Queen Mary - known as "May" to her family members - is pictured here with her six children. They are, in order of birth:
After the death of their beloved grandfather, King Edward VII, these children lost a key figure in their young lives. Their world changed in other ways as well, after their father's accession to the throne:
Now that their father was king, the Princes' status was enhanced. Prince Edward (David) became heir apparent and was created prince of Wales in 1911.
Price Albert, only eighteen months younger, had always felt unequal to his more obviously gifted brother and now he seemed more overshadowed than ever. One of their tutors wrote of him, "One could wish that he had more of Prince Edward's keenness and application."
Comparisons between the two were all the more likely because their next sibling was a girl - the tomboyish Princess Mary, who became a passionate horsewoman - and five years separated Prince Albert from his next brother.
Prince Henry, a cheerful boy destined for a military career, and Prince George, the most debonair and self-assured of the brothers, were the first monarch's sons to be sent away to preparatory school.
The youngest in the family, Prince John, born in 1905, suffered increasingly from epilepsy and died in 1919. (The Queen Mother: The Official Biography, by William Shawcross, page 107.)
Image online, courtesy U.K. National Archives.
Hope You Have Enjoyed Your Free Sample
!
Please Join as a Silver or Gold Member
for Premium Functions, Stories, Apps, Newsletter and
Skip the Ads for as little as $1.70 a month.