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Kaiser Wilhelm II (left) and Tsar Nicholas II together in 1905

The European heads of state – despite the familial relations linking many of them – failed to reach an understanding. Britain’s King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II (Georgie, Willy and Nicky) were all cousins. George and Wilhelm were both grandsons of Queen Victoria, and Nicholas’s wife was her granddaughter. They had all attended Queen Victoria’s funeral in 1901. Wilhelm once remarked of Nicholas II, ‘The Tsar is not treacherous but he is weak,’ adding, ‘Weakness is not treachery, but it fulfils all its functions.’

Between 29 July and 1 August, the Tsar and his German cousin sent ten telegrams to each other, each written in English and signed off ‘Willy’ or ‘Nicky’, attempting to diffuse the situation their countries now found themselves in. The first telegrams crossed but both were conciliatory. ‘To try and avoid such a calamity as a European war,’ wrote Nicholas, ‘I beg you in the name of our old friendship to do what you can to stop your allies from going too far’; while Wilhelm wrote that he was ‘exerting my utmost influence to induce the Austrians to deal straightly to arrive to a satisfactory understanding with you’.