Now all roads lead to France and heavy is the tread
Of the living; but the dead returning lightly dance.
Edward Thomas, Roads

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Queen Victoria's Ghost: Her Majesty's 1914 European Family


Created by Assistant Editor Kimball Worcester

It was not just the cousins Nicky, Willy, and Georgie who went to war in 1914.

Click on Image to Expand

9 comments:

  1. What an incredible graphic! We've always heard about George, Willy and Nicky being cousins. It has never been clear to me that Willy and Nicky were actually second cousins once removed, but the Czarina was Willy's first cousin.

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  2. Here's another observation. About everybody seemed to be kin to about everybody else, except for the Hapsburgs, who seem to have been isolated. Would events have been affected if there had been a Hapsburg connection, too?

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  3. Yes, interesting point. Of course, Hapsburgs were Catholic (and yes, so was the Spanish monarch, but that was something of an anomalous marriage for a member of the British royals) and pretty much only married each other : ).

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  4. Kimball, thanks so much for this. I have read lots of books about Victoria, her children, and the Willy-Nicky-George aspect, and looked at family trees, but this graphic is really stunning in its impact.

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    1. Thanks so much, Diane. I love this stuff, clearly.

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  5. You can tell that I find this stuff interesting. A little more research shows that Archduke Rudolf, the son of Franz Josef and 'crown prince' of Austria was married to Princess Stephanie of Belgium, daughter of Leopold II and granddaughter of Queen Victoria's uncle Leopold. So, if Rudolf had ever succeeded to the crown, there would have been a connection. Of course, Rudolf died in a scandal in 1889.

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  6. Indeed! And there was no male issue, so poor A-H sits in isolation :)

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  7. A real aid, thank you.

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