George VI

King George V had severe reservations about Prince Edward, saying "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months" and "I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne."[49] On 20 January 1936, George V died and Edward ascended the throne as King Edward VIII. In the Vigil of the Princes, Prince Albert and his three brothers (the new king, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Prince George, Duke of Kent) took a shift standing guard over their father's body as it lay in state, in a closed casket, in Westminster Hall.

As Edward was unmarried and had no children, Albert was the heir presumptive to the throne. Less than a year later, on 11 December 1936, Edward abdicated in order to marry Wallis Simpson, who was divorced from her first husband and divorcing her second. Edward had been advised by British prime minister Stanley Baldwin that he could not remain king and marry a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands. He abdicated and Albert, though he had been reluctant to accept the throne, became king.[50] The day before the abdication, Albert went to London to see his mother, Queen Mary. He wrote in his diary, "When I told her what had happened, I broke down and sobbed like a child."[51]

On the day of Edward's abdication, the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Irish Free State, removed all direct mention of the monarch from the Irish constitution. The next day, it passed the External Relations Act, which gave the monarch limited authority (strictly on the advice of the government) to appoint diplomatic representatives for Ireland and to be involved in the making of foreign treaties. The two acts made the Irish Free State a republic in essence without removing its links to the Commonwealth.[52]

Across Britain, gossip spread that Albert was physically and psychologically incapable of being king. No evidence has been found to support the contemporaneous rumour that the government considered bypassing him, his children and his brother Prince Henry, in favour of their younger brother Prince George, Duke of Kent.[53] This seems to have been suggested on the grounds that Prince George was at that time the only brother with a son.[54]

Crown coin with George in profile, 1937

Albert assumed the regnal name "George VI" to emphasise continuity with his father and restore confidence in the monarchy.[55] The beginning of George VI's reign was taken up by questions surrounding his predecessor and brother, whose titles, style and position were uncertain. He had been introduced as "His Royal Highness Prince Edward" for the abdication broadcast,[56] but George VI felt that by abdicating and renouncing the succession, Edward had lost the right to bear royal titles, including "Royal Highness".[57] In settling the issue, George's first act as king was to confer upon his brother the title "Duke of Windsor" with the style "Royal Highness", but the letters patent creating the dukedom prevented any wife or children from bearing royal styles. George VI was forced to buy from Edward the royal residences of Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House, as these were private properties and did not pass to him automatically.[58] Three days after his accession, on his 41st birthday, he invested his wife, the new queen consort, with the Order of the Garter.[59]

Cover of the 7 May 1937 edition of Radio Times, drawn by C. R. W. Nevinson, marking the first coronation to be broadcast, and partially televised, live

George VI's coronation at Westminster Abbey took place on 12 May 1937, the date previously intended for Edward's coronation. In a break with tradition, his mother Queen Mary attended the ceremony in a show of support for her son.[60] There was no Durbar held in Delhi for George VI, as had occurred for his father, as the cost would have been a burden to the Government of India.[61] Rising Indian nationalism made the welcome that the royal party would have received likely to be muted at best,[62] and a prolonged absence from Britain would have been undesirable in the tense period before the Second World War. Two overseas tours were undertaken, to France and to North America, both of which promised greater strategic advantages in the event of war.[63]

The growing likelihood of war in Europe dominated the early reign of George VI. The King was constitutionally bound to support British prime minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler.[11][64] When the King and Queen greeted Chamberlain on his return from negotiating the Munich Agreement in 1938, they invited him to appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with them. This public association of the monarchy with a politician was exceptional, as balcony appearances were traditionally restricted to the royal family.[11] While broadly popular among the general public, Chamberlain's policy towards Hitler was the subject of some opposition in the House of Commons, which led historian and politician John Grigg to describe George's behaviour in associating himself so prominently with a politician as "the most unconstitutional act by a British sovereign in the present century".[65]

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, on the USS Potomac, 9 June 1939

In May and June 1939, the King and Queen toured Canada and the United States; it was the first visit of a reigning British monarch to North America, although George had been to Canada prior to his accession. From Ottawa, George and Elizabeth were accompanied by Canadian prime minister Mackenzie King,[66] to present themselves in North America as King and Queen of Canada.[67][68] Both Mackenzie King and the Canadian governor general, Lord Tweedsmuir, hoped that George's presence in Canada would demonstrate the principles of the Statute of Westminster 1931, which gave full sovereignty to the British Dominions. On 19 May, George personally accepted and approved the Letter of Credence of the new U.S. ambassador to Canada, Daniel Calhoun Roper; gave royal assent to nine parliamentary bills; and ratified two international treaties with the Great Seal of Canada. The official royal tour historian, Gustave Lanctot, wrote "the Statute of Westminster had assumed full reality" and George gave a speech emphasising "the free and equal association of the nations of the Commonwealth".[69]

The trip was intended to soften the strong isolationist tendencies among the North American public with regard to the developing tensions in Europe. Although the aim of the tour was mainly political, to shore up Atlantic support for the United Kingdom in any future war, the King and Queen were enthusiastically received by the public.[70] The fear that George would be compared unfavourably to his predecessor was dispelled.[71] They visited the 1939 New York World's Fair and stayed with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House and at his private estate at Hyde Park, New York.[72] A strong bond of friendship was forged between Roosevelt and the royal couple during the tour, which had major significance in the relations between the United States and the United Kingdom through the ensuing war years.[73][74]

King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and Princess Elizabeth with RAF personnel during World War II

Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the United Kingdom and the self-governing Dominions other than Ireland declared war on Nazi Germany.[75] The King and Queen resolved to stay in London, despite German bombing raids. They officially stayed in Buckingham Palace throughout the war, although they usually spent nights at Windsor Castle.[76] The first night of the Blitz on London, on 7 September 1940, killed about one thousand civilians, mostly in the East End.[77] On 13 September, the couple narrowly avoided death when two German bombs exploded in a courtyard at Buckingham Palace while they were there.[78] In defiance, Elizabeth declared: "I am glad we have been bombed. It makes me feel we can look the East End in the face."[79] The royal family were portrayed as sharing the same dangers and deprivations as the rest of the country. They were subject to British rationing restrictions, and U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt remarked on the rationed food served and the limited bathwater that was permitted during a stay at the unheated and boarded-up Palace.[80] In August 1942, the King's brother, the Duke of Kent, was killed on active service.[81]

With Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (right), near the front lines in the Netherlands, October 1944

In 1940, Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister, though personally George would have preferred to appoint Lord Halifax.[82] After the King's initial dismay over Churchill's appointment of Lord Beaverbrook to the Cabinet, he and Churchill developed "the closest personal relationship in modern British history between a monarch and a Prime Minister".[83] Every Tuesday for four and a half years from September 1940, the two men met privately for lunch to discuss the war in secret and with frankness.[84] George related much of what the two discussed in his diary, which is the only extant first-hand account of these conversations.[85]

Throughout the war, George and Elizabeth provided morale-boosting visits throughout the United Kingdom, visiting bomb sites, munitions factories, and troops. George visited military forces abroad in France in December 1939, North Africa and Malta in June 1943, Normandy in June 1944, southern Italy in July 1944, and the Low Countries in October 1944.[86] Their high public profile and apparently indefatigable determination secured their place as symbols of national resistance.[87] At a social function in 1944, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Alan Brooke, revealed that every time he met Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, he thought Montgomery was after his job. George replied: "You should worry, when I meet him, I always think he's after mine!"[88]

In 1945, crowds shouted "We want the King!" in front of Buckingham Palace during the Victory in Europe Day celebrations. In an echo of Chamberlain's appearance, the King invited Churchill to appear with the royal family on the balcony to public acclaim.[89] In January 1946, George addressed the United Nations at its first assembly, which was held in London, and reaffirmed "our faith in the equal rights of men and women and of nations great and small".[90]

With Clement Attlee (left) at Buckingham Palace, July 1945

George VI's reign saw the acceleration of the dissolution of the British Empire. The Statute of Westminster 1931 had already acknowledged the evolution of the Dominions into separate sovereign states. The process of transformation from an empire to a voluntary association of independent states, known as the Commonwealth, gathered pace after the Second World War.[91] During the ministry of Clement Attlee, British India became the two independent Dominions of India and Pakistan in August 1947.[92] George relinquished the title of Emperor of India,[93] and became King of India and King of Pakistan instead. In late April 1949, the Commonwealth leaders issued the London Declaration, which laid the foundation of the modern Commonwealth and recognised George as Head of the Commonwealth.[94][95][96] In January 1950, he ceased to be King of India when it became a republic. He remained King of Pakistan until his death. Other countries left the Commonwealth, such as Burma in January 1948, Palestine (divided between Israel and the Arab states) in May 1948 and the Republic of Ireland in 1949.[97]

In 1947, George and his family toured southern Africa.[98] The prime minister of the Union of South Africa, Jan Smuts, was facing an election and hoped to make political capital out of the visit.[99] George was appalled, however, when instructed by the South African government to shake hands only with whites,[100] and referred to his South African bodyguards as "the Gestapo".[101] Despite the tour, Smuts lost the election the following year, and the new government instituted a strict policy of racial segregation.

• Bradford, Sarah (1989). King George VI. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-79667-1.
• Howarth, Patrick (1987). George VI. Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-171000-2.
• Judd, Denis (1982). King George VI. London: Michael Joseph. ISBN 978-0-7181-2184-6.
• Matthew, H. C. G. (2004). "George VI (1895–1952)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Rhodes James, Robert (1998). A Spirit Undaunted: The Political Role of George VI. London: Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 978-0-316-64765-6.
• Shawcross, William (2009). Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother: The Official Biography. Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4050-4859-0.
• Sinclair, David (1988). Two Georges: The Making of the Modern Monarchy. Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-33240-5.
• Townsend, Peter (1975). The Last Emperor. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-77031-2.
• Vickers, Hugo (2006). Elizabeth: The Queen Mother. Arrow Books/Random House. ISBN 978-0-09-947662-7.
• Wheeler-Bennett, Sir John (1958). King George VI: His Life and Reign. New York: St Martin's Press.
• Weir, Alison (1996). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy, Revised Edition. London: Random House. ISBN 978-0-7126-7448-5.
• Windsor, The Duke of (1951). A King's Story. London: Cassell & Co Ltd.
• Ziegler, Philip (1990). King Edward VIII: The Official Biography. London: Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-215741-4.