cam . # .

You could probably argue that the fraternal: european monarchy conducted diplomacy through engagement. They inter-married, were multi-lingual (as they grew up in Germany, France, or Spain before being married off to English or Austrian royals), they did diplomacy with a handshake and a hug, etc. They also used to have family get togethers outside of diplomacy meetings where all the great royal houses would just socialise.

Parliaments were powerful enough by 1914 that great \'house\' diplomacy could not stop the engines of war.

cam