George V was less reprehensible, but hardly a great figurehead for the largest empire on earth. His detachment and lack of self-awareness meant that when in May 1896 a stampede at a feast in Khodynka to mark his coronation left thousands of his subjects dead, the tsar didn't stay at home to mourn instead he spent the evening at a ball, and was photographed there drinking champagne. Tsar Nicholas II, meanwhile, was a deeply indecisive leader, happiest at home with his family, with a court of some 16,000 people (including 200 ladies in waiting for the tsarina) insulating him from the harsh realities of his medieval empire. Throughout his life he was torn between a desperate need to be loved by Britain and a fanatical hatred of its power. Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II – Queen Victoria's first-born grandchild – was arrogant, posturing, unpredictable and, in the opinion of many who met him, mad. And so it was that at the outbreak of the first world war, the heads of state of Britain, Russia and Germany were cousins. I n the mid-19th century, received wisdom had it that the way to ensure goodwill between nations was for their royal families to inter-marry.
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