Editing George V (section)

==Reign==
[[File:King George V 1911 color-crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Portrait by [[Luke Fildes|Fildes]], 1911]]
On 6&nbsp;May 1910, [[Death and state funeral of Edward VII|Edward&nbsp;VII died]], and George became king. He wrote in his diary:
{{blockquote|I have lost my best friend and the best of fathers&nbsp;... I never had a [cross] word with him in my life. I am heart-broken and overwhelmed with grief but God will help me in my responsibilities and darling May will be my comfort as she has always been. May God give me strength and guidance in the heavy task which has fallen on me.<ref>King George V's diary, 6 May 1910, Royal Archives, quoted in Rose, p. 75</ref>}}

George had never liked his wife's habit of signing official documents and letters as "Victoria Mary" and insisted she drop one of those names. They both thought she should not be called Queen Victoria, and so she became Queen Mary.<ref>Pope-Hennessy, p. 421; Rose, pp. 75–76</ref> Later that year, a radical propagandist, [[Edward Mylius]], published a lie that George had secretly married in Malta as a young man, and that consequently his marriage to Queen Mary was bigamous. The lie had first surfaced in print in 1893, but George had shrugged it off as a joke. In an effort to kill off rumours, Mylius was arrested, tried and found guilty of [[criminal libel]], and was sentenced to a year in prison.<ref>Rose, pp. 82–84</ref>

George objected to the [[anti-Catholic]] wording of the Accession Declaration that he would be required to make at the opening of his first parliament. He made it known that he would refuse to open parliament unless it was changed. As a result, the [[Accession Declaration Act 1910]] shortened the declaration and removed the most offensive phrases.<ref>{{citation|author=Wolffe, John|year=2010|section=Protestantism, Monarchy and the Defence of Christian Britain 1837–2005|editor1=Brown, Callum G.|editor2=Snape, Michael F.|title=Secularisation in the Christian World|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|location=Farnham, Surrey|pages=63–64|isbn=978-0-7546-9930-9|section-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OXhovNnt76QC&pg=PA63|access-date=28 November 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617124722/https://books.google.com/books?id=OXhovNnt76QC&pg=PA63|archive-date=17 June 2016}}</ref>

[[File:India Before the First World War; George V and Queen Mary at Delhi Durbar Q107150.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|left|The King-Emperor and Queen-Empress at the [[Delhi Durbar]], 1911]]
[[George and Mary's coronation]] took place at [[Westminster Abbey]] on 22&nbsp;June 1911,<ref name="dnb"/> and was celebrated by the [[Festival of Empire]] in London. In July, the King and Queen visited Ireland for five days; they received a warm welcome, with thousands of people lining the route of their procession to cheer.<ref>{{citation|author=Rayner, Gordon|date=10 November 2010|title=How George&nbsp;V was received by the Irish in 1911|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8121389/How-George-V-was-received-by-the-Irish-in-1911.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418083422/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8121389/How-George-V-was-received-by-the-Irish-in-1911.html|archive-date=18 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=The queen in 2011&nbsp;... the king in 1911|date=11 May 2011|newspaper=[[Irish Examiner]]|url=http://www.irishexaminer.com/analysis/the-queen-in-2011-the-king-in-1911-154342.html|access-date=13 August 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140813194225/http://www.irishexaminer.com/analysis/the-queen-in-2011-the-king-in-1911-154342.html|archive-date=13 August 2014}}</ref>
Later in 1911, the King and Queen travelled to India for the [[Delhi Durbar#Durbar of 1911|Delhi Durbar]], where they were presented to an assembled audience of Indian dignitaries and princes as the [[Emperor and Empress of India]] on 12&nbsp;December 1911. George wore the newly created [[Imperial Crown of India]] at the ceremony and declared the shifting of the Indian capital from [[Calcutta]] to Delhi. He was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar.

As he and Mary travelled throughout the subcontinent, George took the opportunity to indulge in [[1911 George V hunting in Nepal|big game hunting in Nepal]], shooting 21&nbsp;tigers, 8&nbsp;rhinoceroses and a bear over 10&nbsp;days.<ref>Rose, p. 136</ref> He was a keen and expert marksman.<ref>Rose, pp. 39–40</ref> On a later occasion, on 18&nbsp;December 1913, he shot over a thousand [[pheasant]]s in six hours (about one bird every 20&nbsp;seconds) while visiting the home of [[Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st Baron Burnham|Lord Burnham]]. Even George had to acknowledge that "we went a little too far" that day.<ref>Rose, p. 87; Windsor, pp. 86–87</ref>

===National politics===
[[File:1914 King George V and Queen Mary autochrome.jpg|thumb|[[Autochrome Lumière|Autochrome]] of King George V and Queen Mary by Jean Desboutin, 13 March 1914]]
George inherited the throne at a politically turbulent time.<ref>Rose, p. 115</ref> [[Lloyd George]]'s [[People's Budget]] had been rejected the previous year by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] and [[Unionism in Ireland|Unionist]]-dominated [[House of Lords]], contrary to the normal convention that the Lords did not veto [[money bill]]s.<ref>Rose, pp. 112–114</ref> [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] Prime Minister [[H. H. Asquith]] had asked the previous king to give an undertaking that he would create sufficient Liberal peers to allow the passage of Liberal legislation. Edward had reluctantly agreed, provided the Lords rejected the budget after two successive general elections. After the [[January 1910 general election]], the Conservative peers allowed the budget, for which the government now had an electoral mandate, to pass without a vote.<ref>Rose, p. 114</ref>

[[File:1914 Sydney Half Sovereign - George V.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Gold coin with left-facing profile portrait of George V|A George V [[half-sovereign]] ([[Bertram Mackennal]], sculptor)]]

Asquith attempted to curtail the power of the Lords through constitutional reforms, which were again blocked by the Upper House. A constitutional conference on the reforms broke down in November 1910 after 21 meetings. Asquith and [[Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe|Lord Crewe]], Liberal leader in the Lords, asked George to grant a dissolution, leading to a second general election, and to promise to create sufficient Liberal peers if the Lords blocked the legislation again.<ref>Rose, pp. 116–121</ref> If George refused, the Liberal government would otherwise resign, which would have given the appearance that the monarch was taking sides – with "the peers against the people" – in party politics.<ref>Rose, pp. 121–122</ref> The King's two private secretaries, the Liberal [[Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys|Lord Knollys]] and the Unionist [[Lord Stamfordham]], gave George conflicting advice.<ref name=R120/><ref>{{citation|first=Frank|last=Hardy|date=May 1970|title=The King and the constitutional crisis|magazine=History Today|volume=20|issue=5|pages=338–347}}</ref> Knollys advised George to accept the Cabinet's demands, while Stamfordham advised George to accept the resignation.<ref name=R120>Rose, pp. 120, 141</ref> Like his father, George reluctantly agreed to the dissolution and creation of peers, although he felt his ministers had taken advantage of his inexperience to browbeat him.<ref>Rose, pp. 121–125</ref> After the [[December 1910 general election]], the Lords let the bill pass on hearing of the threat to swamp the house with new peers.<ref>Rose, pp. 125–130</ref> The subsequent [[Parliament Act 1911]] permanently removed – with a few exceptions – the power of the Lords to veto bills. George later came to feel that Knollys had withheld information from him about the willingness of the opposition to form a government if the Liberals had resigned.<ref>Rose, p. 123</ref>

The 1910 general elections had left the Liberals as a minority government dependent upon the support of the [[Irish Nationalist Party]]. As desired by the Nationalists, Asquith introduced [[Home Rule Act 1914|legislation that would give Ireland Home Rule]], but the Conservatives and Unionists opposed it.<ref name="dnb"/><ref>Rose, p. 137</ref> As tempers rose over the Home Rule Bill, which would never have been possible without the Parliament Act, relations between the elderly Knollys and the Conservatives became poor, and he was pushed into retirement.<ref>Rose, pp. 141–143</ref> Desperate to avoid the prospect of civil war in Ireland between Unionists and Nationalists, George called a [[Buckingham Palace Conference|meeting of all parties at Buckingham Palace]] in July 1914 in an attempt to negotiate a settlement.<ref>Rose, pp. 152–153, 156–157</ref> After four days the conference ended without an agreement.<ref name="dnb"/><ref>Rose, p. 157</ref> Political developments in Britain and Ireland were overtaken by events in Europe, and the issue of Irish Home Rule was [[Suspensory Act 1914|suspended]] for the duration of the war.<ref name="dnb"/><ref>Rose, p. 158</ref>

===First World War===
[[File:A Good Riddance - George V of the United Kingdom cartoon in Punch, 1917.png|upright|thumb|alt=George V in the ceremonial robes of the Garter sweeps aside assorted crowns labelled "Made in Germany"|"A good riddance" – a cartoon of 1917 shows George sweeping away his German titles]]

On 4 August 1914, George wrote in his diary, "I held a council at 10:45 to declare war with Germany. It is a terrible catastrophe but it is not our fault.&nbsp;... Please to God it may soon be over."<ref>Nicolson, p. 247</ref> From 1914 to 1918, [[Allies of World War I|Britain and its allies]] were at [[World War I|war]] with the [[Central Powers]], led by the [[German Empire]]. German Kaiser [[Wilhelm II]], who for the British public came to symbolise all the horrors of the war, was the King's first cousin. George's paternal grandfather was [[Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]]; consequently, the King and his children bore the German titles Prince and Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke and Duchess of Saxony. Queen Mary, although born in England like her mother, was the daughter of the Duke of Teck, a descendant of the German [[Dukes of Württemberg]]. George had brothers-in-law and cousins who were British subjects but who bore German titles such as Duke and Duchess of Teck, Prince and Princess of Battenberg, and Prince and Princess of Schleswig-Holstein. When [[H. G. Wells]] wrote about Britain's "alien and uninspiring court", George replied: "I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien."<ref>Nicolson, p. 308</ref>

On 17 July 1917, George appeased British nationalist feelings by issuing a royal proclamation that changed the name of the British [[royal house]] from the German-sounding [[House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]] to the [[House of Windsor]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30186|date=17 July 1917|page=7119 |mode=cs2}}</ref> He and all his British relatives relinquished their German titles and styles and adopted British-sounding surnames. George compensated his male relatives by giving them British peerages. His cousin [[Prince Louis of Battenberg]], who earlier in the war had been forced to resign as [[First Sea Lord]] through anti-German feeling, became Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, while Queen Mary's brothers became [[Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge]], and [[Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone]].<ref>Rose, pp. 174–175</ref>
[[File:Tsar Nicholas II & King George V.JPG|thumb|left|upright|alt=Two bearded men of identical height wear military dress uniforms emblazoned with medals and stand side-by-side|George V (right) and his cousin [[Nicholas II of Russia]] in German uniforms in May 1913]]

In [[letters patent]] gazetted on 11 December 1917, the King restricted the style of "Royal Highness" and the titular dignity of "Prince (or Princess) of Great Britain and Ireland" to the children of the Sovereign, the children of the sons of the Sovereign and the eldest living son of the eldest son of a Prince of Wales.<ref>Nicolson, p. 310</ref> The letters patent also stated that "the titles of Royal Highness, Highness or Serene Highness, and the titular dignity of Prince and Princess shall cease except those titles already granted and remaining unrevoked". George's relatives who fought on the German side, such as [[Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover]], and [[Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]], had their British peerages suspended by a 1919 [[Order in Council]] under the provisions of the [[Titles Deprivation Act 1917]]. Under pressure from his mother, George also removed the [[St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle#Heraldry|Garter flags]] of his German relations from [[St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]].<ref>Clay, p. 326; Rose, p. 173</ref>

When Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, George's first cousin, was overthrown in the [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917, the British government offered [[political asylum]] to the Tsar and his family, but worsening conditions for the British people, and fears that revolution might come to the British Isles, led George to think that the presence of the [[Romanovs]] would be seen as inappropriate.<ref>Nicolson, p. 301; Rose, pp. 210–215; Sinclair, p. 148</ref> Despite the later claims of [[Lord Mountbatten of Burma]] that Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]] was opposed to the rescue of the Russian imperial family, the letters of Lord Stamfordham suggest that it was George&nbsp;V who opposed the idea against the advice of the government.<ref>Rose, p. 210</ref> Advance planning for a rescue was undertaken by [[MI1]], a branch of the British secret service,<ref>{{citation|last=Crossland|first=John|title=British spies in plot to save Tsar|newspaper=[[The Sunday Times]]|date=15 October 2006}}</ref> but because of the strengthening position of the [[Bolshevik]] revolutionaries and wider difficulties with the conduct of the war, the plan was never put into operation.<ref>Sinclair, p. 149</ref> Nicholas and his immediate family remained in Russia, where they were [[Execution of the Romanov family|killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918]]. George wrote in his diary: "It was a foul murder. I was devoted to Nicky, who was the kindest of men and thorough gentleman: loved his country and people."<ref>Diary, 25 July 1918, quoted in Clay, p. 344 and Rose, p. 216</ref> The following year, Nicholas's mother, [[Marie Feodorovna]], and other members of the extended Russian imperial family were rescued from [[Crimea]] by a British warship.<ref>Clay, pp. 355–356</ref>

Two months after the end of the war, the King's youngest son, [[Prince John of the United Kingdom|John]], died aged&nbsp;13 after a lifetime of ill health. George was informed of his death by Queen Mary, who wrote, "[John] had been a great anxiety to us for many years&nbsp;... The first break in the family circle is hard to bear but people have been so kind & sympathetic & this has helped us much."<ref>Pope-Hennessy, p. 511</ref>

In May 1922, George toured Belgium and northern France, visiting the First World War cemeteries and memorials being constructed by the [[Imperial War Graves Commission]]. The event was described in a poem, "[[The King's Pilgrimage]]" by [[Rudyard Kipling]].<ref>{{citation|editor=Pinney, Thomas|year=1990|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersofrudyard0006kipl/page/120|title=The Letters of Rudyard Kipling 1920–30|volume=5|publisher=University of Iowa Press|at=note&nbsp;1, p.&nbsp;120|isbn=978-0-87745-898-2}}</ref> The tour, and one short visit to Italy in 1923, were the only times George agreed to leave the United Kingdom on official business after the end of the war.<ref>Rose, p. 294</ref>

===Post-war reign===
[[File:British Empire 1921.png|thumb|upright=1.3|The [[British Empire]] reached its territorial peak in 1920.<ref>{{citation|date=September 1997|title=Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia|journal=[[International Studies Quarterly]]|volume=41|issue=3|doi=10.1111/0020-8833.00053|author=Rein Taagepera|pages=475–504|author-link=Rein Taagepera|jstor=2600793|url=http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807|access-date=28 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119114740/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807|archive-date=19 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
Before the [[First World War]], most of Europe was ruled by monarchs related to George, but during and after the war, the monarchies of Austria, Germany, Greece, and Spain, like Russia, fell to revolution and war. In March 1919, Lieutenant-Colonel [[Edward Lisle Strutt]] was dispatched on the personal authority of the King to escort the former Emperor [[Charles I of Austria]] and his family to safety in Switzerland.<ref>{{citation|title=Archduke Otto von&nbsp;Habsburg|date=4 July 2011|location=London, UK|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|type=obituary|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/royalty-obituaries/8616240/Archduke-Otto-von-Habsburg.html|access-date=4 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224101827/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/royalty-obituaries/8616240/Archduke-Otto-von-Habsburg.html|archive-date=24 December 2019}}</ref> In 1922, a [[Royal Navy]] ship was sent to Greece to rescue his cousins [[Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark|Prince]] and [[Princess Andrew]].<ref>Rose, pp. 347–348</ref>

Political turmoil in Ireland continued as the Nationalists [[Irish War of Independence|fought for independence]]; George expressed his horror at government-sanctioned killings and reprisals to Prime Minister [[Lloyd George]].<ref>Nicolson, p. 347; Rose, pp. 238–241; Sinclair, p. 114</ref> At the opening session of the [[Parliament of Northern Ireland]] on 22 June 1921, the King appealed for conciliation in a speech part drafted by General [[Jan Smuts]] and approved by Lloyd George.<ref>Mowat, p. 84</ref> A few weeks later, a truce was agreed.<ref>Mowat, p. 86</ref> Negotiations between Britain and the Irish secessionists led to the signing of the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]].<ref>Mowat, pp. 89–93</ref> By the end of 1922, [[Partition of Ireland|Ireland was partitioned]], the [[Irish Free State]] was established, and Lloyd George was out of office.<ref>Mowat, pp. 106–107, 119</ref>

George and his advisers were concerned about the rise of socialism and the growing labour movement, which they mistakenly associated with republicanism. The socialists no longer believed in their anti-monarchical slogans and were ready to come to terms with the monarchy if it took the first step. George adopted a more democratic, inclusive stance that crossed class lines and brought the monarchy closer to the public and the working class—a dramatic change for the King, who was most comfortable with naval officers and landed gentry. He cultivated friendly relations with moderate [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politicians and trade union officials. His abandonment of social aloofness conditioned the royal family's behaviour and enhanced its popularity during the economic crises of the 1920s and for over two generations thereafter.<ref>{{citation|last=Prochaska|first=Frank|year=1999|title=George&nbsp;V and Republicanism, 1917–1919|journal=Twentieth Century British History|volume=10|issue=1|pages=27–51|doi=10.1093/tcbh/10.1.27}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Kirk|first=Neville|year=2005|title=The Conditions of Royal Rule: Australian and British Socialist and Labour Attitudes to the Monarchy, 1901–11|journal=Social History|volume=30|issue=1|pages=64–88|s2cid=144979227|doi=10.1080/0307102042000337297}}</ref>

The years between 1922 and 1929 saw frequent changes in government. In 1924, George appointed the first Labour Prime Minister, [[Ramsay MacDonald]], in the absence of a clear majority for any one of the three major parties. George's tact in appointing the first Labour government (which lasted less than a year) allayed the suspicions of the party's sympathisers that he would work against their interests. During the [[General Strike of 1926]], George advised the government of [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Stanley Baldwin]] against taking inflammatory action,<ref>Nicolson, p. 419; Rose, pp. 341–342</ref> and took exception to suggestions that the strikers were "revolutionaries" saying, "Try living on their wages before you judge them."<ref>Rose, p. 340; Sinclair, p. 105</ref>

[[File:ImperialConference.jpg|thumb|alt=A group pose of eight men in smart evening wear. The King sits in the middle surrounded by his prime ministers.|With his prime ministers at the [[1926 Imperial Conference]]. Clockwise from centre front: George&nbsp;V, [[Stanley Baldwin|Baldwin]] ([[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|United Kingdom]]), [[Walter Stanley Monroe|Monroe]] ([[Prime Minister of Newfoundland|Newfoundland]]), [[Gordon Coates|Coates]] ([[Prime Minister of New Zealand|New Zealand]]), [[Stanley Bruce|Bruce]] ([[Prime Minister of Australia|Australia]]), [[J. B. M. Hertzog|Hertzog]] ([[Prime Minister of South Africa|South Africa]]), [[W. T. Cosgrave|Cosgrave]] ([[President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|Irish Free State]]), and [[William Lyon Mackenzie King|King]] ([[Prime Minister of Canada|Canada]]).]]

In 1926, George hosted an [[Imperial Conference]] in London at which the [[Balfour Declaration of 1926|Balfour Declaration]] accepted the growth of the [[British Dominions]] into self-governing "autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another". The [[Statute of Westminster 1931]] formalised the Dominions' legislative independence<ref>Rose, p. 348</ref> and established that the succession to the throne could not be changed unless all the Parliaments of the Dominions as well as the Parliament at Westminster agreed.<ref name="dnb"/> The Statute's preamble described the monarch as "the symbol of the free association of the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations", who were "united by a common allegiance".<ref>{{citation|title=Statute of Westminster 1931|publisher=legislation.gov.uk|url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/22-23/4/introduction|access-date=20 July 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121224014556/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/22-23/4/introduction|archive-date=24 December 2012}}</ref>

In the wake of a [[Great Depression|world financial crisis]], George encouraged the formation of a [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Government]] in 1931 led by MacDonald and Baldwin,<ref name="Rose, pp. 373–379">Rose, pp. 373–379</ref>{{efn|
[[Vernon Bogdanor]] argues that George&nbsp;V played a crucial and active role in the political crisis of August–October&nbsp;1931, and was a determining influence on Prime Minister MacDonald.<ref>{{citation|last=Bogdanor|first=V.|author-link=Vernon Bogdanor|year=1991|title=1931 Revisited: The constitutional aspects|journal=Twentieth Century British History|volume=2|issue=1|pages=1–25|doi=10.1093/tcbh/2.1.1}}</ref> [[Philip Williamson (historian)|Philip Williamson]] disputes Bogdanor, saying the idea of a national government had been in the minds of party leaders since late 1930 and it was they, not the King, who determined when the time had come to establish one.<ref>{{citation|last=Williamson|first=Philip|author-link=Philip Williamson (historian)|year=1991|title=1931 Revisited: The political realities|journal=Twentieth Century British History|volume=2|issue=3|pages=328–338|doi=10.1093/tcbh/2.3.328}}</ref>}} and volunteered to reduce the [[civil list]] to help balance the budget.<ref name="Rose, pp. 373–379"/> He was concerned by the rise to power in [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] of [[Adolf Hitler]] and the [[Nazi Party]].<ref>Nicolson, pp. 521–522; Owens, pp. 92–93; Rose, p. 388</ref> In 1934, George bluntly told the German ambassador [[Leopold von Hoesch]] that Germany was now the peril of the world, and that there was bound to be a war within ten years if Germany went on at the present rate; he warned the British ambassador in Berlin, [[Eric Phipps]], to be suspicious of the Nazis.<ref>Nicolson, pp. 521–522; Rose, p. 388</ref>

[[File:Royal broadcast, Christmas 1934 (Our Generation, 1938).jpg|thumb|left|Publicity photograph of the King's Christmas broadcast, 1934]]

In 1932, George agreed to deliver a [[Royal Christmas speech]] on the radio, an event that became annual thereafter. He was not in favour of the innovation originally but was persuaded by the argument that it was what his people wanted.<ref>Sinclair p. 154</ref> By the [[Silver Jubilee of George V|Silver Jubilee]] of his reign in 1935, he had become a well-loved king, saying in response to the crowd's adulation, "I cannot understand it, after all I am only a very ordinary sort of fellow."<ref>Sinclair, p. 1</ref>

George's relationship with his eldest son and heir, [[Edward VIII|Edward]], deteriorated in these later years. George was disappointed in Edward's failure to settle down in life and appalled by his many affairs with married women.<ref name="dnb"/> In contrast, he was fond of his second son, Prince Albert (later [[George&nbsp;VI]]), and doted on his eldest granddaughter, [[Elizabeth II|Princess Elizabeth]]; he nicknamed her "Lilibet", and she affectionately called him "Grandpa England".<ref>{{citation|last=Pimlott|first=Ben|author-link=Ben Pimlott|year=1996|title=The Queen|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|isbn=978-0-471-19431-6}}</ref> In 1935, George said of his son Edward: "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself within 12&nbsp;months", and of Albert and Elizabeth: "I pray to God my eldest son will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne".<ref>{{citation|author-link=Philip Ziegler|last=Ziegler|first=Philip|year=1990|title=King Edward VIII: The Official Biography|publisher=Collins|location=London|page=199|isbn=978-0-00-215741-4}}</ref><ref>Rose, p. 392</ref>