Imperial Requiem: Four Royal Women and the Fall of the Age of Empires (99 page)

40. Gelardi,
Born to Rule
, p. 57.

41. Charlotte Knollys to Mrs. Archibald Knollys, November 25, 1894, MSS 21M69/25/2. Knollys Papers, Hampshire Record Office, quoted in
Born to Rule
, Gelardi, p. 57.

42. King,
The Last Empress
, p. 76.

43. Frederic Hamilton,
The Vanished World of Yesterday
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1950), p. 475.

44. Carter,
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm
, p. 182.

7: “Only Give Me a Chance”

1. Catherine Radziwill,
Nicholas II: The Last of the Tsars
(London: Cassell, 1931), p. 89.

2. Tsarina Alexandra to Prince Louis of Battenberg, January 10, 1895, in MSS MB1/T95, Broadlands Archives, Hartley Library, University of Southampton, quoted in
Born to Rule
, Gelardi, p. 58.

3. Gelardi,
Born to Rule
, pp. 62–63.

4. Daily Telegraph
, November 16, 1895.

5. Gelardi,
Born to Rule
, pp. 62-63.

6. Erickson,
Alexandra
, p. 107.

7. Gelardi,
From Splendor to Revolution
, p. 150.

8. Kurth,
Tsar
, p. 58.

9. Gelardi,
From Splendor to Revolution
, p. 155.

10. Kurth,
Tsar
, pp. 58-59.

11. Gelardi,
Born to Rule
, p. 69.

12. Empress Marie Feodorovna to Queen Louise of Denmark, May 16/28, 1896, in
From Splendor to Revolution
, Gelardi, p. 156.

13. Erickson,
Alexandra
, p. 109.

14. Empress Marie Feodorovna to Queen Louise of Denmark, undated, 1896, in
From Splendor to Revolution
, Gelardi, p. 157.

15. Maylunas and Mironenko,
Lifelong Passion
, p. 151.

16. Queen Marie,
The Story of My Life
, vol. 2, p. 73.

17. Erickson,
Alexandra
, p. 113.

18. Ibid., p. 115.

19. Hibbert,
Queen Victoria
, p. 509.

20. Carter,
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm
, p. 168.

21. Hibbert,
Queen Victoria
, p. 509.

22. Gelardi,
Born to Rule
, p. 73.

23. Hibbert,
Queen Victoria
, p. 509.

24. Diary entry of Queen Victoria, October 3, 1896, in
The Letters of Queen Victoria: Third Series, A Selection From Her Majesty’s Correspondence and Journal Between the Years 1886 and 1901
(London: John Murray, 1932), ed. George Earle Buckle, vol. 3, p. 88.

25. Gelardi,
Born to Rule
, p. 73.

26. Woodward,
Queen Mary
, p. 120.

27. David Sinclar,
Two Georges: The Making of the Modern Monarchy
(London: Hodder & Stroughton, 1998), p. 107.

28. Mark Logue and Peter Conradi,
The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy
(Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2010), p. 47.

29. Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, to Prince Alexander of Teck, December 20, 1895, in
Three Consort Queens
, Wakeford, p. 165.

30. Hibbert,
Queen Victoria
, p. 332.

31. Diary entry of Queen Victoria, December 14, 1895, in
Queen Victoria in Her Letters
, Hibbert, p. 331.

32. John Wheeler-Bennett,
King George VI: His Life and Reign
(New York: Macmillan, 1958), p. 7.

33. Diary entry of Queen Victoria, December 16, 1895, in ibid.

34. Bradford,
King George VI
, p. 2.

35. This wedding was yet another example of the complex intermarriages of Europe’s royal families. Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh was a first cousin of Wilhelm II. Prince Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was a first cousin of Augusta Victoria’s.

36. May, Duchess of York, to Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, April 15, 1896, in
Queen Mary
, Pope-Hennessy, p. 318.

37. Wakeford,
Three Consort Queens
, p. 165.

38. Duff,
Queen Mary
, p. 97.

39. Hector Bolitho,
King George VI
(New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1938), p. 18.

40. Duff,
Queen Mary
, p. 100.

41. Richard Hough,
Born Royal: The Lives and Loves of the Young Windsors
(London: Bantam Books, 1988), p. 11.

42. This statute has been in effect ever since, although Queen Elizabeth II announced in 2011 that she planned to repeal this law.

43. England was unified with Scotland by the Treaty of Union in 1707, which was ratified by the Acts of Union that same year. The unification of these realms created the Kingdom of Great Britain. It was under King George III in 1800 that Ireland was brought under the crown by another Act of Union, thus creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

44. Diary entry of May, Duchess of York, June 22, 1897, in
Queen Mary
, Duff, pp. 100–101.

45. Marfa Mouchanow,
My Empress
(New York: John Lane, 1928), p. 91.

46. Boston Evening Post
, August 9, 1897.

47. Erickson,
Alexandra
, p. 240.

48. Ibid., p. 118.

49. Carter,
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm
, p. 177.

50. Wakeford,
Three Consort Queens
, p. 166.

51. Alexandra, Princess of Wales, to Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, undated, 1897, in
Matriarch
, Edwards, p. 95.

52. May, Duchess of York, to Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, November 3, 1897, in ibid.

53. Queen Victoria to Princess Victoria of Battenberg, November 17, 1890, in
Advice to a Grand-daughter
, Hough, pp. 139–140.

54. Wakeford,
Three Consort Queens
, p. 149.

55. Duff,
Queen Mary
, p. 92.

56. Hough,
Born Royal
, p. 50.

57. Gelardi,
In Triumph’s Wake
, p. 331.

58. Gelardi,
Born to Rule,
p. 85.

59. Diary entry of Queen Victoria, undated, September 1897, in
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm
, Carter, p. 195.

60. Wakeford,
Three Consort Queens
, p. 167.

61. Queen Victoria to Princess Victoria of Battenberg, April 1, 1899, in
Advice to a Grand-daughter
, Hough, p. 144.

62. Isabel V. Hull,
The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II 1888–1918
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 19.

63. Carter,
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm
, p. 222.

64. Daily Mail
, November 22, 1899.

65. Gould Lee,
The Empress Frederick Writes to Sophie
, p. 325. Vicky’s reference to Adelaide being three years older than her is a strange error. It was a widely known fact that Adelaide was five years older than the Empress Frederick.

66. Hibbert,
Queen Victoria
, p. 543.

67. Boston Women’s Health Collective,
Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth
(New York: Touchstone Books, 2008), pp. 489–491.

68. Clark,
Kaiser Wilhelm II
(Kobo desktop version), chap. 1, para. 40.

69. Cecil,
Wilhelm II
, p. 3.

70. New York Times
, November 26, 1900.

71. Röhl,
Wilhelm II
, p. 627.

72. Ibid., p. 626.

73. Hull,
Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II
, p. 19.

74. Massie,
Dreadnought
, p. 671.

75. Hull,
Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II
, p. 19.

76. Massie,
Dreadnought
, p. 671.

77. Van der Kiste,
Kaiser Wilhelm II
, p. 106.

78. Brook-Shepherd,
The Last Habsburg
, p. 4.

79. David James Smith,
One Morning in Sarajevo: 28 June 1914
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008), p. 68.

80. Eppinghoven,
Private Lives
, vol. 2, p. 254.

81. Tyler-Whittle,
The Last Kaiser
, p. 128.

82. Massie,
Dreadnought
, p. 296.

83. Diary entry of Queen Victoria, July 31, 1900, in
Queen Victoria
, Hibbert, p. 346.

84. Carter,
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm
, p. 128.

85. Ibid., p. 129.

86. King Edward VII to the Empress Frederick, February 1, 1901, in
Edward VII: Prince and King
(London: Collins, 1979), Giles St Aubyn, p. 314.

87. Diary entry of George, Duke of York, January 22, 1901, in
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm
, Carter, p. 229.