Quotes from Theo Aronson

He had, in fact, cracked his knee-cap. But refusing to have a doctor

King George V and Queen Mary had been inadequate parents. Both were shy, inhibited, inarticulate people, not given to displays of emotion or affection.

Prince Albert, or Bertie, as he was known in the family (his full names were Albert Frederick Arthur George), had been raised by nurses and tutors. His mother had played so little part in his upbringing that only after his nurse had suffered a nervous breakdown did she discover that the woman had not had a day off in over three years.

My dear friend Queen Victoria, who has absolute trust in the Divine Justice and goodness, used to often say to me: "What we do not understand now, we shall understand some day- in this life or the next" Empress Eugenie

Ich dien – I serve?

Queen Mary remained as remote from her sons as adults as she had from them as children. 'They were strangers to her emotionally,' wrote her Lady-in-Waiting, Lady Airlie, 'a nest of wild birds already spreading their wings and soaring beyond her horizon.

It is said that when the historian John Wheeler-Bennett came to write the official biography of King George VI, the Queen Mother asked him to tone down the many references to her influence on her husband.

Once, at Fredensborg, when Prince Christopher cried out that he wished he were grown up, his mother, the sensible Queen Olga, rebuked him. 'Remember these years,' she said quietly, 'you will always think back on them as the happiest of your life.

the Episcopal Church of Scotland prayed, until as late as 1788, for the Stuarts.

Thus, from the very outset, and in typically effusive fashion, did Marion Crawford set out the thesis that characterizes her celebrated, indeed notorious, book, The Little Princesses. By contrasting the sterling qualities of the future Queen with her younger sister's more capricious personality, Crawfie gave authority to what – by the time of the book's publication in 1950 – many people already believed.

Scotland resented the foreign domination of England.

Royal reaction to the British publication of the book was draconian. Crawfie had to leave her grace-and-favour cottage; her entry in Who's Who was withdrawn; her name was not even mentioned in officially authorized biographies such as John Wheeler-Bennett's King George VI or Dorothy Laird's Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. She retired to Aberdeen from where, with extraordinary insensitivity, she pestered the family with frequent requests.

Apparently unembittered, she remained a charming, scatterbrained, unpunctual creature, the darling of the public. The Prince, by way of atonement, was always careful to treat her with great respect and courtesy.

their own and were obliged to live in various

surroundings, and the venture was not a great success. One flop followed another. Not even the presence of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at a command performance of The Crossways on 8 December 1902 could save the situation.

Queen Mary, too, remained faithful to the pre-First World War opulence approved of by her husband. Whatever else might change, one could always be sure of Queen Mary's toques, ankle-length skirts, lace parasols and long, pointed shoes.

The King's private, and preferred, life was that of a country squire. In cultural or intellectual pursuits he had no interest whatsoever; he loathed travel. George V was never happier than when shooting at Balmoral or at Sandringham.

Although princes need not necessarily be intelligent, it is essential that they have some sort of public presence. The Duke of York had none. Fine-boned and slightly built, he looked frail, seemed lacking in physical stamina. His air was tense, hesitant, ill-at-ease. An observer had only to notice the incessant working of his jaw muscles to appreciate that he was under severe strain.

Although, by the time of his second daughter's birth, the Duke had overcome the worst of his stammer, it tended to re-emerge under pressure; his public delivery remained slow and monotonous. All in all, he looked very largely what he was – a well-meaning man, but ill educated, self-doubting, unresolved.