1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,880 Speaker 1: You're listening to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart 2 00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:10,480 Speaker 1: Radio and Aaron Minky listener discretion advised. On July sixteenth, 3 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:14,520 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, the Imperial Russian family was woken up by 4 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: guards in the middle of the night. The guards said 5 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: that enemy combatants were approaching the house where they were 6 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:23,480 Speaker 1: being kept in a Katrinberg, and they needed to go 7 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:29,000 Speaker 1: down to the cellar for their own protection. For sixteen months, 8 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:32,920 Speaker 1: Szar Nicholas the second, his wife Alexandra, and their five 9 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:37,839 Speaker 1: children had been in government custody. First, they were prisoners 10 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,600 Speaker 1: in their palace at Sarko Cello outside Petrograd, the city 11 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:46,720 Speaker 1: formerly known as the now much to German sounding St. Petersburg. Next, 12 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 1: the family was brought to Tobolsk in Siberia. Finally, in 13 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:53,920 Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen eighteen, the family came to a 14 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: Katrinburg to live in a residence given the ominous name 15 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:03,680 Speaker 1: the House of Special Purpose Is. The family assumed eventually 16 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:07,240 Speaker 1: they would be brought somewhere else, somewhere farther away, more remote, 17 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: even more decrepit and depressing than the place Nakatchinburg, with 18 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: its windows all painted white so no one could see 19 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: in or out, and so when they were woken up 20 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,480 Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, nobody panicked or feared. 21 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:25,920 Speaker 1: They took their time getting dressed, lining the secret compartments 22 00:01:25,959 --> 00:01:28,880 Speaker 1: of their clothes and pillow cases with the jewels they 23 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:31,679 Speaker 1: had managed to keep hidden in case they were leaving 24 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:35,320 Speaker 1: the House of Special Purposes for the last time. As 25 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:40,360 Speaker 1: it turns out they were. The seller was small and 26 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:44,479 Speaker 1: very dark. The youngest child, their only son, Alexei, had 27 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:47,160 Speaker 1: to be carried down the stairs by his father Nicholas. 28 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:50,440 Speaker 1: As they all stood in the gloom, the former Serena 29 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:55,040 Speaker 1: Alexandra asked the guards why there were no chairs, and 30 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:58,080 Speaker 1: so two were brought, one for her and one for 31 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 1: the sickly young he Mulphila Air. When everyone was settled, 32 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 1: the captain of the guards cleared his throat and read 33 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: the written proclamation from the leaders of the new Russian government, 34 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:14,560 Speaker 1: declaring that the former's are Nicholas, was to be executed. 35 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: Nicholas was in disbelief. Read that again he said, no, wait, 36 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:23,200 Speaker 1: give it here, give it to me. That's when the 37 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:28,120 Speaker 1: soldiers with guns came in from the next room. The 38 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: story of the Romanov family, their lightning fast slipped from 39 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:37,080 Speaker 1: decadence to gruesome murder continues to invite a macab fascination 40 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: more than a century later. For many, the entree into 41 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:44,400 Speaker 1: the story of the doomed Tsar and his children comes 42 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:47,960 Speaker 1: from the legend of Anastasia, the rumor that the Tsar's 43 00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:51,919 Speaker 1: youngest daughter somehow managed to get away. Nothing is more 44 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,760 Speaker 1: captivating than hope, even when that hope is doomed. Maybe 45 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:59,000 Speaker 1: especially when that hope is doomed. It's a maccab. What 46 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:04,120 Speaker 1: if Anastasia's possible survival is to imagine a tiny sliver 47 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 1: of the imperial glamor preserved through time, one daughter left 48 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:13,320 Speaker 1: to continue the family tree, to transform the massacre into 49 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 1: an origin story, to give us a happy ending. Spoiler alert, 50 00:03:18,919 --> 00:03:23,720 Speaker 1: Anastasia didn't get away, But if you look to history, 51 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:27,800 Speaker 1: there was another thread of hope, an alternate reality in 52 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:30,959 Speaker 1: which the Romanov family was saved at the eleventh hour. 53 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: For a brief moment in time, it seemed that their 54 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:40,480 Speaker 1: savior would be King George the fifth of England. Before 55 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:45,119 Speaker 1: the Romanov execution, the provisional government in Russia asked King 56 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 1: George whether the Imperial family might be granted asylum in 57 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:53,480 Speaker 1: the UK. The Czar was George's first cousin, and they 58 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:56,560 Speaker 1: looked so much alike. People often joked that they were twins, 59 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 1: and their letters that called each other Georgie and Nikki. 60 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 1: But for a monarch, sometimes protecting your own crown means 61 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: being forced to make tough choices, right or wrong. George 62 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:15,600 Speaker 1: the five had to make a decision. I'm Dani Schwartz 63 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:26,080 Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. The King and Queen of 64 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:31,279 Speaker 1: Denmark had two daughters, Dagmar and Alexandra. Dagmar married the 65 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:35,240 Speaker 1: futures Are of Russia, and Alexandra married the oldest son 66 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:39,840 Speaker 1: of Queen Victoria. Both Dagmar and Alexandra did their queenly 67 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:42,280 Speaker 1: duties and had airs the way they were supposed to 68 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 1: in Russia Nicholas the Second in England the future King 69 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:51,839 Speaker 1: George five. They called each other Nicki and Georgie. The 70 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:56,360 Speaker 1: cousins Nicki and Georgie first became close on vacations at Fredensburg, 71 00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:59,320 Speaker 1: brought by their mothers to meet their grandparents, the King 72 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:02,480 Speaker 1: and Queen of den Mark in eighteen eighty three. They 73 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:06,839 Speaker 1: spent the summer there as teenagers. Nikki Georgie, Georgie's younger 74 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: sister Maud, who teased Nikki about his crush on the 75 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 1: beautiful Alexandra of Hess his future wife. Maud made fun 76 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:17,520 Speaker 1: of Nikki for being shorter than Alexandra, who they all 77 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,880 Speaker 1: called Alecki. Georgie in England was cousins with Nikki on 78 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: his mother's side and cousins with Nikki's bride to be, Alecki, 79 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:29,360 Speaker 1: on his father's side. Both Georgie and Alecki were grandchildren 80 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:33,799 Speaker 1: of Queen Victoria. While the match between futures are Nicholas 81 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:37,640 Speaker 1: the Second and the German Princess made sense, Queen Victoria 82 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:40,919 Speaker 1: wasn't too pleased about it. The state of Russia is 83 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 1: so bad, so rotten, that at any moment something dreadful 84 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: might happen, The Queen wrote to her eldest daughter, the 85 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 1: wife of the heir to the throne is in a 86 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:55,599 Speaker 1: difficult and precarious position. And to Alecki's sister, Queen Victoria wrote, 87 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,680 Speaker 1: my blood runs cold when I think of her, so young, 88 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:02,719 Speaker 1: her dear life and her husband's constantly threatened, and we'll 89 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:05,760 Speaker 1: be unable to see her but so rarely. Oh how 90 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: I wish it was not to be that I should 91 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:11,640 Speaker 1: lose my sweet Alecki. But Georgie was pleased with the match, 92 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:14,719 Speaker 1: happy that after ten years of pining, his cousin Nikki 93 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:17,240 Speaker 1: finally got the girl of his dreams to agree to 94 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:20,479 Speaker 1: marry him. Georgie went to Russia for the wedding of 95 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:23,640 Speaker 1: his two first cousins and wrote back to Queen Victoria 96 00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:27,240 Speaker 1: with nothing but praise for his hosts. Nikki has been 97 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:30,280 Speaker 1: kindness itself to me. He is the same dear boy 98 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: he has always been to me. The letter said, Russia 99 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:36,640 Speaker 1: was volatile, but at least Alecki was marrying a man 100 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:40,839 Speaker 1: who was young and handsome, and he was kind. If anything, 101 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:46,119 Speaker 1: he was too passive and malleable, too insecure, hesitant. Only 102 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:50,440 Speaker 1: in retrospect are the red flags lit in neon, But 103 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:54,039 Speaker 1: you know he was handsome. As a matter of fact, 104 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:58,120 Speaker 1: Nikki and Georgie were almost identical, the same blue eyes, 105 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 1: same beard. They looked so much alike that when they 106 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 1: were at events together, people in relatives would come up 107 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:07,800 Speaker 1: from behind with the wrong name. They were cousins who 108 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:15,520 Speaker 1: looked more like twins. But as it turns out, Queen 109 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 1: Victoria was right about the volatility in Russia. After a 110 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:25,360 Speaker 1: protest in nine five was brutally put down by the 111 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:29,200 Speaker 1: Cossacks and the Imperial Guard. The Czar was given a nickname, 112 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:36,480 Speaker 1: Nicolas the Bloody. The aristocracy represented indulgence and luxury so 113 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:39,880 Speaker 1: completely removed from the daily life of the common people 114 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:42,239 Speaker 1: that it might as well have been life on the moon. 115 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:47,520 Speaker 1: Around the world, public sentiment had completely turned against the 116 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:52,200 Speaker 1: Czar in nineteen o nine, when Nicholas and his family 117 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:55,200 Speaker 1: came to visit the British royal family at their home 118 00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: on the Isle of Wight. Security concerns were so high 119 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:01,240 Speaker 1: that most of the as it took place at sea 120 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:04,960 Speaker 1: on the Tsar's boat just off the coast, and the 121 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,360 Speaker 1: outbreak of World War One gave people even more reason 122 00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:12,120 Speaker 1: to hate the Tsar's wife, Alecki, the German Princess Alexandra 123 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:17,120 Speaker 1: of Hess. Anti German sentiment had led St. Petersburg to 124 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 1: become Petrograd and in England compelled George the Fifth to 125 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:24,560 Speaker 1: change his family name from Sex, Coburg and Gotha to 126 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:29,800 Speaker 1: the neutrally British sounding Windsor. According to the people in Russia, 127 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:33,800 Speaker 1: Alexandra was almost certainly a German spy, and that's to 128 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:36,240 Speaker 1: say nothing of the way she cavorted about with the 129 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:40,520 Speaker 1: dubious character resputant. The two of them lovers, no doubt, 130 00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 1: we're probably manipulating the Czar to their nefarious German loving ways. 131 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,760 Speaker 1: On March thirteenth, nine seventeen, George the Five wrote in 132 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,920 Speaker 1: his diary, bad news from Russia. Practically a revolution has 133 00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: broken out in Petrograd and some of the guard regiments 134 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: have mutinied and killed their officer. Rising is against the government, 135 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:06,760 Speaker 1: not the Czar. Two days later, the Tsar was forced 136 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:10,680 Speaker 1: to abdicate. George was in despair for his cousin and friend, 137 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:14,880 Speaker 1: but revolutions can be like dominoes, and threats to one 138 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:19,199 Speaker 1: monarchy are threats to all monarchies. His own crown began 139 00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:32,120 Speaker 1: feeling a little loose. When George heard that the Tsar 140 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:34,960 Speaker 1: had been forced to abdicate his throne, he wrote his 141 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:39,880 Speaker 1: cousin a telegram. Events of last week had deeply distressed me. 142 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:43,280 Speaker 1: My thoughts are constantly with you, and I shall always 143 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:46,320 Speaker 1: remain your true and devoted friend, as you know I 144 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:50,160 Speaker 1: have been in the past. The provisional government in Russia 145 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:53,840 Speaker 1: never delivered it. After all, the telegram had been addressed 146 00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:56,920 Speaker 1: to the Tsar, and no person of that title existed anymore. 147 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:03,080 Speaker 1: The Imperial family presented a massive problem for the provisional government. 148 00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: On one hand, they wanted them out of the country 149 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:10,360 Speaker 1: completely gone where they couldn't ignite mutiny or inspire loyalty. 150 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 1: But the more extremist revolutionaries didn't want the formers are 151 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:17,679 Speaker 1: out of custody. They wanted his confinement to put him 152 00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:21,280 Speaker 1: on trial. They didn't want him to get away literally 153 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:25,559 Speaker 1: or metaphorically. It was about this time when the Provisional 154 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:30,320 Speaker 1: government's foreign minister, a man named Pavo Miliakov, approached the 155 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:34,200 Speaker 1: British ambassador and requested that the Imperial family might be 156 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:39,520 Speaker 1: allowed to come to England. The British ambassador Buchanan equivocated, 157 00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:44,520 Speaker 1: how about Denmark or Sweden, either of those places possible? 158 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:49,200 Speaker 1: What if we just, you know, keep brainstorming. Miliakov, sensing 159 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:52,960 Speaker 1: the tightening danger of the extremists, reiterated that he would 160 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:55,240 Speaker 1: very much like to get the Emperor out of Russia 161 00:10:55,440 --> 00:11:00,000 Speaker 1: as soon as possible. Buchanan acquiesced. He asked the British 162 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,760 Speaker 1: government for the authority to extend the Czar and his 163 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:06,000 Speaker 1: family asylum in England at least for the duration of 164 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:10,079 Speaker 1: the war. In London, a Cabinet meant to discuss it. 165 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,080 Speaker 1: They didn't want to turn down a direct request from 166 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:16,120 Speaker 1: the provisional government. They would need to stay in Russia's 167 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:19,360 Speaker 1: good graces for trade and for continued support in World 168 00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:22,200 Speaker 1: War One, but there was no way around the fact 169 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:25,480 Speaker 1: that bringing Bloody Nicholas and his German empress to England 170 00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:29,480 Speaker 1: would look bad. The family was massively unpopular with the 171 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 1: British public. News of the Russian Tsar being overthrown was 172 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:38,200 Speaker 1: met in England with cheers, with celebrations in the street 173 00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:40,960 Speaker 1: for the common people who rose up to take down 174 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:45,600 Speaker 1: an autocrat, and hatred for Alexandra, the German born former 175 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:49,640 Speaker 1: z Arena was even more virulent in England. The popular 176 00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:52,079 Speaker 1: opinion was that there was no doubt she was double 177 00:11:52,120 --> 00:12:01,439 Speaker 1: crossing Russia in the war with German spycraft. King George 178 00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:04,240 Speaker 1: the Fifth had been the victim of a massive public 179 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:07,840 Speaker 1: outcry after he received members of the supposedly pro German 180 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:11,720 Speaker 1: Greek royal family. Hosting the Tsar and his wife would 181 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:16,199 Speaker 1: be nothing short of a pr nightmare. Plus, there were 182 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:20,000 Speaker 1: logistics to consider. Where would the Tsar's family even stay. 183 00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:24,400 Speaker 1: The Prime Minister Lloyd George suggested one of the King's palaces. 184 00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:29,440 Speaker 1: The King's private secretary Stamford and rejected that proposal outright. 185 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:32,720 Speaker 1: He was there at that meeting representing the King, and 186 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:36,040 Speaker 1: he was fully aware how damaging the association between the 187 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:39,680 Speaker 1: Tsar and King George could be. All of the palaces 188 00:12:39,679 --> 00:12:44,239 Speaker 1: were occupied. Stamford And asserted, well, except for Balmoral in Scotland. 189 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:46,760 Speaker 1: But that's a summer palace and it would be totally 190 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:49,480 Speaker 1: unsuitable for the Tsar and his family to stay at 191 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:52,760 Speaker 1: at this time of year. Yes, of course, we can 192 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:56,200 Speaker 1: all see now, totally unsuitable for the Imperial family to 193 00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:58,440 Speaker 1: stay in a summer palace when they would soon be 194 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:04,319 Speaker 1: imprisoned in Siberia. Suitable palace available or not, it seemed 195 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:07,520 Speaker 1: impossible for the British government to turn down a direct 196 00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:12,640 Speaker 1: request from the Russian provisional government, and so reluctantly Britain 197 00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:16,040 Speaker 1: agreed that in theory, the Czar and his family could 198 00:13:16,040 --> 00:13:20,000 Speaker 1: stay in the country just temporarily, just until the end 199 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:23,560 Speaker 1: of the war. But fortunately for the British government, as 200 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:26,880 Speaker 1: they fiddled with their cuff links and received urgent imaginary 201 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,040 Speaker 1: phone calls, now it was the Russian government who delayed 202 00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:35,719 Speaker 1: the extremist Bolshevik faction was consolidating its power, even as 203 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:38,640 Speaker 1: Miliakov wanted to get the Imperial family out of the 204 00:13:38,679 --> 00:13:43,800 Speaker 1: country that was becoming more and more challenging. Any actual 205 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:48,720 Speaker 1: attempt to extradite the Czar would infuriate the extremists. In 206 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:52,520 Speaker 1: the meantime, King George the Fifth reconsidered his own position. 207 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:56,640 Speaker 1: Britain was weary from the war and its many sacrifices, 208 00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:59,640 Speaker 1: and socialism was becoming more and more appealing to the 209 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:03,600 Speaker 1: popular elation. Anti royal sentiment was on the rise, and 210 00:14:03,679 --> 00:14:07,199 Speaker 1: even George changing his family name to Windsor didn't quite 211 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:11,240 Speaker 1: convince the country of his patriotism or of his necessity. 212 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:14,200 Speaker 1: A guy living in a palace wearing a golden crown 213 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:17,040 Speaker 1: is never a popular image when a nation is barely 214 00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:26,080 Speaker 1: struggling to make it through an endless war. YEA bringing 215 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:30,000 Speaker 1: Nicholas and his family over to England would indelibly associate 216 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:34,720 Speaker 1: King George the Fifth with the hated Russian autocracy. After all, 217 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:37,760 Speaker 1: everyone knew that King George was close with his beloved cousin, 218 00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:42,520 Speaker 1: regardless of what the political situation actually was. The truth 219 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:45,160 Speaker 1: is it would look like a move of family loyalty 220 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:50,360 Speaker 1: and not diplomacy, and so on. The King's behalf Stamfordham 221 00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:54,600 Speaker 1: wrote to bal for the British Foreign Secretary, the King 222 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:57,560 Speaker 1: desires me to ask you whether the ambassador should not 223 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: be communicated with to make some other plans for the 224 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:06,080 Speaker 1: future residents of their imperial majesties. King George was already 225 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:09,760 Speaker 1: receiving letters of outrage from working men and Labor Party 226 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:12,720 Speaker 1: members of Parliament in the House of Commons, all with 227 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:15,400 Speaker 1: the assumption that he was the one making the decision 228 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:18,200 Speaker 1: about whether or not to invite the Czar into the country. 229 00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:21,880 Speaker 1: Britain was a constitutional monarchy, of course, and George had 230 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:25,240 Speaker 1: no direct powers to do anything, really, but it was 231 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:28,760 Speaker 1: his head on the line. An article in the weekly 232 00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:33,240 Speaker 1: journal Justice protesting asylum of the Czar suggested that the 233 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:36,120 Speaker 1: invitation had already come from the British King and Queen, 234 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:39,720 Speaker 1: but it was probably the words from an editorial in 235 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:43,680 Speaker 1: the Evening Globe that stuck in the King's mind. We 236 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:47,160 Speaker 1: most sincerely hope that if there really is any idea 237 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:50,080 Speaker 1: of inviting the XR and his consort to make their 238 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:54,000 Speaker 1: home in England, it will be abandoned. We speak plainly 239 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:57,640 Speaker 1: because we must, and because the danger is great and imminent, 240 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:01,280 Speaker 1: the British throne itself would be perild if this thing 241 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:05,440 Speaker 1: were done. And so, in a fit of panic and determination, 242 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:08,240 Speaker 1: the King had Stamford Him right yet another note to 243 00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:11,840 Speaker 1: the Foreign Secretary just six hours after the first, making 244 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:17,000 Speaker 1: things very very clear. The King Stamford Him wrote, must 245 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:19,920 Speaker 1: beg you to represent to the Prime Minister that from 246 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:23,400 Speaker 1: all he hears and reads in the press, the residents 247 00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:26,440 Speaker 1: in this country of the ex Emperor and Empress would 248 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 1: be strongly resented by the public, and would undoubtedly compromise 249 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:33,520 Speaker 1: the position of the King and Queen, from whom it 250 00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:38,200 Speaker 1: would generally be assumed the invitation had emanated. Stamford um 251 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 1: included the article from Justice in the note. The King 252 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:45,280 Speaker 1: loved his cousin, but the idea of Britain welcoming Nicholas 253 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,560 Speaker 1: the bloody let alone, mounting and elaborate rescue to save 254 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: him once the Russian government custody closed in had shifted 255 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:57,000 Speaker 1: from merely awkward to insurmountable. It's ironic in a sense. 256 00:16:57,200 --> 00:16:59,320 Speaker 1: The only reason a king is a king at all 257 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: is because if who his family is. But in a 258 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:05,760 Speaker 1: constitutional monarchy, a king's power is at the mercy of 259 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:10,440 Speaker 1: the people. Nicholas the Second was radioactive, and George needed 260 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:14,800 Speaker 1: to protect himself. He wasn't Georgie. He was King George 261 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:23,760 Speaker 1: the Five, and he put England and himself first. When 262 00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:26,879 Speaker 1: the Bolshevik soldiers entered the cellar on that night in 263 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 1: July in nine eighteen, each had been assigned a member 264 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:33,960 Speaker 1: of the family to shoot. There were eleven of them 265 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:37,159 Speaker 1: that needed to be killed altogether, three loyal servants that 266 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:42,200 Speaker 1: had stayed with the imperial family, their doctor Nicholas, Alexandra, 267 00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:46,360 Speaker 1: their young son Alexei, and their four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, 268 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:51,960 Speaker 1: Maria and Anastasia. Some of the soldiers had refused to 269 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:55,160 Speaker 1: shoot the girls and had been replaced, but even so, 270 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:58,119 Speaker 1: when the Captain of the guard gave the orders to fire, 271 00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:02,960 Speaker 1: the majority of soldiers turned their gun to Nicholas. They 272 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:05,199 Speaker 1: were loyal Bolsheviks, and they all wanted to be the 273 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:07,680 Speaker 1: one who had killed the Tsar himself, not a man 274 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:13,040 Speaker 1: who had shot a teenage girl. The result, though, was chaos. 275 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:17,200 Speaker 1: The hated Tsar died quickly, but the girls were left alive, 276 00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 1: screaming and hiding in corners of the cellar. Splattered with blood. 277 00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:26,040 Speaker 1: While the soldiers attempted to finish their gruesome execution, their 278 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:30,439 Speaker 1: Russian made guns, jamming soldiers kept missing their targets in 279 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:34,439 Speaker 1: the dark. Their boots were drenched in blood and brain matter. 280 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:38,919 Speaker 1: To ultimately kill the four princesses, the soldiers had to 281 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:44,720 Speaker 1: repeatedly stab them with their bayonets. At first, the Russian 282 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:48,560 Speaker 1: government only acknowledged that the czar had been killed. The girls, 283 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:51,360 Speaker 1: they said, had been put on a train to somewhere 284 00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:55,400 Speaker 1: for their own safety, and they had lost touch with them. 285 00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:58,960 Speaker 1: The plan was to make evidence of the massacre literally disappear. 286 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:03,600 Speaker 1: Two days after the shooting, their bodies were clumsily doused 287 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:07,080 Speaker 1: and sulfuric acid, set on fire and tossed into a 288 00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:11,600 Speaker 1: pair of shallow graves. People had imagined the likelihood that 289 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:14,400 Speaker 1: the czar was going to be killed, it was possible 290 00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:16,520 Speaker 1: that the Czarina was going to be killed as well, 291 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:19,880 Speaker 1: but no one had imagined that their five children would 292 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:23,080 Speaker 1: also be executed, and no one could have envisioned it 293 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:27,879 Speaker 1: happening in the most chaotic, disturbing and gruesome way imaginable. 294 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 1: When word of Nicholas's death crossed Europe, King George attended 295 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:36,919 Speaker 1: a memorial service in England. I attended a service at 296 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:40,040 Speaker 1: the Russian Church in memory of dear Nikki, who I 297 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:43,359 Speaker 1: fear was shot last month by the Bolsheviks. George wrote 298 00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:46,960 Speaker 1: in his diary, we can get no details. It was 299 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,639 Speaker 1: a foul murder. I was devoted to Nikki, who was 300 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:54,119 Speaker 1: the kindest of men and a thorough gentleman, loved his 301 00:19:54,200 --> 00:20:00,280 Speaker 1: country and his people. Ever protective of the King's reputation Asian, 302 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,480 Speaker 1: stamford Um had floated the possibility that the King might 303 00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:06,320 Speaker 1: want to sit the memorial service out so that the 304 00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:09,800 Speaker 1: public wouldn't see George as too sympathetic to the fallen Zar. 305 00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:13,520 Speaker 1: It seems to me, stamford Um wrote, we could decline 306 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:15,879 Speaker 1: to join in on the service on the grounds that 307 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:18,840 Speaker 1: the government has no official news of the emperor's death. 308 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:22,560 Speaker 1: If you're looking for a villain in this story, Stamford 309 00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:25,440 Speaker 1: m might be as close as any. Just three days 310 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:28,280 Speaker 1: after he advised the king not to attend the memorial, 311 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:31,640 Speaker 1: stamford Um wrote a letter in response to an announcement 312 00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:34,920 Speaker 1: of the Czar's death in the Paper. The letter said, 313 00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:38,400 Speaker 1: was there ever a crueler murder? And has this country 314 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:42,239 Speaker 1: ever before displayed such callous indifference to a tragedy of 315 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:45,560 Speaker 1: this magnitude. What does it all mean? I am so 316 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:48,920 Speaker 1: thankful that the King and Queen attended the memorial service. 317 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:56,439 Speaker 1: Did King George have flood on his hands? The anti 318 00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:59,920 Speaker 1: climactic truth is, even if he had been completely support 319 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,800 Speaker 1: of Britain granting asylum to the Imperial family, it might 320 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:06,320 Speaker 1: not have made a difference at all. By the time 321 00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:08,600 Speaker 1: it became clear that the Czar and his family were 322 00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:12,760 Speaker 1: in danger, it was probably already too late. Miliakov and 323 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,639 Speaker 1: the provisional government might not have been strong enough to 324 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:19,280 Speaker 1: defy the extremists that wanted blood, and even from a 325 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:22,879 Speaker 1: logistical perspective, a British ship would have needed to cut 326 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:26,080 Speaker 1: through the still frozen ports of Russia and then through 327 00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: a stronghold of Bolshevik extremists, and the imperial children had 328 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:33,760 Speaker 1: measles that spring. The Tsar and Sarina may very well 329 00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:36,840 Speaker 1: have chosen to delay their traveling until their children were better. 330 00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:41,120 Speaker 1: After all, no one could have possibly imagined how limited 331 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:44,520 Speaker 1: the window for escape would be, or imagine the horrifying, 332 00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:48,600 Speaker 1: bloody future that was to come. As it is, George's 333 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,760 Speaker 1: diaries filled with woe and sorrow for his cousin Nikki, 334 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:55,919 Speaker 1: and genuine horror that his children were murdered, but not guilt. 335 00:21:56,600 --> 00:21:59,840 Speaker 1: Maybe George understood the futility of feeling remorse for some 336 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:02,240 Speaker 1: thing you never would have been able to do differently. 337 00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:06,879 Speaker 1: But it's also possible that maybe George did feel guilt. 338 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 1: Maybe he was kept awake, pacing the floors of his palace, 339 00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: hearing screams in the dark. Maybe he looked in the 340 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:19,040 Speaker 1: mirror and saw his twin cousin Nikki, staring back at him. 341 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,200 Speaker 1: But maybe he knew that as a king sometimes guilt, 342 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,840 Speaker 1: like family love, is one of the many things that 343 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:29,160 Speaker 1: you're forced to push down and push away in order 344 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:38,960 Speaker 1: to do your duty. In the end, George the fifth 345 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,919 Speaker 1: didn't completely abandon his Russian family, stick around after a 346 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:55,280 Speaker 1: brief sponsor break to find out what happened next. Even 347 00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:59,119 Speaker 1: after Nicholas the Second abdicated the throne, his mother, the 348 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:02,480 Speaker 1: Dowager and Breath and his sister, the Grand Duchess Zenia 349 00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:06,600 Speaker 1: Alexandrovna still lived in the relative security of a family 350 00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:10,000 Speaker 1: house in Crimea. When they heard that the former's are 351 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,880 Speaker 1: and his family had been murdered, they refused to believe it, 352 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:17,680 Speaker 1: it was probably just Bolshevik propaganda. In the spring of 353 00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:21,240 Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen, King George the Fifth sent the British warship 354 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,520 Speaker 1: h M. S. Marlborough to evacuate the remaining Romanovs. As 355 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:30,719 Speaker 1: the Red Army continued to creep closer to Crimea. The Marlborough, 356 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:34,240 Speaker 1: Tuxania and the Dowager Empress across the Black Sea to 357 00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:37,680 Speaker 1: Malta and then finally to safety in England. With the 358 00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:41,639 Speaker 1: Dowager Empress, who had been renamed Maria Federovna but was 359 00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:46,040 Speaker 1: born the Danish Princess dagmar reunited with her sister Alexandra, 360 00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:51,240 Speaker 1: King George the Fifth mother, and eventually even the doomed 361 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:55,520 Speaker 1: Arena Alexandra's family made it to England. Remember Alki's sister. 362 00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,359 Speaker 1: She was the one to whom Queen Victoria had written 363 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:01,760 Speaker 1: with an eerie clairvoyant about how our blood rained cold 364 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:05,400 Speaker 1: and thought of Alecki going to Russia. Well. Alecki's sister 365 00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:08,760 Speaker 1: had a grandchild, a baby boy born as a Prince 366 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:11,720 Speaker 1: of Greece and Denmark. He would go on to marry 367 00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:16,000 Speaker 1: King George the Fifth granddaughter and become Prince Philip Consort 368 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:25,800 Speaker 1: to Queen Elizabeth the Second. Noble Blood is a co 369 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:29,160 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky. The show 370 00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:32,120 Speaker 1: is written and hosted by Dani Schwartz and produced by 371 00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble 372 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:40,199 Speaker 1: Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and 373 00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:42,359 Speaker 1: you can learn more about the show over at Noble 374 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:45,800 Speaker 1: blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, 375 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,680 Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 376 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:51,159 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.