If, in Edward’s eyes, France represented ‘Fun’, Russia represented ‘Family’. Queen Victoria may have disparaged Tsar Alexander III as a ‘sovereign whom she does not look upon as a gentleman’,2 but she had been unable to prevent two of her granddaughters from marrying into the bosom of the Romanovs. In 1884, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse, the daughter of Edward’s favourite sister, Alice, wed Alexander’s brother, Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich. Ten years later, her younger sister, Alix, married Alexander’s son and successor, Tsar Nicholas II. To further complicate matters, Nicholas was the nephew
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