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King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War
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Product Description
Known among their families as Georgie, Willy, and Nicky, they were, respectively, the royal cousins George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Nicholas II of Russia--the first two grandsons of Queen Victoria, the latter her grandson by marriage. In 1914, on the eve of world war, they controlled the destiny of Europe and the fates of millions of their subjects. The outcome and their personal endings are well known--Nicky shot with his family by the Bolsheviks, Willy in exile in Holland, Georgie still atop his throne. Largely untold, however, is the family saga that played such a pivotal role in bringing the world to the precipice.
Drawing widely on previously unpublished royal letters and diaries, made public for the first time by Queen Elizabeth II, Catrine Clay chronicles the riveting half century of the royals' overlapping lives, and their slow, inexorable march into conflict. They met frequently from childhood, on holidays, and at weddings, birthdays, and each others' coronations. They saw themselves as royal colleagues, a trade union of kings, standing shoulder to shoulder against the rise of socialism, republicanism, and revolution. And yet tensions abounded between them.
Clay deftly reveals how intimate family details had deep historical significance: the antipathy Willy's mother (Victoria's daughter) felt toward him because of his withered left arm, and how it affected him throughout his life; the family tension caused by Otto von Bismarck's annexation of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark (Georgie's and Nicky's mothers were Danish princesses); the surreality surrounding the impending conflict. "Have I gone mad?" Nicholas asked his wife, Alexandra, in July 1914, showing her another telegram from Wilhelm. "What on earth does Willy mean pretending that it still depends on me whether war is averted or not?" Germany had, in fact, declared war on Russia six hours earlier. At every point in her remarkable book, Catrine Clay sheds new light on a watershed period in world history.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #545057 in Books
- Published on: 2007-07
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: .2 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 416 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. How did WWI happen? Was it the inevitable product of vast, impersonal forces colliding? Or was it a completely avoidable war that resulted from flawed decisions by individuals? Clay (Princess to Queen), a documentary producer for the BBC, inclines strongly to the latter explanation, and she brilliantly narrates how just three men led their nations to war. Forming a trade union of majesties, King George V (Britain), Kaiser Wilhelm II (Germany) and Czar Nicholas II (Russia) were cousins who together ruled more than half the world. They were a family, and thus subject to the same tensions and turmoil that afflict every family. They had "played together, celebrated each other's birthdays... and later attended each other's weddings," but still, while George and Nicholas were close, Wilhelm was something of an outsider—a feeling exacerbated by his paranoia and self-loathing. Over time, his sense of exclusion and humiliation would avenge itself on the family and eventually contributed strongly to the murder of Nicholas and the loss of his own throne. Clay's theory does have a hole—though not ruled by the "cousins," France and Austria-Hungary also played major roles in the outbreak of war—but that does not detract from the ingenuity and pleasure of her narrative. 35 b&w photos. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Events in Europe leading up to--precipitating--World War I are viewed through a purposefully narrow lens in this excellent example of consistently gripping, smoothly flowing narrative nonfiction. Clay sets herself the task of investigating the degree of personal responsibility for contributing to the outbreak of war in 1914 that can be placed on the shoulders of three European monarchs who not only ruled more than half of the world but also were cousins on close terms with one another: erratic, out-of-control Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; likable but ineffectual Czar Nicholas II of Russia; and the much more ordinary but much more successful keeper of his throne, King George V of Great Britain. The author inquires into their upbringing, education, marriages, and relations with each other--in essence, everything about them as individuals that can speak to how and why World War I broke out. As so graphically witnessed here, family history back then, when the family happened to be royal, often made national history. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"[Clay] brilliantly narrates how just three men led their nations to war."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Clay lights up some of the shadows in the lives of the cousins."--Kirkus Review
