George V fut roi du Royaume-Uni et des dominions , et empereur des Indes du 6 mai 1910 jusqu'à sa mort.
George était le petit-fils de la reine Victoria et du prince Albert et le cousin germain du tsar Nicolas II et de l'empereur allemand Guillaume II. De 1877 à 1891, il servit dans la Royal Navy et atteignit le grade de Commander. À la mort de Victoria en 1901, le père de George devint roi sous le nom d'Édouard VII et George fut fait prince de Galles. À la mort de son père en 1910, il lui succéda en tant que roi-empereur de l'Empire britannique sous le nom de George V. Il fut le seul empereur des Indes à assister à son darbâr à Delhi.
À la suite de la Première Guerre mondiale, l'Empire britannique atteignit son étendue maximale. En 1917, il devint le premier monarque de la Maison de Windsor après avoir renommé la Maison de Saxe-Cobourg et Gotha en raison des sentiments antigermaniques au Royaume-Uni. Son règne vit la montée en puissance du socialisme, du communisme, du fascisme, du républicanisme irlandais et de l'indépendantisme indien qui changèrent radicalement le paysage politique. Le Parliament Act de 1911 établit la suprématie de la Chambre des communes élue par le peuple sur la Chambre des lords dont les membres sont nommés par le souverain. En 1924, George V nomma le premier Premier ministre britannique travailliste Ramsay MacDonald et en 1931, le Statut de Westminster supprima les droits d'ingérence sur les dominions au sein du Commonwealth of Nations. Victime de problèmes de santé dans les dernières années de son règne, il mourut le 20 janvier 1936 et son fils aîné Edward lui succéda sous le nom d'Édouard VIII.
Wikipedia
“You dress like a cad. You act like a cad. You are a cad.”
Allegedly said to his son, Prince Edward. Quoted by Christopher Warwick in Abdication (Sidgwick and Jackson, 1986)
Attributed
“It's the shortest one I know.”
Allegedly said to Sir Thomas Beecham on the opera La Bohème, on why it was his favourite.
Attributed
“I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien.”
Allegedly said in response to H. G. Wells's criticism of his "alien [i.e. German-descended] and uninspiring court"
Attributed
Attributed in Randolph Churchill's Lord Derby (1959), but said by Kenneth Rose https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rose in King George V (1983) to be almost certainly apocryphal.
Attributed
Speech at Guildhall, 5 Dec 1901, quoted in Harold Nicolson, King George V (1952), p.73
Allegedly said to J.A. Tilleard, Honorary Secretary, Philatelic Society, on appointing him as Philatelist to the King.
Attributed
Lord Stamfordham, private secretary to George V, on 26 July 1920. The original Royal Warrant involved an expulsion clause that allowed for a recipient's name to be erased from the official register in certain wholly discreditable circumstances and his pension cancelled. Eight were forfeited between 1861 and 1908. George V strongly opposed the concept of revoking a Victoria Cross, and directed Lord Stamfordham to express this view forcefully in a letter.
About
“I look upon him as the greatest criminal known for having plunged the world into war.”
Alleged statement about his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (1918)
Attributed
“After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months.”
Statement to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, referring to his son, Edward, Prince of Wales
Quoted in Keith Middlemas and John Barnes, Baldwin (1969) ch.34
“For seventeen years, he did nothing at all but kill animals and stick in stamps.”
Harold Nicolson; Diary, 17 Aug 1949
About
Alleged last words, after his nurse administered a sedative.
Attributed
Said to Anthony Eden on 23 December 1935 following the furore that erupted over the Hoare-Laval Pact.
Quoted in Earl of Avon, Facing the Dictators (1962) pt.2 ch.1
“They make me look like a stuffed monkey.”
Allegedly said about two postage stamps issued in 1911.
Attributed
“What did you do about peeing?”
Allegedly said to Charles Lindbergh after he flew the Atlantic solo in an aeroplane.
Attributed
On the morning of his death; quoted in Kenneth Rose, King George V (1983), ch.10
