King George and Queen Mary: The Royals who Rescued the Monarchy is a two-part miniseries airing in Canada highlighting the contribution George and Mary made to the unstoppable evolution of the British Monarchy.
King George V and Queen Mary.
Episode one focuses on King George V, Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather. Having been born and raised in the Victorian age, George was a very conservative man. However when faced with the changes of the First World War he surprised with his skills to innovate, as he created the House of Windsor, reinvented royal traditions that are still used today and embraced democratic reform.
He reached a high during the celebrations of his silver jubilee in 1935 as he and the monarchy were more popular than they ever had been. Yet he proved one cannot have it all, as his popularity with his family was far less successful. King George bullied his children and alienated Prince Edward, his eldest son and heir, prompting one courtier to remark “the royal family are like ducks, they sit on their children”.
With his grandchildren however he was a loving and doting grandparent, something that has greatly influenced Queen Elizabeth’s style and commitment to her country.
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert) was born 3 June 1865. At the time of his birth to Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), he was third in line to the throne behind his father and older brother, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale until his untimely death in 1892. When his father succeeded George’s grandmother, Queen Victoria in 1901, George became the Prince of Wales. In 1910, he became King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India and was the only Emperor of India to attended his own Delhi Durbar. He held these titles until his death on 20 January 1936.
George V became the first monarch of the House of Windsor after renaming if from the past House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha due to the anti-German public reactions after World War One.
King George and Queen Mary Episode One airs Sunday, July 19, 07:00 pm on KCTS 9 HD
Seattle/Yakima and KYVE 47 Yakima.
All this is true but how sad that the King didn’t save his cousin the Tsar of Russia with his entire family from being murdered
No one at the time expected that the Bolsheviks would murder the whole Imperial Family. The new authorities in Moscow originally intended to imprison only the Tsar, and send the Empress and the children into exile in Spain or England.
The Russian Civil War was still undecided in many parts of the new Soviet Union, and when the Whites were advancing toward where the family were held, a decision was made in Moscow. They felt that as long as the family were alive they’d be more trouble to the new government than they were worth. A message was sent to execute all of them, including their servants. The Bolsheviks thought the Whites would keep trying to rescue them, and this was though to be the more expedient solution.
All this happened quickly by the standards of that time, and I feel sure that if King George V had known his Russian relatives were in danger of execution, he wouldn’t have rescinded the invitation he made earlier.