The Life of King Edward VII
intimately acquainted with our forces both at home and in India, as well
as in other parts of the Empire. I shall watch over your interests and
efficiency with continuous and keen solicitude and shall rely on that
spirit of loyalty which has at all times animated and been the proud
tradition of the British Army." To the Royal Navy His Majesty's Message
was issued with special and personal interest. He was devoted to that
arm of the service. From the year 1877 when he entered as a Cadet of
twelve years old, and 1879 when, with Prince Albert Victor--afterwards
Duke of Clarence--he went around the world in H. M. S. _Bacchante_, and
1885 when he became a Midshipman, he had delighted in the Naval service,
imbibed the free air of the seas of the world and become instinct with
pride in England's naval record and achievements. He had been attached
to and served in several great battleships; in 1888 he commanded a
torpedo boat and in 1890 the gunboat _Thrush_; in succeeding years he
held more important commands and finally in 1897 had become an Admiral.
To his Navy King George spoke as follows:
"It is my earnest wish on succeeding to the Throne to make known to
the Navy how deeply grateful I am for its faithful and
distinguished services rendered to the late King, my beloved
Father, who ever showed great solicitude for its welfare and
efficiency. Educated and trained in that profession which I love so
dearly my retirement from active duty has in no sense diminished my
feelings of affection for it. For thirty-three years I had the
honour of serving in the Navy, and such intimate participation in
its life and work enables me to know how thoroughly I can depend
upon that spirit of loyalty and zealous devotion to duty of which
the glorious history of our Navy is the outcome. That you will ever
continue to be, as in the past, the foremost defenders of your
country's honour I know full well, and your fortunes will always be
followed by me with deep feelings of pride and affectionate
interest."
Parliament met in special Session on May 11th to tender its combined
condolences and congratulations to the new Sovereign. The Addresses from
both Houses were identical in terms and referred eulogistically to the
great work of the late King in building up and maintaining friendly
Foreign relations. To them His Majesty replied briefly as to his
personal grief and the national sorrow and then added: "King Edward's
care for the welfare of his people, his skill and prudent guidance of
the nation's affairs, his unwavering devotion to public duty during his
illustrious reign, his simple courage under pain, will long be held in
honour by his subjects both at home and beyond the Seas." Meanwhile an
infinite variety of articles were being written about the new King. In
Canada and the United States the same despatches, practically, came to
the leading papers; in Canada were reproduced many of the attractive
articles written by special American correspondents in England. Some of
them could hardly have come from personal knowledge; others contained
much of current gossip, passing stories, hasty impressions; all were
interesting. A remarkable feature of nearly all that was written
regarding His Majesty was the absence of serious criticism or the
slightest cause for condemnation in a life of forty-five years lived in
the continuous white light which beats upon Royalty with such merciless
precision.
The facts are that King George was and had been essentially a sailor
Prince; that he had in his younger days been open-handed, free, and
possessed of a certain natural and bluff and pleasant geniality which
was, however, quite different from the urbane, charming, courtly
geniality of King Edward; that something of this characteristic had
disappeared from public view after the death of his brother, the Duke of
Clarence, and his own assumption of public duties and public work as
heir presumptive--functions greatly enlarged by the accession of his
father to the Throne; that in his travels through the outer spaces, the
vast Colonial Dominions, of the Empire he was too hedged about with
etiquette, too much surrounded by a varied, and constantly changing, and
bewildering environment to exhibit anything except devotion to the
immediate duty of the moment; that under the circumstances of his
Imperial tours, amidst political conditions wherein a wrong word or even
an unwise gesture might, upon occasions, evoke a storm, where not even
his carefully-selected suite could be expected to understand all the
varied shades of political strife and the infinite varieties of public
opinion, it would have been more than human for him to show continuous
geniality--as that word is interpreted in democratic countries; that
upon many occasions and despite these obstacles he did thoroughly
indicate a personal and unaffected enjoyment very different in manner
from that of a prince receiving a formal address--notably so in his
drives around Quebec during the Tercentenary; that the responsibilities
of his position, the personal limitations of his environment, the
difficulties always surrounding an heir to the throne, had however, and
upon the whole, sobered the one-time "jolly" Prince into a serious and
thoughtful personage--a statesman in the making; that he was, what none
of the Royal family had ever been, something of an orator as he proved
by his splendid speech in London upon returning from the Empire tour of
1901 and by his delivery of otherwise routine addresses upon many
occasions; that there could be absolutely no doubt as to his love of
home, his devotion to wife and family, his personal preference for a
quieter life than that which destiny had given him. King George was
married to Princess May of Teck, on July 6, 1893, and the children of
the Royal pair at the Accession were as follows:
H. R. H., Edward Albert Born June 23, 1894
H. R. H., Albert Frederick " Dec. 14, 1895
H. R. H., Victoria Alexandra " April 25, 1897
H. R. H., Henry William " March 31, 1900
H. R. H., George Edward " Dec. 20, 1902
H. R. H., John Charles " July 12, 1905
Of the new Queen Mary much might be said. Unspoiled by the social
adulation, the personal power of her environment; devoted to her home,
its duties and its responsibilities, and believing her children to be
the first object and aim of a woman's study and attention, she yet found
time to master the underlying principles of her future position, to
become thoroughly conversant with all the details of sovereignty--not
only in the ordinary sense but in that new meaning which has come to
stamp the British Monarchy with such an international and Imperial
prestige. The future Queen had some special qualifications for her
position. She was British by birth and training and habit of
thought--the first Queen-Consort who could claim these conditions in
centuries of history. A great-granddaughter of George the Third she was
the popular child of a popular mother--Princess Mary of Teck--and was
born in Kensington Palace on May 26, 1867, in a room adjacent to that
in which Queen Victoria first saw the light of day. Interested in the
theatre, in music, and the drama, charitable by nature and incessant in
her work for, and amongst, the poor, a cheerful though not exactly eager
participant in social affairs and presiding at the Marlborough House
functions with tact and distinction; winning during her tour around the
Empire the unstinted liking and respect of the people; the mistress and
careful head of her household, a constant friend and adviser and
associate of her Royal husband, a loving and devoted mother; the
Princess of Wales before she entered upon her inheritance of power had
well proved her right to help in holding the reins of a greater position
and in setting the example of leadership in her natural and important
share of the duties surrounding the throne of Britain and its far-flung
realm.
What can be said of the future? It may be assumed that King George V
will know his people well. He is thoroughly English in life, character,
feelings; he knows Europe and the Empire better perhaps than any other
living man; he is in sympathetic touch with rich and poor alike and has
taken for many years deep interest in philanthropic and other schemes
for the betterment of the poor; he has been trained in the school of
constitutional monarchy by the personal teachings of his father and the
potent example of Queen Victoria. The London _Daily Telegraph_ said of
him at the time of his accession--speaking probably with the knowledge
of Lord Burnham, its proprietor, who had for many years been on intimate
terms of friendship with the Royal Family--that the new King had
undergone sedulous training and been educated to rule by learning to
obey. "The country will discover in him what those admitted to his
confidence have always realized--admirable traits of kindliness and
strength; wise common sense, practical judgment of affairs; shrewd
insight into character; and a singularly upright and lofty conception
of his kingly duty. He has a frank, generous, unspoiled nature, is
quick in apprehension, deliberate in thought, careful in expression,
controlled by a far-reaching consciousness of duty and is animated by a
vivid sense of his exalted mission. He is a keen sportsman, an admirable
father and husband, and a lovable man."
King George has also been trained Imperially. He has trod the soil of
his empire in every part of the globe and visited seas and lands which
no other British sovereign ever saw; he has seen the courage and
commercial skill and success of his more distant peoples, the pioneering
activities and growing civilizations of new states and territories
thousands of miles apart; he has obviously learned from them lessons of
great import. It required considerable courage in 1902 to make that
speech of "Wake up, England," to a people who do not readily take advice
from their rulers and who notoriously dislike being hurried along the
lines of their development. In other directions there is much to be
hopeful for. His Majesty has chosen his friends well. They are said, in
an intimate sense, to be few in number, but the fact of Lord Rosebery
being one of them augurs well of the others. He has a strong sense of
duty, his addresses indicate the principle of Imperialism in its best
sense, his life has commanded the respect of his people. It may well be,
and surely will be in his case, as with the late Queen, with Wellington
and Nelson and King Edward himself, that
"Not once or twice in our fair Island's story
The path of duty was the road to glory."