1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:07,360 In May 1913, the royalty of Europe gathered in Berlin 2 00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:10,440 for the wedding of the German Kaiser's only daughter, 3 00:00:10,440 --> 00:00:12,400 Viktoria Luise. 4 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:14,680 Kaiser Wilhelm was filmed with his cousin, 5 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:16,920 King George V of Britain. 6 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:22,960 Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, another cousin, was also a guest. 7 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:27,480 At that moment, these three close relatives 8 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:31,000 reigned over almost half of the Earth's population. 9 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:35,600 But the 19th century world of pageantry, 10 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:38,040 pomp and royal power was ending. 11 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:43,400 The modern age hovered like a spectre at the feast. 12 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,400 As the guests assembled that spring day in Berlin, 13 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:50,000 a Zeppelin flew overhead. 14 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,560 And, just over a year later, the magnificent cavalrymen 15 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:56,360 would swap their horses and feathered hats 16 00:00:56,360 --> 00:00:58,920 for the mud and blood of the trenches. 17 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:07,440 For Europe's royalty, a very personal family tragedy loomed. 18 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:11,040 A tragedy of conflict... 19 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:13,960 ..and betrayal. 20 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:21,800 Europe's three royal cousins would never meet again. 21 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:55,000 On the 27th of July 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II made a farewell speech 22 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:58,880 to German troops departing to crush the Boxer Rebellion in China. 23 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:03,600 He was so pleased with it, he later made a recording. 24 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:09,520 The rest of Europe was alarmed by his bloodcurdling rhetoric. 25 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:13,760 The perception is that here is someone who is out of control 26 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:15,960 and you don't know what he's going to do next 27 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:19,000 and he's leading a very powerful country with a powerful army. 28 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:20,720 I mean, is he bent on war? 29 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:25,080 German power means that when the Kaiser opens his mouth, 30 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:26,360 people listen hard. 31 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:31,360 He is seen as the symbol of brash, arrogant, 32 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:33,560 powerful German militarism. 33 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:39,520 The son of Queen Victoria's oldest daughter, 34 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:43,000 Wilhelm had been born with a disabled left arm. 35 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:46,080 He had grown up into an erratic, unpredictable monarch... 36 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:49,840 ..and, by 1900, was widely regarded 37 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,920 as a dangerous, destabilising force in European politics. 38 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:00,160 His emotions towards Britain and his British family 39 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:02,840 were particularly tangled. 40 00:03:02,840 --> 00:03:07,360 Wilhelm has a very ambivalent attitude towards England. 41 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:09,560 On the one hand, he hates England. 42 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:13,200 On the other hand, he longs to be recognised by England. 43 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:16,280 So it's a very conflicted attitude that he has towards England, 44 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:19,240 not just at a personal level but also at a political level. 45 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:22,320 I think this is crucial to his whole foreign policy, in fact. 46 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:28,240 At the end of the 1890s, the Kaiser took a fateful decision... 47 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:32,760 ..ordering a dramatic expansion of the German navy. 48 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:38,320 Having failed to coax the British into friendship, 49 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,480 the naval build-up was Wilhelm's way of forcing Britain 50 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:46,200 and his British relatives to show him the respect he felt he deserved. 51 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,240 Some people have described Germany at this time, 52 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:54,920 it's like a sort of adolescent that wants to swing its weight around. 53 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:58,600 In a way, Wilhelm is the adolescent who never grows up 54 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:00,720 and who is incredibly bad at seeing 55 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:03,040 the potential consequences of his actions. 56 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:07,520 And it's, "Well, if they wouldn't take notice of us this way, 57 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,160 "we're going to play hard and see how they like it." 58 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:15,440 As a policy, the naval build-up backfired disastrously. 59 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:27,120 Britain at this time was the world's greatest imperial power. 60 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:31,000 It ruled over almost a quarter of the world's land surface 61 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:35,600 and was dependent for its security on its naval supremacy. 62 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:40,800 In the 1890s, it had been disdainful of the need for friends and allies. 63 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:45,280 But now the German naval build-up 64 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:48,400 combined with a series of unexpected military set backs 65 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,520 in the Boer War in South Africa 66 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:55,320 to force a radical change of course in British foreign policy. 67 00:04:56,800 --> 00:04:59,280 It made the British do what they didn't really like to do 68 00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:01,440 and that is look for peacetime allies. 69 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:05,280 So the Germans got precisely the opposite of what they had hoped for. 70 00:05:05,280 --> 00:05:06,840 What you do when you have an enemy 71 00:05:06,840 --> 00:05:09,160 is you look for the enemies of your enemy. 72 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:15,560 In 1902, Britain signed a military alliance with Japan, 73 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,880 easing pressure on the Royal Navy in the Far East. 74 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:24,840 Then, in the spring of 1903, 75 00:05:24,840 --> 00:05:28,840 the British king, Edward VII, set off for Paris. 76 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:34,680 Edward VII is conventionally seen as a lazy king 77 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:39,800 because he's too fat and too interested in going to parties. 78 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:42,080 I think that this view is, um... 79 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:43,720 a lazy view. 80 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:45,720 In terms of foreign policy, 81 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:49,360 Edward VII is far more active than he's been given credit for. 82 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:55,360 Paris was a city where Edward, a notorious philanderer, 83 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:58,200 had spent many pleasurable hours over the years. 84 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:03,000 But he was now determined to deploy his royal charm and charisma 85 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,040 in the service of his country. 86 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:12,720 He arrived to find the French capital seething 87 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,200 with resentment over Britain's treatment of the Boers. 88 00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:18,800 There is an atmosphere you could cut with a knife 89 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,160 of hostility to the king of England. 90 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:24,560 Edward's agenda is basically to turn this around. 91 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:27,880 So he launches what you might call a charm offensive on Paris. 92 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:31,120 Over the course of two or three days, 93 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:33,760 he sort of converts the boos into cheers. 94 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:36,040 It's a great PR exercise. 95 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:41,320 Paris is completely on his side and the significance of that 96 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:45,240 is that it means that opinion in France is completely changed 97 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:48,560 and so it's possible for the politicians to get together 98 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:51,880 over the negotiating table and work out an agreement 99 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:54,080 between the two countries. 100 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:57,920 Edward's trip laid the ground for the Entente Cordiale, 101 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:01,480 signed between Britain and France the following year, 102 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:03,480 to the fury of the Kaiser. 103 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:07,640 Although short of a formal military alliance, 104 00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:11,760 the Entente ended almost 1,000 years of rivalry. 105 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:14,280 Combined with the Franco-Russian defence pact 106 00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:15,840 signed a decade earlier, 107 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:19,320 it meant it was the Germans who now felt isolated. 108 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:23,640 For Wilhelm, Edward's success was a painful lesson 109 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:26,160 in the art of diplomacy. 110 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:30,440 Edward has this savoir-faire, this charm. 111 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:31,960 And Wilhelm is the opposite. 112 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:35,440 He tries too hard. He throws himself at people. 113 00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:38,920 He's obviously manipulative. He's over-energetic. 114 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:41,120 People just don't like him. 115 00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:46,920 Wilhelm is monumentally jealous of his uncle because Edward is so good. 116 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:49,840 He is so relaxed. He is so good with people. 117 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:51,680 The King is what he wants to be. 118 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:55,120 When King and Kaiser met, 119 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:58,920 German officials were embarrassed by the contrast. 120 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:03,240 Observing them in conversation, wrote one, was like watching... 121 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,240 "A fat, malicious tomcat playing with a shrew mouse". 122 00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:14,520 The anxious Germans moved quickly 123 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:18,120 to try and drive a wedge in the new Anglo-French relationship. 124 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:21,520 In the spring of 1905, 125 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:26,200 it was decided Wilhelm would take a trip to Tangier in Morocco, 126 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:29,560 a country which was supposedly under French control, 127 00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:32,160 according to the terms of the Entente Cordiale. 128 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:35,960 So what this does is basically throw down a gauntlet. 129 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:39,000 It says to the French, "Germany is now trying to move in on Morocco, 130 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:40,600 "are you going to let them do it?" 131 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:44,320 The British are put in a position of do they support France or not? 132 00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:50,160 The Kaiser intended to declare support for Moroccan independence. 133 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:53,320 Faced with this challenge, 134 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:56,920 it was assumed Britain would fail to support the French, 135 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:00,080 revealing itself as a weak, unreliable ally. 136 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:06,040 It was a grand theatrical gesture of the type the Kaiser loved. 137 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,840 But strangely, when he arrived in Morocco, 138 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:12,880 Wilhelm suddenly got cold feet. 139 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:16,040 The great irony about the Kaiser was he talked in this warlike way 140 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:18,360 but when it came to the crunch in crisis after crisis, 141 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:20,560 he was the one who wanted to pull back. 142 00:09:20,560 --> 00:09:22,640 He was the one who said, "Let's make a deal." 143 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:29,400 William II had this characteristic of talking bombastically 144 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:31,640 and then running away. 145 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,280 On this occasion, the Kaiser's nervousness was compounded 146 00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:41,760 by a simple physical fear of riding a strange horse 147 00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:43,160 with his disabled arm. 148 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:47,520 Wilhelm is a good rider but he can only ride a horse 149 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:51,120 if it's been broken in to his very special needs. 150 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:57,400 Eventually, the Kaiser plucked up courage 151 00:09:57,400 --> 00:10:00,480 and road unsteadily through the streets of Tangier. 152 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:06,040 In photos, an aide can be seen holding nervously on to his saddle. 153 00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:13,520 But the Tangier initiative proved clumsy and counter-productive. 154 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:17,400 When the French protested, the British stood firm behind them 155 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:20,000 and it was Germany that had to back down. 156 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:25,400 The immediate reaction of his uncle, Edward VII, 157 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:28,320 is to go to France and have conversations 158 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:32,240 with all the key French diplomats to strengthen the Entente Cordiale. 159 00:10:33,560 --> 00:10:36,200 The Kaiser is left high and dry, humiliated. 160 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:38,240 He personally has made this landing. 161 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:41,560 He personally has stood up for Germany's rights. 162 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:43,520 And he gets nothing out of it. 163 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:48,240 It's a moment where Germany faces its isolation as never before. 164 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,400 King Edward regarded the Kaiser's attempt to sabotage 165 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:57,840 the Anglo-French Entente as underhand and dishonourable. 166 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:01,920 It was a turning point in their already difficult relationship. 167 00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:03,840 "I have tried to get on with him 168 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:06,880 "and shall nominally do my best till the end. 169 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:08,720 "But trust him? Never. 170 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:10,440 "He is utterly false 171 00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:13,200 "and the bitterest foe that England possesses." 172 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:18,520 The Kaiser, too, now saw Edward as his greatest enemy. 173 00:11:19,640 --> 00:11:23,880 "He is a Satan. You can hardly believe what a Satan he is." 174 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:30,520 But Wilhelm was having more luck in relations with his Russian cousin, 175 00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:32,240 Tsar Nicholas II. 176 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:43,080 By this time, Nicholas and his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, 177 00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:46,880 had been on the throne a decade and were living at the Alexander Palace, 178 00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:48,840 just outside Saint Petersburg. 179 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:56,800 By Romanov standards, it was modest. Almost humble. 180 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:02,440 The Tsarina decorated the walls 181 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:06,280 with pictures of her beloved grandmother, Queen Victoria... 182 00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:12,120 ..and, perhaps less wisely, of the French queen, Marie Antoinette... 183 00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:17,880 ..along with countless religious icons. 184 00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:24,240 Both Tsar and Tsarina were firmly committed 185 00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:27,600 to maintaining their own absolute autocratic rule... 186 00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:32,480 ..while, in foreign policy, Nicholas was starting to be drawn 187 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:36,640 to Romantic dreams of imperial expansion in the Far East. 188 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:40,920 Dreams his older cousin, the German Kaiser Wilhelm, 189 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:42,480 was keen to encourage. 190 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:48,200 "Dearest Nicky, it is the great task of the future for Russia 191 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:50,520 "to cultivate the Asian continent 192 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,880 "and to defend Europe from the inroads of the great yellow race. 193 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:58,600 "In this, you will always find me on your side, 194 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:01,200 "ready to help you as best as I can." 195 00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:03,960 "You'll be the emperor of the Pacific 196 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:05,880 "and I'll be the emperor of the Atlantic." 197 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:07,360 It's all in those terms. 198 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:09,640 Trying to persuade an emperor, 199 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:12,720 whom he clearly regards as a kind of retarded child. 200 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:14,840 The Kaiser wants to point Nicholas eastwards 201 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:17,160 because he wants Russia to leave Germany alone. 202 00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:18,680 It's as basic as that. 203 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:20,200 If Russia's busy in the East 204 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:23,920 and busy building an empire in the East, it won't be looking West. 205 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:26,880 Nicholas had little time for his German cousin 206 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,200 but, on the issue of Russian expansion in the East, 207 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:33,440 their views happened to coincide. 208 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:37,320 It was a policy that would lead Nicholas to disaster. 209 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:47,480 In 1904, war broke out between Russia and Japan, Britain's ally... 210 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:52,440 ..after the Japanese attacked Russia's Pacific fleet. 211 00:13:54,840 --> 00:14:00,120 Nicholas was able, briefly, to ride a tide of popular enthusiasm, 212 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:02,920 blessing the troops before they set off to fight. 213 00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:10,960 Although the Anglo-Japanese treaty did not oblige Britain to intervene, 214 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,200 inevitably, as the fighting intensified, 215 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:17,760 Britain's relations with Russia deteriorated sharply. 216 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:21,960 In October 1904, 217 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:25,080 Russia's Baltic fleet, en route to the Far East, 218 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:29,200 accidentally fired on British trawlers in the North Sea, 219 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:31,040 killing three fishermen. 220 00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:34,640 They fire on them because, bizarrely, 221 00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:37,480 they think it's a squadron of Japanese torpedo boats. 222 00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:40,480 To this day, nobody's ever really understood why an admiral 223 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:43,880 could think he was encountering the Japanese fleet in the North Sea. 224 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:48,280 When the trawlers got back to Hull, there was outrage 225 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:51,760 and war between Britain and Russia was narrowly averted. 226 00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:02,920 When, finally, the Russian Baltic fleet arrived in the Far East, 227 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:06,960 it was annihilated in a single afternoon by the Japanese. 228 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:14,760 Russia's land forces were also defeated. 229 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:21,080 The Russo-Japanese War was an unmitigated disaster for Russia. 230 00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:23,120 It cost huge amounts of money. 231 00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:26,200 It was a total humiliation because Russia, in the end, 232 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:28,960 was beaten by what was regarded by the rest of the world 233 00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:30,680 as a third-rate power. 234 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:38,440 The war exposed Russia's backwardness, discrediting Nicholas 235 00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:42,880 and fuelling discontent with his autocratic regime. 236 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:45,600 On January the 22nd 1905, 237 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:50,800 troops opened fire on peaceful demonstrators in Saint Petersburg, 238 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:52,840 killing hundreds. 239 00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:56,480 Events later recreated by Soviet film-makers. 240 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:02,240 The German Kaiser wrote to congratulate the Tsar. 241 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:07,120 "I am glad your soldiers showed themselves reliable 242 00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:08,760 "and true to their Emperor." 243 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:14,480 In contrast, Britain's King Edward, appalled at the slaughter, 244 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:16,520 was conspicuous by his silence. 245 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:21,200 Revolution now spread across Russia. 246 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,560 The Tsar, who had previously enjoyed good relations 247 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:30,360 with his British relatives, became increasingly hostile 248 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:34,680 and was soon referring to the British as "Zhids" or Jews, 249 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:38,560 which he, like most Russians, assumed to be an insult. 250 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:43,440 He picked up his pen to write to his German cousin. 251 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:50,200 "Dearest Willy, it is certainly high time to put a stop to this. 252 00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:54,200 "Germany, Russia and France should at once unite upon an agreement 253 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:58,200 "to abolish Anglo-Japanese arrogance and insolence. 254 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:00,520 "Would you like to lay down and frame the outlines 255 00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:02,760 "of such a Treaty and let me know it?" 256 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:07,400 Wilhelm didn't need asking twice. 257 00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:13,080 The two men agreed to meet on their yachts 258 00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:15,320 off the Finnish island of Bjorko. 259 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:20,440 This was very much a royal initiative. 260 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:25,680 Like schoolboys skipping school, as their yachts neared, 261 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:29,480 the Tsar and the Kaiser telegraphed excitedly ahead. 262 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:33,280 "At home nobody informed." 263 00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:37,160 "I'm so delighted to be able to see you." 264 00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:41,760 "All my guests under impression of going to Visby, in Gotland. 265 00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:44,200 "Their faces will be worth seeing 266 00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:46,880 "when they suddenly behold your yacht. 267 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:48,240 "A fine lark." 268 00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:54,040 The two men met for what they believed would be 269 00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:58,560 an historic encounter, on July the 24th, 1905. 270 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:08,080 Bjorko is a fantasy for Wilhelm and Nicholas 271 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:12,200 about sort of what autocratic rulers can accomplish. 272 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:14,360 Wilhelm says, "You know, this is a new day 273 00:18:14,360 --> 00:18:16,080 "for the autocratic monarchies. 274 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:20,040 "You know, it's US - it's you and me against those democratic states, 275 00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:21,960 "that's what the future holds. 276 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:24,640 "We've got to stick together against Republican France 277 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:28,080 "and evil, democratic England." 278 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:30,000 Acting on their own initiative, 279 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:35,920 the two monarchs signed a military alliance between Germany and Russia. 280 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:41,000 An event that would have transformed the European balance of power. 281 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,880 Wilhelm writes in his memoirs that, as they signed, 282 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:47,800 a ray of sunshine came through the yacht window and he looked up 283 00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:50,800 and, in heaven, you know, his and Nicholas' grandfathers 284 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:52,600 were shaking hands. 285 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:54,720 And they both go home 286 00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:57,440 and their ministers go, "What?!" 287 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:01,760 The two men had attempted to conduct diplomacy 288 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,480 as if they were medieval monarchs, 289 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:08,760 but they had revealed themselves as amateurs. 290 00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:11,720 The Bjorko summit fails because, in the end, 291 00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:16,240 Nicholas's advisers tell him the truth, which is that, 292 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:21,320 "You've got to choose - either you can have this alliance with Germany, 293 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:23,280 "without the French alliance, 294 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:26,000 "or you can stick to the Franco-Russian Alliance, 295 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,400 "at which point, you cannot sign Bjorko." 296 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:33,160 The Kaiser's ministers, too, were furious he had signed the treaty 297 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:37,360 without consulting them and refused to ratify it. 298 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:41,560 For both men, it was a lesson that, at the dawn of the 20th century, 299 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:45,520 royal power was greater in theory than in practice. 300 00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:53,800 Ironically, it was the monarch who wielded least power 301 00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:56,600 that had emerged as the master diplomat. 302 00:19:56,600 --> 00:20:00,440 King Edward VII had almost no say in British foreign policy, 303 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:02,680 but he was a superb ambassador 304 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:07,120 and, in 1907, he invited the Tsar's mother, Minnie, to Britain, 305 00:20:07,120 --> 00:20:11,320 keen to smooth the tensions inflamed by the Russo-Japanese War. 306 00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:15,640 The visit was primarily personal. 307 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:18,160 The ever-youthful Minnie, in black, 308 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:22,320 was the sister of the equally youthful British Queen Alexandra. 309 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:30,320 The tsarist regime had only narrowly survived the revolution of 1905 310 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:32,960 and, for Minnie, it was a relief to escape 311 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:36,000 the claustrophobic atmosphere of Saint Petersburg, 312 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,440 as she wrote to her son, Nicholas. 313 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:42,320 "Everyone is so very kind and friendly to me! 314 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:46,000 "I do wish you could come over here for a little to breathe the air 315 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,240 "and live for a while in different surroundings. 316 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:51,120 "How good for you that would be!" 317 00:20:56,040 --> 00:21:00,360 The two sisters, seen here on the right, were from Denmark 318 00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:03,000 and had never forgiven the Germans for the invasion 319 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,840 of their native country in 1864. 320 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:14,080 For over 40 years, they had striven to improve Anglo-Russian relations 321 00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:18,600 and their sons, Tsar Nicholas and the future King George V, 322 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,320 were close friends. 323 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:26,400 Now, finally, history was on the side of the Danish sisters. 324 00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:35,200 Just a few months later, Britain and Russia signed an historic entente, 325 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,680 resolving outstanding colonial differences 326 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,560 and, in the process, completing the encirclement of Germany. 327 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:46,680 It is very significant that, at the time of the making 328 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:49,960 of the Anglo-Russian Entente, Minnie comes to London. 329 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:53,640 I think she is really playing a key part in trying to engineer 330 00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:57,760 this entente and this, in a way, is the culmination 331 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:00,720 of all that these two sisters have been working for politically. 332 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:02,480 At last, they've got it. 333 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:10,240 Royalty had played a key role smoothing the path to friendship 334 00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:14,080 and the British government now deployed King Edward to seal the deal, 335 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:17,520 dispatching the royal couple to the Baltic port of Tallinn 336 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:20,440 for the first-ever visit to Russian territory 337 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:22,440 by a reigning British monarch. 338 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:30,520 For Russian officials, the jovial Edward provided a welcome contrast 339 00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:33,880 to the bullying, hectoring German Kaiser. 340 00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:36,800 The Russians are really impressed and they keep saying, you know, 341 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,040 "He's so much easier to deal with than the Kaiser. 342 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:41,200 "The Kaiser's a nightmare!" 343 00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:43,880 Confronted with the tricky protocol issue 344 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:48,120 of who should go into dinner first, the Tsarina or the Tsar's mother, 345 00:22:48,120 --> 00:22:50,880 Edward displayed his legendary tact. 346 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:54,880 He had the wonderful idea of saying, 347 00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:57,880 "Well, now I have the unique opportunity 348 00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:00,880 "of walking into dinner with an empress on either arm," 349 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:04,120 so he took them both into dinner and they were both happy. 350 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:08,960 Privately, Edward regarded Nicholas as... 351 00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:12,680 "Weak as water, deplorably unsophisticated, 352 00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:15,520 "immature and reactionary." 353 00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:18,960 Far more liberal politically than his nephew, 354 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:21,840 the King startled his hosts by raising the issue 355 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:25,280 of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia. 356 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:28,680 But, overall, the summit was a success. 357 00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:33,280 Tsarist Russia and parliamentary Britain were now allies. 358 00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:41,960 In Germany, the public was horrified. 359 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:49,280 Suddenly, this dreadful nightmare of Bismarck's has come true 360 00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:51,120 and Germany really is surrounded 361 00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:54,440 by the three great powers left in Europe. 362 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:56,640 People say, "What kind of regime is this? 363 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,880 "Where have we got to? When Bismarck was dismissed, 364 00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:02,560 "Germany was allied to almost every power. 365 00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,640 "Now, almost every power is allied against Germany, what's happened?" 366 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:11,080 At the new palace outside Berlin, the Kaiser found himself 367 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:16,000 and his entourage under growing pressure and intense scrutiny. 368 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:22,040 Wilhelm was now engulfed in a series of surprising scandals. 369 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,880 The Kaiser, without realising it, had gathered a circle 370 00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:27,920 of gay men around him, or bisexual men around him, 371 00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:30,680 and they were very close to him and they were very sort of... 372 00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:32,320 It was all innocent stuff. 373 00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:35,440 I mean, it was like his days in the army, where he'd been with men only 374 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:37,880 and they sort of played practical jokes on each other 375 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:40,680 and they called each other very affectionate terms. 376 00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:47,080 The oldest and closest of these gay advisers 377 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:49,480 was Count Philipp zu Eulenburg, 378 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:50,920 the bearded figure seen here 379 00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:53,720 with his hand on the shoulder of the Kaiser, 380 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:55,360 who is wearing sunglasses. 381 00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:01,680 It's unlikely the Kaiser himself was a repressed homosexual. 382 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,360 He was married twice, had seven children 383 00:25:04,360 --> 00:25:07,400 and a number of mistresses. 384 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:11,480 But Eulenburg and his circle filled a deep emotional need. 385 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:16,160 He has this feminine side to him. 386 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:22,800 He is very much interested, for example, in jewellery and in design. 387 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,760 He designs his wife's clothes, he designs uniforms. 388 00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:29,040 He's a great aesthete, he likes beautiful things, 389 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:31,040 he does flower arrangements. 390 00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:34,520 I mean, he has a feminine side and then this macho side. 391 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:38,840 I mean, I think the Kaiser probably was someone 392 00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:41,680 who was more sensitive and more artistic 393 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,320 than he could let himself appear. 394 00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:49,040 He is seen by foreigners as an embodiment 395 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:51,640 of all that is worst about a German mindset. 396 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:57,360 And the terrible irony of that is that William partly espouses 397 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:00,400 that mindset because he believes that's what he's supposed to be. 398 00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:04,200 The little boy with the poorly arm, 399 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:07,680 the little boy who is humiliated by being put in a metal cage 400 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,880 as a child to sort out the unevenness in his shoulders 401 00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:14,120 takes his revenge by becoming a caricature 402 00:26:14,120 --> 00:26:15,840 of a great Wagnerian warrior. 403 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:24,600 The Kaiser was an emotionally damaged man and he knew it, 404 00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:26,640 as he once told Eulenburg. 405 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:31,200 "Something is missing in me that others have, 406 00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:35,200 "all poetic feeling in me is dead, has been killed." 407 00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:39,040 With Eulenburg and his gay circle, 408 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:42,520 the Kaiser could drop the act and be himself. 409 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:49,320 But now Eulenburg's homosexuality was exposed in the German press... 410 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:54,000 ..Wilhelm was forced to dismiss him. 411 00:26:57,840 --> 00:26:59,600 The Kaiser was bereft 412 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:03,640 and, at the end of 1908, suffered a serious nervous breakdown. 413 00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:10,880 He just vanishes, he leaves Berlin and goes into hiding 414 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,640 and he writes a letter to one of his friends saying, you know, 415 00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:18,680 "I'm such a sensitive soul and how can they be so awful to me? 416 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:23,040 "And I feel so hurt, the public has hurt me. 417 00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:27,160 "And everybody is against me." He feels totally encircled. 418 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:28,880 Wilhelm recovered, 419 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:33,440 but he was never again as dominant a figure in German foreign policy. 420 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:40,120 In Saint Petersburg, Tsar Nicholas had also withdrawn 421 00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:42,920 somewhat from political life. 422 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,600 Humiliated by the defeat in the Far East, 423 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,320 chastened by near revolution at home, 424 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:51,760 he took refuge in his growing family. 425 00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:56,360 By now, the couple had four daughters and a son, Alexis, 426 00:27:56,360 --> 00:27:59,320 finally born to them in August 1904. 427 00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:04,960 The Tsar was essentially a family man. 428 00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:08,320 He was a Tsar because he knew that was his duty 429 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:11,160 and he performed the roles very diligently, 430 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:13,880 he accepted it was a role that he had to do, 431 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:17,560 but he found his fulfilment in private life, so did Alex. 432 00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:25,640 They were the wealthiest, most powerful royal family in Europe, 433 00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:29,960 but the Romanovs' own home movies capture their relaxed private life. 434 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:42,000 Some of the footage of the Tsar himself is startlingly revealing. 435 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:50,000 There are countless photographs, countless footage of the Tsar 436 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,200 and his children playing. 437 00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:56,240 Often quite informal, surprisingly informal, actually. 438 00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:01,240 The Tsar was willing to open up that private family life 439 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:03,160 to the photographers' lens. 440 00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:05,720 To try, I suppose, to capture something 441 00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,000 that was profoundly important to him. 442 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:13,600 The Romanovs were keen amateur photographers. 443 00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:18,160 They left behind numerous albums containing thousands of images. 444 00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:26,560 A unique, intimate portrait of a close, loving family. 445 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:31,000 Although the visits of cousin Willy from Germany appear not to have been 446 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,360 the most eagerly anticipated event of the year. 447 00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:41,080 It's often said Nicholas would have made a perfectly good king of England 448 00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:44,960 because he's a nice, relaxed family man. 449 00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:46,600 In a constitutional role, 450 00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:49,880 he would probably have fitted in very comfortably, 451 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,120 but he's not in a constitutional role, 452 00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:55,000 he's in a role where everything devolves on him. 453 00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:00,320 The Tsar considered it a holy duty 454 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:04,280 to maintain the autocratic political system of his forefathers. 455 00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,080 You have what perhaps is the worst of all possible worlds. 456 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:14,320 You have a man who's rigid in his commitment to autocracy, 457 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:18,080 but actually doesn't really have the kind of character, 458 00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:20,920 the kind of determination to carry it through. 459 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:26,520 It's as though sometimes, and this is perhaps a bit harsh on Nicholas, 460 00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:30,040 he's like a small boy trying to play the part of autocrat. 461 00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:33,440 His father played it very well, Nicholas can't do it. 462 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,520 Like the German Kaiser, the Tsar spent his life 463 00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:41,920 trying to be something he was not, 464 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,320 to play a part that did not come naturally to him. 465 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:52,880 His wife, Alexandra, was no more comfortable in the role of Tsarina. 466 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:55,040 She was not a good empress in the sense that 467 00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:57,560 she didn't enjoy parties, she didn't enjoy dancing, 468 00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:00,840 she didn't enjoy talking to members of high society. 469 00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:03,840 On the contrary, she thoroughly disliked it. 470 00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:07,640 And the more she felt herself hated and despised 471 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:12,360 and condemned in Petersburg society, the more, to make up for it, 472 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:18,000 she herself came to denounce this society as superficial, 473 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:19,680 alien to Russia. 474 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:26,600 The imperial couple had also been afflicted by tragedy. 475 00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:31,560 Their son, Alexis, heir to the throne, had haemophilia, 476 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:35,600 a potentially fatal condition that prevents the blood from clotting. 477 00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:40,760 Alexis had inherited haemophilia from his mother, 478 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:44,680 who had inherited it from her beloved grandmother, Queen Victoria. 479 00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:51,760 When well, the Tsarevich, seen here rowing, was a feisty lad. 480 00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:56,640 Here, he's third from the right, displaying the imperiousness 481 00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:58,640 his father sometimes lacked. 482 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:03,600 But often, after suffering attacks of bleeding, 483 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:06,280 he had to be carried in public by a large sailor. 484 00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:13,240 His condition was kept secret but, in time, it will lead the Tsarina, 485 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:15,400 always intensely religious, 486 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:20,640 to dependence on the notorious, debauched mystic, Rasputin, 487 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:25,040 who appeared to be the only man able to treat her son's condition. 488 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,840 It was a relationship that would have disastrous consequences 489 00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:30,440 for the Romanov dynasty. 490 00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:44,320 In May 1910, King Edward VII of Britain died at the age of 68. 491 00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:47,040 If Queen Victoria was the grandmother of Europe, 492 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:49,320 Edward was its genial uncle. 493 00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:54,600 Regarded as a philanderer and a playboy when he ascended the throne, 494 00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:59,320 he had surprised everyone with his diplomatic skills. 495 00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:01,160 And he was seen as the architect 496 00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:04,000 of Germany's encirclement by Kaiser Wilhelm, 497 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,360 seen here on the left, walking side-by-side with his cousin, 498 00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:12,240 now King George V, behind Edward's coffin. 499 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:17,840 Wilhelm, of course, typically dashes to London as quickly as he can 500 00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:21,640 and plays a very prominent part in the funeral procession. 501 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:25,800 However, I do not think that the Kaiser shed many tears 502 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:27,880 about the death of his uncle Bertie. 503 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:30,440 In fact, I think he was probably rather relieved. 504 00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:34,320 "Only the French and the Jews will miss him." 505 00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:36,800 Wilhelm was confident he could look forward 506 00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:40,240 to a better relationship with the new King. 507 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:45,160 George V and the Kaiser were first cousins, almost equal in age, 508 00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:51,360 but George V was...made no attempt to compete or try to upstage the Kaiser 509 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:56,120 and so the Kaiser had no need to sort of show off and be difficult. 510 00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:58,720 George had always lived in the shadow 511 00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:00,520 of his more flamboyant father. 512 00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:07,040 George V felt thoroughly inadequate to succeed his father. 513 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:11,520 His father was this great, majestic personality. 514 00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:14,760 George was small, puny by comparison. 515 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,320 Originally trained as a naval officer, 516 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:20,920 George's education had been limited. 517 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:25,640 Like his cousin and close friend, Tsar Nicholas, 16 years before, 518 00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:29,720 he was terrified at the prospect of ascending the throne. 519 00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:33,720 The Tsar wrote kindly to offer him consolation. 520 00:34:33,720 --> 00:34:38,320 "Dearest Georgie, just a few lines to tell you how deeply I feel 521 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,120 "for the terrible loss you and England have sustained. 522 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:46,120 "I know, alas, by experience what it costs one. 523 00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,160 "There you are with your heart bleeding and aching 524 00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:53,280 "but, at the same time, duty imposes itself." 525 00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,240 MARTIAL MUSIC PLAYS 526 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:02,360 George now reigned over the greatest Empire on earth. 527 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:06,720 And, in 1911, he became the first British monarch 528 00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:10,240 to travel to India to be crowned Emperor. 529 00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:12,160 He didn't impress the locals. 530 00:35:13,240 --> 00:35:16,440 There's this huge durbar in Delhi, 531 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,840 and George makes a sort of ceremonial entry 532 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:24,040 but, unfortunately, George, who was not very brave, 533 00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:26,000 refuses to ride an elephant 534 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,720 and insists on making his entry on a horse 535 00:35:28,720 --> 00:35:31,360 and the horse is rather a small horse. 536 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:34,240 So here is the King Emperor entering Delhi, 537 00:35:34,240 --> 00:35:36,720 but nobody can see him in the procession 538 00:35:36,720 --> 00:35:38,800 cos he's below all the elephants. 539 00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:43,240 And as he received homage from countless maharajas and princes, 540 00:35:43,240 --> 00:35:46,960 George found the crown, literally, to be a burden. 541 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,360 That night, he wrote in his diary. 542 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:53,560 "Rather tired after wearing the crown for three and a half hours. 543 00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:57,240 "It hurt my head, as it is pretty heavy." 544 00:35:57,240 --> 00:36:01,640 The German Kaiser was dismissive of Britain's new King. 545 00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:05,480 "An English country gentleman without political interests, 546 00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:07,600 "whose sketchy linguistic abilities 547 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:10,240 "will incline him towards staying at home." 548 00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:15,480 It was one of Wilhelm's more perceptive observations, 549 00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:17,160 but King George's accession 550 00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:20,320 did nothing to ease Wilhelm's own isolation. 551 00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,800 In May 1913, the Kaiser invited George to Berlin 552 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,280 for the wedding of his only daughter, Viktoria Luise. 553 00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:37,600 The wedding was held symbolically on Queen Victoria's birthday 554 00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:39,800 and would be the last great gathering 555 00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:42,000 of the old Queen's extended family. 556 00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:47,880 King George was filmed being greeted by the Kaiser. 557 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:55,800 Tsar Nicholas also attended, although both had been wary. 558 00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:59,320 "I'll go if you go," wrote the Tsar to the King. 559 00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:05,120 Wilhelm's delighted that they've all come, he puts on a big show, 560 00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:08,240 big dresses, great feasts, 561 00:37:08,240 --> 00:37:09,800 but he's also paranoid 562 00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,920 that they're all talking behind their backs about him. 563 00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:17,280 And so he won't let Nicholas and George ever be alone together, 564 00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:20,120 because he's scared they're going to sort of plot against him. 565 00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:23,240 Now, the truth about Nicholas and George is 566 00:37:23,240 --> 00:37:26,800 you couldn't find two men who less want to talk about politics. 567 00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:30,920 For the King and the Tsar, the wedding was a welcome opportunity 568 00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:35,680 to renew their friendship, as George wrote in his diary. 569 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:39,640 "I had a long and satisfactory talk with dear Nicky, 570 00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:41,560 "he was just the same as always." 571 00:37:43,240 --> 00:37:45,400 Even at his own daughter's wedding, 572 00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:47,280 it was once again the Kaiser 573 00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:49,560 who was left feeling excluded. 574 00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:55,040 There's a great paradox and irony in the fact 575 00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:57,760 that this huge event in Germany 576 00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:02,360 is a sort of enormous manifestation of the extension of this royal family 577 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:06,560 and yet, actually, the truth is that Wilhelm's never felt so isolated, 578 00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:09,440 you know, the feeling he takes away from this is that, actually, 579 00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:13,000 his two other closest cousins are ganging up on him. 580 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:16,160 He's alienated everybody else and he's just on his own. 581 00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,680 It was the last time in European history 582 00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:23,800 monarchs who mattered gathered together. 583 00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:27,400 None of the three royal cousins would ever meet again. 584 00:38:31,720 --> 00:38:33,720 Just over a year later, 585 00:38:33,720 --> 00:38:38,280 the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 586 00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:42,600 seen here on the left out hunting with his friend, Kaiser Wilhelm, 587 00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:45,400 made a trip to the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. 588 00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:54,000 There, on June the 28th 1914, 589 00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:57,920 he and his wife were assassinated by Serb nationalists. 590 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:01,600 Serbia was Russia's ally... 591 00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:06,520 ..Austria-Hungary was Germany's. 592 00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:08,720 The alliance system now threatened 593 00:39:08,720 --> 00:39:12,440 to drag the whole of Europe into war. 594 00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:15,800 As tensions mounted, telegrams flew back and forth 595 00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:18,320 between the three royal cousins. 596 00:39:19,720 --> 00:39:23,440 "I beg you, in the name of our old friendship, 597 00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:27,040 "to do what you can to stop your allies going too far." 598 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:32,360 "The peace of Europe may still be maintained by you 599 00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:35,440 "if Russia will agree to stop the military measures 600 00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:38,480 "which must threaten Germany and Austro-Hungary." 601 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:44,720 "I am most anxious not to miss any possibility of avoiding 602 00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:49,200 "the terrible calamity which at present threatens the whole world." 603 00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:56,040 King George was appalled at the thought of war, but had no power, 604 00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:57,520 while in Saint Petersburg, 605 00:39:57,520 --> 00:40:01,520 Tsar Nicholas had power, but felt he had no choice. 606 00:40:02,720 --> 00:40:06,440 The last thing in July 1914 that Nicholas II wants is war. 607 00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:09,600 The basic problem is 608 00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:14,760 how do you defend what are seen as essential Russian interests 609 00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:16,440 without risking a war? 610 00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:18,400 And the answer is there is no way to do that, 611 00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:21,520 certainly in the perception of the decision-makers. 612 00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:26,560 If Russia crumbles before the Austrian takeover of Serbia, 613 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,440 its military and geopolitical position in Europe 614 00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:32,080 will be undermined. 615 00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:35,320 No-one will believe that Russia will stand up for its own interests again. 616 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:40,840 To back down now, Nicholas felt, 617 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:44,440 would be for Russia to abdicate its status as a great power. 618 00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:52,760 In Berlin, the Kaiser's attitude, as ever, was more complex. 619 00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:57,680 I think, as is so often with the Kaiser, he's in two minds. 620 00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:01,920 I think he's afraid of war and the possible consequences, 621 00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:04,800 but he doesn't want to back down and look like a fool. 622 00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:08,320 And there's this very revealing thing he says in the summer of 1914. 623 00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:10,800 He says to a friend, "This time, I'm not going to back down. 624 00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:12,520 "This time, I'm not going to back down." 625 00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:15,120 The friend said, "Really odd to hear him repeating it. 626 00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:17,080 "It seems to me this is something he fears." 627 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,680 And, you know, he knew that a lot of his army 628 00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:21,440 were calling him William The Timid. 629 00:41:22,520 --> 00:41:27,080 The Kaiser initially encouraged the Austrians to crush the Serbs. 630 00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:31,120 Then, faced with the possibility of a war on three fronts 631 00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:34,040 against Russia, France and Britain, 632 00:41:34,040 --> 00:41:36,600 he suddenly changed course, 633 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:41,200 writing to the Austrians, telling them to accept Serbian concessions. 634 00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:46,880 "Austria has forced Serbia to make a very humiliating retreat. 635 00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:50,240 "There is no longer any reason for war. 636 00:41:50,240 --> 00:41:52,520 "I am prepared to mediate for peace." 637 00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:56,640 But the initiative from the Royal Palace was sabotaged 638 00:41:56,640 --> 00:42:00,320 by Wilhelm's generals and politicians in Berlin, 639 00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:03,880 weary of the indecisiveness of their blustering leader. 640 00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:07,400 He orders Berlin 641 00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:09,600 to transmit that message to the Austrians, 642 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,480 and they don't do so in time, and they weaken it, 643 00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:14,080 they water it down, to the point 644 00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:17,120 where the Austrians can hardly make sense of it any more. 645 00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:19,680 By the time it reaches Vienna, 646 00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:22,400 the bombardment of Belgrade has already begun. 647 00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:28,960 At this point, with Europe on the brink of general war, 648 00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:33,640 family politics intervened, creating fatal confusion. 649 00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:37,280 Kaiser Wilhelm's brother, Heinrich, happened to be in London, 650 00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:39,000 and went to talk to the King. 651 00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:44,200 On Sunday morning, Heinrich turns up at Buckingham Palace, 652 00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:46,480 sees George for five or six minutes, 653 00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:49,440 who says, "I don't really have time to talk to you 654 00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:52,160 "because I'm going to church, the service is starting." 655 00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:53,600 It's a sad moment, really. 656 00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:55,960 And Heinrich says, "Well, the question I have is, 657 00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:59,560 "what will you do if there's a war on the Continent?" 658 00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:02,200 George said, "Oh, I don't think we will come into the war. 659 00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:05,080 "You know, I can't see why we would." 660 00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:07,400 "But, you know, obviously I can't say for certain." 661 00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:11,560 Heinrich goes home and, like a lot of people around Wilhelm, 662 00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:14,560 he likes to tell Wilhelm what he wants to hear, 663 00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:18,040 and so he says, "Oh, George says they're not going to get involved," 664 00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:20,160 and Wilhelm seizes on this. 665 00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:23,200 He says, "I have the word of a king, and that's good enough for me." 666 00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:25,880 And now he's all full of strength again, thinking Britain 667 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:29,680 will stay out of the war and he can have the Continental war 668 00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:33,440 that he does want without fear of British interference. 669 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:38,880 By the time the British made clear they would stand by their allies, 670 00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:40,760 it was too late. 671 00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:45,920 Germany was already at war with Russia. 672 00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:53,560 As troops mobilised across Europe, 673 00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:57,640 the Kaiser blamed Britain's Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, 674 00:43:57,640 --> 00:43:59,640 for what he saw as a betrayal. 675 00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:04,840 "Grey makes the King a liar. Dirty bastard! 676 00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:08,280 "The encirclement of Germany has become a fact. 677 00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:10,760 "The net has closed above our heads." 678 00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:17,720 In Russia, Nicholas's bitterness was directed towards Wilhelm. 679 00:44:17,720 --> 00:44:21,600 "He was never sincere, not for a moment. 680 00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:23,800 "In the end, he was hopelessly entangled 681 00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:26,320 "in the net of his perfidity and lies." 682 00:44:28,920 --> 00:44:32,680 King George's diary entry was characteristically low-key. 683 00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:36,920 "Fairly warm, showers and windy. 684 00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:41,040 "I held a council at 10:45 to declare war with Germany. 685 00:44:41,040 --> 00:44:45,120 "It is a terrible catastrophe, but it is not our fault. 686 00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:47,080 "Please God, it may soon be over." 687 00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:52,720 Crowds surged onto the streets of Europe's capitals. 688 00:44:52,720 --> 00:44:56,160 In Berlin, the Kaiser was recorded rallying the nation. 689 00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:24,000 In Saint Petersburg, the Tsar appeared on the balcony 690 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:28,560 of the Winter Palace and was also later recorded rallying his troops. 691 00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:42,200 But this was a war none of the cousins had wanted. 692 00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:48,480 The Kaiser's blustering, erratic personality 693 00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:51,360 had done much to destabilise Europe. 694 00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:54,960 The Tsar had revealed himself an inept amateur. 695 00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:57,840 Only George can be excused all blame, 696 00:45:57,840 --> 00:45:59,560 because he didn't matter. 697 00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:04,360 But, in the end, all three cousins were tired - 698 00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:08,000 very ordinary men steamrollered by history. 699 00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:21,360 Over the next four years, more than 10 million people would die. 700 00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:28,760 Queen Victoria's extended family was ripped, brutally, apart. 701 00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:33,800 Of the 120 descendants of the old Queen alive in 1914, 702 00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:36,640 42 were living in enemy countries. 703 00:46:38,200 --> 00:46:41,960 11 would fight against Britain and her allies, 704 00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:45,800 including the Tsarina Alexandra's own German brother. 705 00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:47,200 She was distraught. 706 00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:53,040 "What a horrible war this is. What evil and suffering it means." 707 00:46:54,720 --> 00:46:58,080 Others had more mixed emotions. 708 00:46:58,080 --> 00:47:01,280 The outbreak of war happened to find the Danish sisters - 709 00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:02,920 who had never forgiven the Germans 710 00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:06,920 for the invasion of their native country half a century before - 711 00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:08,680 together in London. 712 00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:11,640 The Tsar's mother, Minnie, was blunt. 713 00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:16,280 "You cannot imagine what a satisfaction it is for me, 714 00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:18,200 "after having been obliged 715 00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:21,080 "to dissimilate my feelings for 50 years, 716 00:47:21,080 --> 00:47:25,080 "to be able to tell the whole world how I hate the Germans." 717 00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:30,560 Her sister, Alex, the widow of Edward VII, 718 00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:35,800 wrote to her son, King George, urging him to remove what she called 719 00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:39,040 "the vile Prussian banners" of his German relatives 720 00:47:39,040 --> 00:47:41,280 from the chapel at Windsor, 721 00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:44,160 where she had been married 51 years before. 722 00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:47,440 But this was a conflict 723 00:47:47,440 --> 00:47:50,240 that would break the power of monarchy for ever. 724 00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:55,560 Under the intense pressure of war, King George V, 725 00:47:55,560 --> 00:47:59,960 a figurehead even before 1914, found himself relegated 726 00:47:59,960 --> 00:48:02,560 to an entirely ceremonial role, 727 00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:05,480 visiting the troops, bolstering morale. 728 00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:11,600 The Kaiser, too, who had wielded very real power, 729 00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:15,200 found it was now wrested from him by his generals. 730 00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:21,640 "The general staff tells me nothing and never asks for my opinion. 731 00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:25,280 "If they imagine in Germany that I command the Army, 732 00:48:25,280 --> 00:48:27,240 "then they are very much mistaken. 733 00:48:27,240 --> 00:48:30,920 "I drink tea and saw wood and go for walks." 734 00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:36,360 Only the Tsar bucked this trend, 735 00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:40,120 appointing himself Supreme Commander of the Russian forces. 736 00:48:41,160 --> 00:48:42,800 It was a disastrous move. 737 00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:46,680 Nicholas was now held personally responsible 738 00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:49,200 for Russia's defeats on the battlefield. 739 00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:54,640 As the casualties mounted, discontent grew. 740 00:48:57,480 --> 00:49:01,120 The mood in the Army became sour, bitter. 741 00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:05,200 But still Nicholas refused demands for political reform, 742 00:49:05,200 --> 00:49:10,320 bolstered always by letters from his wife, the Tsarina, Alexandra. 743 00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:15,320 "We must give a strong country to Baby. 744 00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:16,720 "Be firm. 745 00:49:16,720 --> 00:49:20,800 "Russia loves to feel the whip, it's their nature. 746 00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:24,960 "How I wish I could pour my will into your veins. 747 00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:28,560 "Be Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible. 748 00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:30,160 "Crush them all under you." 749 00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:36,840 At the end of 1916, the Tsarina's favourite, Rasputin, 750 00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:41,480 viewed as the evil genius behind the regime, was brutally murdered. 751 00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:49,360 Then, in March, 1917, bread riots turned into a full-scale revolution. 752 00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:53,760 The Tsarist regime was overthrown. 753 00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:00,680 The Imperial family were made prisoners 754 00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:03,320 in their own home at the Alexander Palace. 755 00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:08,480 The question now was what to do with them. 756 00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:14,840 In London, the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, 757 00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:19,160 seen here with the King, was prepared to grant asylum. 758 00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:22,960 Kaiser Wilhelm agreed to allow his cousin safe passage. 759 00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:27,560 But then the Government received an unexpected letter 760 00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:30,040 from King George's private secretary. 761 00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:33,840 "The King has been thinking much about the government's proposal 762 00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:37,920 "that the Emperor Nicholas and his family should come to England. 763 00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:41,440 "The King has a strong personal friendship for the Emperor, 764 00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:44,920 "but His Majesty cannot help doubting whether it is advisable 765 00:50:44,920 --> 00:50:49,480 "that the imperial family should take up their residence in this country." 766 00:50:50,880 --> 00:50:54,520 Bolshevism was raising its ugly head, 767 00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:56,600 and George V saw Bolshevism 768 00:50:56,600 --> 00:51:00,760 as a universal danger to the established order. 769 00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:04,400 And he felt that this contagion 770 00:51:04,400 --> 00:51:08,280 was liable to spread across Europe. 771 00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:11,400 King George was about to change his family name 772 00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:13,360 from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor 773 00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:16,280 to distance himself from the Kaiser. 774 00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:21,800 He now feared he might be tainted by association with his Russian cousin. 775 00:51:21,800 --> 00:51:25,440 The international brotherhood of royalty was unravelling. 776 00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:29,960 When Lloyd George's government hesitated, 777 00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:33,200 a further letter was dispatched from the palace. 778 00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:36,560 "The opposition to the Emperor and Empress coming here 779 00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:39,920 "is so strong that we must be allowed to withdraw 780 00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:44,200 "from the consent previously given to the Russian government's proposal." 781 00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:49,280 The offer of asylum for the Tsar and his family was withdrawn. 782 00:51:50,600 --> 00:51:53,320 George V's refusal to accept Nicholas II 783 00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:55,400 was an act of cowardice, 784 00:51:55,400 --> 00:51:58,120 or certainly an act of political... 785 00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:01,520 ..coldness. 786 00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:05,600 But then, after all, monarchs are hereditary politicians. 787 00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:10,520 At that level, their relations with each other are not, ever, 788 00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:12,680 relations of ordinary human beings. 789 00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:15,200 These are relations of state. 790 00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:19,320 And a monarchy thinks of his dynasty. 791 00:52:19,320 --> 00:52:22,720 The supreme law, as far as royalty is concerned, 792 00:52:22,720 --> 00:52:25,600 is to survive, and that's what George did. 793 00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:34,440 At the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in Saint Petersburg. 794 00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:42,400 Shortly afterwards, the Tsar and his family were moved 795 00:52:42,400 --> 00:52:45,920 to this house in Yekaterinburg in the Russian Urals. 796 00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:51,040 On the night of July the 16th 1918, 797 00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:55,320 they were herded along with four servants into a basement room, 798 00:52:55,320 --> 00:52:58,560 where a drunken execution squad awaited them. 799 00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:04,360 The Tsar and his wife died almost immediately, 800 00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:08,760 but the daughters had sewn the family diamonds into their corsets. 801 00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:10,960 The bullets bounced off them 802 00:53:10,960 --> 00:53:13,760 and they had to be clubbed and bayoneted to death. 803 00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:19,960 The Tsarevich also survived the first volley. 804 00:53:19,960 --> 00:53:23,040 Groaning and clutching at his dead father's coat, 805 00:53:23,040 --> 00:53:27,400 he was kicked in the head, then finished off at point-blank range. 806 00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:35,480 The basement room later became a tourist attraction 807 00:53:35,480 --> 00:53:37,240 for triumphant Bolsheviks. 808 00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:44,160 In London, King George opened his trusty diary. 809 00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:48,080 "I hear from Russia that there is every probability 810 00:53:48,080 --> 00:53:50,800 "that Alicky and the four daughters and little boy 811 00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:53,320 "were murdered at the same time as Nicky. 812 00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:57,720 "It's too horrible and shows what fiends these Bolshevists are. 813 00:53:57,720 --> 00:54:03,880 "For Alicky, perhaps it was best so, "but those poor innocent children!" 814 00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:08,840 When George does learn about the death of the Romanovs, 815 00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:14,760 his reaction is basically to forget about his refusal of asylum. 816 00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:18,280 He never expressed any guilt, any sorrow, 817 00:54:18,280 --> 00:54:22,480 any admission of having let his cousin down in this way, 818 00:54:22,480 --> 00:54:27,360 and, indeed, he did his best to cover the whole thing up 819 00:54:27,360 --> 00:54:31,320 and let Lloyd George take the blame for it. 820 00:54:33,400 --> 00:54:36,200 It was not until decades after George's death 821 00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:38,560 that the truth about his role emerged. 822 00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:44,600 By the summer of 1918, 823 00:54:44,600 --> 00:54:47,760 the Kaiser, too, was entering his last days in power. 824 00:54:50,240 --> 00:54:53,880 As British, French and American troops surged forward, 825 00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:57,280 Wilhelm continued to view the vast human tragedy 826 00:54:57,280 --> 00:54:59,440 in intensely personal terms, 827 00:54:59,440 --> 00:55:02,800 suffering nightmares that his English and Russian relatives 828 00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:05,120 were marching past, mocking him. 829 00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:11,600 As defeat loomed, revolution broke out in Germany. 830 00:55:15,720 --> 00:55:18,360 Wilhelm was defiant. 831 00:55:18,360 --> 00:55:21,200 "I wouldn't dream of quitting my throne on account 832 00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:24,520 "of a few hundred Jews or a thousand workers." 833 00:55:29,720 --> 00:55:35,480 Then, on November the 9th 1918, he was confronted by his generals. 834 00:55:37,280 --> 00:55:39,640 Finally, the generals 835 00:55:39,640 --> 00:55:42,240 tell Wilhelm, "The game's up." 836 00:55:42,240 --> 00:55:47,160 And Wilhelm looks around, agitatedly, for support. 837 00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:51,160 He realises there's none and then one general writes in his diary, 838 00:55:51,160 --> 00:55:54,200 "And so we took him, like a little child, by the hand 839 00:55:54,200 --> 00:55:56,240 "and led him to Holland to exile." 840 00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:04,440 Wilhelm never returned to Germany, 841 00:56:04,440 --> 00:56:07,960 and never spoke to his cousin, King George, again. 842 00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:12,400 He would live comfortably in exile in Holland for 22 years, 843 00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:14,760 chopping wood and writing his memoirs, 844 00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:19,280 blaming others for the disaster that had befallen his country. 845 00:56:20,720 --> 00:56:22,640 "While commanded by me, 846 00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:25,960 "the brave army was achieving victories. 847 00:56:25,960 --> 00:56:28,600 "The war was lost by the people at home, 848 00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:33,120 "led by their incompetent statesmen, lied to by the Jews." 849 00:56:35,320 --> 00:56:39,640 The former Kaiser would congratulate Hitler on his early victories. 850 00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:43,760 And when finally he died in 1941, 851 00:56:43,760 --> 00:56:47,040 the Fuhrer sent a huge wreath to his funeral. 852 00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:56,800 Just one of the three royal cousins held on to his throne - 853 00:56:56,800 --> 00:57:00,040 King George, through luck and judgment. 854 00:57:01,760 --> 00:57:05,120 Over the next two decades, he and his wife, Queen Mary, 855 00:57:05,120 --> 00:57:08,320 would become the pioneers of modern monarchy, 856 00:57:08,320 --> 00:57:12,840 converting George's very mundanity into an asset. 857 00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:16,080 In 1932, he inaugurated the tradition 858 00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:18,800 of the Christmas broadcast. 859 00:57:18,800 --> 00:57:20,320 'His Majesty the King.' 860 00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:25,680 'Through one of the marvels of modern science... 861 00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:30,880 '..I am enabled this Christmas Day... 862 00:57:32,080 --> 00:57:36,440 '..to speak to all my people throughout the Empire.' 863 00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:40,360 George V's virtues as King seem to me 864 00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:44,680 that he is essentially dutiful. He recognises that 865 00:57:44,680 --> 00:57:47,640 the irony of royal position is that, 866 00:57:47,640 --> 00:57:50,000 very far from having infinite opportunity, 867 00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:52,640 you have rather limited opportunities, 868 00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:55,640 because you, in order to survive successfully in the modern world, 869 00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:58,280 must appear to do what is expected of you. 870 00:57:58,280 --> 00:58:01,720 This is helped by the fact that he's not a very imaginative man. 871 00:58:01,720 --> 00:58:03,440 I think if you are unimaginative, 872 00:58:03,440 --> 00:58:05,920 you're much less likely to rock the boat. 873 00:58:09,240 --> 00:58:13,280 George and Mary would become the first service monarchs - 874 00:58:13,280 --> 00:58:16,200 dull, diligent, dutiful 875 00:58:16,200 --> 00:58:18,600 and utterly powerless. 876 00:58:18,600 --> 00:58:22,000 This was the deal royalty had had to make to survive. 877 00:58:23,240 --> 00:58:26,200 Never again would the peace of Europe hinge 878 00:58:26,200 --> 00:58:31,120 on the eccentricities of individuals selected by the lottery of birth.