Age of Bismarck #13: 'The Poor Things Have Broken Their Own Necks.' (Patreon)

[PATRONS]

In the midst of Bismarck's stunning triumph, Queen Victoria was bombarded with SOS messages from her extended family, and from a wide variety of dispossessed German princes. The Queen lacked much power to do anything, but the transformation of British public opinion from condemning Prussia and then commending her deserves to be underlined. In fact, the idea that Bismarck was somehow healing Germany by beating and unifying it did have some currency. It was the same argument which many contemporary Germans used to console themselves, and it went some way towards smoothing over the opposition Bismarck was bound to encounter. Just like every other battle in his life, Bismarck had a plan to win the PR fight as well...