The last British royal wedding 
 between Prince William
and Kate Middleton brought 
 together 1,900 guests,
many of whom were pretty 
 high-profile people.
Footballer David Beckham was 
 there with his wife
and fashion designer, 
 Victoria Beckham.
Elton John was there, too,
but this photo might be the most 
 impressive of all,
because this is the Queen of Spain 
 and the Prince of Spain
next to the Princess of Sweden.
The former King of Greece 
 is behind them,
and way back there is 
 the former king of Romania.
They were invited 
 because they're all related to
Prince William's great-great-great- 
 great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
Over the course of her 63-year 
 reign, she strategically planned
marriages to place her descendants 
 in royal families all over
Europe and, in doing so,
created one of the most remarkable 
 royal families in history.
By the early 19th century, 
 Europe had been at war for decades.
After the French Revolutionary 
 and Napoleonic Wars killed millions,
European leaders came together to 
 restore peace
by reshaping major states for a new 
 balance of power.
Great Britain went on to become one 
 of the strongest states
and, years later, Queen Victoria 
 and her husband Albert came up
with a plan to maintain that 
 political power -
they'd marry their children to 
 monarchs across Europe.
And at that time, you know, 
 all royal marriages were
fundamentally about dynastic 
 unions,
about cementing political 
 allegiances,
about building new 
 political alliances.
It started with their daughter 
 Vicky, the eldest of nine children.
She married the heir to the 
 Prussian throne,
the largest and most powerful of the
 German states.
Albert's vision had always been - 
 and Victoria shared it -
that Prussia, of all the German 
 states, was the one that
would end up leading the way towards
 a great, unified Germany.
They wanted to build strong 
 connections with Germany
and see them as being a force 
 for good
and constitutional, benign 
 monarchy across Europe.
Their children - Alice, Beatrice, 
 Helena, Leopold and Arthur -
also married German royalty.
Their eldest son, 
 Prince Albert Edward,
married a Danish princess whose 
 brother was the King of Greece,
two more important European states.
But when their son wanted to marry 
 the daughter of the Russian Tsar,
things became a bit more 
 complicated.
There was a long history about Queen
 Victoria's deep, deep apprehensions
about Russia, for any of her 
 children marrying into Russia.
The Russian monarchy was 
 an autocracy,
whereas the British monarchy, as 
 such, was a constitutional monarchy.
There was a whole, long period 
 of Russophobia in Britain.
The two states were also 
 extremely competitive over
territory in Central Asia 
 and Eastern Europe,
where they fought a bloody 
 war in the 1850s,
but the marriage was allowed and, 
 by the 1880s, Queen Victoria's
children were in several important 
 branches of Europe's monarchies.
Not quite.
See, Germany did unify in 1871, 
 but it wasn't peaceful.
Prussia fought 
 a series of bloody wars
and consolidated the other 
 German states.
In Russia, the royal Romanov family 
 was losing its grip on power.
Members of the monarchy 
 were being hunted
and the Tsar was 
 assassinated in 1881.
The royal unions didn't play 
 out as Queen Victoria planned,
but she continued to make more 
 matches anyway.
She had 42 grandchildren in total
and these seven ended up 
 on royal thrones.
The eldest, Wilhelm II, 
 who was already in line to be
the next Emperor of Germany, 
 married a German princess in 1881.
The hope was that he would steer a 
 unified and powerful Germany
into an alliance with Great Britain.
George was in line to be 
 the King of Great Britain
and married a minor British 
 royal family member.
Alexandra married Nicholas, who was 
 related to George and Wilhelm,
and both became the Tsar and Tsarina
 of Russia,
and four more granddaughters married
 European royalty,
fulfilling Victoria's vision.
I mean, 
 when you look at Queen Victoria,
by the end of her life, she really 
 was the grandmother of Europe.
Take, for example, this family 
 photo, where Queen Victoria
is with her daughter and grandson, 
 the rulers of Germany.
Her son, Britain's next king, 
 and her granddaughters,
the future Tsarina of Russia 
 and the future Queen of Romania.
Here's the soon-to-be King of 
 England and his lookalike cousin,
the soon-to-be Tsar of Russia.
And here's some of the children 
 and grandchildren together.
Finally, this is King Edward 
 of Great Britain and his nephew,
Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, 
 at Queen Victoria's funeral in 1901.
After her death, the family ties 
 that Queen Victoria had
strung around Europe would 
 not bring peace,
but the most destructive war 
 Europe had ever seen.
The Kaiser and the King make 
 ready to sweep the field.
The Tsar of Russia mobilises.
England joins the battle royal.
World War I broke out in 1914 
 and split this family apart.
Wilhelm's Germany, along with 
 Austria, Hungary
and the Ottoman Empire,
fought an alliance led by Britain, 
 Russia and France.
These countries were neutral.
Say Victoria had lived till we were 
 on the brink of war,
I think it would have broken her, 
 totally broken her heart,
to know that her grandchildren 
 ended up at war with each other.
The war killed 
 over 10 million people
and ended the era 
 of monarchy in Europe.
Wilhelm, Sophia and Marie were all 
 forced to abandon their thrones.
Revolution swept through Russia,
and Alexandra and Nicholas were 
 executed by communists.
The British monarchy survived,
but the war forced them 
 to rethink their political strategy.
George, King George V, 
 and his wife, Queen Mary,
were very, very astute.
They saw that the monarchy had to be
 more people-friendly,
had to be more accessible, not just 
 sitting there in great robes
in glory, you know, 
 with their crowns on.
It had to be much more 
 out on the street, hands-on,
meet the people, 
 win their confidence,
the kind of monarchy 
 we now have with Queen Elizabeth.
That approach not only helped 
 modernise British monarchy over the
last century, but it also changed 
 the face of royal weddings forever.
