George, Nicholas and Wilhelm by Miranda Carter

Once you start reading this book it is so easy to see disaster lurking around the corner, particularly after 1870.Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 15:13:47.016658 Bookplateleaf 0004 Boxid IA1119001 Boxid_2 CH1144311 City New York Donorīostonpubliclibrary Edition 1st American ed. However, as he had back-pedalled on providing asylum for the imperial family, one wonders how much this preyed on his mind for the rest of his life He found the murder of the tsar and his family a severe blow. George V comes across as a simple, rather brusque man neither particularly bright nor demonstrative, both crushed by the war and the inevitable alienation of close family members. None had recognised how industrialisation and urbanisation had changed the attitudes of the workers, many of whom had swapped agricultural life for the cities and, now, demanded greater rights. Miranda Carter’s The Three Emperors shows that these three nations lacked diplomatic ability and judgement. Although the assassination of Franz-Ferdinand’s assassination freed him of the burden of an heir he did not like, he proved too old to deal with 20 th century war knowing that his empire could not survive it. His ethnically diverse empire was unmanageably large, court protocol stultifying.

Together the pair alienated subjects by hiding away at Tsarskoe Selot and their reliance on Rasputin further alienated them from both the court and population.įranz-Joseph of Austria’s problems were different. Married to a woman he loved, all Nicholas wanted to do was play ‘happy families’ Alexandra was crushingly shy and uncomfortable with court life. He complained that he was unready to rule and was unfit to be an emperor. Miranda Carter describes Wilhelm’s lack of lack of tact and diplomacy, that Nicholas II was weak, horrified when his hearty father Alexander III died unexpectedly (of Bright’s Disease) at the age of 49. Illustrated plus notes, bibliography and index.

George, Nicholas and Wilhelm by Miranda Carter