The first greetings had hardly been exchanged before Nicholas spontaneously brought up the name of Edward VII, whom he described as “the greatest mischiefmaker and the most dangerous intriguer in the whole world.” The Czarina was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria — who was also Wilhelm’s grandmother — and Nicholas himself was the nephew of Edward’s consort, Queen Alexandra, but family ties had become strained during the current war by Britain’s manifest sympathy with its Japanese allies, especially since the previous October.
