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Royal Cousins at War: Episode 2: Into the Abyss

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Into the Abyss

Episode 2

Episode 2: Into the Abyss

Royal Cousins at War

BBC Two - Royal Cousins at War, Into the Abyss

A look at the emergence of the alliance system after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901.

The roles played by cousins Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and King George V of England in the desperate, frantic summer of 1914.

This episode looks at the realignment of the European powers and the emergence of the alliance system in the years following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. It examines the key role played by royalty in smoothing the path to the Anglo-Russian entente of 1907 and the part played by the kaiser's erratic, unstable personality in the growing isolation of Germany in the years leading up to 1914. 

It explores the role played by each of the three monarchs in the frantic, desperate days of July and August 1914. And it tells the tragic story of King George's refusal to grant his cousin and close friend Tsar Nicholas asylum in England following the Russian Revolution of 1917 - a refusal that would lead directly to the brutal murder of the tsar and his family by the Bolsheviks in the summer of 1918.

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Two-part documentary revealing how Europe's royal relatives went to war with each other.

How Europe's royal relatives, despite ties of blood and marriage, ended up at war with each other.

Simulcast of network BBC Two in high definition.

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