Nicholas and Alexandra - the background

I have a number of interesting books about Queen Mary of England as well as one containing the letters Tsar Nicholas II wrote to the Tsarina Alexandra as well as the daily diaries of the Tsar and his family.   The Tsar wrote letters on a daily basis to Alexandra - the letters were in English.

You wrote about the cruel and callous behavior of King George V to his cousin an his family and I hope the above could explain some of the intrigue involved.

By 1890 Queen Victoria was looking for wives for the sons of at the then Edward of Wales - Albert Victor (Duke of Clarence) and George (Duke of York - the later King George V)   Both the sons were rather weak characters so Queen Victoria was looking for wives with stronger characters to marry them.   Her first effort was to get a wife for  Albert Victor - the elder of the two and one of the princesses involved was the future Tsarina Alexandra.   She turned the suggestion down flat and so did other princesses of German origin.   Queen Victoria then invited Princess Mary Victoria of Teck and her brothers to Balmoral Castle to see whether the Princess will make a suitable future Queen.   After that the marriage was arranged and the two got engaged.  However, before the marriage could take place Albert Victor died of pneumonia.  

The problem at the time was that Princess May of Teck was not a princess of the royal blood and a fairly low candidate to marry Albert Victor since her grandfather - the Crown Prince of Wurttemburg married morganatically a countess from Hungary and renounced the crown of Baden-Wurttemburg.   Her father was a favourite of the Kaizer Franz Joseph of Austria and on his request the King of Wurttemburg gave his cousin the title the Duke of Teck.   He became  involved in the British  situation when he married Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge.   The latter was known as Fat Mary of which the Prime Minmister once wrote that no German Prince would enter into such a vast undertaking.   Be it as it may the issue must have affected the later Queen Mary throughout her life - she was by all accounts a hard woman who totally controlled King George V and was a poor unfeeling mother as well.

Even before the death of Albert Victor Queen Victoria wrote to the future Alexandra of Russia to suggest that she marry Prince George - Duke of York.   Her answer was that "Prince George was a beloved chum - but she would not marry him",    Based on the problems she previously had in finding a wife for Prince Albert Victor Queen Victoria then decided to get Prince George to marry Mary  Teck.

There is no way that the later Queen Mary did not dislike the  Tsarina with a passion and I believe that is the reason for King George V in refusing to help his cousin and even refused him and his family to flee to England was caused by Queen Mary.   Incidentally the king did help the Empress Marie (Minnie) and the Grand Duchess Xenia as well as their associates and friends to escape from Russia and why not the Tsar and his family?   They did not even had to live in the UK - they could have settled in any of the Dominions.   I think it was entirely due to Queen Mary and the fact that King George V was a weakling under  the thumb of his wife.  

The above account may give an answer insofar as the actions of King George V in this case is concerned.                

Mike, I don't know and I don't think anybody knows. The royals have always been a secretive family and such things are kept well hidden but I did find your account interesting and probable.

Victoria was a matriarch, an extremely dominant woman which was a paradox in the royal family especially in her day and age. This seems still to be the case in the royals...the woman are strong and the men weak.

Nicholas was a kind and good father to his family and a likeable man but he was as far as a leader, weak...he also was anti-jew which is very bad and like his father and grandfather persecuted the Jews in Russia. This is very wrong and hypocritical, especially claiming an Orthodox form of Christianity. They believed in the divine right of kings which is false.

If you look at King George V too he had skeletons in his cupboard...was weak and immoral.

Such characters are disloyal, self-centred and cannot be trusted...if you are not true to your wife, then it is unlikely that other members of your family will get better treatment. His abandonment of his Russian cousin is cowardly and too ghastly to even comprehend.

I enjoyed the series, The Crown, very good acting in Elizabeth, Margaret and Phillip but with poor acting in JFK and Jackie. It was a very human and sensitive account...I guess it must be authentic as it must have met the approval of her majesty herself.

Most of the men are weak...the worst was Edward (David) Duke of Windsor, a puppy on heat running after that common divorcee bitch from America, except King George VI who was a very good king, Phillip too is no pushover and had the hardest job of all being husband to the queen. All the woman are strong however... Victoria, Queen Mother and Elizabeth.

Coming back to Tsarist Russia... I believe all would have been well if Nicholas had settled for a constitutional monarch (like in Great Britain)...the moderates (mensheviks) actually were the majority, the Bolsheviks (Red Army) overthrown by the White army with the support of Great Britain and USA forces. This oversight is one of the saddest and biggest mistakes in the history of all mankind.

Mike very interesting and thank you for this. When George VI...Bertie was not crowned before his gutless brother David, King Edward got the hots for a most undesirable woman (when he could have had the cream of beautiful hopefuls in the entire world...what a fool.) he destroyed the respect of the Royal family and it was left to dear Bertie (who was a stutterer) but a huge character...a very good person with huge integrity who was strong (a secret strength brought about by his enormous sense of duty) a quality he passed on to his eldest daughter, Elizabeth. I have huge respect for the Queen, she is truly a lady who has done better than all the men...she is truly a phenomena ...a very precious person who incidentally still works every day at her ripe old age as we all know , who never shirks her duties and still continues her duties when most men have been retired for 30 years or more. What a person!

Many years ago when I started varsity in Natal, us barflies (student at Natal University) used to gather together in Durban at our favourite pub at the Edward Hotel.

There we met an old man Norman Montague Fogg, who was affectionately known as "Foggy" to us all. We used to meet to do the place accumulator with the anticipation of winning a few rands to enlighten our poverty as students. Norman was an expert with the geegees and was always a contributor and shareholder to our syndicate. He was an English aristocrat who lost his farm at Thomsons Falls and money in Kenya. Norman was titled I believe but he kept this mum because he was humble.

But one day after many brandies he, unable to walk, I took him home to his dingy hotel room on Durban's beachfront...he showed me several photo's of himself when young at university in England playing golf with Bertie before he became king...I could not believe it but he knew the future king well. He had lost everything in Kenya and was reduced to near poverty but his class and breeding was unmistakeable...he was actually a fully qualified barrister but I gather he was posted out to the colonies as a "remittance man"because as a young man he probably put some young lass "up the spout".

I lost contact with him when I moved back to the Cape. His end was tragic...he finally was found dead in his hotel room...probably due to drink...his body was rotting and stinking and the authorities wanted to give him a paupers grave as he had not a cent in his intestate. One of my mates who was at Maritzburg College with me, heard about this and arranged for him to have a dignified funeral and he was buried at the Stellawood cemetery in Glenwood , Durban.

Why I am telling you this is because he knew the future king well and later played golf again in Kenya with him  prior to ascending the throne. I saw several old photo's he showed me. He told me quite a lot...they were good buddies.