George, Nicholas and Wilhelm

George, Nicholas and Wilhelm

Review by Fraser Harbutt

We stand today on the threshold of one of history’s saddest commemorations: the onset of the Great War of 1914-1918, the crucial turning point into the modern era. There is every reason, therefore, to welcome Miranda Carter’s impressive achievement in marrying two themes of proven appeal that bear directly on the subject: the glamour and glitter of pre-1914 European royalty; and the harsh, intruding power politics that brought four great empires crashing down in ruin. The connective link between the two worlds is the role of the three emperors—Kaiser Wilhelm ll of Germany, Tsar Nicolas ll of Russia, and George V, King of England and Emperor of India.

Much of the drama, from a historical viewpoint, derives from two tragic realities: first, that two of these men (Wilhelm and Nicholas) had great power; and second, that both were fundamentally unintelligent, irresponsible and disastrously incompetent. In the bleak aftermath of war, they, especially the Kaiser, were blamed by bitter contemporaries for the catastrophe. Later, more subtle explanations appeared, citing such phenomena as the disturbing pre-war German bellicosity, the compulsions of the tight, combustible alliance system, and the pent-up emotions of an excitable mass public. But however compelling these deep-rooted causative theories may be, historians still find themselves coming back to the critical parts played by Wilhelm and Nicholas in their militaristic and expansionist policies and their fateful decisions in the last weeks before the struggle began (such as the Kaiser’s “blank check” to Austria-Hungary and the Tsar’s impulsive mobilization.)

Each monarch (and George, who had little power in liberal England and did less damage, but outdid his cousins in blockheadedness) came to symbolize the passionate, narrowing nationalism of the period. But paradoxically they were also the last meaningful embodiment of the old-fashioned internationalism represented by the interwoven and inbred dynastic ruling families of Europe. Each of the imperial cousins was closely related to the grand matriarch, Queen Victoria, who until her death in 1901 bestowed a kind of unity. After that, despite a persisting intimacy and clannishness, familial and political tensions sharpened. Finally, the war separated them all. A downward spiral of recrimination set in, culminating in George’s refusal to grant the doomed Tsar and his family asylum in Britain.

Carter, in a splendid portrayal of this vanished world, does not pass a hard judgment on her unfortunate subjects, viewing them as anachronisms in a changing world characterized by technical innovation, social advance and burgeoning intellectual/artistic achievement. They were, as she persuasively puts it, “ill-equipped by education and personality to deal with the modern world, marooned by history in positions increasingly out of kilter with their time.” It is a generous conclusion, for the record she eloquently puts before us here—essentially the story of great, unaccountable power wielded irresponsibly by foolish people—is bound to inspire sobering thoughts, especially in those inclined to believe, as so many did to their cost in the decades before 1914, in a benign providence or the irresistible march of human progress.

Hardcover: 544 pages

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc./Random House ( March 28, 2010 )

Item #: 63-8664

ISBN: 9781400043637

Product Dimensions: 6.25 x 9.25 x 1.24 inches

Product Weight: 27.0 ounces