George V biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Britain’s George V was the grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and the second son of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark. George Frederick Ernest Albert of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was born on June 3, 1865. From 1910 to 1936, he oversaw tremendous transformation within the British Empire and the world. Starting a Career in the Navy As the second royal son, George wasn’t expected to take the throne. In his early years, he was educated alongside his older brother, Albert, by tutors and nannies. At age 12, George and Albert enrolled in the naval training academy. Afterward, Albert went on to Trinity College, and George remained in the Royal Navy, intending to make it his career. In 1892, Albert suddenly died of influenza. George assumed the role of heir-apparent and left the Royal Navy. He was given the title Duke of York, along with an education in British politics, and became a member of the House of Lords.

In 1893, George married his German cousin (and his late brother’s fiancée), Princess Victoria Mary of Teck. During their marriage they had four sons and a daughter. By most accounts George was a strict father with all his children, but was especially critical of his wayward son Edward, once saying he hoped his second son, Albert, would take the throne. His wish would be granted when Edward abdicated the throne in 1936 and Albert was crowned George VI.

Becoming King

On May 6, 1910, Edward VII died. George became king and immediately faced a constitutional crisis, known as the budget controversy of 1910. In an unprecedented move, Tories in the House of Lords rejected the budget proposed by Liberals in the House of Commons. George V threatened to create enough Liberal nobles in the House of Lords to pass the measure, and the Tories gave in. George V’s threat foretold future actions where he would support the middle class over the gentry.

When World War I broke out in July 1914, George V took great effort to personally support the troops, visiting the front and military hospitals many times. On one such visit, his horse rolled over him, fracturing his pelvis and giving him pain the rest of his life. In 1917, in response to deep anti-German sentiment in Britain, George V replaced his Germanic name with the name of Windsor (after the castle of the same name). That same year, he made the controversial decision to deny political asylum to his cousin and ally Tsar Nicholas II and his family, after the Bolshevik Revolution. Many in Britain were shocked, but he felt it important to distance himself from the autocratic Russian regime. By the end of World War I, George V was one of few European monarchs who had not fallen to revolution and war.