Note 6 — Chapter III · WHO WANTED WAR?
Reading edition
A harmless and unprovocative telegram from the King of Prussia to Bismarck in July 1870 was, by the latter, so altered in tone that when published it achieved the intention of its editor and served as 'a red rag to the Gallic bull' and brought about the declaration of war by Napoleon III.—Bismarck's Reflections and Reminiscences, vol. ii. p. 100.