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You are here: UK History > Royal History > House of Saxe Coburg and Gotha > George V | Monarch of the 1st World War
George V inherited the throne and the fear that Europe would be tipped into war from his father, Edward VII and as such, was the first British monarch to rule during a World War where his country was pitted against those ruled by his cousins and other relatives. His reign also saw the very first Labour government come to power and became the final monarch of the House of Saxe Coburg Gotha and the first monarch of a new era of the House of Windsor.
Born: 3rd June 1865, Marlborough House, Westminster, London
Died: 20th January 1938 (aged 70), Sandringham House, Norfolk
Reign: 6th May 1910 – 20th January 1936
Parents: Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark
Predecessor: Edward VII (father)
Successor: Edward VIII (son)
Spouse: Mary of Teck
Children: Edward VIII; George VI; Mary, Princess Royal; Prince Henry Duke of Gloucester; Prince George Duke of Kent; Prince John.
Royal House: Saxe Coburg and Gotha (until 1917), then Windsor
George was born during the reign of his grandmother Queen Victoria, as Prince George and was third in the line of succession behind his father and his older brother.
He was born at his family’s official residence, Marlborough House in London, the second son of Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, who would go on to be Edward VII and Alexandria, the Princess of Wales. His father was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
As the younger son of the Prince of Wales, there was little expectation that he would become king, something that appears to be a bit of a pattern with Britain’s monarchs. As he was just 17 months younger than his older brother, the pair were educated together. It was initially said that neither were intellectually gifted, but that George did show an aptitude for military service.
In 1877, at just 12 years old, both George and his brother joined cadet training onboard HMS Britannia at Dartmouth in Devon before serving on the HMS Bacchante. They toured the British empire and during their travels, George received a tattoo from a traditional Japanese artist. Queen Victoria was upset that despite being widely travelled, neither of her grandsons could speak French or German, leading to the pair being sent to Lausanne in an unsuccessful attempt to teach them another language. After this, they were separated. The elder brother, Albert Victor began attending Trinity College in Cambridgeshire, while George continued in the Navy, travelling the world once again, though from 1891, his naval rank was largely honorary.
As a young man in the Navy, George spent many years serving under the command of his uncle, Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, who was stationed in Malta. While there, he met and fell in love with his cousin Princess Marie, which caused a family dispute. Eventually, Marie would go on to marry Ferdinand, the future king of Romania instead.
In 1891, his older brother became engaged to his second cousin, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, their second cousin, who was known as Mary. Six weeks into their engagement, Albert Victor died of pneumonia, leaving George as second in line for the throne. George and Mary became close during their period of shared morning and a year later, became engaged themselves.
They got married on 6th July 1893 and throughout their lives, they remained devoted to each other, with the pair often exchanging love letters and notes of endearment, many of which have survived.
Together they had five sons and a daughter and George was known to be a strict father. His children were all said to be terrified of him and as they got older, would grow to resent his nature. Prince Henry, one of his younger children described him as a terrible father after his death.
The family mainly lived at a small house on the Sandringham estate, preferring a comfortable middle-class existence rather than living as royalty. Unlike his father, who was known for being a socialite and throwing extravagant parties, George preferred a simpler life. He was known to be an avid stamp collector and played a large role in building the Royal Philatelic Collection into the most comprehensive collection of UK and commonwealth stamps in the world.
Though not close to his children, George was very close to his father, describing him as his best friend. At the request of his father, he joined his parents in Russia for the funeral of Tsar Alexander III and remained there for several weeks, where he also attended the wedding of his cousins Nicholas II and Alix of Hesse and Rhine.
The death of his older brother ended George’s naval career as he became closer to the throne. His grandmother made him the Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killarney and instructed him to undertake lessons in constitutional history. With these titles, he undertook a variety of public duties and then inherited the title of Duke of Cornwall on his grandmother’s death when his father ascended the throne. For much of the rest of that year, he was known as the Duke of Cornwall and York.
On 9th November 1901, he was created the Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester and his father began training him for his future role as king. His grandmother, Queen Victoria, had mostly excluded her sons from state affairs, while King Edward VII gave his son wide access to state documents. In turn, George would share these with his wife, who he counted as one of his closest advisors.
As the Prince of Wales, he worked on creating reforms in Naval training, including cadets being enrolled at young ages and receiving an equal education, no matter what their class or eventual assignments. These reforms were later implemented.
Much like his father, George was disgusted by racial discrimination after witnessing it first hand during a tour of India. Following a royal tour of the country, he campaigned for a greater inclusion of Indians in the governance of their country.
Edward VII died on 6th May 1910 and George became king, ruling as George V. On ascending the throne, he was made King of the United Kingdom and British Dominions and the Emperor of India. George was devastated at the loss and said it was akin to losing his best friend.
On ascending, the first official act undertaken by George was the changing of his wife’s name. He had never liked her habit of signing official documents with her full name, which was Victoria Mary, and so insisted that she drop one of those names now she was queen, from here onwards, she was known as Queen Mary.
Their coronation took place on 22nd June 1911 and was celebrated by the Festival of Empire in London. The royal couple visited Ireland where they were warmly received and then India, where George wore the newly created Imperial Crown of India, the only Emperor to be present at his own Delhi Durbar – the equivalent of a coronation.
It was a politically turbulent time when George gained the throne, for one, the two political factions had further evolved from the Tories and the Whigs to the Conservatives and the Liberals. In the general election of 1910, the Liberals, with the support of the Irish Nationalist Party, began a campaign for Home Rule. This was a contentious issue and was opposed by Conservatives and members of the public, George, wary of causing an all out war in Ireland, invited members of both parties to a meeting at Buckingham Palace to negotiate a settlement. However, political developments here were swiftly overtaken by events in Europe, leaving the issue of Home Rule to be suspended.
Just as Edward VII had feared, a huge war broke out in Europe just a few years after George ascended. From 1914 – 1918, Britain and its allies were at war with the Central Powers, led by the German Empire under the rule of George’s cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II. There was widespread anti-German sentiment and as George and his children hailed from the royal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and held German titles, he felt a need to distance them from Germany. He settled on the name Windsor and instructed his relatives to adopt British surnames and compensated several with peerages, including Prince Louis of Battenberg, who became Louis Mountbatten.
During the course of the war, George’s cousin, Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in the Russian Revolution. The British government were open to offering political asylum to the Tsar and his family, but fear of revolution in Britain led George to believe that housing the Romanovs would be hugely inappropriate. The Tsar and his family were killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Historians have argued whether it was parliament or the king who left them to their fate in Russia, but letters from the king indicate that it was his decision to refuse asylum.
Two months after the end of the war, the king’s youngest son died at the age of 13 after a lifetime of ill health. The King toured areas of Belgium and Northern France, visiting cemeteries and memorials that were being constructed to commemorate the soldiers who had lost their lives in the battle. This and one other visit to Italy, were the only times George agreed to leave the UK after the end of the war.
By the end of WWI, George was no longer related to rulers of Europe with many of the monarchies falling to revolution. Political turmoil in Ireland continued as nationalists fought for independence and George expressed horror at the government sanctioned killings to Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Eventually, negotiations led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which in turn led to Ireland being partitioned, the creation of the Irish Free State and Lloyd George leaving office.
The king and his advisors were concerned about the rise of socialism which, along with the emerging Labour movement, was growing around the world. George adopted a more democratic stance, which crossed class lines and brought the monarchy closer to the working classes. He cultivated friendly relations with Labour party politicians and trade union officials who were becoming a popular alternative to the Liberals and the Conservatives. His abandonment of upper class aloofness, enhanced his popularity in the post war years.
In 1924, George appointed the first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, in the absence of a clear majority between the now three political parties. George’s tactful and understanding reception of this first government allayed suspicions of the party’s sympathisers and two years later, during the General Strike of 1926, the king advised the new Conservative government under Stanley Baldwin to: “Try living on their wages before you judge them.”
A world financial crisis broke out in 1931, leading to George encouraging a formation of a national government led by both Macdonald and Baldwin. He grew increasingly more concerned about the rise of Adolf Hitler and fascism in Germany.
George’s reign saw several important changes to the political landscape including the introduction of votes for certain women and the Statute of Westminster, which formalised the legislative independence of the Dominions and established that succession to the throne could not be changed unless all parliaments of the Dominions, as well as the parliament in Westminster agreed. He also delivered the first ever Royal Christmas Speech in 1932 on the radio, which has since been an annual event. By the silver jubilee of his reign in 1935, he had become a well loved king.
George’s poor relationship with his children continued throughout the end of his life, particularly with his eldest son and heir. George was disappointed in his son’s failure to settle down and was appalled by his continuing affairs with married women. In contrast, he was fond of his second son and doted on his grandchildren Elizabeth and Margaret. He particularly doted on Elizabeth, who he called Lilibet and she called him Grandpa England.
Speaking about his oldest son, George said: “After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself within 12 months.” He also said “I pray to God my eldest son will never marry and have children and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilbet and the throne.”
The war took a serious toll on George’s health and he was seriously injured in 1915 when he was thrown from his horse. He was also a heavy smoker and this exacerbated recurring breathing problems, including bronchitis. By 1928, he fell seriously ill with septicaemia and for the next two years, his oldest son, Edward, took over many of his duties. Royal doctors tried to convince the king to take a trip abroad, which was strongly rejected, George eventually relented and agreed to retire to Sussex for several months, leading to Bognor being renamed Bognor Regis to indicate that a royal had visited.
Despite his trip to the coast, George never fully recovered and in his final year, he was occasionally administered oxygen. In January 1936, he took to his bed at Sandringham and remained there until his death. He was succeeded by his oldest son, who ruled as Edward VIII but abdicated before the year was out, he was then followed by his brother Bertie who ruled as George VI.
George established a standard of conduct for British Royalty that reflected the values and virtues of the upper middle classes rather than the upper classes. Acting within his constitutional boundaries, he dealt skilfully with the crisis in Ireland, WWI and the first socialist government in Britain.
Australia House, London
Not only is it England's longest continuously occupied foreign mission, but George laid the foundation stone and then officially opened it with the then Australian prime minister in 1918.
Bognor Regis, Sussex
George recuperated here following an illness.
Buckingham Palace, London
Dartmouth, Devon
George completed his navy training here.
Marlborough House, London
George's birth place
Sandringham House, Norfolk
Where he spent his final moments, the family home was based at a small house on the estate.
Southwark Bridge, London
The bridge was officially opened by George
Tower of London, London
His crown forms part of the Crown Jewels exhibit.
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