A few weeks ago I reviewed In search of Queen Mary, a collection of notes and interviews carried out by James Pope-Hennessy when researching his biography of the Queen. I found them entertaining and interesting, gossipy and insightful with amusing and waspish asides and comments. They reminded me that years ago I had read the biography in question when I spotted it on the book shelves at my father’s house. I remember reading it and enjoying it but very little else. Where this particular copy ended up I do not know but I wished I had it in my possession when I started tracking down available copies. Most of them were costing £80 upwards and I was delighted when I found one for £25. I snapped it up straight away only to receive a very apologetic email from the online book store to say they had discovered there were about fifty pages missing and ‘did I still want it?’…..
The answer to that was no so I started a search and this time found one advertised on Amazon that could be ordered though an Amnesty International bookshop in Brighton. I decided to strike out, called the shop who were staggered to receive my call as they had only just listed it. They took it off the shelf and popped it in the post to me and it arrived a few days later.
I sat down and started to read and there I stayed for most of the day. Next morning, I sat down and started to read again. Luckily, I was having a quiet week and I abandoned any boring plans relating to housework, laundry and ironing and read and read until it was finished.
And what a simply superb work this is. The writing is impeccable. It is elegant, stylish, economical, to the point and free of hyperbole and it was totally engrossing. It was written nearly sixty years ago but it felt as fresh as if it had been published yesterday.
I find it almost impossible to write a coherent view of this book so I have decided to focus on just one strand to comment on and that is the marriage of Princess May to the Duke of York (these were their titles when they married).
Princess May was the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck, minor German royalty, and in the normal course of events would not have been considered suitable marriage material for somebody of such high rank, but it was essential that Eddy, the Duke of Clarence was found a wife. And, what is more, a wife of integrity, common sense and practicality who would provide him with stability. The Duke of Clarence seems to have been a rather charming young man who had no trouble appealing to women, but he lacked any intellectual capability or strength of character and the chief word used to describe him was ‘listless’. He showed a complete lack of interest in anything at all.
Princess May had little choice but to accept him. She was, initially, excited at being the future Princess of Wales and then Queen and it was a position impossible to turn down. Her family finances were precarious, and her mother was running up huge debts and they permanently lived on the verge of financial ruin. At one stroke all these problems were solved.
Of course, doubts began to creep in throughout her engagement and I cannot help but feel that though she was deeply upset when the Duke died of influenza/pneumonia, and her glittering future vanished, she must have been somewhat relieved as it was clear she knew they were not suited.
Queen Victoria was nothing if not practical and a good princess could not go to waste so a year later she became engaged to George Duke of York (who later became the Prince of Wales when his father ascended to the throne in 1901). To the modern reader it all seems a bit cold blooded and lacking in romance, but it was essential that the Duke married and produced an heir. He had three sisters and now that Eddy was gone it was all down to him.
Which brings me to the focus of this post. The relationship between May and George. Both shy and inarticulate they found it difficult to put their feelings into words. So they wrote to each other and over the long years of their marriage there were daily notes and letters and some of them are infinitely touching and show that they deeply loved and cared for each other their entire married life.
As I went through the book I flagged up letters that caught my attention and by the time I had finished I found it was bristling with post it notes. I am going to include some of these letters here for you to read.
The Duke of York to Princess May in July 1893 during their engagement:
“This is a horrid time we are going through, and I am looking forward to the time when you and I shall be alone at Sandringham. I am very sorry that I am still so shy with you, I tried not to be so the other day but failed. I was so angry with myself! It is so stupid to be so stiff together and really there is nothing I would not tell you except that I love you more than anybody in the world and this I cannot tell you myself, so I write it to relieve my feelings”
And the same day:
“thank God we both understand each other and I think it is really unnecessary for me to tell you how deep my love is for you my darling and I feel it growing stronger and stronger each time I see you”
In October 1894 Tsar Alexander II died and the Duke of York went to the funeral at St Petersburg. He and May were now married. The Duke wrote to his wife every day.
“I really believe I should get ill if I had to be away from you for a long time”
In 1901 Edward VII became King and the now named Prince and Princess of Wales embarked on a long voyage visiting the Commonwealth. Prince George wrote to his father:
“Darling May is of the greatest possible help to me and works very hard and I don’t think I could have done this without her. Everybody admires her very much which is so pleasing to me. I hope you are as proud of your daughter in law as I am of my wife”
Further letters to the Princess from her husband on this voyage overflow with his love and appreciation for her.
“if you had not come with me it (the Tour) would not have been at all a success. Although I have often told you before I repeat it once more, that I love you darling child with my whole heart and soul and thank God every day that I have such a wife as you”
There are so many more letters like this and I find them totally heart warming and prove how false our picture of George V and Queen Mary appears to be. Photographs of the period are stiff and formal and there is no sign of gaiety or laughter to be found. So it is wonderful to read these and see how much they loved each other and as the Queen said to him “we should be grateful to feel that so much sympathy exists between us two in our married life and that we should be so wonderfully well suited to each other in every way”.
When I finished reading this biography I put it down with a great sense of sadness. It obviously ends with her death and by then I had grown to love her which is a tribute to James Pope-Hennessy who made me feel this way. There are endless stories about her which I have also read, some funny, some unkind but her essential warmth and humanity comes through most strongly in this simply wonderful book. I cannot imagine that it will ever be bettered.
I would urge you to read it if you can get hold of a copy, but as I said they are expensive. Keep an eye out when you visit a second-hand bookshop and who knows what you might find, and, perhaps your library has a copy or two lurking on the shelves. Worth a try.
A tour de force and I loved every page.
