David Cannadine - George V: The Unexpected King

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Allen Lane is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

First published 2014

Copyright David Cannadine, 2014

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover design by Pentagram
Jacket art by Riikka Sormunen

ISBN: 978-0-141-97690-7

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For Hannah and for Claude

No epoch in the life of a nation is exactly outlined by a sovereigns reign.

John Buchan, The Kings Grace

Monarchs have always been by definition multi-tasking people, and the biography of any sovereign should ideally give attention to all the many things they do and are. It should narrate the life of an individual, who is born, brought up, educated, marries, begets children, celebrates birthdays, perhaps grows old, and dies. But monarchy is also an institution, which is temporarily embodied in the person of one particular sovereign, who in modern times enjoys rights and bears responsibilities under the law and the constitution, and who plays a part in government and public affairs ranging all the way from the dominant to the decorative. Moreover, crowned heads of state are iconic personages, embodying a nations (and, sometimes, an empires) history, traditions, identity and sense of itself, which are often articulated through spectacle and pageantry, of which kings and queens are the charismatic centre and ceremonial cynosure. Monarchies also project their own images of themselves, via the media, and in turn images and imaginings are projected back by their peoples and their subjects, who see in their sovereign qualities and attributes that may or may not be real or true. They also function in a broader historical context which they may sometimes help define and even occasionally dictate; but, as John Buchans words make plain, they do not necessarily do so, and they have not done so in Britain in modern times, when sovereigns reign rather than rule. In writing this brief life of King George V, I have tried to keep these perspectives in view and these considerations and constraints in mind. His years on the throne, from 1910 to 1936, do not mark a period of historic time that could plausibly be called the Georgian age. Yet he was, without question, a multi-tasking monarch, discharging some kingly functions well, but others less so; and as Emperor of India and sovereign of dominions beyond the seas, he was undeniably a global figure. But he had not grown up expecting to inherit the throne or to wear the crown.

In terms of both the names they were given and the titles they bore, there was a high level of repetition among members of the British royal family across the generations during the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. Thus Edward VII, George V and Edward VIII were all at one time styled Prince of Wales; George V and George VI were both created Duke of York; Edward VII and George VI were both given Albert as their first name, and as a result, both of them were known in the royal family as Bertie.

Such repetitions, and the frequency with which male members of the royal family also changed their titles, sometimes (as in the case of George V) from prince to duke to prince to king, can cause considerable confusion, and there is no easy solution to this difficulty. I have adopted the same stern convention used by Harold Nicolson in his biography of George V, where he called people by the title they possessed at the time of which he was writing, and I have also, on occasions, used family names where it seemed more appropriate, or in the interests of clarity.

Here are the names and titles of the four kings and their wives who are mentioned in this book:

King Edward VII, eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: Prince Albert Edward, subsequently Prince of Wales, Edward VII and Emperor of India. Known in the royal family as Bertie (and, less affectionately in later life, by some of his friends as Tum Tum). His wife, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, was subsequently Princess of Wales and Queen Alexandra and Empress of India, and she was known as Alix.