King George V’s Children: Brother Kings

[Music] king george v children part one brother kings [Music] many of you have been asking me to continue my series on queen victoria's descendants with videos on her great grandchildren well here's a start the children of george v include two kings one who nearly toppled the monarchy by abdicating in scandal and the other who became a hero to his people and one of the country's greatest monarchs a princess who dedicated herself to improving the lives of women and three princes a stoic war hero an artistic bisexual tomcat and a lonely boy who died tragically young let's meet them king george v was a grandson of queen victoria when his elder brother albert victor died of influenza he took his place in the line of succession and at the altar marrying albert's fiancee mary of tech george who had grown up in the navy was a stern disciplinarian and a cold parent his wife wasn't much warmer mary was more devoted to her royal duties than to her children the six royal offspring were left in the care of nannies and george and mary failed to notice that they were being abused the children were denied food scolded and pinched when their parents were near so that they would cry and be returned to the nanny once the parents got wise they replaced the abusive governess with charlotte bill who was beloved by the children george was at times affectionate with his offspring and mary had a playful side and enjoyed the children's pranks they received much more tenderness and devotion from their grandparents king edward vii and queen alexandra of denmark george and mary became king and queen of the united kingdom in 1910 their german cousin kaiser wilhelm launched a little family feud known as world war one and their relatives and their nations squared off against each other in a war that cost 40 million lives and reshaped europe with germany so unpopular king george made the prudent decision to renounce all of his hereditary german titles and change the family name from sox koberg and gotha to the more english-sounding windsor the name of his favorite castle after the war the monarchies of germany russia and other kingdoms were abolished and there were far fewer eligible young royals on the marriage market when george's children came of age therefore the king changed royal tradition so that his children were not required to marry foreign royals the king's eldest son and heir was king edward viii edward albert christian george andrew patrick david was known as david within his family he was tutored at the palace until the age of 13 when he was sent away to the royal naval college which he did not enjoy his father felt that the best preparation for the job of king was to serve in the military but historians argue that both father and son were quite underprepared intellectually for their roles as sovereigns at 16 edward was enrolled at oxford university he excelled at polo but not in academics he left after four years without a degree david was the first to be formally invested as prince of wales at canarvin castle during the fanciful ceremony he gave a short speech in welsh world war one broke out when he was 20 and the prince was eager to fight but the british government refused to put him in harm's way david visited troops at the front as often as he could and became very popular with veterans he also earned his pilot's license and enjoyed flying as a hobby in 1917 while on leave from his regiment the grenadier guards david made frequent trips to paris to visit his mistress courtesan marguerite aliber six years later marguerite shot her husband at the savoy hotel the palace worked desperately to keep the prince's name out of the papers during her spectacular murder trial rather than having an arranged marriage to a foreign princess thrust upon him as had been done in previous generations david was given much more freedom to socialize and select his own spouse in 1923 his younger brother prince birdie married scottish aristocrat elizabeth beau's lion and started a family but prince david showed no signs of settling down throughout the 1920s he took on various royal duties and overseas trips to support his father his good looks and style made him a celebrity and fashion icon he was the most photographed person alive and menswear magazine observed the average young man in america is more interested in the clothes of the prince of wales than in any other individual on earth the prince was liberally minded and supported the rights of workers and the poor but he also bought in to eugenics and held racist views towards the people he met on his travels david was a hard partying playboy and had little interest in the work of being royal both his parents and the british government spent a lot of time covering up his affairs and had serious concerns about his future as sovereign king george remarked i pray to god that my eldest son will never marry and have children and that nothing will come between birdie and lillibit and the throne david in turn dreaded becoming king and felt wholly unprepared for the job he remained popular with and revered by the public but he himself admitted that he was undeserving of their admiration the prince's love affairs were always with married women as unmarried women had to guard their chastity and would have had no way to explain an unexpected pregnancy the prince had a 16-year relationship with british american textile heiress frida dudley ward of sharing a train car with the couple winston churchill remarked it is quite pathetic to see the prince and frida his love is so obvious and undisguisable he also had an affair with american actress lady thelma furnace who in 1931 made the fateful introduction between the prince and her friend fellow american wallace simpson wallace was on her second husband with whom she enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle well beyond their means the debts were piling up and ernest was happy to look the other way while his wife collected jewels from the prince and he collected important business contacts both ernest and wallace ridiculed david behind his back calling him peter pan the boy who refused to grow up wallace bullied the prince treated him like a naughty child and scolded him for not eating his vegetables and david couldn't get enough he became obsessed with wallace and followed her around like a lost puppy on january 20th 1936 king george v died and 41 year old david automatically ascended the throne he took the regional name edward viii after his grandfather he refused to take the job of king seriously and government ministers were reluctant to send documents to the new king in the traditional daily red box because he didn't look at them anyway and they feared wallace or other party guests might be reading secret government documents instead wallace expected that edward's duties as king would eclipse their relationship but the pressure of responsibility caused him to become even more dependent on her he required her constant attention and ernest began to grow weary of sharing his wife wallace asked her childhood friend mary referee to keep her husband occupied while she saw to the king's needs but of course ernest and mary became lovers desperate to get her husband back wallace tried to break up with edward but he threatened to kill himself if she left him ernest asked the king directly what his intentions were towards his wife to which he replied that he couldn't imagine being crowned without wallace by his side ernest staged getting caught in an act of adultery so that he and wallace could be divorced wallace was heartbroken but she realized too late that in gaining edward's affections she had lost her husbands and that she had gone too far to turn back now american newspapers hounded wallace but the british press covered up the story in november edward informed the prime minister of his intentions to marry wallace the pm advised the king that his people would never accept the marriage or having wallace as queen divorce was still seen as morally repugnant and at the time it was forbidden by the church of england of which edward as king was titular head edward was baffled that anyone would not wish to honor and praise the woman he adored but he proposed a morganatic marriage in which he would remain king but wallace would not become queen and any children they might have would not inherit the throne but this idea was rejected as well as there were serious concerns about wallace's political leanings adolf hitler ordered german ambassador joachim von ribentrop to seduce wallace and he had succeeded gaining tactical secrets and her loyalty and sending her 17 carnations every day to represent the number of times they had slept together edward was faced with three choices one give up wallace for the crown two give up the crown for wallace or three marry wallace without the approval of his ministers and face a constitutional crisis and the possible downfall of the monarchy wallace begged him not to abdicate for her but as he had never wanted the crown it was an easy decision he signed the instrument of abdication on december 10th 1936 after just 11 months on the throne the next day he went on the radio and announced his decision to his people i have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as i would wish to do without the help and support of the woman i love his younger brother became king george vi and he created edward britain's first voluntary former king the duke of windsor edward was strongly encouraged to leave the country on may 12 1937 he listened on the radio as his brother was crowned king of the united kingdom in the coronation which had been planned for him edward and wallace married in a small ceremony on june 3rd 1937 at chateau du condi in france none of the duke's family attended as the new duke and duchess had no intention of serving as working royals they were not put on the civil list to receive an allowance from british taxpayers but king george agreed to pay his brother a generous allowance out of his own pocket he also purchased the sandringham estate and balmoral castle from him which he had inherited as the eldest son george denied wallace the right to be addressed as her royal highness and edward called his brother every day to complain about this and to demand more money finally the harassed new king requested that his brother's calls not be put through in october 1937 the duke and duchess visited nazi germany and met adolf hitler there wallace was treated like a queen justice edward had always wanted her to be when world war ii began in 1939 the duke became a central part of hitler's plan for his conquest of the united kingdom if he succeeded he wanted to put edward back on the throne as his puppet there were even plans to kidnap edward and wallace prime minister winston churchill needed to get the duke and duchess out of europe but he didn't want them stirring up trouble with their fascist views on the home front either so he appointed edward governor of the bahamas there he was praised for his efforts to alleviate poverty but he maintained his racist views and called the island a third class colony the couple were monitored by both british and american spies to make sure that they didn't do anything to seriously undermine the war effort edward later told friends that he thought the roosevelts and the jews were to blame for the war and that i never thought hitler was such a bad chap after the war edward and wallace returned to france after years of living like royals their funds were substantially drained so they made ends meet through government favors and illegal currency trading the couple lived a celebrity lifestyle attending parties in paris and new york and doting on their pet pugs wallace continued to be witty charming and great fun while edward was a boar and acquaintances dreaded sitting next to him at dinner parties the man who would have been king was content to follow his wife around while she shopped in paris and treat her like the queen he had always wanted her to be the royal family never accepted wallace or forgave edward for abandoning his duty his mother blamed him for george vi early death at 56. edward did not attend his niece elizabeth's coronation but watched it on tv he became a mentor to teenage prince charles with whom he had a lot in common in the 60s edward's health deteriorated he suffered an aneurysm and throat cancer in 1972 queen elizabeth came to see her prodigal uncle while on a state visit in france he died 10 days later at the age of 77. he was privately buried at the royal mausoleum at frogmore wallace died in 1986 age 89 and was buried next to edward king george vi was born on december 14 1895 the 34th anniversary of the death of prince albert queen victoria who was morbidly obsessed with the death of her husband was distressed at the news but the baby was named albert in honor of his great grandfather appeasing the queen he was called birdie within the family as a child he was often unwell owing greatly to his abusive nanny and harsh father he was timid had a stammer suffered chronic stomach problems as well as knock knees for which he was forced to wear a painful corrective splints he was left-handed but as was common practice at the time he was forced to write with his right hand at 14 he began his naval education and career he served aboard ships in the west indies canada and the mediterranean and saw action in the first year of world war one but he was sent home because of a bleeding stomach ulcer he was the first of his brothers to become a qualified pilot the prince frequently requested to be stationed back on the continent and was finally sent to france in 1918. he accompanied belgian king albert the first on his triumphal re-entry into brussels after the war bertie studied history economics and civics at trinity college cambridge he took on more royal duties but his stammer and shy nature made this role challenging and he loathed giving public speeches he was especially interested in visiting factories and mines and became known as the industrial prince he sponsored an annual boys summer camp for 18 years birdie began seeing a married australian socialite sheila chisholm but his father convinced him with the offer of making him duke of york to break it off he then met lady elizabeth bose lyon daughter of the earl of strathmore and king horn at the time she was casually dating the prince's equery birdie knew that elizabeth was the right woman for him and he was determined to marry her she liked him very much but was reluctant to become a member of the royal family and turned down his proposals twice but the third time was the charm and the couple were wed in 1923 at westminster abbey this first marriage of a royal prince to a mere noble rather than a foreign princess was considered highly modern and elizabeth was indeed an excellent choice of bride she was unpretentious outgoing and natural with people and she helped birdie a great deal with his public engagements she also set him up with speech therapist lionel logue who helped him ease his stammer and improve his public speaking as portrayed in the film the king's speech the newlyweds embarked on an official tour of kenya uganda and the sudan next they visited australia new zealand and fiji where they greeted everyone warmly regardless of race or rank in jamaica the prince played tennis with a black athlete in a groundbreaking display of racial equality bertie and elizabeth welcomed two daughters elizabeth and margaret with whom they were very close they chose to live in a flat in london rather than one of the royal palaces and enjoyed a quiet domestic life away from the pomp and protocol on january 20th 1936 george v died and edward viii became king as he had no children birdie became heir presumptive to the throne throughout that year it became more and more apparent that king edward had little intention of taking his new job seriously and in fact was looking for a way out which aligned well with his infatuation with wallace simpson birdie was terrified that his brother would dump the weight of the crown on his head which indeed he did without considering or even consulting his younger brother when bertie told his mother of the abdication he broke down and sobbed like a child the british people and birdie himself worried that he was unequal to the task there were rumors that the government wanted to bypass him in favor of his much more charming and popular younger brother george duke of kent but while the public was in the dark about his multiple bisexual affairs and history of drug abuse the british government was not so they never seriously considered making him king unlike edward viii bertie had a strong sense of morality and duty and took up the heavy mantle of monarchy becoming king george vi he was crowned in westminster abbey on may 12th 1937 the date which had been planned for his brother's coronation but a durbar was not held in india as had been done for the previous two kings as republican sentiment was growing in the subcontinent and the king could not take an extended trip there during the tense lead-up to world war ii instead the new king george and queen elizabeth went to north america where they met the roosevelt at the white house and strengthened bonds that would be all too important in the coming years in 1939 germany invaded poland and the british government declared war the king and queen remained in london throughout the conflict even while buckingham palace was bombed and they narrowly escaped with their lives their daughters elizabeth and margaret were evacuated to nearby windsor castle after nazi plans to kidnap them were discovered their parents went to visit them often princess elizabeth pitched in as a driver and mechanic for the auxiliary territorial service of which her aunt mary princess royal was chief controller george built a close friendship with prime minister winston churchill the pair met every tuesday for lunch to discuss the war effort george and elizabeth toured the uk extensively to boost their people's morale and became incredibly popular hitler called queen elizabeth the most dangerous woman in europe on ve day the king queen princesses and prime minister waved to their cheering and relieved people from the balcony of buckingham palace the royal family was as popular as it had ever been but the stress of the conflict had seriously impacted the king's health in 1946 george addressed the first assembly of the united nations reaffirming our faith in the equal rights of men and women and of nations great and small with matters settled in europe george turned his attention to the rest of the empire the family went on a state visit to south africa in an attempt to promote unity amidst the growing tensions between black and white people they were surprised and disturbed by the hostilities bubbling under the surface of the celebrations and they were appalled when instructed to only shake hands with white people a directive they ignored the tour was grueling and further strained the king's health and the goal of unity was a failure a year later the afrikaan national party took over the country and established apartheid george accepted with grace the disillusion of the empire which had been built by his ancestors in blood burma and palestine declared themselves independent nations in 1948 the republic of ireland in 1949 and india in 1950. george relinquished his various colonial foreign titles of emperor and king and took up the new title of head of the commonwealth with pride his daughter and heir princess elizabeth married prince philip of greece and denmark and gave the king two grandchildren charles and anne upon which he doted george who had been a heavy smoker for years began to lose weight and feeling in his right leg he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1951. a lung resection operation helped him recover somewhat but it was decided that princess elizabeth and philip would go on a commonwealth tour in the king and queen's place while they were gone george elizabeth and margaret went to their sandringham estate for rest and relaxation they had a happy family dinner and looked at photo albums and then during the early morning of february 6 1952 king george died in his sleep at the age of 56. elizabeth ii was now queen she cut her tour short and returned home for her father's funeral and to take on the heavy mantle of monarchy which he still wears today nearly 70 years later in saint george's chapel windsor castle a memorial chapel was built for king george vi one of britain's best kings his beloved wife the queen mom lived and supported her daughter for a further 50 years and was buried by his side in 2002 next week we'll meet edward and george's four younger siblings mary henry george and john who while they never wore crowns lived fascinating lives and got up to plenty of mischief don't want to wait to see the next episode patrons get exclusive early access to almost all of my multi-part series on patreon early if you would like to become a patron and help me make more fascinating history videos check out the link in the description thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday

Views: 52,521

Keywords: history, documentary, royal family, royalty, the crown, scandal, european royalty, queens of europe, women in history, wallis simpson, edward and wallis, edward viii, King edward viii, abdication crisis, nazi king, edward viii nazi king, wallis simpson nazi, george vi, elizabeth bowes lyon, the crown in crisis, wwii history, royal family scandal, queen victoria great grandchildren, 20th century history, queen elizabeth ii, american royals, king george v's children

Id: PA9myeZcsac

Length: 27min 34sec (1654 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 14 2021