Thursday 20 February 2014

Royal Cousins make history personal

The personalities of so many royal figures in the past are little known to the modern world except in broadbrush portraits that hardly do justice to the nuances of the individual behind them.  Although royal lives are often the best charted in any age, truly knowing the characters of the kings and queens, the princes and princesses is all but impossible.  And yet trying to understand what motivates the royals of yesteryear is perhaps crucial to some of the biggest events in history.  A recent BBC Two documentary tried to do just that.  Royal Cousins looked at the three men who ruled three of the most influential countries in World War One.  And its conclusions were very much a family affair.


Tsar Nicholas II and King George V - rulers of vast empires and cousins who were intensely private men

The programmes focused on those royal cousins, George V of Great Britain, Nicholas II of Russia and Wilhelm II of Germany and paid close attention to their personal relationships with one another.  It showed the closeness between George and the man the royals called Nicky and discussed the difficulty many of the regal cousins had in getting on with Wilhelm.  But the most fascinating aspect of this documentary was the influence is gave to the men's mothers.  The programme turned a queen of England, an Empress of Russia and an Empress of Germany from consorts into power players.


Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany 1888 - 1918

In particular, Alexandra and Dagmar of Denmark were shown as determined women whose insistence on happy family lives for their children - despite royal protocol - had a massive influence on their sons' personalities.  But with very different results in each case.  Alexandra's son, George, was shown as a sensible, methodical, almost plodding man who took things seriously but whose lack of real power as head of a monarchy that was already partly symbolic meant that he could work on the PR side of kingship that needed care in the early 20th century.  In contrast, Dagmar's son Nicholas may have developed the same soft side as George but his destiny lay in ruling as an autocrat and the programme suggested that the dichotomy between how Nicholas felt and what he had to do had a major influence on the way his reign developed.


Dagmar,Empress of Russia and Alexandra, Queen of England - two sisters who were born in relative poverty and obscurity but who became powerful players in European politics through their marriages

In contract, Wilhelm's mother was shown as losing influence on her son with the suggestion in the programme that a tighter bond might in some way have changed his personality.  Victoria, Princess Royal and eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert was just eighteen when she gave birth, in difficult circumstances, to her first son.  One of Wilhelm's arms was damaged as a result of this dramatic delivery and Royal Cousins at War documented how that affected his personality across the rest of his life.   But it also looked at the growing distance between Vicky and her first born son and questioned whether a deeper bond might have mitigated some of Wilhelm's personality traits.


Victoria, known as Vicky, was mother of Wilhelm II of Germany

Ultimately, the programme's aim of seeing how these cousins' influenced World War One meant that, towards the end, the personal element disappeared as years of history had to be crammed into just a few minutes.  But it did shine a light on some of the most fascinating relationships in 20th century royal history and provided a reminder of the power of personality, especially in the modern age.



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