The royals were debating whether to send aid to their beleaguered Russian relatives, the Romanovs, who were being held by the radical Bolsheviks. In the drama, Prime Minister David Lloyd George<\/a> promised to send a ship to rescue them \u2013 if George agreed to it.<\/p>\n But agreement was not forthcoming, and in the following scenes the Romanovs are butchered by the Bolsheviks. Kept prisoner in the crumbling Ipatiev House<\/a> in Yekaterinburg, they are herded into the house\u2019s basement \u2013 under the guise of taking photographs before being moved to safety \u2013 when Russian soldiers flood in and open fire.<\/p>\n The Crown<\/em>\u2019s brutal depiction of events is sadly very close to reality. On the evening of 16 July 1918, the Romanovs were coerced down into the basement, lined up against the wall and, in the early hours of 17 July, were massacred. In an article for HistoryExtra<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> historian Helen Rappaport describes the family\u2019s fate: \u201cProfessional marksmen would have completed their gruesome task in seconds, but it took a 20-minute frenzy of shooting, screaming, acrid smoke and fumes, blood and gore before ferocious bayonetting finally finished off those victims still alive\u201d.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Rapaport also considers the idea that the British royals were responsible for the tragic events \u2013 although tellingly, she says it\u2019s commonly claimed that George had the power to save them, rather than Mary, as The Crown\u00a0<\/em>suggests.<\/p>\n She reveals the situation was far more complex than George simply being able to click his fingers and rescue the Romanovs. These events transpired in the midst of world war, and Russia was wracked by two revolutions in 1917. In the face of these developments, Rapaport argues \u201cthe Allied governments\u2019 primary concern was keeping a demoralised and exhausted Russia in the First World War. Getting the former imperial family out of Russia to safety came a very poor second.\u201d<\/p>\n Later in the episode, back in the 1990s, the Queen<\/a> (Imelda Staunton) and Penny Knatchbull<\/a> (Natascha McElhone) debate what could have motivated Mary to refuse to send aid to Russia. Whereas Penny claims Mary was jealous of the \u201cprettier, grander\u201d Tsarina Alexandra and didn\u2019t want her to \u201cupstage\u201d her in Britain, the Queen argues: \u201cGiving asylum to the Romanovs presented a much greater threat. There was widespread opposition to the tsarina in England, as she was seen as pro-German at the very time we were at war with them.\u201d<\/p>\n The theory the Queen shares in the show might well be rooted in historical fact. Rappaport writes: \u201cGeorge V worried that to bring the controversial tsar and tsaritsa to England might cause unrest among the working classes sympathetic to the new revolutionary regime in Russia.\u201d Moreover, she says, Alexandra was German, and \u201chostility towards Germany was at an all-time high, so much so that the British royal family changed its name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor<\/a> that July\u201d.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Back in the 1990s, controversies surrounding the Romanovs\u2019 demise are stirred up in The Crown<\/em>, during Russian president Boris Yeltsin\u2019s (Anatoly Kotenev) lunch at Buckingham Palace. When asked if she would come to Moscow on a state visit, the Queen makes it clear that the Romanovs\u2019 fate \u2013 and Yeltsin\u2019s own involvement in the story, as a minor official who ordered Ipatiev House should be demolished in the 1970s \u2013 is a major sticking point. The Queen also seems aware of Yeltsin\u2019s reputation as a heavy drinker<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Crown<\/em> does show some bumps in their relationship \u2013 notably when Yeltsin says in front of the Queen, in Russian: \u201cShe [the Queen] should be careful, or she will end up with a bayonet up her arse too,\u201d which historian Sarah Gristwood calls \u201cpretty damned unlikely\u201d. But later in the episode the Queen and Philip do travel to Moscow for a state visit.<\/p>\n Such a visit did take place, in 1994. According to The Guardian<\/em><\/a>, \u201cthe visit to Moscow put an end to more than seven decades of estrangement between the Kremlin and Europe\u2019s royalty\u201d. Yeltsin was suitably aware of the magnitude of the moment, planning a lavish trip that featured a trip to the Bolshoi ballet.<\/p>\n The Queen also discussed the visit in her Christmas speech that year<\/a>, proclaiming: \u201cI never thought it would be possible in my lifetime to join with the Patriarch of Moscow and his congregation in a service in that wonderful cathedral in the heart of the Moscow Kremlin.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Another key plot point of the episode is Philip\u2019s involvement in positively identifying the Romanovs\u2019 remains. After acid-damaged bones are unearthed in the forests close to Ipatiev House, experts turn to DNA testing to confirm that they belonged to the Romanovs. And Philip, being the tsarina\u2019s great-nephew, helps the process by providing a blood sample, later revealing the match was \u201c98.5 per cent\u201d certain.<\/p>\n Although it might sound far-fetched, the Duke of Edinburgh actually did offer up some of his DNA to help scientifically determine whether the bones belonged to the Romanovs. As reported by the BBC in 1998<\/a>, Philip gave a DNA sample, and the remains of the tsar\u2019s brother, Georgy, was also disinterred as part of the research effort.<\/p>\n Although the bones were confirmed to belong the Romanovs, arranging a burial for them proved difficult. As well as the Orthodox Church refusing to acknowledge<\/a> that the bones did in fact belong to the Romanovs, various Russian cities competed for the honour of being the Romanovs\u2019 final resting place. The burial finally went ahead in 1998, with Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and three of his children being laid to rest at the St Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Throughout the episode, there\u2019s an undercurrent of tension in the royal marriage, which boils to the surface when the Queen and Philip are in Moscow. Sarah Gristwood told HistoryExtra<\/em>: \u201c[This conversation] is a big piece of psychodrama. The episode is set up on the premise that the relationship between Britain and Russia is a long marriage, in which there has been a blip \u2013 represented by communism and the Cold War. And the idea is that their marriage had a similar blip.\u201d<\/p>\n This particular conversation in Moscow sees Philip rail against the Queen for the \u201catrocities\u201d her relatives had historically unleashed upon his \u2013 with the British royals\u2019 supposed link to the Romanovs\u2019 deaths. Gristwood says: \u201cI think that\u2019s fiction rather than facts. We can\u2019t know the conversations Prince Philip and the Queen had behind closed doors, and in the course of a marriage as long as theirs, there was bound to be moments of less than total agreement. But I do think that incident was very much set up for the purposes of drama.\u201d<\/p>\n The conversation continues, with Philip eventually revealing his loneliness and that he\u2019s \u201chad to seek companionship elsewhere\u201d. Although clarifying that this companionship is of an intellectual and spiritual nature, the Queen appears displeased when he reveals Penny Knatchbull is one person whom he has grown particularly close to.<\/p>\n However, according to royal historian Tracy Borman, this doesn\u2019t seem to match reality. She told HistoryExtra<\/em><\/a>:<\/em>\u201cNeither is there anything to suggest that the Queen\u2019s relationship with her husband grew more distant from the 1990s. In fact, the opposite seems to have been the case.<\/p>\n![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/11\/GettyImages-514890754-a1258a7.png?quality=90&resize=608%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Were George V and Mary responsible for the Romanovs\u2019 deaths?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>What happened during the Queen\u2019s first state visit to Moscow?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Did Prince Philip\u2019s DNA help identify the Romanovs\u2019 remains?<\/h2>\n
Was Prince Philip pursuing Penny Knatchbull?<\/h2>\n
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