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Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. The Summer Queen
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Family Tree of King George III
  5. Family Tree of Queen Victoria
  6. PART ONE
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. Chapter Ten
  17. Chapter Eleven
  18. Chapter Twelve
  19. Chapter Thirteen
  20. PART TWO
  21. Chapter Fourteen
  22. Chapter Fifteen
  23. Chapter Sixteen
  24. Chapter Seventeen
  25. Chapter Eighteen
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-One
  29. Chapter Twenty-Two
  30. Chapter Twenty-Three
  31. Chapter Twenty-Four
  32. PART THREE
  33. Chapter Twenty-Five
  34. Chapter Twenty-Six
  35. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  36. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  37. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  38. Chapter Thirty
  39. Chapter Thirty-One
  40. Chapter Thirty-Two
  41. PART FOUR
  42. Chapter Thirty-Three
  43. Chapter Thirty-Four
  44. Chapter Thirty-Five
  45. Chapter Thirty-Six
  46. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  47. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  48. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  49. Chapter Forty
  50. Chapter Forty-One
  51. Acknowledgements
  52. Select Bibliography
  53. The Summer Queen
  54. By Margaret Pemberton

There was simply nothing positive May could think of to say about the situation and, changing the subject, she said, ‘And Ella?’

‘Ella is the same darling she has always been, but her relationship with Alicky has suffered since she tried to speak sense to her about Rasputin.’

Ducky looked down at her dainty pendant watch. ‘We’ve been closeted up here for far too long, May. It’s nearly time for the Hohenzollern Wedding Torch Dance, and you can’t be absent for that. As the only empress here as a guest, you’ll have a main part to play.’

The Torch Dance was to take place in the white-and silver-decorated White Hall. Historically it was a polonaise that was always danced – apart from the first dance by the bridal pair – in groups of three.

Troops in scarlet-and-gold uniforms lined the walls of the hall and, as Sissy and Ernst opened the dance, the troops began passing flaming brands from hand to hand. Then Sissy made a second circuit of the floor, this time dancing with her father on one arm and her father-in-law on the other, and Ernst followed, dancing with his mother and with Dona. Then it was Nicky and George’s turn to accompany Sissy, and May and Willy’s sister danced with the bridegroom.

Forming similar groups of three, all the Royal Highnesses present joined in and the floor was a glorious, ever-shifting tapestry of European royalty.

When the dance finally came to an end, Heinrich, Irène’s husband, said to May, ‘If you have been worrying about a European war breaking out over the Balkans, you can stop doing so. You’ve only to look around you, to see why. When the rulers of the countries who would be involved are family, war is impossible. Any talk of it is tosh. Utter tosh.’

Chapter Thirty-Eight

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28 JUNE 1914, SARAJEVO

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife, Sophie, were on the last day of a short official visit to Bosnia, a Balkan country that was part of the empire. Its neighbour, Serbia, believed that it should have sovereignty over Bosnia and, because of the royal visit, tensions were high.

In the intense heat of the afternoon the couple were being driven in an open-topped car through Sarajevo’s narrow streets towards the governor’s palace, where they were to have lunch. At a corner so tight the car had to slow almost to a halt to negotiate it, a young Serb stepped from the pavement and fired two shots. Sophie died instantly. Franz Ferdinand died half an hour later in the palace where the lunch prepared for him still lay on the table.

Willy was at a racing regatta in the city of Kiel and was aboard the Hohenzollern when an Admiralty launch pulled alongside and an officer shouted that he had a most urgent telegram for him.