George V of the United Kingdom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jump to: navigation, search
King George V King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Emperor of India
Enlarge
King George V
King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Emperor of India
British Royalty
House of Windsor

George V
Children
   Edward VIII
   George VI
   Princess Mary, Princess Royal
   Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester
   Prince George, Duke of Kent
   Prince John
Grandchildren
   Elizabeth II
   Princess Margaret
   Prince William of Gloucester
   Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester
   Prince Edward, Duke of Kent
   Prince Michael of Kent
   Princess Alexandra of Kent
Edward VIII
George VI
Children
   Elizabeth II
   Princess Margaret
Elizabeth II
Children
   Prince Charles, Prince of Wales
   Princess Anne, Princess Royal
   Prince Andrew, Duke of York
   Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Grandchildren
   Prince William of Wales
   Prince Henry of Wales
   Princess Beatrice of York
   Princess Eugenie of York
   Lady Louise Windsor

George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert Windsor, (3 June 186520 January 1936) was the last British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, changing the name to the House of Windsor in 1917. As well as being King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (from 1927, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) and the Commonwealth Realms, George was also the Emperor of India. George reigned from 6 May 1910 until his death.

King George V changed the house name of the British Royal Family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. He also relinquished all German titles and styles on behalf of his relatives who were British subjects. In 1931, the Statute of Westminster separated the crown so that George ruled the dominions under a separate title for each land.

Contents

Early life

George was born on 3 June 1865, at Marlborough House, London. His father was HRH The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. His mother was Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra, the eldest daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark. As a grandson of Queen Victoria in the male line, George was styled His Royal Highness Prince George of Wales at birth. He was baptised in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle on July 7, 1865 and his godparents were the King of Hanover, the Queen and Crown Prince of Denmark, the Prince of Leiningen, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Alice and the Earl of Tipperary.

As a younger son of the Prince of Wales, there was no expectation that Prince George of Wales, as he was then styled, would take the throne. His elder brother, His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor was second in line to the throne after his father. As children, the two boys were very close and were sent away together to naval college as a way of finishing their education, but their characters were very different. The elder, known to the family as Eddy, was unstable — possibly even mentally retarded — whilst George had inherited the steady, dutiful disposition of his grandmother, Queen Victoria.

George served in the navy until 1891. He travelled the world and visited many areas of the British Empire. He also acquired many tattoos, and a parrot that he took home to England with him.

Marriage

As a young man destined to serve in the Navy, Prince George served for many years under the comand of his uncle Prince Alfred, stationed in Malta. There, he grew close and fell in love with his uncle's daughter, his first cousin, Marie of Edinburgh. His grandmother, his father and his uncle all approved the match, but the mothers, the princess of Wales and the duchess of Edinburgh both opposed it. When George proposed, Marie refused, guided by her mother. She later became queen of Romania

In 1891, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence became engaged to his first cousin once removed, Her Serene Highness Princess Victoria Mary of Teck ("Princess May"), the only daughter of His Serene Highness Prince Francis, Duke of Teck and Her Royal Highness Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge. However, Albert Victor died of pneumonia six weeks later, leaving Prince George second in line to the throne and likely to succeed after his father.

Queen Victoria still favoured Princess May as a suitable candidate to marry a future King, so she persuaded George to propose to May. George duly proposed and May accepted. Despite being an arranged marriage, May and George soon were deeply in love. George never took a mistress, and wrote to May every day.

Their marriage took place on 6 July 1893 at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace in London. The couple had six children in total, listed below.

Name Birth Death Notes.
King Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor, 23 June 1894 28 May 1972 married Wallis Simpson (19 June 1896 - 24 April 1986); no children.
King George VI 14 December 1895 6 February 1952 married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 - 30 March 2002; and had children (including Elizabeth II).
Mary, Princess Royal 25 April 1897 28 March 1965 married Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (9 September 1882 - 23 May 1947); and had children.
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester 31 March 1900 10 June 1974 married Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott (25 December 1901 - 29 October 2004); and had children.
Prince George, Duke of Kent 20 December 1902 25 August 1942 married Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (13 December 1906 - 27 August 1968); and had children.
Prince John 12 July 1905 18 January 1919 Died from epilepsy aged 13.

Duke of York

Prince George (second from the right) and family, circa 1891
Enlarge
Prince George (second from the right) and family, circa 1891

In 1892, Queen Victoria created George, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killarney. After George's marriage to May, she was styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York.

The Duke and Duchess of York lived mainly at York Cottage, Sandringham, Norfolk a relatively small house where their way of life was almost that of an ordinary family. George preferred to live a simple life, a marked contrast to his parents. He was also a very strict father, to the extent that his children were terrified of him.

As Duke and Duchess of York, George and May carried out a wide variety of public duties. In 1900, they toured the British Empire, visiting Australia, where the Duke opened the first session of the Australian Parliament upon the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Prince of Wales

On 22 January 1901, Queen Victoria died, and George's father, Albert Edward ascended the throne as King Edward VII. At that point George inherited the titles of Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay. For the rest of that year, George was styled HRH The Duke of Cornwall and York, until 9 November 1901 when he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.

King Edward VII wished his son to have more preparation and experience prior to his future role. In contrast with Queen Victoria, who excluded Edward from state affairs, George was given wide access to state documents and papers. He often read over the papers with his wife, Princess May, who had a much wider intellect than he. May also helped write speeches for her husband.

King

Monarchical Styles of
George V of the United Kingdom
Reference style: His Majesty
Spoken style: Your Majesty
Alternative style: Sire

On 6 May , 1910, King Edward VII died, and the Prince and Princess of Wales ascended the throne. George was now King George V and May chose the regal name of Queen Mary. This was in keeping with Queen Victoria's wishes that no British Queen be named Victoria after her death. Their coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1911.

On 11 December 1911, the King and Queen travelled to India for the Delhi Durbar, where they were presented to an assembled audience of Indian dignitaries and princes, as the Emperor and Empress of India. George wore the newly-created Imperial Crown of India at the ceremony. Later, the Emperor and Empress travelled throughout India, visiting their new subjects. George took the opportunity to indulge in hunting tigers, shooting 36, while ignoring his planned timetable to visit various dignatiaries. Also during one season in Sandringham he shot 1,209 pheasants.

World War One

George V and Queen Mary dressed for the Opening of Parliament
George V and Queen Mary dressed for the Opening of Parliament

As King and Queen, George and Mary saw Britain through World War I, a difficult time for the Royal Family, as they had many German relatives. Although a female-line great granddaughter of King George III, Queen Mary was the daughter of the Duke of Teck, a morganatic section of the Royal House of Württemberg. King George's paternal grandfather was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; the King and his children bore the titles Prince and Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke and Duchess of Saxony. The German Emperor Wilhelm II, who was widely despised by the British public, was the king's first cousin, "Willy." The King had brothers-in-law and cousins who were British subjects but who bore German titles such as Duke and Duchess of Teck, Prince and Princess of Battenberg, Prince and Princess of Hesse and by Rhine, and Prince and Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Augustenberg. Writer H.G. Wells wrote about Britain's "alien and uninspiring court", and George famously replied: "I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien."

On 17 July 1917, George V issued an Order in Council that changed the name of the British Royal House from the German-sounding House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the House of Windsor, to appease British nationalist feelings. He specifically adopted Windsor as the surname for all descendants of Queen Victoria then living in the United Kingdom, excluding females who married into other families and their descendants.

Finally, on behalf of his various relatives who were British subjects he relinquished the use of all German titles and styles, and adopted British-sounding surnames. George compensated several of his male relatives by creating them British peers. Thus, overnight his cousin, Prince Louis of Battenberg, became Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford-Haven, while his brother-in-law, the Duke of Teck, became Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge. Others, such as Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, simply stopped using their territorial designations. In Letters Patent dated 30 November 1917, the King restricted the style "His (or Her) Royal Highness" and the titular dignity of "Prince (or Princess) of Great Britain and Ireland" to the children of the Sovereign, the children of the sons of the Sovereign, and the eldest living son of the eldest living son of a Prince of Wales.

The Letters Patent also stated that "the titles of Royal Highness, Highness or Serene Highness, and the titular dignity of Prince and Princess shall cease except those titles already granted and remaining unrevoked." Relatives of the British Royal Family who fought on the German side, such as Prince Ernst August of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale (the senior male-line great grandson of George III) and Prince Carl Eduard, 2nd Duke of Albany and the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (a male line grandson of Queen Victoria), were simply cut off; their British peerages were suspended by a 1919 Order in Council under the provisions of the Titles Deprivation Act 1917. George also removed their garter flags from St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle under pressure from his mother, Queen Alexandra.

Another of George's cousins was the Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, a first cousin of George through his mother, Queen Alexandra. Nicholas II's mother was Queen Alexandra's sister. The two men were almost identical in appearance. When the revolution of 1917 toppled the Russian monarchy, George asked his ministers to ensure that the Tsar and his family be saved and brought to Britain for their safety. Worsening conditions for the British people, and fears that revolution might come to the British Isles, led George to develop an atmosphere of austerity about himself. He reversed his position on the Romanovs, thinking that their presence might seem inappropriate under the circumstances. Despite the later claims of Lord Mountbatten of Burma that Lloyd George, the great Liberal, was opposed to the rescue of the Romanovs, records of the King's private secretary, Stamfordham, suggest that George V did this against the advice of Lloyd George, who is often wrongly blamed for the loss of the Romanovs. The Tsar and his immediate family thus remained in Russia and were murdered by Bolshevik revolutionaries in Yekaterinburg in 1918.

Later life

British Royalty
House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Descendants of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
Children
   Princess Victoria, Princess Royal
   Edward VII
   Princess Alice
   Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
   Princess Helena
   Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll
   Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught
   Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany
   Princess Beatrice
Grandchildren
   Prince Alfred of Edinburgh
   Princess Marie of Edinburgh
   Princess Victoria of Edinburgh
   Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh
   Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh
   Prince Arthur of Connaught
   Princess Margaret of Connaught
   Princess Patricia of Connaught
   Carl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
   Princess Alice of Albany
Great Grandchildren
   Prince Alastair of Connaught
Edward VII
Children
   Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence
   George V
   Princess Louise, Princess Royal
   Princess Victoria
   Princess Maud
Grandchildren
   Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife
   Princess Maud, Countess of Southesk

During and after World War I, many of the monarchies which had ruled most European countries fell. Emperor Nicholas II of Russia was executed in 1918. The monarchies of Germany, Austria, Spain, and Greece also fell to revolution and war, although the last was restored again shortly before George's death. Most of these countries were ruled by relatives of George. In 1922, George sent a Royal Navy ship to rescue his cousins, Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg and their children, including Prince Philip, who would later marry George's granddaughter, Elizabeth II. George also took an interest in the political turmoil in Ireland, expressing his horror at government-sanctioned killings and reprisals in a letter to Prime Minister Lloyd George.

World War I took its toll on George's health, which began to deteriorate rapidly. He had always had a weak chest, a weakness exacerbated by heavy smoking. A bout of illness saw him retire to the sea, by Bognor Regis in West Sussex where Queen Mary helped nurse him back to health. However, he lived to see the silver jubilee of his reign, in 1935, by which time he had become a well-loved king.

George's relationship with his heir, Prince Edward also deteriorated in his later years. George was disappointed in Edward's failure to settle down in life and disgusted by his many affairs with married women. He was also reluctant to see Edward inherit the crown. In contrast, he was fond of his second eldest son, Prince Albert and doted on his eldest granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth; he nicknamed her "Lilibet", and she affectionally called him "Grandpa England".

George was quoted as saying about his son Edward: "After I am dead the boy will ruin himself in 12 months," and later about Albert and Lilibet: "I pray to God that my eldest son Edward will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne."

Death

George died on 20 January 1936 at Sandringham House, and is buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. His end was allegedly hastened by his physician, Lord Dawson of Penn, who, it is rumoured, gave him a lethal injection of cocaine and morphine. The courtier wanted to end the King's suffering, and perhaps hoped the monarch would die before midnight so that his death could be announced in the morning The Times rather than in the less prestigious afternoon newspapers.

At the King's lying in state in Westminster Hall, his four surviving sons, King Edward VIII, the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent, mounted the guard at the catafalque on the night of January 28th, the day before the funeral as a mark of respect to their father.

At George's funeral procession, as the funeral cortege turned into New Palace Yard, the Maltese Cross fell from the Crown and landed in the gutter. This was viewed as a bad omen for the next King, Edward VIII, who would abdicate before the year was out.

Legacy

George was a well-known stamp collector, and played a large role in building the Royal Philatelic Collection into the most comprehensive collection of United Kingdom and Commonwealth stamps in the world, in some cases setting record purchase prices for items. His enthusiasm for stamps, though denigrated by the intelligentsia, did much to popularise the hobby.


Styles from birth to death

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  1. 1865-1892: His Royal Highness Prince George of Wales
  2. 1892-1901: His Royal Highness The Duke of York
  3. 1901: His Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall and York
  4. 1901-1910: His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
  5. 1910-1936: His Majesty The King

See also


Preceded by:
Edward VII
King of the United Kingdom
1910–1936
Succeeded by:
Edward VIII
Emperor of India
1910–1936
Preceded by:
The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
1905–1907
Succeeded by:
The Earl Brassey
Preceded by:
New Creation
Duke of York
1892–1901
Succeeded by:
Merged in Crown
Personal tools