Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and King George V of Great Britain
The Crown Season 5 has faced criticism over its historical inaccuracies, with TV critics and royal experts alike accusing the Netflix series of damaging the reputation of King Charles III with half-truths and falsehoods. But there is one event depicted on screen that is undeniably rooted in fact: the murder of the Romanovs - the last imperial family of Russia.
Episode 6 of The Crown shows how King George V, the Queen’s grandfather and the great-grandfather of King Charles III, ultimately decided not to rescue his cousin, Tsar Nicholas II, from the Bolsheviks, leading to the Tsar and his family ultimately being assassinated. The cousins - known for their uncannily similar looks - were related through their mothers: George V’s mother was Princess Alexandra of Wales, the wife of Queen Victoria’s eldest son, Edward VII, and sister of Nicholas’ mother, Marie of Denmark.
Read More
The traditional dance dates back to when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert would throw a summer party for their staff, known in Gaelic as ‘ghillies’
By Rebecca Cope
In The Crown’s version of events, George V and his wife, Mary, made the decision not to rescue their Russian family over breakfast at Sandringham. Cutaway scenes show the Tsar, the Tsarina and their five children being roused from their beds, believing they were being granted safe passage to Britain after abdicating the throne. However, they were instead imprisoned, and ultimately executed in the dingy basem*nt of a house in July 1918.
In reality King George V’s decision against giving a lifeline to the Romanovs was made over several weeks in 1917. His initial resolve to rescue his Nicholas II was ultimately undermined by his ‘jittery’ private secretary, Lord Stamfordham, who expressed concern that granting the family asylum would only fuel the growing republican movement in the UK, according to Frances Welch’s 2018 book, The Imperial Tea Party.
