Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Favourite Underrated European Monarch


Wilhelm II.

First, I would like you to take note of his mustache. There are few men in the world, Hitler, Van Dyck, Stalin, whose mustache has become synonymous with their name and figure. Wilhelm is one of them. This alone is merit enough for a "favourite underrated" status.

Also, this guy is very eccentric. He referred to himself as "Emperor of the Atlantic" (and his contemporary Edward VII as "Emperor of the Pacific") in every day conversation. He would keep his ministers up at all hours lecturing on anything--Germany's greatness, the military, the importance of the navy, himself, etc, etc. One of his ministers, who was notable for being a royal suck-up to His Majesty, is said to have gone home (after schmoozing the king during these unendurably long nights), swear loudly, drink vodka or some other heavy liquor, and then sleep for 24 hours. He also tried to start many wars, especially one between England and Russia. After he became Emperor, he refused to wear anything but his military outfit. George V recorded in his journal how whenever forced to visit or accept a visit from Wilhelm, which was much too often for poor Georgie, he would dread it, only to breathe a sigh of relief once the crazy monarch left.

(Wilhelm is just so amusing, I'm doing  a terrible job enunciating the many ways in which I'm amused by him.)

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