GEORGE 



2449 



GEORGE 



heart and had lost him the respect of the peo- 

 ple; but through it all he bore the proud title 

 of "the first gentleman of Europe" because of 

 his gallant manner, his cleverness and his ex- 

 quisite dress. In the important events of his 

 reign, which included the Napoleonic wars 

 and the passing of the Catholic Emancipation 

 Act, he had little part. He left no descendants, 

 and his brother, William IV, succeeded him. 

 George V (1865- ) bears the sounding title 

 cf "George V, by the Grace of God of the 

 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 

 and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, 

 King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of 



GEORGE V 



George Frederick Ernest Albert, son of Albert 

 Edward (Edward VII), grandson of Queen Vic- 

 toria, and cousin of the former Emperor William 

 of Germany and the former Czar Nicholas of 

 Russia. 



India." He was born June 3, 1865, and was 

 the second son of Edward VII, but on the 

 death of his elder brother in 1892 became heir 

 prospective to the throne. Meanwhile, he had 

 received a thorough training in the navy, start- 

 ing at the age of twelve as cadet and enduring 

 the same discipline as his shipmates. In 1893 

 he became captain, in 1901 rear admiral and in 

 1903 vice admiral, though after 1892 he was not 

 in active service. He was married in 1893 to 

 the Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, who has 

 borne him six children, the eldest of whom, 

 Edward, Prince of Wales, was born in 1894. 



After his father's accession in 1901, George 

 made a tour of the world, chiefly to acquaint 

 himself with conditions in the British colonies, 

 and on his return was associated with his 

 father in governmental affairs. At Edward's 

 death in 1910 he becalne king, the coronation 

 154 



taking place June 22, 1911. Unlike his father, 

 King George is of a quiet, retiring nature, 

 caring little for social affairs, and his people 

 knew little of him at his accession. His pop- 

 ularity, however, was immediate and lasting. 

 Consult Thackeray's Four Georges; Melville's 

 The First George in Hanover and England; 

 Lucas's George II and His Ministers; Walpole's 

 Memoirs of the Reign of George III; Melville's 

 The First Gentleman of Europe (referring to 

 George IV) ; Hudson's Our Sailor King (referring 

 to George V). 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes contain much information as to 

 the history of the period of the Georges : 

 Clive, Robert Pitt, William 



French and Indian Revolutionary War In 



Wars America 



Great Britain South Sea Company 



Subtitle History Walpole, Sir Robert 



North, Frederick, Lord Wolfe, James 



GEORGE, DAVID LLOYD (1863- ), a British 

 statesman whose aggressive and virile person- 

 ality has made itself felt in all the important 

 reforms and events of recent English history. 

 Could his character be summarized in a sen- 

 tence, he would 

 perhaps be de- 

 scribed as a man 

 with an intense 

 and dominating 

 love of democ- 

 racy, and both his 

 friends and his 

 opponents woul?r\ 

 agree that he has 

 a positive genius 

 for getting things 

 done. Only a 

 man of decision DA vm LLOYD GEORGE 



and action could The first Premier of Britain 

 havp <?nnnsnrpf] nr to come from the middle 



nave sponsored or c]asses He assumed a great- 

 initiated in con- er burden than ever fell to 



_. . . any of his predecessors, 

 servative England 



the great movements that are identified with 

 his name old-age pensions, insurance against 

 sickness and nonemployment, educational and 

 land reforms, etc. or have attained the Pre- 

 miership, as did he, at a time when England 

 was involved in the most desperate struggle 

 of modern times the War of the Nations. 



This small, energetic, intensely earnest man 

 is of Welsh descent. He was born in Man- 

 chester, the son of William George, a poor 

 schoolmaster who died when David was about 

 two years old. The mother, a daughter of 

 David Lloyd, sent the boy to Wales, where he 

 was reared by an uncle. The future Premier 



