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to make real revolution elsewhere. a nightmare for the czar. but there is also that going on. i think one has to remember all this, the huge sort of rather like the map that we were showing earlier on. i think there was all this happening. an awful lot of stuff was happening so i doubt that any of the three could have done anything about it. is just throwing out an idea. but in the early years if the family had handled willie right, or, an even bigger what-if, if he hadn't had that terrible breach birth and he was the brightest of those three and he hadn't fallen into the hands of -- i mean you could imagine a different outcome.

but that's not the way it was. >> hello. i've recently completed, or read, history of world war i by john keegan. and he expressed a view i had not heard before. what he said was before austria issued its ultimatum which was very weak and crumbling even then, sent its ultimatum to serbia, he first contacted the kaiser as to whether the kaiser would support him if he invaded serbia. and the kaiser answered yes. and his view was that was the real spark that brought about

world war i and, in essence, caused the allies later to blame germany for the beginnings of the war. i wonder if you have a view on that. >> well, i knew john keegan actually just -- not because we shared a subject. and we talked about this and i think that was a very valuable way of looking at it, to tell you the truth. the only thing i would add to it is what i have been talking about today, which is if willie had been different, if the kaiser had been different, he might not have said yes. though mind you, the alliance -- it was an alliance. and what's more, the wales-copenhagen link, as the germans like to call the two danish sisters and the way they influenced their respective husbands, that was very active as well. so you did really have two camps. >> question here in the back.

could you speak a little bit about the danish princesses and their fashion and how that had some kind of pliolitical -- >> i'm glad you asked. because shortening this talk i left out all sorts of things. that was one of the things i left out. the danish princesses were absolutely brilliant at the politics of fashion. so they would appear in identical clothes to make it perfectly obvious that the alliance was between britain and russia. and they did it at all sorts of very key moments and the public was completely enchanted and they didn't realize that they were being brainwashed from this way. but they did this. both of them had the habit, if germans came to the russian court, or to buckingham palace, they frequently froze out -- i mean there was once when the king of prussia, before he

became kaiser, went to visit them. they were there and they were sparring and she insisted she wouldn't see him when she was ill. an unbelievable thing to do in a private family you can just about do it but this had huge political significance. and the very next day she was partying and off and out. you know. and at the beginning of the war, the duchess sechlt rrena who sa anyone who would listen to her said we're finally at war with germany. i can't tell you how pleased i am. so when they were dressing in identical clothes, the brittish and russian public knew what

this meant. >> could you tell us, please, because i don't know, who did willie marry, what did she think about this? >> who? >> willie -- wilhelm's wife. what did she think. >> donna, william's wife, had nothing to say about anything. donna, no. actually, they were very rude -- the two princesses were phenomenally rude about donna. i think they called her a cow, but meaning that she just was there to breed. you know. and she did. in fact she had six boys and then sissy, you know. seven children. but it was not -- it's a big subject, a very, very big subject about wilhelm's sexuality and so on and so forth which we won't even begin to go into but she was essentially just the mother of the children and the wife. i wouldn't say they had a bad

relationship at all. but he certainly wasn't going to be listening to her opinions on anything. is that who you meant, donna? yes. yes. absolutely. no, in a way she was a good wife to him because she did what was needed. you know? >> i saw -- continuing with wilhelm, i saw in one of the photographs, it looked like he was wearing a royal navy uniform. i was wondering if you could talk a little bit about his relationship with the royal navy, again the split personality and how that impacted the naval race and increased tensions in europe. >> that is, of course, the right kind of question to ask here. it's so true. it is another thing i cut out of the talk actually so i'm very pleased because it was an extraordinary thing because these royal colleagues, the three of them, were forever exchanging uniforms. they'd make each other admirals in their own -- in their navies. or colonels in the prussian

army. it was an extraordinary thing. in william's case -- we call him william because he's wearing the english admiral's uniform -- he was fantastically proud of it. he really, really was pleased to be it, you see? but at the same time, he makes fun of it. this is the terrible thing. and in the end, of course, once they're all at war with one another, they have to kind of give each other back. you know? the medals and -- it's a sort of crazy situation they are in. unavoidable, i guess. all the flags incidentally had to be taken down. the world or russian flags in windsor castle chapel. glorn george's chapel at windsor castle. . queen said this is ridiculous -- take them down. when we were looking at the photograph, i forgot to say it

was english admiral which is the whole point of him signing it "william." >> curiosity's got the better of me with your letter there on the screen. i'd love to see the second page. but could you explain what he was referring to when he talks about persia there in the very last line? >> oh, my lord. i hope very, very much that one of your other speakers will tell you a bit about that. but we forget completely where else trouble was brewing the whole time. at that time persia was a really, really big issue. it sort of got lost in the margins of history after a while. but it was. it was the big concern. the ottoman empire and who was going to get what. all that was going on and afghanistan, god knows. all sorts of things. but of course, eventually it all

focused on our -- essentially european war and i obviously need to add my personal opinion, we obviously couldn't have won this war, could we, without you americans coming in on our side. i'm not at all sure that we'd ever have won it. so i actually thank you on behalf of the brittish natio. >> was there much of a movement, a feeling, of going after wilhelm after the war, putting pressure on the dutch to give him up for some sort of -- >> not a thing. >> -- retribution, whatever? >> not a thing. and there are famous photographs -- i'm sure you've seen of him chopping wood and things like that. just being an old man. he had a little bit of a court and things, but absolutely no one. well, until hitler of course

sent a wreath when he died. but ie4bk/p' no, nothing. and he was just abandoned, you might say, or forgotten. no. >> what was the reaction of king george when nicholas abdicated the throne or was overthrown. what was the correspondence with that? >> yes. i mean that is -- i think probably a lot of books have been written about it. it is really a book on its own, isn't it? i mean it was a terrible situation for him to be in because it was brought to bare on him becau on him that he was a constitutional monarch and he had to do what he was told. he could not help. he wrote in his diary, i can't remember the wording now but he was devastated. this terrible, terrible thing is

happening. and he sort of felt to an extent he hadn't been able to help. but he hadn't been able to. you know? >> are there other questions? all right. there's a couple more back here. >> we're doing much better for time. >> hi there. all three of these men, they wore uniforms, they gave each other medals, they looked f-- b what extent were they actually military men? that is to say, what kinds of hands-on role, what kind of role in strategy? did they mettle or were they content to remain aloof from the actual prosecution of the war? >> not much is the answer. georgie was the only one who actually was genuinely military. not military. he was in the navy.

you know. if his brother hadn't died, he'd have carried on, i guess. so he had actual experience. but being a constitutional monarchy, he took no part in anything and what he would do was go to france and see the troops and award medals and things like that. that was it. william was -- wilhelm, much more complicated, because he half believed he was the clink's heir. he hadn't understood they were bypassing him all the time. what they did was used the imperial train rather cleverly. nice train. they put him in there and told him to go east or west or -- they kept him away. he likewise didn't. bear in mind that before the war, their experience was to sort of -- or his was to go on maneuvers. but you didn't actually have to do anything. you had to be the kaiser taking

the salute and so on. it was pageantry. there was no real experience. had he no idea about strategy. i think he was quite a problem actually for hindenberg and so on, so forth. and the czar did go to the front and that was -- and took command. that i hope someone may be talking about this properly because that's another huge subject because it was a terrible mistake for the simple reason that when things went worse and worse for russia -- which it most certainly did -- they now blamed him. and he was, likewise, not a strategist, really. but he felt he needed to be there. it was a good thought, in a way. he thought he should be there leading his men, and so on. but of course, the suffering there was quite terrible. >> i wanted to ask about wilhelm

and franz ferdinand. whether they close and what was wilhelm's relationship with the imperial family like franz joseph and ferdinand as well? >> i don't think they were particularly close. they were just in the sense of royal colleagues, that great phrase. they all felt that and we will stand shoulder to shoulder against, you know, all the forces of anarchy and social impl, ism. but they didn't have i don't think at all a close relationship. it was his feeling, his emotion, i will be pretty sure, lay with his english family, ironically. he was massively upset by their snu snubs and rejections. and furious. that's where his heart lay. i think. someone else may answer this completely differently.

but that would be my thing. >> if you'll permit me, i'm going to ask the last question here. as an author, particularly when you're writing about individuals in a biographical fashion, authors frequently find themselves growing very close to the people they write about. so i was just wondering in terms of reading all these archives where do you stand with regard to nicky, georgie and willie? did you find yourself siding with nicky and georgie at times? >> it is a very interesting process, isn't it. sort of you get to know them so well. and i sort of like one and then another and then another. really. i felt for them all at different times. but the person i would have liked to gone out to have lunch with or dinner, that would have been edward vii. >> let's all give a hand for

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