Comments on: The King is Dead, Long Live the King! (1936)

By: Anne (UK)

Anne (UK) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:49:40 +0000

Amongst the pile of newspapers my grandmother left me I think I have those reporting the Jubilee, the death of George V and the abdication of Edward- the never- officially- VIII.

History has not been kind to George V. Changing the family name to Windsor during WW1, abandoning his Russian cousin the Tsar by refusing to send a ship to rescue the Tsar and his family in case it led to revolution at home, the fairly recent discovery that the family tried to eradicate Prince John (their epileptic child, sent away from the family to live with a Nanny) from the family history. Bullied his children so badly that the boys all had some sort of long-lasting behavioural problems.

Edward of course courted the working-class and then let them down with a massive bump. His brother turned out to be a much better King than Edward would ever have been, and for that we must be grateful.

As for PMQ’s, as touched upon by kevinf, it’s not actually chaos. Everyone knows what is going on, when to stand, when to sit, when to defer to the Speaker. Conventions are followed at all times. Not particularly edifying, but I do enjoy the discomfort endured by those whose policies I abhor.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:08:27 +0000

As Mark indicated, the respect for Edward VIII was premature, at best. Part of the veneration of good monarchs in Great Britain has to be that they are, to some extent, “above politics”, leaving that to the prime minister, his cabinet, and the parliament. Certainly, nothing in our Congress can match the shouting, catcalls, and chaos of when the prime minister goes to parliament. Our state of the union addresses seem rather staid and staged by comparison.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:51:34 +0000

How ironic to read of the goodness of George V, the great heights to which the institution of the monarchy had risen under him, and of the hopes that the new king would “fully measure up to the high standards of his departed father” when we all know now that a mere 11 months later Edward VIII would abdicate, unable to continue without the help and support of “the woman I love.”

Sic transit gloria mundi!

And the same goes for poets. I couldn’t read Sister Bargh’s line about George V, “a man with a kind heart, which is more than a coronet” without thinking of Alec Guinness playing the part of Lady Agatha D’Ascoyne (and seven other of her male relatives) in “Kind Hearts and Coronets.” How can Tennyson compete with that?