Little Willy’s arm was wrapped around his head in his mother’s womb, cutting off the blood supply to his brain and causing a rather nasty case of ADHD.
His cousin Nicky was a physically small and timid lad, bullied by a cold-hearted father who was sure he would never amount to much.
And little Georgie just wanted to spend all day riding horses and shooting defenseless animals.
Instead these three hapless cousins wound up ruling most of the world. And they didn’t do a very good job of it.
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Cousins And The Road To World War I by Miranda Carter describes the end of an autocratic Europe whose time had already passed. Complex family relationships (all were grandchildren to England’s Queen Victoria) only exacerbated equally labyrinthine political machinations as they jockeyed for colonial territory and military superiority. Their personal lives were an endless round of lavish yet meaningless social functions, military parades and mostly loveless marriages whose sole function was the begetting of heirs to their doomed dynasties.
Carter’s book is a fascinating look at the personalities behind the thrones of England, Russia and Germany as they goose-stepped their way to World War I and their own inevitable declines. And you can reserve it here.
Jeff, you can make anything sound fascinating!
ReplyDeleteWyma, in this case it was easy. As I'm a history buff anyway, it was a guilty pleasure to get the personal scoop on some of the celebrities of the day. Re: Tsar Nicholas had a make-believe Russian village constructed (Tsarkoe Selo)as his residence so that he could show his subjects his "common touch."
ReplyDeleteAlso: the Tsar and his cousins had never actually ever been in a shop, didn't know how money worked, and couldn't make change. No wonder they couldn't run their own countries.