Family squabbles are normal, but when you are royalty your fights can affect nations. Throughout history we have seen the armies of royal relatives duke it out over lands, crowns, and religions, with disastrous consequences for thousands. But one royal feud between cousins tops them all in casualties, a war that cost millions of lives and transformed the globe forever: World War I.
In all fairness, the cousins involved, George V of Britain, Wilhelm II of Germany, and Nicholas II of Russia (or Georgie, Willy, and Nicky as their family affectionately called them among themselves), would have had a hard time preventing war. Too many other factors such as jealousy over who had the better colonies, a complicated alliance system, nationalistic fervor, and an arms race between Britain and Germany had created such an atmosphere of tension in Europe that it only took one spark to set the world of 1914 ablaze. Still, the cousins did little to stop the war, either. (Nicky and Georgie are pictured.)
Probably one of the saddest chapters in the family saga was when Nicky and his family were ousted by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution and sought asylum in Britain. The family was all packed and relieved to be going, but at the last minute Georgie, fearing that taking in his cousins might destabilize his own country, refused to grant them refuge. The result was the murder of the Romanov family and the end of a dynasty.
To read more about on the subject, check out the following websites. The bottom two links give descriptions of two books on the ill-fated cousins.
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/t-z/threekings.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_V_of_the_United_Kingdom
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780802716231
http://www.dymocks.com.au/ProductDetails/ProductDetail.aspx?R=9780750933728
In all fairness, the cousins involved, George V of Britain, Wilhelm II of Germany, and Nicholas II of Russia (or Georgie, Willy, and Nicky as their family affectionately called them among themselves), would have had a hard time preventing war. Too many other factors such as jealousy over who had the better colonies, a complicated alliance system, nationalistic fervor, and an arms race between Britain and Germany had created such an atmosphere of tension in Europe that it only took one spark to set the world of 1914 ablaze. Still, the cousins did little to stop the war, either. (Nicky and Georgie are pictured.)
Probably one of the saddest chapters in the family saga was when Nicky and his family were ousted by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution and sought asylum in Britain. The family was all packed and relieved to be going, but at the last minute Georgie, fearing that taking in his cousins might destabilize his own country, refused to grant them refuge. The result was the murder of the Romanov family and the end of a dynasty.
To read more about on the subject, check out the following websites. The bottom two links give descriptions of two books on the ill-fated cousins.
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/t-z/threekings.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_V_of_the_United_Kingdom
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780802716231
http://www.dymocks.com.au/ProductDetails/ProductDetail.aspx?R=9780750933728
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