Editing George V (section)

===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>