Flag Lieutenant Frederick A. Powlett, wrote in a letter of 27 June 1900 that ‘Edward has behaved absolutely disgracefully, exposed himself recklessly, led most of the charges and generally been most naughty. The men are awfully pleased, naturally, but it is not right, his life is too valuable.’
Brigadier-General Sir Alfred Gaselee in command of the British forces sent from India in 1900, photographed by Bassano and published in July 1900. He was 56 years old in 1900 and had seen action in many campaigns in India. Due to the delay in the arrival of Count von Waldersee, Gaselee found himself in command of the allied relief operation against Peking in August 1900. (Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library)
Born in Essex in 1844, Gaselee became a cadet at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1861, receiving a commission in the 93rd Infantry Regiment two years later. His first experience of combat took place the same year on India’s turbulent North-West Frontier. His next campaign was in Abyssinia in 1867 where he served with an Indian regiment and was present at the storming of Magdala in April 1868. Gaselee spent the next twenty years in India and Afghanistan serving in the Second Afghan War of 1878–80 where he accompanied Sir Frederick Roberts on the march from Kabul to Kandahar in 1880, with the Zhob Field Force in 1884, and commanded a brigade during the Tirah campaign of 1897–98.
When the Boxer revolt broke out in 1900 Sir Alfred was appointed to command the British expeditionary force, which was part of the allied relief force under the overall command of the German Count Alfred von Waldersee. Gaselee arrived in Tientsin on 27 July 1900 and was the senior officer then in China. Waldersee’s arrival was delayed and command of the relief force fell to Gaselee. He was decisive and firm in the face of inter-allied feuding and countless delays, and it was his column which entered Peking on 14 August 1900. For his services he was promoted major-general, becoming a full general in 1906. He returned to India following the rebellion and finished his military career there in 1909; he died in Surrey in March 1918. Gaselee was described as being ‘possessed of sound judgement … absolutely straightforward, he inspired confidence in all who served under him’.
Field Marshal Count von Waldersee was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in China in August 1900 although he did not arrive in the country until the following month. Due to the murder of von Ketteler, Germany was given the leading role in the relief expedition and supplied the commander. Unfortunately, once he arrived, he rapidly became unpopular as a result in particular of his liaison with a young Chinese girl whom he had met previously in Berlin. (Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library)
Born in 1832, von Waldersee served in the war against Austria in 1866 with the Prussian artillery, and four years later as aide-de-camp to King William in the war against France, seeing action at Gravelotte, Beamont, Metz and Sedan. Prior to the Franco-Prussian War he had been the Prussian military attaché in Paris, and when German troops arrived on the outskirts of the French capital his knowledge was of the utmost importance. During this war as one writer described it, ‘he displayed conspicuous tact in executing several delicate missions’, and following the end of hostilities he became the German Chargé d’Affaires in Paris. Later he commanded the 9th Army Corps, served as an army inspector, and succeeded von Moltke as chief of the general staff. He was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal when the Crown Prince came of age.
When the rebellion broke out in 1900 and allied forces began to concentrate off China, he was appointed to command them although he had not yet arrived in the country. In fact the first phase of the campaign – the capture of the Taku Forts and the relief of Tientsin and Peking – were all conducted without his presence. Von Waldersee did not arrive in Tientsin until 27 September 1900 and it was only from this date onward that he played a significant part in events. This consisted largely of the direction of the various punitive expeditions. With a strong desire to avenge the murder of Count von Ketteler in June 1900 as the impetus, Germany took the lead in the prosecution of these expeditions. Von Waldersee, with the blessing of Kaiser Wilhelm, carried out a vicious campaign to crush any further Boxer opposition killing many innocent Chinese in the process. On 2 February 1901 von Waldersee presided over a parade through Peking of representatives of all the allied contingents. He became a legendary figure in Chinese novels and historical fiction as a result of his liaison with a young and attractive Chinese girl whom he had met earlier in Berlin, despite being married to the American widow of Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein.