Exile remained possible.
And the Russian Provisional Government had a strong reason to consider getting Nicholas out of Russia.
As long as the former emperor remained in the country, he could become a symbol around which monarchists or counterrevolutionaries gathered.
Removing him could remove a political problem.
Britain was an obvious destination.
Britain Really Did Agree to Receive Them
One misconception should be corrected immediately.
The asylum offer was not simply George V privately inviting his beloved cousin to move into a British palace.
George was a constitutional monarch.
Foreign policy was conducted through his government.
The initiative also did not originate solely with the king. The Russian Provisional Government wanted Nicholas removed from Russia and pressed the question of asylum through diplomatic channels. Historian Helen Rappaport has emphasized this distinction: it was the British government, responding to the Russian request, that made the offer—not George acting independently as a private royal rescuer.
But the offer itself was real.
The British National Archives preserves the documentary trail.
On March 22, 1917, the Foreign Office communicated that asylum was being offered to the former emperor and empress in England for the duration of the war.
Imagine what that could have meant.
Nicholas was 48.
Alexandra was 44.
Their daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia ranged from 21 to 15.
Their son Alexei, the former heir to the Russian throne, was only 12 and suffered from hemophilia.
The entire family might have left Russia.
There would still have been enormous logistical and political difficulties.
But in March 1917, Britain was genuinely being discussed as a destination.
Then George V began to worry.
The King Saw Danger in the Newspapers
The surviving correspondence is unusually revealing because it records concern from inside the royal household itself.
George’s private secretary was Arthur Bigge, Lord Stamfordham.
On April 6, 1917, Stamfordham wrote to Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour.
The message was not ambiguous.
George wanted the government to reconsider.
According to the letter preserved by Britain’s National Archives, the king feared that the presence of Nicholas and Alexandra would be strongly resented and would damage the position of Britain’s own king and queen. Stamfordham specifically pointed to hostile commentary in the press.
Then came the crucial recommendation.
The British ambassador in Russia, Stamfordham wrote, should inform the Russian government that opposition to the Romanovs coming to Britain was so strong that Britain had to be allowed to withdraw from the consent previously given.
This document fundamentally complicates the romantic image of George desperately trying and failing to save his cousin.
George had initially been associated with the willingness to provide asylum.
But he developed serious reservations.
And he communicated them to his government.
Why Was George So Afraid?
To understand his reaction, it is necessary to remember what Europe looked like in 1917.
The First World War had been raging for nearly three years.
Millions were dead or wounded.
Food prices were rising.
Political anger was spreading.
The Russian Revolution had just demonstrated that one of Europe’s most powerful monarchies could collapse astonishingly quickly.