George, Nicholas And Wilhelm Part 10

On 6 April Stamfordham wrote to Balfour insisting the invitation be withdrawn. "Every day,"117 he wrote, he wrote, the King is becoming more concerned about the question of the Emperor and Empress coming to this country. His Majesty receives letters from people in all cla.s.ses of life, known or unknown to him, saying how much the matter is being discussed, not only in clubs but by working men, and that Labour Members in the House of Commons are expressing adverse opinions to the proposal ... I feel sure that you appreciate how awkward it will be for our Royal Family who are closely connected with both the Emperor and Empress ... The King desires me to ask you whether after consulting the Prime Minister, Sir George Buchanan should not be communicated with, with a view to approaching the Russian Government to make some other place for the future residence of their Imperial Majesties?

Several hours later he sent another letter: He must beg118 you to represent to the Prime Minister that from all he hears and reads in the press, the residence in this country of the ex-Emperor and Empress would be strongly resented by the public, and would undoubtedly compromise the position of the King and Queen from whom it is already generally supposed the invitation has emanated ... Buchanan ought to be instructed to tell Miliukoff that the opposition to the Emperor and Empress coming here is so strong that we must be allowed to withdraw from the consent previously given to the Russian Government's proposal you to represent to the Prime Minister that from all he hears and reads in the press, the residence in this country of the ex-Emperor and Empress would be strongly resented by the public, and would undoubtedly compromise the position of the King and Queen from whom it is already generally supposed the invitation has emanated ... Buchanan ought to be instructed to tell Miliukoff that the opposition to the Emperor and Empress coming here is so strong that we must be allowed to withdraw from the consent previously given to the Russian Government's proposal.

On 10 April Stamfordham bearded Lloyd George in Downing Street, "to impress upon him the King's strong opinion that the Emperor and Empress of Russia should not come to this country, and that ... It would," he added, "be most unfair upon the King ... if TIM's [Their Imperial Majesties] came here when popular feeling against their doing so is so p.r.o.nounced." Then he went to complain to Balfour, saying that he had seen a telegram from Buchanan, who "evidently took it for granted that the Emperor and Empress were coming to England and it was only a question of delay."119 The king felt that Buchanan should already have been told to withdraw the invitation. The king felt that Buchanan should already have been told to withdraw the invitation.

Stamfordham's harangues touched a nerve in the government. Lloyd George knew harbouring the Romanovs was not going to be popular in Britain, and he didn't want to do anything to alienate the increasingly unstable Russian government-he dreaded the thought that it might suddenly bow out of the war leaving the Western Front to take the full German a.s.sault. Balfour reflected that the king had been "placed in an120 awkward position." No one would believe that the invitation hadn't come from the court. Perhaps the Romanovs should go to the South of France instead? The Foreign Office issued a statement: "His Majesty's awkward position." No one would believe that the invitation hadn't come from the court. Perhaps the Romanovs should go to the South of France instead? The Foreign Office issued a statement: "His Majesty's121 Government does not insist on its former offer of hospitality to the Imperial family." Balfour cabled Buchanan and told him to say nothing further about the invitation. The amba.s.sador obediently agreed, Miliukov hadn't referred to it for a few days, the subject had clearly become a hot potato within the Russian government, and obviously if there was "any danger Government does not insist on its former offer of hospitality to the Imperial family." Balfour cabled Buchanan and told him to say nothing further about the invitation. The amba.s.sador obediently agreed, Miliukov hadn't referred to it for a few days, the subject had clearly become a hot potato within the Russian government, and obviously if there was "any danger122 of an anti-monarchist movement," England was not the right place for the tsar. He suggested that the foreign minister might sound out the French. But at home, his daughter later wrote, it was clear that he was deeply upset. of an anti-monarchist movement," England was not the right place for the tsar. He suggested that the foreign minister might sound out the French. But at home, his daughter later wrote, it was clear that he was deeply upset.123 At Tsarskoe Selo "The days pa.s.sed124 and our departure was always being postponed." Talk of England gradually ceased. and our departure was always being postponed." Talk of England gradually ceased.

Would Nicholas's presence in Britain have put George's throne in danger? It seems, in hindsight, highly unlikely. It was true that Britain had not been immune to the strikes and riots that had broken out across Europe since the Russian Revolution. Small issues caused sudden strikes. In 1918 12,000 aircraft factory workers in Coventry walked out because of false rumours that they were to be conscripted. Moreover, England, like the rest of Europe, had seen a surge in left-wing rhetoric calling for change, revolution and even a republic. A week after the Foreign Office took back its invitation to the tsar, H. G. Wells wrote to The Times The Times declaring that Britain should rid itself of "the ancient trappings declaring that Britain should rid itself of "the ancient trappings125 of throne and sceptre," and proposed the formation of republican societies across the country. (Wells had famously described George's circle as an "alien and uninspiring court," to which George made his only ever recorded witty riposte: "I may be uninspiring, but I be d.a.m.ned if I'm an alien." of throne and sceptre," and proposed the formation of republican societies across the country. (Wells had famously described George's circle as an "alien and uninspiring court," to which George made his only ever recorded witty riposte: "I may be uninspiring, but I be d.a.m.ned if I'm an alien."126) There was, however, no answering surge of revolutionary republicanism-nothing, for example, on the scale of the hundreds of republican clubs that sprang up in the 1870s. Of all the civilian populations of Europe engaged in the war, the British suffered the least in terms of want and number of deaths-German civilian deaths were far greater than British ones*-and were furthest away from the fighting. Lloyd George dealt with the unrest he did encounter more successfully than any other leading statesman in Europe. Though his ministry was dominated by Conservatives, his own enormous popularity and his record of social amelioration gave him credibility with the strikers, and his political instincts led him to meet them halfway, while other European governments responded with heavy-handed repression. All the while he told the country it was fighting to defend Liberty-as manifested by the British system-and to destroy the German military caste and its oppression of the German people.

If Lloyd George and his fellow politicians had really thought that bringing the ex-tsar to England posed a threat to the Crown and the const.i.tutional structure of England-something none of them wanted-they would never have agreed to taking him in the first place. It was another great irony entirely lost on King George that Lloyd George, the man whose politics were anathema to him, was the man who kept his throne secure. He would also be the man who would cover up George's involvement in the rejection of the Romanovs, omitting his role entirely from his War Memoirs War Memoirs and taking the weight of what opprobrium there was-though he also falsely and taking the weight of what opprobrium there was-though he also falsely127 claimed that Britain never withdrew the invitation, and stated more truthfully that it wasn't clear the provisional government would have been able to extricate the tsar out of Russia. Buchanan would also bear the weight of blame for the British failure to do so: he would spend the rest of his life unhappily trying to exonerate himself-he too a.s.sumed the source of the decision to revoke the invitation was Lloyd George. claimed that Britain never withdrew the invitation, and stated more truthfully that it wasn't clear the provisional government would have been able to extricate the tsar out of Russia. Buchanan would also bear the weight of blame for the British failure to do so: he would spend the rest of his life unhappily trying to exonerate himself-he too a.s.sumed the source of the decision to revoke the invitation was Lloyd George.

The truth was George had become immensely sensitive to criticism of himself or the monarchy-in that respect he was now far more attuned and attentive to public opinion than either of his cousins. Any whisper of it "rankled unduly"128 and made him deeply depressed. Just how hair-triggerishly anxious George was would be well ill.u.s.trated a few months later, in July 1917, when he became so upset about insinuations that the royal family might not be entirely loyal because of their German names and antecedents that he changed the family name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the entirely made-up Windsor. George wasn't wrong to imagine that giving sanctuary to his cousin would have been a very unpopular move in a country whose government was now justifying the war as a fight for freedom against autocracy. But it is extremely unlikely that it would have cost him his throne. He panicked and placed his worries ahead of the family relations.h.i.+p which he had always said counted for so much, and the cousin he had professed to care so deeply for. It was a final blow to the cult of family which his queen empress grandmother had so heartily embraced. It was also a decision that revealed a monarchy aware of the need to sell itself to its subjects if it was to survive. and made him deeply depressed. Just how hair-triggerishly anxious George was would be well ill.u.s.trated a few months later, in July 1917, when he became so upset about insinuations that the royal family might not be entirely loyal because of their German names and antecedents that he changed the family name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the entirely made-up Windsor. George wasn't wrong to imagine that giving sanctuary to his cousin would have been a very unpopular move in a country whose government was now justifying the war as a fight for freedom against autocracy. But it is extremely unlikely that it would have cost him his throne. He panicked and placed his worries ahead of the family relations.h.i.+p which he had always said counted for so much, and the cousin he had professed to care so deeply for. It was a final blow to the cult of family which his queen empress grandmother had so heartily embraced. It was also a decision that revealed a monarchy aware of the need to sell itself to its subjects if it was to survive.

Over the next fourteen months the tide of scepticism about George would turn: the grim-faced visits to the front, to hospitals and to factories and the stories of royal belt-tightening that gradually leaked out began to be seen as a testament to his commitment to duty, to hard work and to sharing the burden of the long years of struggle. George's frayed but stoic ordinariness seemed like a counter or even a rebuke to the overblown Wagnerian swagger, the mystical claims to perfection, of the European absolutist monarchies the country felt it was fighting against. By the end of the war The Times The Times would write of "the wonderful popularity would write of "the wonderful popularity129 with Londoners-as we are convinced, with the whole country-of THEIR MAJESTIES the KING and QUEEN ... this signal outburst of loyal feeling is born of the conviction that the CROWN, well-worn, is the symbol and safeguard of unity, not only here in England, but in the free dominions overseas, and in India." with Londoners-as we are convinced, with the whole country-of THEIR MAJESTIES the KING and QUEEN ... this signal outburst of loyal feeling is born of the conviction that the CROWN, well-worn, is the symbol and safeguard of unity, not only here in England, but in the free dominions overseas, and in India."

In July 1917, the month George changed his name, there was a surge of angry unrest in Petrograd-"the July days." Alexander Kerensky, recently made head of the provisional government, decided he must try again to get the imperial family out of the country. He went to Buchanan, who replied-according to Kerensky with tears in his eyes-that the British government had withdrawn its offer of asylum. A month later, in August, the family were sent to Tobolsk, a small backwater in western Siberia.

The former tsar had proved consistently patient, gracious and polite to his captors. Amazingly, he did not seem bitter, accepting his "restraints with extraordinary130 serenity and moral grandeur. No word of reproach ever pa.s.sed his lips." Kerensky, charged with the investigation and safety of the former tsar and his family, found him "an extremely reserved, serenity and moral grandeur. No word of reproach ever pa.s.sed his lips." Kerensky, charged with the investigation and safety of the former tsar and his family, found him "an extremely reserved,131 reticent man, with much distrust and infinite contempt for others," and was struck by "his utter indifference to the world around him, as though he loved and valued no one, and was not surprised by anything that happened." The household found Kerensky unbearably high-handed, but Nicholas decided to reticent man, with much distrust and infinite contempt for others," and was struck by "his utter indifference to the world around him, as though he loved and valued no one, and was not surprised by anything that happened." The household found Kerensky unbearably high-handed, but Nicholas decided to132 trust him. Pa.s.sive fatalistic acceptance was very much in keeping with the strain of mystic Russian Orthodoxy which had inspired Alix and him, but one might have concluded that the ex-tsar was almost relieved that the terrible weight of responsibility had been taken from his shoulders. Kerensky certainly thought so. Apart from certain constraints on his movement-he wasn't allowed to go for long walks-the fabric of life wasn't so remarkably different. The provisional government had taken on the upkeep of the emperor's household (a sum so vast it was decided it should be kept secret), but now there were no decisions, no meetings, no need to take umbrage at others' infringements of his prerogatives. He spent time with his family, played with the children, read aloud, smoked and slept well. When spring came, he gardened and played tennis. Alexandra, however, remained unresigned. Volubly bitter, she spent most days in bed or on her chaise longue. trust him. Pa.s.sive fatalistic acceptance was very much in keeping with the strain of mystic Russian Orthodoxy which had inspired Alix and him, but one might have concluded that the ex-tsar was almost relieved that the terrible weight of responsibility had been taken from his shoulders. Kerensky certainly thought so. Apart from certain constraints on his movement-he wasn't allowed to go for long walks-the fabric of life wasn't so remarkably different. The provisional government had taken on the upkeep of the emperor's household (a sum so vast it was decided it should be kept secret), but now there were no decisions, no meetings, no need to take umbrage at others' infringements of his prerogatives. He spent time with his family, played with the children, read aloud, smoked and slept well. When spring came, he gardened and played tennis. Alexandra, however, remained unresigned. Volubly bitter, she spent most days in bed or on her chaise longue.

July 1917 was the month Wilhelm found himself eclipsed by the imperial General Staff. After three years at war, the divisions in German society were creating their own chaos; the country was riven with strikes and protests against falling wages and food shortages. In the Reichstag the Left was demanding an end to the war, on the streets protesters clamoured for political reform, while the Right and the army were insisting Germany fight on and annex Poland and the Baltic states.

As the war had progressed, the German High Command had gradually taken control of the state. In August 1916, with the war at stalemate, shortages at home, and the government and the country increasingly divided, Wilhelm had been pressured against his wishes to sack Falkenhayn (who had become chief of staff after Moltke's health had failed in September 1914) and install the two heroes of Germany's Eastern Front, generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff, instead. It was a move that compounded Wilhelm's irrelevance and signalled the start of his total eclipse. The most successful generals in the war had their own agenda. They were incipient Napoleons, convinced that the war must be won on the Eastern Front against Russia, impatient that the civilian government wasn't sufficiently acquiescent to their needs, and not afraid to interfere in politics. Wilhelm admired them and resented them equally: they were enormously popular and he feared their influence.

By early 1917 Ludendorff and Hindenburg had their sights on removing Bethmann-Hollweg, whom they saw as too unbiddable and alarmingly sympathetic to demands for political reform. The Left, which now dominated the Reichstag, wanted peace without annexations or indemnities. A month after Nicholas's abdication, in April 1917, Bethmann-Hollweg, believing it was the only solution, persuaded a deeply reluctant Wilhelm to commit to political reform of the deeply inequitable franchise in Prussia after the war. In July Ludendorff and Hindenburg made their move, threatening to resign unless the chancellor was sacked. In a panic Wilhelm refused, but Bethmann-Hollweg had also lost all support in the Reichstag, and resigned himself. The new chancellor, selected with almost comical arbitrariness, was an administrator called Michaelis whom Wilhelm had met once and described as "an insignificant little133 man." "Now I may as man." "Now I may as134 well abdicate," Wilhelm told his former chancellor. He spent his time going for walks, playing card games, arguing with Dona. In September 1917 Hindenburg took Wilhelm's t.i.tle of Supreme Warlord, and the army's press agency sent out his portrait throughout the country. In the nation's mind, Hindenburg gradually replaced Wilhelm as the strongman, the absolute leader, the surrogate kaiser-for whom the country apparently longed. In January 1918, when Wilhelm tried to challenge the generals' plans to annex Poland, they punished him by forcing the dismissal of his most trusted officials, the chiefs of his civil and military cabinets, Valentine and Lyncker, and installing their own candidate, Friedrich von Berg zu Markienen, who never let Wilhelm out of his sight. Germany had become essentially a military dictators.h.i.+p; Wilhelm was the flimsy fig leaf. well abdicate," Wilhelm told his former chancellor. He spent his time going for walks, playing card games, arguing with Dona. In September 1917 Hindenburg took Wilhelm's t.i.tle of Supreme Warlord, and the army's press agency sent out his portrait throughout the country. In the nation's mind, Hindenburg gradually replaced Wilhelm as the strongman, the absolute leader, the surrogate kaiser-for whom the country apparently longed. In January 1918, when Wilhelm tried to challenge the generals' plans to annex Poland, they punished him by forcing the dismissal of his most trusted officials, the chiefs of his civil and military cabinets, Valentine and Lyncker, and installing their own candidate, Friedrich von Berg zu Markienen, who never let Wilhelm out of his sight. Germany had become essentially a military dictators.h.i.+p; Wilhelm was the flimsy fig leaf.

In Tobolsk the Romanovs lived in the governor's mansion, perhaps not in imperial levels of comfort, but with a household which nevertheless included six chambermaids, ten footmen, three chefs and a wine steward. There was s.p.a.ce to exercise, and the local people were respectful, removing their caps and crossing themselves when they saw the former tsar. The Bolshevik victory in early November 1917 hardly registered-it took a week for the news to arrive. What upset Nicholas most was that Lenin had immediately begun peace talks with Germany, an outcome the British government, whose contacts within the Bolsheviks were minimal, had dreaded. Thankfully for them, the Americans had now joined the war. Though Lenin regarded the war as a bourgeois fight foisted on the peasants and workers, the peace deal was a bitter pill even for the Bolsheviks: German military successes and the Russian army's collapse meant that Germany got Poland, Finland, the Baltic states, the Ukraine, the Crimea-where Nicholas's sisters and mother were holed up-and most of the Caucasus, a million miles of Russian territory which contained virtually all its coal and oil, half its industry and a third of its population. For Nicholas, it nullified the whole justification for his abdication-a meaningful sacrifice so long as others would win the war and save Russia. "It now gave him pain to see that his renunciation had been in vain," Pierre Gilliard, who had followed the family to Siberia, wrote. When the Peace of Brest-Litovsk was signed in March 1918, Nicholas was deeply depressed by it: "It is such a disgrace for Russia and amounts to suicide ... I should never have thought the Emperor William and the German Government could stoop to shake hands with these miserable traitors."135 Captivity turned harsher that month. The soldiers became markedly less friendly, luxuries disappeared from the table. Servants and members of the suite were gradually dismissed. Two days before the Brest-Litovsk Treaty was signed, the tutor Gilliard wrote in his diary, "Their Majesties136 still cherish hope that among their loyal friends some may be found to attempt their release." After arguments over whether Nicholas should stand trial in Moscow-Trotsky fancied himself as princ.i.p.al prosecutor-the family were moved to Ekaterinburg, the centre of Bolshevik militancy in the Urals, in April 1918. They were met by an angry crowd, and imprisoned in a large house which was swiftly enclosed with a high wooden fence. The windows were painted over; the family were confined to their rooms for most of the day, and Alix and the girls were accompanied to the lavatory by guards who graffitied drawings of her and Rasputin having s.e.x on the lavatory walls. The former empress was now barely able to walk and spent days on her bed. The daughters did the housework, and Nicholas read still cherish hope that among their loyal friends some may be found to attempt their release." After arguments over whether Nicholas should stand trial in Moscow-Trotsky fancied himself as princ.i.p.al prosecutor-the family were moved to Ekaterinburg, the centre of Bolshevik militancy in the Urals, in April 1918. They were met by an angry crowd, and imprisoned in a large house which was swiftly enclosed with a high wooden fence. The windows were painted over; the family were confined to their rooms for most of the day, and Alix and the girls were accompanied to the lavatory by guards who graffitied drawings of her and Rasputin having s.e.x on the lavatory walls. The former empress was now barely able to walk and spent days on her bed. The daughters did the housework, and Nicholas read War and Peace War and Peace for the first time in his life, and daydreamed about a nice hot bath. The top bra.s.s in Ekaterinburg wanted an execution, but the order for their murder came from Lenin in Moscow, who decided-as the counter-revolutionary White troops, representing an uneasy coalition of anti-Bolshevik groups, and a Czech regiment closed in on Ekaterinburg in July 1918-that they could not afford the tsar to be a "live banner." for the first time in his life, and daydreamed about a nice hot bath. The top bra.s.s in Ekaterinburg wanted an execution, but the order for their murder came from Lenin in Moscow, who decided-as the counter-revolutionary White troops, representing an uneasy coalition of anti-Bolshevik groups, and a Czech regiment closed in on Ekaterinburg in July 1918-that they could not afford the tsar to be a "live banner."137 On 3 July in the Old Style calendar (16 July by the Western one), at 1:30 in the morning, the prisoners-the tsar, his family and all that remained of his servants, his doctor, valet, cook and Alix's maid-were woken and led down to the bas.e.m.e.nt. They were told there had been shooting in the town and they would be safer there. Nicholas carried his sleepy son. At his request chairs were brought for Alix and Alexis. Anastasia brought her dog. After several minutes the local secret police chief, Yakov Yurovsky, came into the room with an eleven-man squad, one to shoot each victim. The room was too small, however, and the executioners found themselves facing the wrong people. Yurovsky read out the order to shoot the Romanovs. As Nicholas spoke an incredulous "What?"138 Yurovsky shot him point blank. His men started firing. Most of the adults died quickly, but Alexis, protected by his father's arms, survived the first volley, as did the daughters, who were protected by the jewels they had sewn into the bodices of their dresses for safe-keeping. They were bayoneted. The bodies were taken fourteen miles from Ekaterinburg and burned, the remains thrown down a mine shaft, their faces deliberately disfigured to prevent identification if they were found. Eight days later the town fell to the Whites. Yurovsky shot him point blank. His men started firing. Most of the adults died quickly, but Alexis, protected by his father's arms, survived the first volley, as did the daughters, who were protected by the jewels they had sewn into the bodices of their dresses for safe-keeping. They were bayoneted. The bodies were taken fourteen miles from Ekaterinburg and burned, the remains thrown down a mine shaft, their faces deliberately disfigured to prevent identification if they were found. Eight days later the town fell to the Whites.

We have such a horribly vivid account of the Romanovs' murder because one of the executioners, Medvedev, was later captured by the White Russian army and described every detail to Nikolai Sokolov, an investigator appointed by the Whites to uncover the fate of the ex-tsar. Its hideous graphicness gave the Romanovs' deaths a terribly poignant immediacy. In death-as never in life-they stood in for the millions of victims of undescribed, anonymous murders and ma.s.sacres that would be perpetrated by the Soviet regime and other totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century, regimes that would prove so good at killing, but little else. In death also, Nicholas would become the martyr-tsar, a useful figurehead for the Whites, who had had no use for him alive.

Over previous months there had been several tragically ineffectual attempts to plan a rescue. With Alix's permission, the Romanovs' English tutor, George Gibbes, who followed them to Siberia, wrote a letter meant for George, addressed to the former tsarina's English governess, with a full plan of the family's house in Tobolsk and details of their routine. There's no indication it ever reached him. Several monarchist groups managed to raise funds but failed to come up with anything approaching a plan; money was sent to Tobolsk, but it never arrived. There were rumours that the German terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk included a demand that the imperial family must be handed over to Germany unharmed. Nicholas had not been able to bear the thought: "This is either a manoeuvre to discredit me or an insult." The rumours were not, as it turned out, true. In Moscow, Nicholas's old court chancellor, Benckendorff, brother of the former British amba.s.sador, tried to get the German amba.s.sador, Mirbach, to support a rescue mission. In Kiev, now occupied by the Germans, Mossolov attempted to persuade the German commanders to back a plan to travel up the Volga to Ekaterinburg. He wrote personally to the kaiser about it. He never received a reply. A former German amba.s.sador to Petrograd told him with much embarra.s.sment that the kaiser couldn't reply without consulting his government, and the local German commanders refused to help.

After the war Wilhelm swore that he had tried to get the tsar out. "I did all that was139 humanly possible for the unhappy Tsar and his family, and was seconded heartily by my Chancellor," he told General H.-H. Waters, whom he'd known as a British military attache in Berlin, in the 1930s. He said that Bethmann-Hollweg had come to him with a Danish plan for rescuing the tsar. "How can I do that? There are two fighting lines of German and Russian troops facing each other between him and me!" Wilhelm quoted himself. "Nevertheless I ordered my Chancellor to try and get in touch with the Kerensky government by neutral channels, informing him that if a hair of the Russian Imperial family's head should be injured, I would hold him personally responsible if I should have the possibility of doing so." In Wilhelm's version, Kerensky answered that he was only too happy to provide a train. Wilhelm said he had informed Bethmann-Hollweg he would order the High Commander on the Eastern Front to arrange safe conduct for the tsar's train, and told his brother Heinrich to escort the s.h.i.+p holding the tsar through the minefields. "The blood of the unhappy Tsar is not at humanly possible for the unhappy Tsar and his family, and was seconded heartily by my Chancellor," he told General H.-H. Waters, whom he'd known as a British military attache in Berlin, in the 1930s. He said that Bethmann-Hollweg had come to him with a Danish plan for rescuing the tsar. "How can I do that? There are two fighting lines of German and Russian troops facing each other between him and me!" Wilhelm quoted himself. "Nevertheless I ordered my Chancellor to try and get in touch with the Kerensky government by neutral channels, informing him that if a hair of the Russian Imperial family's head should be injured, I would hold him personally responsible if I should have the possibility of doing so." In Wilhelm's version, Kerensky answered that he was only too happy to provide a train. Wilhelm said he had informed Bethmann-Hollweg he would order the High Commander on the Eastern Front to arrange safe conduct for the tsar's train, and told his brother Heinrich to escort the s.h.i.+p holding the tsar through the minefields. "The blood of the unhappy Tsar is not at my door my door; not on my hands my hands," he told Waters, though why this foolproof plan had failed he was unable to say.

What Wilhelm certainly did do was give his permission on 24 March 1917 to allow Vladimir Lenin-a man more radical than any German Social Democrat-to travel via Germany to Russia, with the explicit intention of creating as much chaos and destabilization in Russia as possible.* The German authorities had already spent hundreds of thousands of marks on funding agents provocateurs to encourage strikes and unrest in Russia, and on Lenin's own The German authorities had already spent hundreds of thousands of marks on funding agents provocateurs to encourage strikes and unrest in Russia, and on Lenin's own141 circle of Bolsheviks. Lenin was taken from the Swiss border through Germany in a "sealed" train-no pa.s.sport or luggage inspections-"like a plague bacillus," in Winston Churchill's famous phrase. circle of Bolsheviks. Lenin was taken from the Swiss border through Germany in a "sealed" train-no pa.s.sport or luggage inspections-"like a plague bacillus," in Winston Churchill's famous phrase.

On 16 July, the day of Nicholas's murder, George went to Roehampton to watch the balloon-training wing of the RAF. The news of the former tsar's death was officially announced three days later. The Bolsheviks claimed the rest of the family were still alive. On 25 July George decreed a month of court mourning and wrote that he and Mary had attended "a service at the Russian church in Welbeck Street in memory of dear Nicky, who I fear was shot last month by the Bolshevists [sic] [sic]. I was devoted to Nicky, who was the kindest of men, a thorough gentleman: loved his country and people." Three days after that he noted that the former British vice-consul in Moscow, Robert Bruce Lockhart, had reported that "dear Nicky" had been shot by the local soviet at Ekaterinburg. "It was nothing more than a brutal murder."142 At the end of August he wrote, "I hear from At the end of August he wrote, "I hear from143 Russia that there is every probability that Alicky and four daughters and little boy were murdered at the same time as Nicky. It is too horrible and shows what fiends those Bolshevists are. For poor Alicky, perhaps it was best so. But those poor innocent children!" Russia that there is every probability that Alicky and four daughters and little boy were murdered at the same time as Nicky. It is too horrible and shows what fiends those Bolshevists are. For poor Alicky, perhaps it was best so. But those poor innocent children!"

George and Stamfordham seem to have tacitly agreed on a kind of wilful amnesia. They were also quick to blame the government for the failure to act. The day of the memorial service for Nicholas, Stamfordham wrote in an outraged tone to Lord Esher: Was there ever144 a crueller murder and has this country ever before displayed such callous indifference to a tragedy of this magnitude: What does it all mean? I am so thankful that the King and Queen attended the memorial service. I have not yet discovered that the PM ... [was] even represented. Where is our national sympathy, grat.i.tude, common decency ... Why didn't the German Emperor make the release of the Czar and family a condition of the Brest-Litovsk peace? a crueller murder and has this country ever before displayed such callous indifference to a tragedy of this magnitude: What does it all mean? I am so thankful that the King and Queen attended the memorial service. I have not yet discovered that the PM ... [was] even represented. Where is our national sympathy, grat.i.tude, common decency ... Why didn't the German Emperor make the release of the Czar and family a condition of the Brest-Litovsk peace?

This was somewhat disingenuous, as only three days before, Stamfordham had told Balfour that George shouldn't145 attend the service for fear of irritating public opinion. attend the service for fear of irritating public opinion.

George's son, the Duke of Windsor, said that the murder shook his father's "confidence in the innate146 decency of mankind. There was a very real bond between him and his first cousin Nicky." He claimed that his father "had personally planned to rescue him with a British cruiser, but in some way the plan was blocked. In any case, it hurt my father that Britain had not raised a hand to save his Cousin Nicky. 'Those politicians,' he used to say. 'If it had been one of their kind they would have acted fast enough.'" decency of mankind. There was a very real bond between him and his first cousin Nicky." He claimed that his father "had personally planned to rescue him with a British cruiser, but in some way the plan was blocked. In any case, it hurt my father that Britain had not raised a hand to save his Cousin Nicky. 'Those politicians,' he used to say. 'If it had been one of their kind they would have acted fast enough.'"

Wilhelm's time came three months after Nicholas's death. In August 1918 Ludendorff overstretched the German army on the Western Front and the Entente-or the Allies, as it now called itself-began to break through. Wilhelm spent most of his time at German military headquarters at Spa, in Belgium, in a Marie Antoinetteesque villa that looked as if it had been built from spun sugar. He entertained himself by digging little trenches and diverting a dam. The industrialist Albert Ballin met him for the last time at the end of September when even the German High Command had admitted it was all but over. He was accompanied by a military minder.

I found the Emperor147 very misdirected and in the elated mood that he affected when a third party was present. Things had been so twisted that even the fearful failure of the offensive, that had caused a severe depression in him at first, had been turned into a success ... the offensive had achieved no more than the loss of the lives of round 100,000 valuable people. The whole thing was served up to the poor monarch in such a way that he had not noticed the catastrophe at all very misdirected and in the elated mood that he affected when a third party was present. Things had been so twisted that even the fearful failure of the offensive, that had caused a severe depression in him at first, had been turned into a success ... the offensive had achieved no more than the loss of the lives of round 100,000 valuable people. The whole thing was served up to the poor monarch in such a way that he had not noticed the catastrophe at all.

In early October, with Wilhelm back in Berlin, a new chancellor, Max von Baden, a cousin of Wilhelm's, formed a government which claimed to represent the liberal left-wing Reichstag majority for the first time, and asked the Allies for an armistice. The Allies demanded stiff terms. The American president, Woodrow Wilson, issued a series of "notes" insisting that Germany must become a full parliamentary democracy and divest itself of its emperor. "It aims directly148 at the fall of my house, and above all at the abolition of the monarch!" Wilhelm sputtered of Wilson's note of 14 October. The fact that his abdication was being debated across Germany was kept from him. at the fall of my house, and above all at the abolition of the monarch!" Wilhelm sputtered of Wilson's note of 14 October. The fact that his abdication was being debated across Germany was kept from him.

On 29 October, encouraged by Dona and the entourage, Wilhelm left Berlin for army headquarters at Spa. It was a bad move; it looked as if the kaiser was running away to the army. Austria made terms that week, and the whole of Germany-with almost the sole exception of Wilhelm's entourage, his family and a few of the High Command-came to believe the kaiser must go. But once in Spa Wilhelm delayed and delayed, chopping wood to calm himself down, saying that if the "Bolsheviks" tried to make him abdicate he would put himself at the head of his army, march to Berlin and hang the traitors, or at very least, "shoot up the town."149 The army and navy chiefs were full of mad plans: a march to Berlin; a suicide cavalry charge led by Wilhelm to save the honour of the monarchy; a last-ditch "death ride" by Wilhelm's beloved navy. The army and navy chiefs were full of mad plans: a march to Berlin; a suicide cavalry charge led by Wilhelm to save the honour of the monarchy; a last-ditch "death ride" by Wilhelm's beloved navy.

With almost exquisite irony, it was that "death ride" plan that sparked the German revolution. On 4 November, at Kiel, the sailors on Wilhelm's precious s.h.i.+ps mutinied. They demanded political reform and the removal of the royal family. Workers' risings spread across Germany. By early November there was a general strike in Berlin. The revolutionaries threatened to put up barricades if Wilhelm didn't go. The Reichstag was terrified that the workers' councils might take over as they had in Russia. Still Wilhelm held out. On the ninth the latest war minister told the kaiser that the army would not fight for him if there was a civil war, and he must abdicate. Wilhelm stared vacantly through lunch and bit his lip. He said he would abdicate as emperor but remain King of Prussia, and sent someone off to draft the papers. Half an hour later he was wondering whether he really had to abdicate at all. The news came that Chancellor Max von Baden had lost patience. With Berlin on the verge of uproar and both the kaiser's phones engaged, he announced that Wilhelm and his eldest son were renouncing the throne, then resigned himself, handing over power to the leader of the Reichstag Socialists, Friedrich Ebert. When he heard the news Wilhelm shouted, "Treachery, treachery,150 shameless, outrageous, treachery!" shameless, outrageous, treachery!"

In London George wrote in his diary: We got the news151 that the German Emperor had abdicated, also the Crown Prince. "How are the mighty fallen." He has been Emperor just over 30 years, he did great things for his country, but his ambition was so great that he wished to dominate the world and created his military machine for that object. No one man can dominate the world, it has been tried before, and now he has utterly ruined his Country and himself and I look upon him as the greatest criminal known for having plunged the world into this ghastly war with all it's [sic] misery that the German Emperor had abdicated, also the Crown Prince. "How are the mighty fallen." He has been Emperor just over 30 years, he did great things for his country, but his ambition was so great that he wished to dominate the world and created his military machine for that object. No one man can dominate the world, it has been tried before, and now he has utterly ruined his Country and himself and I look upon him as the greatest criminal known for having plunged the world into this ghastly war with all it's [sic] misery.

While his generals tried to persuade him to make for neutral Holland, only thirty miles away, Wilhelm sat and smoked, refused to move, insisted that he would return to Berlin or stay with the troops, and grumbled about his former subjects. "The German people are a bunch of pigs," he said, and "There is no other instance in History of a universal act of treachery by a nation against its ruler."152 In Berlin the revolutionaries broke into the Berlin Schloss and somewhat appropriately stole the emperor's clothes. In Berlin the revolutionaries broke into the Berlin Schloss and somewhat appropriately stole the emperor's clothes.

Eventually Wilhelm was persuaded to leave Spa in the small hours of 10 November. Foreign troops were said to be only a few miles away. He was quietly driven to the Dutch border in a car from which all imperial insignias had been scratched off. He reached Holland early in the morning of 11 November. He seemed completely crushed and was desperate not to be left alone, telling his entourage that he was a broken man. The message came finally that the Dutch would offer him asylum, at least temporarily. It was decided that Wilhelm should be moved by train to a small seventeenth-century manor house called Amerongen near Utrecht.

His first words at Amerongen were, "How about a153 cup of good, hot, real English tea?" As he sat down to contemplate his new life, the armistice was signed in Marshal Foch's train in the forest of Compiegne. cup of good, hot, real English tea?" As he sat down to contemplate his new life, the armistice was signed in Marshal Foch's train in the forest of Compiegne.

"William arrived154 in Holland yesterday," George wrote in his diary. "Today has indeed been a wonderful day, the greatest in the history of this Country." Elsewhere in Europe, it was not a good moment for monarchies. Within Germany, the kings of Bavaria and Wurttemberg had been deposed; the ruling grand dukes of Coburg, Hesse and Mecklenburg-Strelitz had all abdicated, and the latter had then shot himself. Emperor Karl of Austria-Hungary, who had inherited after the death of his great-uncle Franz Joseph in 1916, had abdicated on Armistice Day. Ferdinand, self-styled "tsar" of Bulgaria, who had cast his lot in with Germany at the height of its successes, also went that month. George's cousin "Tino," King of Greece, had abdicated in 1917 in favour of his younger son, who would be little more than a puppet and would die of infection from monkey bites in 1920. In Turkey, Sultan Mehmed V had died in May; his brother and successor, Mehmed VI, would be deposed in 1922. in Holland yesterday," George wrote in his diary. "Today has indeed been a wonderful day, the greatest in the history of this Country." Elsewhere in Europe, it was not a good moment for monarchies. Within Germany, the kings of Bavaria and Wurttemberg had been deposed; the ruling grand dukes of Coburg, Hesse and Mecklenburg-Strelitz had all abdicated, and the latter had then shot himself. Emperor Karl of Austria-Hungary, who had inherited after the death of his great-uncle Franz Joseph in 1916, had abdicated on Armistice Day. Ferdinand, self-styled "tsar" of Bulgaria, who had cast his lot in with Germany at the height of its successes, also went that month. George's cousin "Tino," King of Greece, had abdicated in 1917 in favour of his younger son, who would be little more than a puppet and would die of infection from monkey bites in 1920. In Turkey, Sultan Mehmed V had died in May; his brother and successor, Mehmed VI, would be deposed in 1922.

As the Armistice Day crowds came to Buckingham Palace to cheer, George was the only emperor still standing on his balcony.

* "Gospodin": Mr., the new semi-honorific that had replaced the old imperial t.i.tles; "Polkovnik": Colonel. "Gospodin": Mr., the new semi-honorific that had replaced the old imperial t.i.tles; "Polkovnik": Colonel.

* There is great variation in estimates of civilian deaths during the First World War, but all figures agree that German civilian deaths were at least twice and perhaps even four times the British ones. See, for example, the Web site 20th Century Atlas-death tolls. There is great variation in estimates of civilian deaths during the First World War, but all figures agree that German civilian deaths were at least twice and perhaps even four times the British ones. See, for example, the Web site 20th Century Atlas-death tolls.

* Lenin, not expecting help from the German government, had at one stage planned to get through Germany disguised as a deaf, dumb and blind Lenin, not expecting help from the German government, had at one stage planned to get through Germany disguised as a deaf, dumb and blind140 Swede. Swede.

EPILOGUE[image]Eight and a half million soldiers were dead (an estimated 750,000 British, 2 million German, 1.8 million Russian-though the figures vary1), and at least another million or so civilians-up to 700,000 in Germany alone. A further 21 million soldiers had been wounded. The postwar world was a very different place from the pre-war world, one not amenable to the old hierarchies and the whims of kings; in many respects, an ugly world. Europe was not "cleansed" and the worst was by no means over. The violent tearing out of the monarchy in Russia and Germany had left gaping holes which would be filled by extremism and more violence. Russia was already in the grip of a new five-year civil war on a scale even more hideous than the one that had preceded it. It would leave an estimated 8 to 10 million victims of ma.s.sacres, pogroms, disease and starvation, in circ.u.mstances and numbers which seemed only to demonstrate the absolute nadir of human cruelty and destructiveness. Germany was in the midst of a bitter short-lived Communist revolution. Its brutal quelling was the awkward cradle in which German democracy, under the Weimar Republic, was born in January 1919, in circ.u.mstances which only worsened the horrible fractures in German society. The radical Left felt betrayed by the new governing Social Democrats. The extreme Right, nationalists and the army continued to dream of an authoritarian past, coining a powerful but false myth that it was not they who were responsible for Germany's downfall, but the revolutionaries and mutineers who had stabbed Germany in the back just at the point when it was winning. It was a myth that would help to lead Germany into another world war.Soon after the Armistice there were calls for the ex-kaiser to be punished for his part in the war. Someone, it was felt, should be called to account for the carnage. On 7 December David Lloyd George, fighting a general election in London, said that the ex-kaiser should hang and that he planned to try him in Westminster Hall. Immediately the British press was full of headlines: "Hang the Kaiser!" "Make Germany Pay!" In February 1919 the Allies tried to pressure the Dutch into handing him over. The Treaty of Versailles demanded the extradition of over 1,000 German war criminals for trial, including Wilhelm.Wilhelm was convinced he'd be executed if he stood trial abroad. He worried about being kidnapped and taken to The Hague, and wondered about getting himself a police guard. He knew that his presence was not popular in Holland. There had been a number of half-hearted attempts to get at him-none of them very serious. With typical operetta-style ineffectuality, his entourage discussed disguising him and sending him into hiding. Wilhelm refused to shave off his moustache, though he said he could turn the ends down, and pointed out people would recognize his withered arm-one of the few occasions when he directly mentioned it. Instead he grew his beard and took to his bed for six weeks, wearing a bandage around his head, hoping it would make the Dutch feel sorry for him. It was Dona, however, who was genuinely ill. She had heart disease, a condition she had consistently minimized so as not to burden her husband; after her arrival at Amerongen, she spent most of her time in bed.The ex-kaiser's entourage considered asking George to protest about Wilhelm's extradition. The king utterly disapproved of his cousin being treated as a war criminal-he subjected Lloyd George to a "violent tirade" on the subject. He would not, however, intervene on Wilhelm's behalf. In the war's four years he'd lost all sympathy for his cousin. When his son Bertie encountered Wilhelm's daughter Victoria a few weeks after the Armistice, she said she hoped that "we should be friends again." Bertie told her that he didn't think it would be possible. George agreed: "The sooner she knows the real feeling of bitterness which exists here against her country the better."2 To the end of his life, he refused to have any contact with Wilhelm. To the end of his life, he refused to have any contact with Wilhelm.The Dutch government rejected every attempt to extradite the former kaiser; there were laws in Holland protecting aliens who had sought sanctuary there on political grounds. After Versailles, moreover, the demands for Wilhelm's punishment were never pursued, at least on Lloyd George's part, with much real energy. He regarded them as crowd-pleasing rhetoric for an angry domestic market, and hoped they would divert criticism from the new German government....When the U.S. president, Woodrow Wilson, came to London in December 1918, George took an instant dislike to him. Wilson, who was even more awkward and shy than George, had become, with his talk of free states, the flag-bearer of republicanism and independence. The king also felt the president was high-handed, gave America too much credit for winning the war and failed to acknowledge the sacrifices that British troops had made. Perhaps he could feel the initiative in world affairs s.h.i.+fting quietly and permanently from Britain to America as they spoke. When he suggested that Wilson march his troops to Russia to "protect the country from Bolshevism," Wilson told him the American army had come to Europe for one purpose only. "After that I never thought much of the man ... I could not bear him, an entirely cold academical professor-an odious man."3By Russian and German standards, Britain was calm and stable. The monarchy was intact. The war actually increased the size of the British empire. Because its armies were in control of the Middle East, it found itself the dominant power there. At the Versailles Conference it scooped up the old German colonies in Africa. And since the war had been fought with imperial troops-Canadian, antipodean, South African and Indian soldiers had all contributed-it looked like an imperial victory, a triumph binding the empire more closely than ever.The feeling of elation at the war's end quickly gave way to a sense of disappointment and frustration: a generation of young men was dead, and there was no sign of the promised Elysium. There was anger at low war pensions, a housing shortage, high inflation. Shortly after the war, George went to Hyde Park with his son and heir, David, Prince of Wales, to inspect a parade of 15,000 ex-servicemen disabled by the war. There was, David gradually realized as he watched his father ride down the lines, something wrong, "a sullen unresponsiveness" in the men. Suddenly, banners appeared. Someone shouted, "Where is this land fit for heroes?" A group of soldiers broke rank and ran towards George. He was cut off from his entourage and seemed about to be pulled to the ground. As it turned out the men just wanted to touch his hand. But it was a frightening moment. The king had no vocabulary for what he'd witnessed. "'Those men were in a funny temper,' he said. And shaking his head, as if to rid himself of any unpleasant memory, he strode indoors."4The war marked the high point of British territorial acquisition, and also the beginning of the empire's unravelling. In Ireland, the British government fought a war from January 1919 to 1921, acquiescing with bad grace to Irish independence in 1922. The Versailles Conference confirmed the right of the Dominions (the white colonies) to be autonomous nations within the Commonwealth-a right they believed they'd earned by fighting. Never again would a British king be able to declare war on their behalf. The 800,000 Indian troops (of whom 60,000 died) who had fought in the war encouraged the Indian independence movement to argue that India too had earned its right to self-government, and to begin a campaign of disobedience. The reaction of the British colonial government-the imposition of a dictatorial regime in 1918 worthy of tsarist Russia, complete with press censors.h.i.+p, arrest without warrant, detention without trial, martial law and an ugly and wholly avoidable ma.s.sacre of 379 civilians at Amritsar in April 1919-only strengthened that conviction, and caused so much shame in Britain that it set India, slowly, on the road to independence.When Nicholas's sister Xenia and his mother, Marie, escaped from the Crimea with a boatload of Romanov relations in 1919, George offered the women asylum-the men were told "their presence would be5 blamed on the King's influence." blamed on the King's influence."* Marie retired to Denmark, where she infuriated her nephew the Danish king with her extravagance. George settled a pension on her (which several of his in-laws complained about having to contribute towards) but wouldn't let her have a cheque book in case she spent it all at once. To Xenia, who was also disastrous with money (she mainly kept giving it away to down-at-heel Romanov relations), George gave a pension and a grace-and-favour house at Windsor and later at Hampton Court. After Marie died in 1928 her famous jewellery collection, which had been valued at one time, according to Fritz Ponsonby, at between 350,000 and half a million pounds, was sold off to provide money for her two daughters. It brought in just over 100,000 and Mary bought a lot of it. The difference in value could be accounted for by the slump and the fact that the market was awash with Russian heirlooms, but the sisters found it hard to shake the feeling that there was something a little discomfiting about their cousin-in-law, on whom the family now so depended, acquiring the family jewels at a cut-rate price. Marie retired to Denmark, where she infuriated her nephew the Danish king with her extravagance. George settled a pension on her (which several of his in-laws complained about having to contribute towards) but wouldn't let her have a cheque book in case she spent it all at once. To Xenia, who was also disastrous with money (she mainly kept giving it away to down-at-heel Romanov relations), George gave a pension and a grace-and-favour house at Windsor and later at Hampton Court. After Marie died in 1928 her famous jewellery collection, which had been valued at one time, according to Fritz Ponsonby, at between 350,000 and half a million pounds, was sold off to provide money for her two daughters. It brought in just over 100,000 and Mary bought a lot of it. The difference in value could be accounted for by the slump and the fact that the market was awash with Russian heirlooms, but the sisters found it hard to shake the feeling that there was something a little discomfiting about their cousin-in-law, on whom the family now so depended, acquiring the family jewels at a cut-rate price.Separated by a small channel of water and a war on a scale that no one had seen before, George, fifty-three, and Wilhelm, sixty, in early 1919, contemplated the future. Nicholas lay in an anonymous grave in Eastern Siberia.Wilhelm spent the rest of his life in Holland. He moved in 1920 to Haus Doorn, a modest seventeenth-century manor house, bought with the proceeds of the sale of a couple of yachts. There he lived with a small court of forty-six, including twenty-six servants, for the next twenty-three years. The house was stuffed with the contents of the twenty-three railway wagons, twenty-five furniture wagons and twenty-seven wagons of packages (including a car and a boat) which the Weimar government had sent him from Germany. The German government also agreed to acknowledge U.S. $2 million of land Wilhelm owned in Berlin, and in 1926 arranged for the transfer of millions of marks in cash and some 10 to 12 million marks of stocks and bonds. Wilhelm, nevertheless, always complained he'd been shoddily treated by the German government; to requests for financial a.s.sistance he always replied that he barely had enough to live on himself. He died worth an estimated 14 million marks. An equivalent figure in today's money6 would be around $62.5 million. Perhaps if one had been Emperor of Germany it wouldn't have seemed that much. would be around $62.5 million. Perhaps if one had been Emperor of Germany it wouldn't have seemed that much.As a symbol of what he'd lost, he abandoned the military uniforms he'd worn since he was eighteen and adopted civilian dress-blue serge suits, loden capes, a little hunting hat and a tie pin with a miniature of Queen Victoria on it. He gave up hunting and riding-and made his entourage do so too-and took to walking round his estate and feeding the ducks in the moat, taking very occasional car rides round the nearby countryside in his Mercedes cabriolet. It must have been deeply oppressive for a man who had become accustomed to escaping from himself-and awkward feelings-with incessant and compulsive travel. Instead he let off steam by cutting down trees (with the help of a couple of servants), a habit that became an addiction. He chopped down his twenty thousandth tree on his seventieth birthday in 1929. The logs were distributed to the poor or turned into matchsticks and handed out like decorations to the curious and the faithful who came to visit.In September 1920 Dona and Wilhelm's youngest son, and her favourite, Joachim, shot himself in the depths of depression. He was addicted to gambling and his wife had left him. A devastated Dona died seven months later, in April 1921. Wilhelm received 10,000 messages of condolence-a mark perhaps more of the respect with which Dona had been regarded in Germany than real enthusiasm for himself. There was no message from George, which particularly stung Wilhelm. The only member of the British family who did write was his aunt Beatrice, two years his senior, whom he'd always disliked. The kaiser, his young aide Sigurd von Ilsemann noted, was miserable for two weeks. After that, he complained about being lonely. He remarried eighteen months later, in 1923. The bride, Princess Hermine von Schonaich-Carolath, was thirty years his junior, a determined widow with five children who had set out to bag the ex-kaiser and liked to be addressed as "Empress." The entourage and Wilhelm's children regarded her as an egregious gold-digger with a nasty face. Some felt they deserved each other, but she did at least make life with the ex-kaiser a little easier.Never learning, never changing, cooped up in Haus Doorn unable to escape himself, Wilhelm was very difficult to live with. He raged at the injustice of fate and the "lies of Versailles" and engaged in permanent self-justification, rewriting the past, blaming everyone else for the fall of Germany, the end of the Hohenzollerns and the failures of his reign, and hoping that the German people-for whom he expressed only contempt-would come to their senses and "beg me to come and save them."7 In 1922 his valet of twenty years, unable to bear it anymore, ran off in tears. None of his children chose to share exile with him; all but one returned to Germany, where w.i.l.l.y, Eitel Frederick and August-Wilhelm ("Auwi") became mixed up in monarchist and far-right circles, hoping to see the monarchy returned, and later flirted with n.a.z.ism. Adalbert, the third son, disa.s.sociated himself from his relations and was considered to be strongly anti-n.a.z.i. He moved quietly to Switzerland. It was hard to avoid the feeling that the family was broken. A rump of the entourage, habituated to a lifetime of deference and obedience, unable to imagine a German republic, stayed, continuing to stand for hours after dinner, exasperated but uncomplaining, while Wilhelm monologued over and over about how Edward VII had conspired against him; how Tirpitz and Ludendorff and Hindenburg and Max von Baden had betrayed him; how George had gone to war to further Edward's encirclement plans; and how the Freemasons, the Catholics, the French, the British, the Bolsheviks and, increasingly and more darkly as the years pa.s.sed, the Jews especially had plotted to destroy him. Reading Bernhard von Bulow's memoirs in the late 1920s, Sigurd von Ilsemann, the endlessly patient young aide who had followed Wilhelm into exile after only a few weeks of service in 1918, was "struck over and over In 1922 his valet of twenty years, unable to bear it anymore, ran off in tears. None of his children chose to share exile with him; all but one returned to Germany, where w.i.l.l.y, Eitel Frederick and August-Wilhelm ("Auwi") became mixed up in monarchist and far-right circles, hoping to see the monarchy returned, and later flirted with n.a.z.ism. Adalbert, the third son, disa.s.sociated himself from his relations and was considered to be strongly anti-n.a.z.i. He moved quietly to Switzerland. It was hard to avoid the feeling that the family was broken. A rump of the entourage, habituated to a lifetime of deference and obedience, unable to imagine a German republic, stayed, continuing to stand for hours after dinner, exasperated but uncomplaining, while Wilhelm monologued over and over about how Edward VII had conspired against him; how Tirpitz and Ludendorff and Hindenburg and Max von Baden had betrayed him; how George had gone to war to further Edward's encirclement plans; and how the Freemasons, the Catholics, the French, the British, the Bolsheviks and, increasingly and more darkly as the years pa.s.sed, the Jews especially had plotted to destroy him. Reading Bernhard von Bulow's memoirs in the late 1920s, Sigurd von Ilsemann, the endlessly patient young aide who had followed Wilhelm into exile after only a few weeks of service in 1918, was "struck over and over8 again by how little the Kaiser has changed since those times. Almost everything that occurred then still happens now, the only difference being that his actions, which then had grave significance and practical consequences, now do no damage." again by how little the Kaiser has changed since those times. Almost everything that occurred then still happens now, the only difference being that his actions, which then had grave significance and practical consequences, now do no damage."Safe from the threat of a trial, the ex-kaiser set about writing-or having ghostwritten-his version of the events that had led to the war. Ereignisse und Gestalten Ereignisse und Gestalten (Events and Figures) came out in 1922; (Events and Figures) came out in 1922; Aus meinem Leben Aus meinem Leben, published in Britain as My Early Life My Early Life, in 1927. The books were, predictably, litanies of injustices perpetrated against him-from his mother's pus.h.i.+ng and his tutor's bullying, through his chancellors', ministers' and relations' betrayals, to the criminal fickleness of British ministers and the German people-drenched in self-pity and, occasionally and unintentionally, very comic. Never did Wilhelm accept that he was in any