During the July Crisis in 1914, Grigori Rasputin and Witte desperately urged the Tsar to avoid the conflict and warned that Europe faced calamity if Russia became involved. The advice went unheeded; the French ambassador Maurice Paléologue complained to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sazonov. Witte died shortly afterwards at his home in St. Petersburg; his death was attributed to meningitis or a brain tumor. His third-class funeral was held at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Witte had no children, but he had adopted his wife's by her first marriage. According to Edvard Radzinsky, Witte asked for the title of count to be given to his grandson L.K. Naryshkin (b. 1905, see image above). Nothing is known about his life after this period.