0:00:03 > 0:00:07In May 1913, the royalty of Europe gathered in Berlin
0:00:07 > 0:00:10for the wedding of the German Kaiser's only daughter,
0:00:10 > 0:00:12Viktoria Luise.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14Kaiser Wilhelm was filmed with his cousin,
0:00:14 > 0:00:16King George V of Britain.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, another cousin, was also a guest.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27At that moment, these three close relatives
0:00:27 > 0:00:31reigned over almost half of the Earth's population.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35But the 19th century world of pageantry,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38pomp and royal power was ending.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43The modern age hovered like a spectre at the feast.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47As the guests assembled that spring day in Berlin,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50a Zeppelin flew overhead.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53And, just over a year later, the magnificent cavalrymen
0:00:53 > 0:00:56would swap their horses and feathered hats
0:00:56 > 0:00:58for the mud and blood of the trenches.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07For Europe's royalty, a very personal family tragedy loomed.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11A tragedy of conflict...
0:01:12 > 0:01:13..and betrayal.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Europe's three royal cousins would never meet again.
0:01:49 > 0:01:55On the 27th of July 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II made a farewell speech
0:01:55 > 0:01:58to German troops departing to crush the Boxer Rebellion in China.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03He was so pleased with it, he later made a recording.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09The rest of Europe was alarmed by his bloodcurdling rhetoric.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13The perception is that here is someone who is out of control
0:02:13 > 0:02:15and you don't know what he's going to do next
0:02:15 > 0:02:19and he's leading a very powerful country with a powerful army.
0:02:19 > 0:02:20I mean, is he bent on war?
0:02:20 > 0:02:25German power means that when the Kaiser opens his mouth,
0:02:25 > 0:02:26people listen hard.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31He is seen as the symbol of brash, arrogant,
0:02:31 > 0:02:33powerful German militarism.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39The son of Queen Victoria's oldest daughter,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43Wilhelm had been born with a disabled left arm.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46He had grown up into an erratic, unpredictable monarch...
0:02:47 > 0:02:49..and, by 1900, was widely regarded
0:02:49 > 0:02:53as a dangerous, destabilising force in European politics.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00His emotions towards Britain and his British family
0:03:00 > 0:03:02were particularly tangled.
0:03:02 > 0:03:07Wilhelm has a very ambivalent attitude towards England.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09On the one hand, he hates England.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13On the other hand, he longs to be recognised by England.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16So it's a very conflicted attitude that he has towards England,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19not just at a personal level but also at a political level.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22I think this is crucial to his whole foreign policy, in fact.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28At the end of the 1890s, the Kaiser took a fateful decision...
0:03:29 > 0:03:32..ordering a dramatic expansion of the German navy.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Having failed to coax the British into friendship,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41the naval build-up was Wilhelm's way of forcing Britain
0:03:41 > 0:03:46and his British relatives to show him the respect he felt he deserved.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50Some people have described Germany at this time,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54it's like a sort of adolescent that wants to swing its weight around.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58In a way, Wilhelm is the adolescent who never grows up
0:03:58 > 0:04:00and who is incredibly bad at seeing
0:04:00 > 0:04:03the potential consequences of his actions.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07And it's, "Well, if they wouldn't take notice of us this way,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10"we're going to play hard and see how they like it."
0:04:11 > 0:04:15As a policy, the naval build-up backfired disastrously.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27Britain at this time was the world's greatest imperial power.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31It ruled over almost a quarter of the world's land surface
0:04:31 > 0:04:35and was dependent for its security on its naval supremacy.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40In the 1890s, it had been disdainful of the need for friends and allies.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45But now the German naval build-up
0:04:45 > 0:04:48combined with a series of unexpected military set backs
0:04:48 > 0:04:51in the Boer War in South Africa
0:04:51 > 0:04:55to force a radical change of course in British foreign policy.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59It made the British do what they didn't really like to do
0:04:59 > 0:05:01and that is look for peacetime allies.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05So the Germans got precisely the opposite of what they had hoped for.
0:05:05 > 0:05:06What you do when you have an enemy
0:05:06 > 0:05:09is you look for the enemies of your enemy.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15In 1902, Britain signed a military alliance with Japan,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18easing pressure on the Royal Navy in the Far East.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24Then, in the spring of 1903,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28the British king, Edward VII, set off for Paris.
0:05:29 > 0:05:34Edward VII is conventionally seen as a lazy king
0:05:34 > 0:05:39because he's too fat and too interested in going to parties.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42I think that this view is, um...
0:05:42 > 0:05:43a lazy view.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45In terms of foreign policy,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49Edward VII is far more active than he's been given credit for.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55Paris was a city where Edward, a notorious philanderer,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58had spent many pleasurable hours over the years.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03But he was now determined to deploy his royal charm and charisma
0:06:03 > 0:06:05in the service of his country.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12He arrived to find the French capital seething
0:06:12 > 0:06:16with resentment over Britain's treatment of the Boers.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18There is an atmosphere you could cut with a knife
0:06:18 > 0:06:21of hostility to the king of England.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24Edward's agenda is basically to turn this around.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27So he launches what you might call a charm offensive on Paris.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Over the course of two or three days,
0:06:31 > 0:06:33he sort of converts the boos into cheers.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36It's a great PR exercise.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41Paris is completely on his side and the significance of that
0:06:41 > 0:06:45is that it means that opinion in France is completely changed
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and so it's possible for the politicians to get together
0:06:48 > 0:06:51over the negotiating table and work out an agreement
0:06:51 > 0:06:54between the two countries.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Edward's trip laid the ground for the Entente Cordiale,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01signed between Britain and France the following year,
0:07:01 > 0:07:03to the fury of the Kaiser.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Although short of a formal military alliance,
0:07:07 > 0:07:11the Entente ended almost 1,000 years of rivalry.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14Combined with the Franco-Russian defence pact
0:07:14 > 0:07:15signed a decade earlier,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19it meant it was the Germans who now felt isolated.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23For Wilhelm, Edward's success was a painful lesson
0:07:23 > 0:07:26in the art of diplomacy.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30Edward has this savoir-faire, this charm.
0:07:30 > 0:07:31And Wilhelm is the opposite.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35He tries too hard. He throws himself at people.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38He's obviously manipulative. He's over-energetic.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41People just don't like him.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46Wilhelm is monumentally jealous of his uncle because Edward is so good.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49He is so relaxed. He is so good with people.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51The King is what he wants to be.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55When King and Kaiser met,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58German officials were embarrassed by the contrast.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03Observing them in conversation, wrote one, was like watching...
0:08:03 > 0:08:07"A fat, malicious tomcat playing with a shrew mouse".
0:08:12 > 0:08:14The anxious Germans moved quickly
0:08:14 > 0:08:18to try and drive a wedge in the new Anglo-French relationship.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21In the spring of 1905,
0:08:21 > 0:08:26it was decided Wilhelm would take a trip to Tangier in Morocco,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29a country which was supposedly under French control,
0:08:29 > 0:08:32according to the terms of the Entente Cordiale.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35So what this does is basically throw down a gauntlet.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39It says to the French, "Germany is now trying to move in on Morocco,
0:08:39 > 0:08:40"are you going to let them do it?"
0:08:40 > 0:08:44The British are put in a position of do they support France or not?
0:08:46 > 0:08:50The Kaiser intended to declare support for Moroccan independence.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53Faced with this challenge,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56it was assumed Britain would fail to support the French,
0:08:56 > 0:09:00revealing itself as a weak, unreliable ally.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06It was a grand theatrical gesture of the type the Kaiser loved.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08But strangely, when he arrived in Morocco,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12Wilhelm suddenly got cold feet.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16The great irony about the Kaiser was he talked in this warlike way
0:09:16 > 0:09:18but when it came to the crunch in crisis after crisis,
0:09:18 > 0:09:20he was the one who wanted to pull back.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22He was the one who said, "Let's make a deal."
0:09:24 > 0:09:29William II had this characteristic of talking bombastically
0:09:29 > 0:09:31and then running away.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37On this occasion, the Kaiser's nervousness was compounded
0:09:37 > 0:09:41by a simple physical fear of riding a strange horse
0:09:41 > 0:09:43with his disabled arm.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47Wilhelm is a good rider but he can only ride a horse
0:09:47 > 0:09:51if it's been broken in to his very special needs.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Eventually, the Kaiser plucked up courage
0:09:57 > 0:10:00and road unsteadily through the streets of Tangier.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06In photos, an aide can be seen holding nervously on to his saddle.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13But the Tangier initiative proved clumsy and counter-productive.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17When the French protested, the British stood firm behind them
0:10:17 > 0:10:20and it was Germany that had to back down.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25The immediate reaction of his uncle, Edward VII,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28is to go to France and have conversations
0:10:28 > 0:10:32with all the key French diplomats to strengthen the Entente Cordiale.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36The Kaiser is left high and dry, humiliated.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38He personally has made this landing.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41He personally has stood up for Germany's rights.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43And he gets nothing out of it.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48It's a moment where Germany faces its isolation as never before.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53King Edward regarded the Kaiser's attempt to sabotage
0:10:53 > 0:10:57the Anglo-French Entente as underhand and dishonourable.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01It was a turning point in their already difficult relationship.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03"I have tried to get on with him
0:11:03 > 0:11:06"and shall nominally do my best till the end.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08"But trust him? Never.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10"He is utterly false
0:11:10 > 0:11:13"and the bitterest foe that England possesses."
0:11:14 > 0:11:18The Kaiser, too, now saw Edward as his greatest enemy.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23"He is a Satan. You can hardly believe what a Satan he is."
0:11:25 > 0:11:30But Wilhelm was having more luck in relations with his Russian cousin,
0:11:30 > 0:11:32Tsar Nicholas II.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43By this time, Nicholas and his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46had been on the throne a decade and were living at the Alexander Palace,
0:11:46 > 0:11:48just outside Saint Petersburg.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56By Romanov standards, it was modest. Almost humble.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02The Tsarina decorated the walls
0:12:02 > 0:12:06with pictures of her beloved grandmother, Queen Victoria...
0:12:07 > 0:12:12..and, perhaps less wisely, of the French queen, Marie Antoinette...
0:12:15 > 0:12:17..along with countless religious icons.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Both Tsar and Tsarina were firmly committed
0:12:24 > 0:12:27to maintaining their own absolute autocratic rule...
0:12:29 > 0:12:32..while, in foreign policy, Nicholas was starting to be drawn
0:12:32 > 0:12:36to Romantic dreams of imperial expansion in the Far East.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40Dreams his older cousin, the German Kaiser Wilhelm,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42was keen to encourage.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48"Dearest Nicky, it is the great task of the future for Russia
0:12:48 > 0:12:50"to cultivate the Asian continent
0:12:50 > 0:12:54"and to defend Europe from the inroads of the great yellow race.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58"In this, you will always find me on your side,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01"ready to help you as best as I can."
0:13:02 > 0:13:03"You'll be the emperor of the Pacific
0:13:03 > 0:13:05"and I'll be the emperor of the Atlantic."
0:13:05 > 0:13:07It's all in those terms.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09Trying to persuade an emperor,
0:13:09 > 0:13:12whom he clearly regards as a kind of retarded child.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14The Kaiser wants to point Nicholas eastwards
0:13:14 > 0:13:17because he wants Russia to leave Germany alone.
0:13:17 > 0:13:18It's as basic as that.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20If Russia's busy in the East
0:13:20 > 0:13:23and busy building an empire in the East, it won't be looking West.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26Nicholas had little time for his German cousin
0:13:26 > 0:13:30but, on the issue of Russian expansion in the East,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33their views happened to coincide.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37It was a policy that would lead Nicholas to disaster.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47In 1904, war broke out between Russia and Japan, Britain's ally...
0:13:48 > 0:13:52..after the Japanese attacked Russia's Pacific fleet.
0:13:54 > 0:14:00Nicholas was able, briefly, to ride a tide of popular enthusiasm,
0:14:00 > 0:14:02blessing the troops before they set off to fight.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Although the Anglo-Japanese treaty did not oblige Britain to intervene,
0:14:10 > 0:14:14inevitably, as the fighting intensified,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17Britain's relations with Russia deteriorated sharply.
0:14:20 > 0:14:21In October 1904,
0:14:21 > 0:14:25Russia's Baltic fleet, en route to the Far East,
0:14:25 > 0:14:29accidentally fired on British trawlers in the North Sea,
0:14:29 > 0:14:31killing three fishermen.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34They fire on them because, bizarrely,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37they think it's a squadron of Japanese torpedo boats.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40To this day, nobody's ever really understood why an admiral
0:14:40 > 0:14:43could think he was encountering the Japanese fleet in the North Sea.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48When the trawlers got back to Hull, there was outrage
0:14:48 > 0:14:51and war between Britain and Russia was narrowly averted.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02When, finally, the Russian Baltic fleet arrived in the Far East,
0:15:02 > 0:15:06it was annihilated in a single afternoon by the Japanese.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14Russia's land forces were also defeated.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21The Russo-Japanese War was an unmitigated disaster for Russia.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23It cost huge amounts of money.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26It was a total humiliation because Russia, in the end,
0:15:26 > 0:15:28was beaten by what was regarded by the rest of the world
0:15:28 > 0:15:30as a third-rate power.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38The war exposed Russia's backwardness, discrediting Nicholas
0:15:38 > 0:15:42and fuelling discontent with his autocratic regime.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45On January the 22nd 1905,
0:15:45 > 0:15:50troops opened fire on peaceful demonstrators in Saint Petersburg,
0:15:50 > 0:15:52killing hundreds.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56Events later recreated by Soviet film-makers.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02The German Kaiser wrote to congratulate the Tsar.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07"I am glad your soldiers showed themselves reliable
0:16:07 > 0:16:08"and true to their Emperor."
0:16:10 > 0:16:14In contrast, Britain's King Edward, appalled at the slaughter,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16was conspicuous by his silence.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Revolution now spread across Russia.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26The Tsar, who had previously enjoyed good relations
0:16:26 > 0:16:30with his British relatives, became increasingly hostile
0:16:30 > 0:16:34and was soon referring to the British as "Zhids" or Jews,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38which he, like most Russians, assumed to be an insult.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43He picked up his pen to write to his German cousin.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50"Dearest Willy, it is certainly high time to put a stop to this.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54"Germany, Russia and France should at once unite upon an agreement
0:16:54 > 0:16:58"to abolish Anglo-Japanese arrogance and insolence.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00"Would you like to lay down and frame the outlines
0:17:00 > 0:17:02"of such a Treaty and let me know it?"
0:17:04 > 0:17:07Wilhelm didn't need asking twice.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13The two men agreed to meet on their yachts
0:17:13 > 0:17:15off the Finnish island of Bjorko.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20This was very much a royal initiative.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25Like schoolboys skipping school, as their yachts neared,
0:17:25 > 0:17:29the Tsar and the Kaiser telegraphed excitedly ahead.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33"At home nobody informed."
0:17:33 > 0:17:37"I'm so delighted to be able to see you."
0:17:37 > 0:17:41"All my guests under impression of going to Visby, in Gotland.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44"Their faces will be worth seeing
0:17:44 > 0:17:46"when they suddenly behold your yacht.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48"A fine lark."
0:17:51 > 0:17:54The two men met for what they believed would be
0:17:54 > 0:17:58an historic encounter, on July the 24th, 1905.
0:18:02 > 0:18:08Bjorko is a fantasy for Wilhelm and Nicholas
0:18:08 > 0:18:12about sort of what autocratic rulers can accomplish.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14Wilhelm says, "You know, this is a new day
0:18:14 > 0:18:16"for the autocratic monarchies.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20"You know, it's US - it's you and me against those democratic states,
0:18:20 > 0:18:21"that's what the future holds.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24"We've got to stick together against Republican France
0:18:24 > 0:18:28"and evil, democratic England."
0:18:28 > 0:18:30Acting on their own initiative,
0:18:30 > 0:18:35the two monarchs signed a military alliance between Germany and Russia.
0:18:35 > 0:18:41An event that would have transformed the European balance of power.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43Wilhelm writes in his memoirs that, as they signed,
0:18:43 > 0:18:47a ray of sunshine came through the yacht window and he looked up
0:18:47 > 0:18:50and, in heaven, you know, his and Nicholas' grandfathers
0:18:50 > 0:18:52were shaking hands.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54And they both go home
0:18:54 > 0:18:57and their ministers go, "What?!"
0:18:59 > 0:19:01The two men had attempted to conduct diplomacy
0:19:01 > 0:19:04as if they were medieval monarchs,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08but they had revealed themselves as amateurs.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11The Bjorko summit fails because, in the end,
0:19:11 > 0:19:16Nicholas's advisers tell him the truth, which is that,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21"You've got to choose - either you can have this alliance with Germany,
0:19:21 > 0:19:23"without the French alliance,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26"or you can stick to the Franco-Russian Alliance,
0:19:26 > 0:19:28"at which point, you cannot sign Bjorko."
0:19:29 > 0:19:33The Kaiser's ministers, too, were furious he had signed the treaty
0:19:33 > 0:19:37without consulting them and refused to ratify it.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41For both men, it was a lesson that, at the dawn of the 20th century,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45royal power was greater in theory than in practice.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53Ironically, it was the monarch who wielded least power
0:19:53 > 0:19:56that had emerged as the master diplomat.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00King Edward VII had almost no say in British foreign policy,
0:20:00 > 0:20:02but he was a superb ambassador
0:20:02 > 0:20:07and, in 1907, he invited the Tsar's mother, Minnie, to Britain,
0:20:07 > 0:20:11keen to smooth the tensions inflamed by the Russo-Japanese War.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15The visit was primarily personal.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18The ever-youthful Minnie, in black,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22was the sister of the equally youthful British Queen Alexandra.
0:20:24 > 0:20:30The tsarist regime had only narrowly survived the revolution of 1905
0:20:30 > 0:20:32and, for Minnie, it was a relief to escape
0:20:32 > 0:20:36the claustrophobic atmosphere of Saint Petersburg,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39as she wrote to her son, Nicholas.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42"Everyone is so very kind and friendly to me!
0:20:42 > 0:20:46"I do wish you could come over here for a little to breathe the air
0:20:46 > 0:20:49"and live for a while in different surroundings.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51"How good for you that would be!"
0:20:56 > 0:21:00The two sisters, seen here on the right, were from Denmark
0:21:00 > 0:21:03and had never forgiven the Germans for the invasion
0:21:03 > 0:21:05of their native country in 1864.
0:21:08 > 0:21:14For over 40 years, they had striven to improve Anglo-Russian relations
0:21:14 > 0:21:18and their sons, Tsar Nicholas and the future King George V,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21were close friends.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26Now, finally, history was on the side of the Danish sisters.
0:21:30 > 0:21:35Just a few months later, Britain and Russia signed an historic entente,
0:21:35 > 0:21:37resolving outstanding colonial differences
0:21:37 > 0:21:41and, in the process, completing the encirclement of Germany.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46It is very significant that, at the time of the making
0:21:46 > 0:21:49of the Anglo-Russian Entente, Minnie comes to London.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53I think she is really playing a key part in trying to engineer
0:21:53 > 0:21:57this entente and this, in a way, is the culmination
0:21:57 > 0:22:00of all that these two sisters have been working for politically.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02At last, they've got it.
0:22:05 > 0:22:10Royalty had played a key role smoothing the path to friendship
0:22:10 > 0:22:14and the British government now deployed King Edward to seal the deal,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17dispatching the royal couple to the Baltic port of Tallinn
0:22:17 > 0:22:20for the first-ever visit to Russian territory
0:22:20 > 0:22:22by a reigning British monarch.
0:22:25 > 0:22:30For Russian officials, the jovial Edward provided a welcome contrast
0:22:30 > 0:22:33to the bullying, hectoring German Kaiser.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36The Russians are really impressed and they keep saying, you know,
0:22:36 > 0:22:39"He's so much easier to deal with than the Kaiser.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41"The Kaiser's a nightmare!"
0:22:41 > 0:22:43Confronted with the tricky protocol issue
0:22:43 > 0:22:48of who should go into dinner first, the Tsarina or the Tsar's mother,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50Edward displayed his legendary tact.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54He had the wonderful idea of saying,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57"Well, now I have the unique opportunity
0:22:57 > 0:23:00"of walking into dinner with an empress on either arm,"
0:23:00 > 0:23:04so he took them both into dinner and they were both happy.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08Privately, Edward regarded Nicholas as...
0:23:08 > 0:23:12"Weak as water, deplorably unsophisticated,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15"immature and reactionary."
0:23:15 > 0:23:18Far more liberal politically than his nephew,
0:23:18 > 0:23:21the King startled his hosts by raising the issue
0:23:21 > 0:23:25of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28But, overall, the summit was a success.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33Tsarist Russia and parliamentary Britain were now allies.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41In Germany, the public was horrified.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Suddenly, this dreadful nightmare of Bismarck's has come true
0:23:49 > 0:23:51and Germany really is surrounded
0:23:51 > 0:23:54by the three great powers left in Europe.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56People say, "What kind of regime is this?
0:23:56 > 0:23:59"Where have we got to? When Bismarck was dismissed,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02"Germany was allied to almost every power.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05"Now, almost every power is allied against Germany, what's happened?"
0:24:07 > 0:24:11At the new palace outside Berlin, the Kaiser found himself
0:24:11 > 0:24:16and his entourage under growing pressure and intense scrutiny.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22Wilhelm was now engulfed in a series of surprising scandals.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24The Kaiser, without realising it, had gathered a circle
0:24:24 > 0:24:27of gay men around him, or bisexual men around him,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30and they were very close to him and they were very sort of...
0:24:30 > 0:24:32It was all innocent stuff.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35I mean, it was like his days in the army, where he'd been with men only
0:24:35 > 0:24:37and they sort of played practical jokes on each other
0:24:37 > 0:24:40and they called each other very affectionate terms.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47The oldest and closest of these gay advisers
0:24:47 > 0:24:49was Count Philipp zu Eulenburg,
0:24:49 > 0:24:50the bearded figure seen here
0:24:50 > 0:24:53with his hand on the shoulder of the Kaiser,
0:24:53 > 0:24:55who is wearing sunglasses.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01It's unlikely the Kaiser himself was a repressed homosexual.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04He was married twice, had seven children
0:25:04 > 0:25:07and a number of mistresses.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11But Eulenburg and his circle filled a deep emotional need.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16He has this feminine side to him.
0:25:17 > 0:25:22He is very much interested, for example, in jewellery and in design.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25He designs his wife's clothes, he designs uniforms.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29He's a great aesthete, he likes beautiful things,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31he does flower arrangements.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34I mean, he has a feminine side and then this macho side.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38I mean, I think the Kaiser probably was someone
0:25:38 > 0:25:41who was more sensitive and more artistic
0:25:41 > 0:25:44than he could let himself appear.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49He is seen by foreigners as an embodiment
0:25:49 > 0:25:51of all that is worst about a German mindset.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57And the terrible irony of that is that William partly espouses
0:25:57 > 0:26:00that mindset because he believes that's what he's supposed to be.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04The little boy with the poorly arm,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07the little boy who is humiliated by being put in a metal cage
0:26:07 > 0:26:10as a child to sort out the unevenness in his shoulders
0:26:10 > 0:26:14takes his revenge by becoming a caricature
0:26:14 > 0:26:15of a great Wagnerian warrior.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24The Kaiser was an emotionally damaged man and he knew it,
0:26:24 > 0:26:26as he once told Eulenburg.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31"Something is missing in me that others have,
0:26:31 > 0:26:35"all poetic feeling in me is dead, has been killed."
0:26:36 > 0:26:39With Eulenburg and his gay circle,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42the Kaiser could drop the act and be himself.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49But now Eulenburg's homosexuality was exposed in the German press...
0:26:51 > 0:26:54..Wilhelm was forced to dismiss him.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59The Kaiser was bereft
0:26:59 > 0:27:03and, at the end of 1908, suffered a serious nervous breakdown.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10He just vanishes, he leaves Berlin and goes into hiding
0:27:10 > 0:27:14and he writes a letter to one of his friends saying, you know,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18"I'm such a sensitive soul and how can they be so awful to me?
0:27:18 > 0:27:23"And I feel so hurt, the public has hurt me.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27"And everybody is against me." He feels totally encircled.
0:27:27 > 0:27:28Wilhelm recovered,
0:27:28 > 0:27:33but he was never again as dominant a figure in German foreign policy.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40In Saint Petersburg, Tsar Nicholas had also withdrawn
0:27:40 > 0:27:42somewhat from political life.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Humiliated by the defeat in the Far East,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48chastened by near revolution at home,
0:27:48 > 0:27:51he took refuge in his growing family.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56By now, the couple had four daughters and a son, Alexis,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59finally born to them in August 1904.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04The Tsar was essentially a family man.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08He was a Tsar because he knew that was his duty
0:28:08 > 0:28:11and he performed the roles very diligently,
0:28:11 > 0:28:13he accepted it was a role that he had to do,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17but he found his fulfilment in private life, so did Alex.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25They were the wealthiest, most powerful royal family in Europe,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29but the Romanovs' own home movies capture their relaxed private life.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Some of the footage of the Tsar himself is startlingly revealing.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50There are countless photographs, countless footage of the Tsar
0:28:50 > 0:28:53and his children playing.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Often quite informal, surprisingly informal, actually.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01The Tsar was willing to open up that private family life
0:29:01 > 0:29:03to the photographers' lens.
0:29:03 > 0:29:05To try, I suppose, to capture something
0:29:05 > 0:29:08that was profoundly important to him.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13The Romanovs were keen amateur photographers.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18They left behind numerous albums containing thousands of images.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26A unique, intimate portrait of a close, loving family.
0:29:26 > 0:29:31Although the visits of cousin Willy from Germany appear not to have been
0:29:31 > 0:29:34the most eagerly anticipated event of the year.
0:29:36 > 0:29:41It's often said Nicholas would have made a perfectly good king of England
0:29:41 > 0:29:44because he's a nice, relaxed family man.
0:29:44 > 0:29:46In a constitutional role,
0:29:46 > 0:29:49he would probably have fitted in very comfortably,
0:29:49 > 0:29:52but he's not in a constitutional role,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55he's in a role where everything devolves on him.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00The Tsar considered it a holy duty
0:30:00 > 0:30:04to maintain the autocratic political system of his forefathers.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10You have what perhaps is the worst of all possible worlds.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14You have a man who's rigid in his commitment to autocracy,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18but actually doesn't really have the kind of character,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20the kind of determination to carry it through.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26It's as though sometimes, and this is perhaps a bit harsh on Nicholas,
0:30:26 > 0:30:30he's like a small boy trying to play the part of autocrat.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33His father played it very well, Nicholas can't do it.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39Like the German Kaiser, the Tsar spent his life
0:30:39 > 0:30:41trying to be something he was not,
0:30:41 > 0:30:45to play a part that did not come naturally to him.
0:30:47 > 0:30:52His wife, Alexandra, was no more comfortable in the role of Tsarina.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55She was not a good empress in the sense that
0:30:55 > 0:30:57she didn't enjoy parties, she didn't enjoy dancing,
0:30:57 > 0:31:00she didn't enjoy talking to members of high society.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03On the contrary, she thoroughly disliked it.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07And the more she felt herself hated and despised
0:31:07 > 0:31:12and condemned in Petersburg society, the more, to make up for it,
0:31:12 > 0:31:18she herself came to denounce this society as superficial,
0:31:18 > 0:31:19alien to Russia.
0:31:21 > 0:31:26The imperial couple had also been afflicted by tragedy.
0:31:26 > 0:31:31Their son, Alexis, heir to the throne, had haemophilia,
0:31:31 > 0:31:35a potentially fatal condition that prevents the blood from clotting.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Alexis had inherited haemophilia from his mother,
0:31:40 > 0:31:44who had inherited it from her beloved grandmother, Queen Victoria.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51When well, the Tsarevich, seen here rowing, was a feisty lad.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56Here, he's third from the right, displaying the imperiousness
0:31:56 > 0:31:58his father sometimes lacked.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03But often, after suffering attacks of bleeding,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06he had to be carried in public by a large sailor.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13His condition was kept secret but, in time, it will lead the Tsarina,
0:32:13 > 0:32:15always intensely religious,
0:32:15 > 0:32:20to dependence on the notorious, debauched mystic, Rasputin,
0:32:20 > 0:32:25who appeared to be the only man able to treat her son's condition.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28It was a relationship that would have disastrous consequences
0:32:28 > 0:32:30for the Romanov dynasty.
0:32:37 > 0:32:44In May 1910, King Edward VII of Britain died at the age of 68.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47If Queen Victoria was the grandmother of Europe,
0:32:47 > 0:32:49Edward was its genial uncle.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54Regarded as a philanderer and a playboy when he ascended the throne,
0:32:54 > 0:32:59he had surprised everyone with his diplomatic skills.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01And he was seen as the architect
0:33:01 > 0:33:04of Germany's encirclement by Kaiser Wilhelm,
0:33:04 > 0:33:08seen here on the left, walking side-by-side with his cousin,
0:33:08 > 0:33:12now King George V, behind Edward's coffin.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17Wilhelm, of course, typically dashes to London as quickly as he can
0:33:17 > 0:33:21and plays a very prominent part in the funeral procession.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25However, I do not think that the Kaiser shed many tears
0:33:25 > 0:33:27about the death of his uncle Bertie.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30In fact, I think he was probably rather relieved.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34"Only the French and the Jews will miss him."
0:33:34 > 0:33:36Wilhelm was confident he could look forward
0:33:36 > 0:33:40to a better relationship with the new King.
0:33:40 > 0:33:45George V and the Kaiser were first cousins, almost equal in age,
0:33:45 > 0:33:51but George V was...made no attempt to compete or try to upstage the Kaiser
0:33:51 > 0:33:56and so the Kaiser had no need to sort of show off and be difficult.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58George had always lived in the shadow
0:33:58 > 0:34:00of his more flamboyant father.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07George V felt thoroughly inadequate to succeed his father.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11His father was this great, majestic personality.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14George was small, puny by comparison.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18Originally trained as a naval officer,
0:34:18 > 0:34:20George's education had been limited.
0:34:20 > 0:34:25Like his cousin and close friend, Tsar Nicholas, 16 years before,
0:34:25 > 0:34:29he was terrified at the prospect of ascending the throne.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33The Tsar wrote kindly to offer him consolation.
0:34:33 > 0:34:38"Dearest Georgie, just a few lines to tell you how deeply I feel
0:34:38 > 0:34:42"for the terrible loss you and England have sustained.
0:34:42 > 0:34:46"I know, alas, by experience what it costs one.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49"There you are with your heart bleeding and aching
0:34:49 > 0:34:53"but, at the same time, duty imposes itself."
0:34:53 > 0:34:56MARTIAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:34:58 > 0:35:02George now reigned over the greatest Empire on earth.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06And, in 1911, he became the first British monarch
0:35:06 > 0:35:10to travel to India to be crowned Emperor.
0:35:10 > 0:35:12He didn't impress the locals.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16There's this huge durbar in Delhi,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19and George makes a sort of ceremonial entry
0:35:19 > 0:35:24but, unfortunately, George, who was not very brave,
0:35:24 > 0:35:26refuses to ride an elephant
0:35:26 > 0:35:28and insists on making his entry on a horse
0:35:28 > 0:35:31and the horse is rather a small horse.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34So here is the King Emperor entering Delhi,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36but nobody can see him in the procession
0:35:36 > 0:35:38cos he's below all the elephants.
0:35:38 > 0:35:43And as he received homage from countless maharajas and princes,
0:35:43 > 0:35:46George found the crown, literally, to be a burden.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49That night, he wrote in his diary.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53"Rather tired after wearing the crown for three and a half hours.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57"It hurt my head, as it is pretty heavy."
0:35:57 > 0:36:01The German Kaiser was dismissive of Britain's new King.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05"An English country gentleman without political interests,
0:36:05 > 0:36:07"whose sketchy linguistic abilities
0:36:07 > 0:36:10"will incline him towards staying at home."
0:36:11 > 0:36:15It was one of Wilhelm's more perceptive observations,
0:36:15 > 0:36:17but King George's accession
0:36:17 > 0:36:20did nothing to ease Wilhelm's own isolation.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29In May 1913, the Kaiser invited George to Berlin
0:36:29 > 0:36:33for the wedding of his only daughter, Viktoria Luise.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37The wedding was held symbolically on Queen Victoria's birthday
0:36:37 > 0:36:39and would be the last great gathering
0:36:39 > 0:36:42of the old Queen's extended family.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47King George was filmed being greeted by the Kaiser.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55Tsar Nicholas also attended, although both had been wary.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59"I'll go if you go," wrote the Tsar to the King.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05Wilhelm's delighted that they've all come, he puts on a big show,
0:37:05 > 0:37:08big dresses, great feasts,
0:37:08 > 0:37:09but he's also paranoid
0:37:09 > 0:37:12that they're all talking behind their backs about him.
0:37:12 > 0:37:17And so he won't let Nicholas and George ever be alone together,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20because he's scared they're going to sort of plot against him.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23Now, the truth about Nicholas and George is
0:37:23 > 0:37:26you couldn't find two men who less want to talk about politics.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30For the King and the Tsar, the wedding was a welcome opportunity
0:37:30 > 0:37:35to renew their friendship, as George wrote in his diary.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39"I had a long and satisfactory talk with dear Nicky,
0:37:39 > 0:37:41"he was just the same as always."
0:37:43 > 0:37:45Even at his own daughter's wedding,
0:37:45 > 0:37:47it was once again the Kaiser
0:37:47 > 0:37:49who was left feeling excluded.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55There's a great paradox and irony in the fact
0:37:55 > 0:37:57that this huge event in Germany
0:37:57 > 0:38:02is a sort of enormous manifestation of the extension of this royal family
0:38:02 > 0:38:06and yet, actually, the truth is that Wilhelm's never felt so isolated,
0:38:06 > 0:38:09you know, the feeling he takes away from this is that, actually,
0:38:09 > 0:38:13his two other closest cousins are ganging up on him.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16He's alienated everybody else and he's just on his own.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20It was the last time in European history
0:38:20 > 0:38:23monarchs who mattered gathered together.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27None of the three royal cousins would ever meet again.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33Just over a year later,
0:38:33 > 0:38:38the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
0:38:38 > 0:38:42seen here on the left out hunting with his friend, Kaiser Wilhelm,
0:38:42 > 0:38:45made a trip to the Bosnian city of Sarajevo.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54There, on June the 28th 1914,
0:38:54 > 0:38:57he and his wife were assassinated by Serb nationalists.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01Serbia was Russia's ally...
0:39:03 > 0:39:06..Austria-Hungary was Germany's.
0:39:06 > 0:39:08The alliance system now threatened
0:39:08 > 0:39:12to drag the whole of Europe into war.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15As tensions mounted, telegrams flew back and forth
0:39:15 > 0:39:18between the three royal cousins.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23"I beg you, in the name of our old friendship,
0:39:23 > 0:39:27"to do what you can to stop your allies going too far."
0:39:29 > 0:39:32"The peace of Europe may still be maintained by you
0:39:32 > 0:39:35"if Russia will agree to stop the military measures
0:39:35 > 0:39:38"which must threaten Germany and Austro-Hungary."
0:39:41 > 0:39:44"I am most anxious not to miss any possibility of avoiding
0:39:44 > 0:39:49"the terrible calamity which at present threatens the whole world."
0:39:51 > 0:39:56King George was appalled at the thought of war, but had no power,
0:39:56 > 0:39:57while in Saint Petersburg,
0:39:57 > 0:40:01Tsar Nicholas had power, but felt he had no choice.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06The last thing in July 1914 that Nicholas II wants is war.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09The basic problem is
0:40:09 > 0:40:14how do you defend what are seen as essential Russian interests
0:40:14 > 0:40:16without risking a war?
0:40:16 > 0:40:18And the answer is there is no way to do that,
0:40:18 > 0:40:21certainly in the perception of the decision-makers.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26If Russia crumbles before the Austrian takeover of Serbia,
0:40:26 > 0:40:30its military and geopolitical position in Europe
0:40:30 > 0:40:32will be undermined.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35No-one will believe that Russia will stand up for its own interests again.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40To back down now, Nicholas felt,
0:40:40 > 0:40:44would be for Russia to abdicate its status as a great power.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52In Berlin, the Kaiser's attitude, as ever, was more complex.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57I think, as is so often with the Kaiser, he's in two minds.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01I think he's afraid of war and the possible consequences,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04but he doesn't want to back down and look like a fool.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08And there's this very revealing thing he says in the summer of 1914.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10He says to a friend, "This time, I'm not going to back down.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12"This time, I'm not going to back down."
0:41:12 > 0:41:15The friend said, "Really odd to hear him repeating it.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17"It seems to me this is something he fears."
0:41:17 > 0:41:19And, you know, he knew that a lot of his army
0:41:19 > 0:41:21were calling him William The Timid.
0:41:22 > 0:41:27The Kaiser initially encouraged the Austrians to crush the Serbs.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31Then, faced with the possibility of a war on three fronts
0:41:31 > 0:41:34against Russia, France and Britain,
0:41:34 > 0:41:36he suddenly changed course,
0:41:36 > 0:41:41writing to the Austrians, telling them to accept Serbian concessions.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46"Austria has forced Serbia to make a very humiliating retreat.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50"There is no longer any reason for war.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52"I am prepared to mediate for peace."
0:41:53 > 0:41:56But the initiative from the Royal Palace was sabotaged
0:41:56 > 0:42:00by Wilhelm's generals and politicians in Berlin,
0:42:00 > 0:42:03weary of the indecisiveness of their blustering leader.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07He orders Berlin
0:42:07 > 0:42:09to transmit that message to the Austrians,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12and they don't do so in time, and they weaken it,
0:42:12 > 0:42:14they water it down, to the point
0:42:14 > 0:42:17where the Austrians can hardly make sense of it any more.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19By the time it reaches Vienna,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22the bombardment of Belgrade has already begun.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28At this point, with Europe on the brink of general war,
0:42:28 > 0:42:33family politics intervened, creating fatal confusion.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37Kaiser Wilhelm's brother, Heinrich, happened to be in London,
0:42:37 > 0:42:39and went to talk to the King.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44On Sunday morning, Heinrich turns up at Buckingham Palace,
0:42:44 > 0:42:46sees George for five or six minutes,
0:42:46 > 0:42:49who says, "I don't really have time to talk to you
0:42:49 > 0:42:52"because I'm going to church, the service is starting."
0:42:52 > 0:42:53It's a sad moment, really.
0:42:53 > 0:42:55And Heinrich says, "Well, the question I have is,
0:42:55 > 0:42:59"what will you do if there's a war on the Continent?"
0:42:59 > 0:43:02George said, "Oh, I don't think we will come into the war.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05"You know, I can't see why we would."
0:43:05 > 0:43:07"But, you know, obviously I can't say for certain."
0:43:07 > 0:43:11Heinrich goes home and, like a lot of people around Wilhelm,
0:43:11 > 0:43:14he likes to tell Wilhelm what he wants to hear,
0:43:14 > 0:43:18and so he says, "Oh, George says they're not going to get involved,"
0:43:18 > 0:43:20and Wilhelm seizes on this.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23He says, "I have the word of a king, and that's good enough for me."
0:43:23 > 0:43:25And now he's all full of strength again, thinking Britain
0:43:25 > 0:43:29will stay out of the war and he can have the Continental war
0:43:29 > 0:43:33that he does want without fear of British interference.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38By the time the British made clear they would stand by their allies,
0:43:38 > 0:43:40it was too late.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45Germany was already at war with Russia.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53As troops mobilised across Europe,
0:43:53 > 0:43:57the Kaiser blamed Britain's Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey,
0:43:57 > 0:43:59for what he saw as a betrayal.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04"Grey makes the King a liar. Dirty bastard!
0:44:04 > 0:44:08"The encirclement of Germany has become a fact.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10"The net has closed above our heads."
0:44:12 > 0:44:17In Russia, Nicholas's bitterness was directed towards Wilhelm.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21"He was never sincere, not for a moment.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23"In the end, he was hopelessly entangled
0:44:23 > 0:44:26"in the net of his perfidity and lies."
0:44:28 > 0:44:32King George's diary entry was characteristically low-key.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36"Fairly warm, showers and windy.
0:44:36 > 0:44:41"I held a council at 10:45 to declare war with Germany.
0:44:41 > 0:44:45"It is a terrible catastrophe, but it is not our fault.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47"Please God, it may soon be over."
0:44:48 > 0:44:52Crowds surged onto the streets of Europe's capitals.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56In Berlin, the Kaiser was recorded rallying the nation.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24In Saint Petersburg, the Tsar appeared on the balcony
0:45:24 > 0:45:28of the Winter Palace and was also later recorded rallying his troops.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42But this was a war none of the cousins had wanted.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48The Kaiser's blustering, erratic personality
0:45:48 > 0:45:51had done much to destabilise Europe.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54The Tsar had revealed himself an inept amateur.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57Only George can be excused all blame,
0:45:57 > 0:45:59because he didn't matter.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04But, in the end, all three cousins were tired -
0:46:04 > 0:46:08very ordinary men steamrollered by history.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21Over the next four years, more than 10 million people would die.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28Queen Victoria's extended family was ripped, brutally, apart.
0:46:28 > 0:46:33Of the 120 descendants of the old Queen alive in 1914,
0:46:33 > 0:46:3642 were living in enemy countries.
0:46:38 > 0:46:4111 would fight against Britain and her allies,
0:46:41 > 0:46:45including the Tsarina Alexandra's own German brother.
0:46:45 > 0:46:47She was distraught.
0:46:48 > 0:46:53"What a horrible war this is. What evil and suffering it means."
0:46:54 > 0:46:58Others had more mixed emotions.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01The outbreak of war happened to find the Danish sisters -
0:47:01 > 0:47:02who had never forgiven the Germans
0:47:02 > 0:47:06for the invasion of their native country half a century before -
0:47:06 > 0:47:08together in London.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11The Tsar's mother, Minnie, was blunt.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16"You cannot imagine what a satisfaction it is for me,
0:47:16 > 0:47:18"after having been obliged
0:47:18 > 0:47:21"to dissimilate my feelings for 50 years,
0:47:21 > 0:47:25"to be able to tell the whole world how I hate the Germans."
0:47:26 > 0:47:30Her sister, Alex, the widow of Edward VII,
0:47:30 > 0:47:35wrote to her son, King George, urging him to remove what she called
0:47:35 > 0:47:39"the vile Prussian banners" of his German relatives
0:47:39 > 0:47:41from the chapel at Windsor,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44where she had been married 51 years before.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47But this was a conflict
0:47:47 > 0:47:50that would break the power of monarchy for ever.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55Under the intense pressure of war, King George V,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59a figurehead even before 1914, found himself relegated
0:47:59 > 0:48:02to an entirely ceremonial role,
0:48:02 > 0:48:05visiting the troops, bolstering morale.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11The Kaiser, too, who had wielded very real power,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15found it was now wrested from him by his generals.
0:48:16 > 0:48:21"The general staff tells me nothing and never asks for my opinion.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25"If they imagine in Germany that I command the Army,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27"then they are very much mistaken.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30"I drink tea and saw wood and go for walks."
0:48:33 > 0:48:36Only the Tsar bucked this trend,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40appointing himself Supreme Commander of the Russian forces.
0:48:41 > 0:48:42It was a disastrous move.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46Nicholas was now held personally responsible
0:48:46 > 0:48:49for Russia's defeats on the battlefield.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54As the casualties mounted, discontent grew.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01The mood in the Army became sour, bitter.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05But still Nicholas refused demands for political reform,
0:49:05 > 0:49:10bolstered always by letters from his wife, the Tsarina, Alexandra.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15"We must give a strong country to Baby.
0:49:15 > 0:49:16"Be firm.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20"Russia loves to feel the whip, it's their nature.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24"How I wish I could pour my will into your veins.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28"Be Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30"Crush them all under you."
0:49:32 > 0:49:36At the end of 1916, the Tsarina's favourite, Rasputin,
0:49:36 > 0:49:41viewed as the evil genius behind the regime, was brutally murdered.
0:49:43 > 0:49:49Then, in March, 1917, bread riots turned into a full-scale revolution.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53The Tsarist regime was overthrown.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00The Imperial family were made prisoners
0:50:00 > 0:50:03in their own home at the Alexander Palace.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08The question now was what to do with them.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14In London, the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George,
0:50:14 > 0:50:19seen here with the King, was prepared to grant asylum.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22Kaiser Wilhelm agreed to allow his cousin safe passage.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27But then the Government received an unexpected letter
0:50:27 > 0:50:30from King George's private secretary.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33"The King has been thinking much about the government's proposal
0:50:33 > 0:50:37"that the Emperor Nicholas and his family should come to England.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41"The King has a strong personal friendship for the Emperor,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44"but His Majesty cannot help doubting whether it is advisable
0:50:44 > 0:50:49"that the imperial family should take up their residence in this country."
0:50:50 > 0:50:54Bolshevism was raising its ugly head,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56and George V saw Bolshevism
0:50:56 > 0:51:00as a universal danger to the established order.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04And he felt that this contagion
0:51:04 > 0:51:08was liable to spread across Europe.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11King George was about to change his family name
0:51:11 > 0:51:13from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor
0:51:13 > 0:51:16to distance himself from the Kaiser.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21He now feared he might be tainted by association with his Russian cousin.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25The international brotherhood of royalty was unravelling.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29When Lloyd George's government hesitated,
0:51:29 > 0:51:33a further letter was dispatched from the palace.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36"The opposition to the Emperor and Empress coming here
0:51:36 > 0:51:39"is so strong that we must be allowed to withdraw
0:51:39 > 0:51:44"from the consent previously given to the Russian government's proposal."
0:51:45 > 0:51:49The offer of asylum for the Tsar and his family was withdrawn.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53George V's refusal to accept Nicholas II
0:51:53 > 0:51:55was an act of cowardice,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58or certainly an act of political...
0:51:59 > 0:52:01..coldness.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05But then, after all, monarchs are hereditary politicians.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10At that level, their relations with each other are not, ever,
0:52:10 > 0:52:12relations of ordinary human beings.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15These are relations of state.
0:52:15 > 0:52:19And a monarchy thinks of his dynasty.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22The supreme law, as far as royalty is concerned,
0:52:22 > 0:52:25is to survive, and that's what George did.
0:52:29 > 0:52:34At the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in Saint Petersburg.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42Shortly afterwards, the Tsar and his family were moved
0:52:42 > 0:52:45to this house in Yekaterinburg in the Russian Urals.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51On the night of July the 16th 1918,
0:52:51 > 0:52:55they were herded along with four servants into a basement room,
0:52:55 > 0:52:58where a drunken execution squad awaited them.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04The Tsar and his wife died almost immediately,
0:53:04 > 0:53:08but the daughters had sewn the family diamonds into their corsets.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10The bullets bounced off them
0:53:10 > 0:53:13and they had to be clubbed and bayoneted to death.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19The Tsarevich also survived the first volley.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23Groaning and clutching at his dead father's coat,
0:53:23 > 0:53:27he was kicked in the head, then finished off at point-blank range.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35The basement room later became a tourist attraction
0:53:35 > 0:53:37for triumphant Bolsheviks.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44In London, King George opened his trusty diary.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48"I hear from Russia that there is every probability
0:53:48 > 0:53:50"that Alicky and the four daughters and little boy
0:53:50 > 0:53:53"were murdered at the same time as Nicky.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57"It's too horrible and shows what fiends these Bolshevists are.
0:53:57 > 0:54:03"For Alicky, perhaps it was best so, "but those poor innocent children!"
0:54:03 > 0:54:08When George does learn about the death of the Romanovs,
0:54:08 > 0:54:14his reaction is basically to forget about his refusal of asylum.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18He never expressed any guilt, any sorrow,
0:54:18 > 0:54:22any admission of having let his cousin down in this way,
0:54:22 > 0:54:27and, indeed, he did his best to cover the whole thing up
0:54:27 > 0:54:31and let Lloyd George take the blame for it.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36It was not until decades after George's death
0:54:36 > 0:54:38that the truth about his role emerged.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44By the summer of 1918,
0:54:44 > 0:54:47the Kaiser, too, was entering his last days in power.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53As British, French and American troops surged forward,
0:54:53 > 0:54:57Wilhelm continued to view the vast human tragedy
0:54:57 > 0:54:59in intensely personal terms,
0:54:59 > 0:55:02suffering nightmares that his English and Russian relatives
0:55:02 > 0:55:05were marching past, mocking him.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11As defeat loomed, revolution broke out in Germany.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18Wilhelm was defiant.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21"I wouldn't dream of quitting my throne on account
0:55:21 > 0:55:24"of a few hundred Jews or a thousand workers."
0:55:29 > 0:55:35Then, on November the 9th 1918, he was confronted by his generals.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39Finally, the generals
0:55:39 > 0:55:42tell Wilhelm, "The game's up."
0:55:42 > 0:55:47And Wilhelm looks around, agitatedly, for support.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51He realises there's none and then one general writes in his diary,
0:55:51 > 0:55:54"And so we took him, like a little child, by the hand
0:55:54 > 0:55:56"and led him to Holland to exile."
0:56:01 > 0:56:04Wilhelm never returned to Germany,
0:56:04 > 0:56:07and never spoke to his cousin, King George, again.
0:56:07 > 0:56:12He would live comfortably in exile in Holland for 22 years,
0:56:12 > 0:56:14chopping wood and writing his memoirs,
0:56:14 > 0:56:19blaming others for the disaster that had befallen his country.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22"While commanded by me,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25"the brave army was achieving victories.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28"The war was lost by the people at home,
0:56:28 > 0:56:33"led by their incompetent statesmen, lied to by the Jews."
0:56:35 > 0:56:39The former Kaiser would congratulate Hitler on his early victories.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43And when finally he died in 1941,
0:56:43 > 0:56:47the Fuhrer sent a huge wreath to his funeral.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56Just one of the three royal cousins held on to his throne -
0:56:56 > 0:57:00King George, through luck and judgment.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05Over the next two decades, he and his wife, Queen Mary,
0:57:05 > 0:57:08would become the pioneers of modern monarchy,
0:57:08 > 0:57:12converting George's very mundanity into an asset.
0:57:12 > 0:57:16In 1932, he inaugurated the tradition
0:57:16 > 0:57:18of the Christmas broadcast.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20'His Majesty the King.'
0:57:21 > 0:57:25'Through one of the marvels of modern science...
0:57:27 > 0:57:30'..I am enabled this Christmas Day...
0:57:32 > 0:57:36'..to speak to all my people throughout the Empire.'
0:57:37 > 0:57:40George V's virtues as King seem to me
0:57:40 > 0:57:44that he is essentially dutiful. He recognises that
0:57:44 > 0:57:47the irony of royal position is that,
0:57:47 > 0:57:50very far from having infinite opportunity,
0:57:50 > 0:57:52you have rather limited opportunities,
0:57:52 > 0:57:55because you, in order to survive successfully in the modern world,
0:57:55 > 0:57:58must appear to do what is expected of you.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01This is helped by the fact that he's not a very imaginative man.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03I think if you are unimaginative,
0:58:03 > 0:58:05you're much less likely to rock the boat.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13George and Mary would become the first service monarchs -
0:58:13 > 0:58:16dull, diligent, dutiful
0:58:16 > 0:58:18and utterly powerless.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22This was the deal royalty had had to make to survive.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26Never again would the peace of Europe hinge
0:58:26 > 0:58:31on the eccentricities of individuals selected by the lottery of birth.