by Anne Edwards
At eleven o’clock, Prime Minister Winston Churchill rose and, moving the adjournment of the House, announced the death of Queen Mary at 10:35. “There were cries of dismay from the Gallery,” Channon continues, “and indeed on all sides there seemed to be grief ... particularly from the Socialists. She had long captured their imagination, and they rightly thought her above politics, a kind of Olympian Goddess. I drove sadly home, passing Marlborough House ... It was plunged in darkness and there was a large crowd outside; women were weeping.”
With Queen Mary’s death, a civilisation had ended, too. The eulogies came tumbling fast, one upon the other. “She was magnificent, humorous, worldly, in fact nearly sublime, though cold and hard. But what a grand Queen,” Chips Channon wrote in his diary.
The Duke of Windsor arrived on March 29, in time for the Lying-in-State in dimly lit Westminster Hall. He was nervous and fidgety and stood apart, obviously very unhappy. Lady Airlie walked in with immense dignity. Winston Churchill waved away a chair that someone had brought him and stood throughout the service, although he was known not to be well. The Royal ladies wore short veils, steel-coloured stockings, ropes of pearls, and jewels. The coffin had on it a single wreath from Queen Elizabeth. When the service ended, the whole family, except the young Queen, curtsied and bowed to the coffin. Then they slowly filed out.
Londoners thronged the streets, silent and bareheaded, on March 31 as the coffin was borne from Westminster to Paddington Station, from which Queen Mary would travel for the last time to Windsor to be buried beside King George V in the family vault in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. After the funeral at Windsor, twenty-eight members of the Royal Family met for dinner. The Duke of Windsor was not among the invited guests. Quite extraordinary, perhaps, but an omission that Queen Mary, with her unflagging devotion to the Monarchy and its Monarch, would have understood and forgiven as she was never able to forgive her eldest son. As she had written him not long after the Abdication, “... all my life I have put my country before everything else and I simply cannot change now.”
Queen Mary had lived her life with dedication to the principle of Monarchy, and she had died as she had lived, as her Sovereign’s most devoted subject.
Footnotes
*Ernest Bevin (1881–1951), English trade union leader and statesman; member of Parliament 1940–51; Foreign Minister 1945–51.
*Susan Mary Alsop to Marietta Tree.
*On one of these visits over $3 million of jewels, including Queen Alexandra’s bequest to the Duke of Windsor, was burgled. Against all advice, the Duchess of Windsor had brought the jewelry with her and kept it under her bed—refusing to allowed it to be stored in a safe.
†Commander Sir Morton Smart G.C.V.O., D.S.O., M.D., C.H.M. (1878–1956).
‡The two consulting doctors were Sir Thomas Peel Dunhill (1876–1957) and Sir Maurice Cassidy (1880–1949).
§Sir James Learmouth, K.C.V.O., C.B.E., M.B., C.H.M. F.R.C.S. (1895–1965).
¶“I am delighted at being a great-grandmother!” Queen Mary wrote in her diary. “I gave the baby a silver gilt cup & cover which George III had given to a godson in 1780 ...”
*The King had not rejected the idea of the operation being performed in a hospital but did comment when asked his opinion, “I never heard of a King going to hospital.” For the period of time that the King was in surgery and in the early days of his recuperation, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, and the Duke of Gloucester were named Councillors of State.
*Lord Claud Hamilton and Major Wickham.
†Major Edward Ford (b. 1910), assistant Private Secretary to George VI 1946–1952, and also to Elizabeth 1952–1967.
‡The King had suffered a coronary thrombosis the night of February 6, 1952. His death was not known until his butler came to bring him tea early the next morning. There was then a lapse of several hours before the new Queen, in Nyeri, could be reached. Queen Elizabeth II was the first sovereign in English history not to have known the time that she became a Monarch.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Both the writing and editing of this book have been a unique and unforgettable experience. So many people came forward and gave unstintingly of their time, wisdom, and talent. To my good fortune I had access to the great talents of two editors, Ion Trewin at Hodder and Stoughton, London, and Harvey Ginsberg of William Morrow, New York, both artists in their field. I shall be ever grateful for their incisive editorial criticism and for their staunch belief in this book and in its author.
Additionally I owe a great debt to Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, Editorial Director of Burke’s Peerage, Ltd, for the endless hours he devoted to this book as Royal Expert Supreme and for his detailed and lively notations which helped me to understand the complicated relationships of the Royal Family.
At Hodder and Stoughton I want also to thank Mary Lou Nesbitt, Ion Trewin’s able assistant and a young woman who gave graciously of her time and energy. My gratitude as well to Fiona Lindsey and to Hugh Vickers for their kind help.
Scores of historians, royal observers, librarians, and archivists assisted me in my research and I owe them my deepest gratitude. My many thanks as well to those members of Queen Mary’s Household who shared their memories with me.
This book would never have seen life without the loving care my two marvellous agents lavished upon it. Mitch Douglas, my American agent, has always been there when I needed him. For ten years his belief in me has never flagged and his encouragement has seen me through some mighty rough patches. Hilary Rubinstein, my English agent, has represented me since I wrote my first book, nineteen years ago. If I have never told him how much his help and enthusiasm have meant to me, I do so now.
During the three long years it has taken to write this book, my husband, Stephen Citron, has been my constant companion. His perceptive editorial eye, his unfailing support, and his cheerful forbearance make me realize what an extraordinary gentleman I have married.
Last, but certainly not least, I owe a debt of thanks for the great assistance given me by my secretary, Barbara Howland.
—ANNE EDWARDS
Blandings Way
Christmas, 1983
NOTES
Authors and/or titles are given in the most convenient abbreviated form; full details can be found in the Bibliography, alphabetically according to the author’s last name, with the following exceptions: ML refers to Marie Louise, RA to Royal Archives at Windsor, PH to Pope-Hennessy, PA to Princess Alice, and PB to paperback edition. Titles are used when multiple references have been made to one author’s works.
Preface
“It isn’t”: Wheeler-Bennett, p. 286.
“Goodbye”: Ibid., p. 287.
Chapter 1
“I always have to be”: ML, p. 201.
“Only a line”: RA, Z 152 32 (footnote).
“puny & pigeon-chested”: Queen Victoria’s Journal, June 21, 1867.
“the densely crowded”: Ibid.
“a very fine”: Ibid.
“had dipped”: St. Aubyn, Edward VII, p. 41.
“under conditions”: Ibid.
“We are neither”: Dalton Papers, March 11, 1883.
“Eddy is a very good”: RA, Z 162/7.
“something that dawns”: T. Heald and M. Mohs, H.R.H. The Man Who Will be King (New York: Arbor House, 1979), p. 142.
“a dissolute nature”: Harold Nicolson, George V, p. 17.
“My dear George”: Ibid., p. 35
“with cultivated taste”: Rumbelow.
“It’s a real sorrow”: Kronberg Archives, May 7, 1890.
“What I do not understand”: Harold Nicolson, Princess of Wales to Prince George, November 21, 1886.
“Don’t call him Uncle Eddy”: Rumbelow.
“I thought it was impossible”: Prince Albert Victor to Lady Sybil, June 21, 1891, Westmoreland Papers.
“I wonder if you”: Prince Albert Victor to Lady Sybil, June 28, 1891, Westmoreland Papers.
“Don’t be su
rprised”: Prince Albert Victor to Lady Sybil, November 29, 1891, Westmoreland Papers.
“I told her”: RA, A:M: A/12 1797, Sir Francis Knollys to Sir Henry Ponsonby.
Chapter 2
“Reached Aberdeen”: Princess May to Princess Mary Adelaide.
“a smell of wood”: Princess Marie Louise, Reminiscences of Six Reigns, p. 15.
“the children would squabble”: Ibid.
“Mind you curtsy”: Ibid.
“Kiss Aunt Queen’s”: Ibid.
“Your dear children”: PH, p. 207.
“Most dear & kind”: RA, Duchess of Teck to Princess May, November 5, 1891.
“You speak”: Queen Victoria to Empress Frederick, Kronberg Archives, November 17, 1891.
“Presently the rest”: Lady Geraldine Somerset, RA, November 12, 1891.
“You may, I think”: RA/Z 475 No. 23.
“... the heat was so”: RA, Princess May to Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, November 16, 1886.
“... over 40 pounds”. Lady Geraldine Somerset’s Journal, RA, January 12, 1886.
“To my surprise”: PH, p. 214.
“waltzed round and round”: Ibid.
“The newspapers are twaddling”: Lady Geraldine Somerset’s Journal, RA, December 7, 1891.
Chapter 3
“how much confidence”: Queen Victoria to Princess May, RA, December 13, 1891.
“Marriage is the”: Ibid.
“dear, good boy”: Ibid.
“Keep Eddy up to his mark”: PH, p. 222.
“Do you think I can”: Ibid.
“Mary is indeed a lucky person”: Cooke, Vol. I, p. 142.
“It is an immense position”: RA, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz to Duchess of Teck, December 7, 1891.
“long engagements”: PH, p. 218.
“We danced”: Princess May to Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, December 26, 1891.
“Goodbye to”: Princess May’s Diary, RA, January 4, 1892.
“at Windsor”: Ibid.
“positively rude”: PH, p. 216.
“I am glad to say”: Queen Victoria to Princess Mary Adelaide, December 30, 1891.
“a dangerous old”: Queen Victoria.
“Beauty, wit”: The Duke of Windsor, A King’s Story, p. 50.
“the lake and island”: RA, Cresswell, Eighteen Years on the Sandringham Estate, p. 180.
“odious chaffing moods”: PH, p. 221.
“Poor Eddy”: RA/Z 475, 137.
“with great difficulty”: Princess A. to her parents, Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen.
“Something too awful”: Battiscombe, p. 190.
“Can you do anything”: RA/Z 95–9.
“Who is that?”: Battiscombe, p. 190.
“I clung to hope”: Duchess of Teck to Queen Victoria, January 14, 1892, PH, p. 225
“I shall hide”: RA/Z 475/200.
“... the picture of grief”: Battiscombe, p. 192
“It is so difficult”: Princess May to Miss Emily Alcock, February 13, 1892, Kronberg Archives.
Chapter 4
“It must be a Tsarevich”: PH, p. 230.
“I must say”: RA Princess May to Mlle. Bricka, January 24, 1892.
“Mama is quite happy”: RA Princess May to Mlle. Bricka, April 27, 1892.
“May has become”: RA, Duke of Teck to his sister Amelie, February 29, 1892.
“preferred recognition”: Harold Nicolson, p. 157.
“Papa and I are coming”: RA George V, cc 12.
“The reason why we are”: Duke of Teck to his sister Amelie, May 15, 1892.
“The bond of love”: Princess Alexandra to Prince George, RA George V, AA 31 22.
“You know my Georgie”: Princess Alexandra to Prince George V, AA 31 30.
Chapter 5
“unseemly and unfeeling”: PH, p. 242.
“Well you know”: Ibid.
“The Prince of Wales must not”: PH, p. 253.
“Since it seems the tradespeople”: PH, p. 244.
“the cruel battle”: Princess Mary Adelaide to the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, January 14, 1893.
“... How Beautiful it is”: PH, p. 245.
“He is quite unfit”: Martin, Jennie, p. 302.
“Now Georgie”: PH, p. 259.
“We walked together”: Ibid.
“May engaged to Duke of York”: Ibid.
“Unless announced”: Ibid.
“God bless you both”: Princess Alexandra to Princess May, Kronberg Archives, May 13, 1893
“so obstinate”: PH, p. 262.
“like a little devil”: Ibid.
“forgiven her yet”: Ibid.
“This is a simply”: Ibid.
“contribution”: PH, p. 264.
“dear Aunt Augusta”: Ibid.
“some beautiful flounces”: Ibid.
“I am determined”: Cooke, Vol II., p. 184.
“I must say”: Prince George to Princess May, RA, George V, CC 1 10.
“it is clear”: RA, Lady Geraldine Somerset’s Journal, March 6, 1892.
“I am sorry”: RA, George V, CC 5 9.
“Thank God we both”: RA, George V CC 1 20.
“I say, May, we”: PH, p. 428, footnote.
“thunderous, drowsy afternoon”: Daily Telegraph, July 6, 1893.
“Inside the Lodge”: Ibid.
“There was a quick movement”: Times, July 5, 1893.
“Fairyland”: Daily Telegraph, July 6, 1893.
“more appropriate”: Ibid.
“In every case”: Times, July 6, 1893.
“Uncle Bertie”: Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, p. 24.
“... the third greatest”: Lady’s Pictorial, April 1893.
Chapter 6
“I should much like to”: RA, George V, CC 5 21.
“ethereal in white satin”: Times, July 7, 1893.
“four of the creams”: Ibid.
“I am going first”: Cooke, Vol. II, p. 247.
“some moments later”: Ibid.
“Scarlet was lent”: Daily Telegraph, July 7, 1893.
“Dear May looked so quiet”: RA, Queen Victoria’s Journal, July 6, 1893.
“May’s Wedding Day”: RA, Lady Geraldine Somerset’s Journal, July 6, 1893.
“Rather unlucky and”: Queen Victoria.
“We saw her”: RA, Lady Geraldine Somerset’s Journal, July 6, 1893.
“sobbed bitterly”: Kronberg Archives, July 8, 1893.
“follow the shooters”: Gore, George V, pp. 128–129.
“the servants must sleep. For My Grandchildren, p. 124.
“a tiny snuggery”: Lady’s Pictorial, September 1893.
“still tinier”: Ibid.
“This too is”: Ibid.
“very plainly furnished”: Ibid.
“if the footmen”: For My Grandchildren, p. 124.
“I sometimes think”: RA, George V, CC 1 60.
“delicate, hypochrondriacal”: Battiscombe, p. 199.
“a glorified maid”: Ibid.
“grumbler”: Ibid.
“it really is not wise”: Ibid.
“May appears to be educating”: Princess Frederick to Queen Victoria, RA/Z 152 61.
Chapter 7
“I sat next to William”: PH, p. 286.
“my white broche”: Ibid.
“all sort”: PH, p. 299.
“unhealthy and beastly”: PH, p. 294.
“Are you not beside”: Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz to the Duchess of Teck, June 25, 1894.
“she was such an”: For My Grandchildren, p. 128.
“the Baby, who is”: PH, p. 300.
“I know how distressed”: PH, p. 296
“she might have been killed”: Ibid.
“There is a very good electric light”: Ibid.
“Splendid equipage”: Tuchman, The Proud Tower, p. 21.
“Tuesday we had a delightful”: Athlone Papers, Duchess of Teck to Prince Alexander of Teck, January 17, 1896.<
br />
“There have been a good many”: PH, p. 313
“could not be easy”: Duchess of York to the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, November 9, 1895.
“Before her scandal”: Hare, Vol. VI, p. 516.
“unspeakable agony”: PH, p. 300.
“Every day”: Ibid.
“One day in deepest mourning”: Massie, p. 13.
“looked too”: PH, p. 301.
“I must say I never saw”: Ibid.
“A Boy!!”: Athlone Papers, Duchess of Teck to Prince 20, 1895.
“Dear Grandmama”: RA/Z 447, Vol. 2, p. 236.
“He could hardly”: RA/Z 477, Vol. II, p. 235.
“George will be”: Ibid.
“Can’t you stop that child”: Duke of Windsor, A Family Album, p. 23.
Chapter 8
“England! What shall men”: Oscar Wilde, “Ave Imperatrix.”
“... which prevailed”: Daily Telegraph, June 23, 1897.
“The Princess of Wales came”: Battiscombe, p. 211.
“You will pray for him”: Cooke, Vol. II, p. 298.
“... everyone plunged”: Princess of Wales to Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, RA AM A/8 55.
“The partition”: Viscount Esher, Vol. I, p. 207.
“I dread to think”: Princess May to Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, November 3, 1897, RA.
“She was quite superb”: Ibid., p. 229.
“towsel and fringe”: Ibid.
“I drove with Gdmama”: PH, p. 346.
“At four”: Ibid.
“The result is that”: RA, Princess May’s Diary, March 8, 1900.
“... Her memory ...”: Ponsonby, p. 118.
“Go up at once”: Wilfred S. Cowen Blunt, My Diaries (New York: Knopf, 1921) Vol. I, p. 366.
“Every Englishman”: George Bernard Shaw, Times, November 6, 1899.
“Imperial troops”: Pakenham, p. 449.
“... dressing cases”: Ibid.
“Of the new century”: Ibid.
“Thank God for”: Battiscombe, p. 213.
“There was no time”: Ibid.
“cheated of their Armageddon”: Pakenham (Prevost Battasby), p. 452.
“the last great flight”: Ibid.
“The Prince of Wales will”: Ponsonby, p. 128.
“gained consciousness”: Ibid.
“passed his arm”: Ibid.