BRITISH MONARCHY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS

painting; educated by a governess at home, she was a natural diarist and

kept a regular journal throughout her life. On William IV's death in 1837,

she became Queen at the age of 18.

Queen Victoria is associated with Britain's great age of industrial

expansion, economic progress and - especially - empire. At her death, it

was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.

In the early part of her reign, she was influenced by two men: her first

Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, and her husband, Prince Albert, whom she

married in 1840. Both men taught her much about how to be a ruler in a

'constitutional monarchy' where the monarch had very few powers but could

use much influence. Albert took an active interest in the arts, science,

trade and industry; the project for which he is best remembered was the

Great Exhibition of 1851, the profits from which helped to establish the

South Kensington museums complex in London.

Her marriage to Prince Albert brought nine children between 1840 and

1857. Most of her children married into other royal families of Europe:

Edward VII (born 1841, married Alexandra, daughter of Christian IX of

Denmark); Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (born

1844, married Marie of Russia); Arthur, Duke of Connaught (born 1850,

married Louise Margaret of Prussia); Leopold, Duke of Albany (born 1853,

married Helen of Waldeck-Pyrmont); Victoria, Princess Royal (born 1840,

married Friedrich III, German Emperor); Alice (born 1843, married Ludwig

IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine); Helena (born 1846, married Christian

of Schleswig-Holstein); Louise (born 1848, married John Campbell, 9th Duke

of Argyll); Beatrice (born 1857, married Henry of Battenberg). Victoria

bought Osborne House (later presented to the nation by Edward VII) on the

Isle of Wight as a family home in 1845, and Albert bought Balmoral in 1852.

Victoria was deeply attached to her husband and she sank into depression

after he died, aged 42, in 1861. She had lost a devoted husband and her

principal trusted adviser in affairs of state. For the rest of her reign

she wore black. Until the late 1860s she rarely appeared in public;

although she never neglected her official Correspondence, and continued to

give audiences to her ministers and official visitors, she was reluctant to

resume a full public life. She was persuaded to open Parliament in person

in 1866 and 1867, but she was widely criticised for living in seclusion and

quite a strong republican movement developed. (Seven attempts were made on

Victoria's life, between 1840 and 1882 - her courageous attitude towards

these attacks greatly strengthened her popularity.) With time, the private

urgings of her family and the flattering attention of Benjamin Disraeli,

Prime Minister in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880, the Queen gradually resumed

her public duties.

In foreign policy, the Queen's influence during the middle years of her

reign was generally used to support peace and reconciliation. In 1864,

Victoria pressed her ministers not to intervene in the Prussia-Austria-

Denmark war, and her letter to the German Emperor (whose son had married

her daughter) in 1875 helped to avert a second Franco-German war. On the

Eastern Question in the 1870s - the issue of Britain's policy towards the

declining Turkish Empire in Europe - Victoria (unlike Gladstone) believed

that Britain, while pressing for necessary reforms, ought to uphold Turkish

hegemony as a bulwark of stability against Russia, and maintain bi-

partisanship at a time when Britain could be involved in war.

Victoria's popularity grew with the increasing imperial sentiment from

the 1870s onwards. After the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the government of India

was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown with the position

of Governor General upgraded to Viceroy, and in 1877 Victoria became

Empress of India under the Royal Titles Act passed by Disraeli's

government.

During Victoria's long reign, direct political power moved away from the

sovereign. A series of Acts broadened the social and economic base of the

electorate. These acts included the Second Reform Act of 1867; the

introduction of the secret ballot in 1872, which made it impossible to

pressurise voters by bribery or intimidation; and the Representation of the

Peoples Act of 1884 - all householders and lodgers in accommodation worth

at least Ј10 a year, and occupiers of land worth Ј10 a year, were entitled

to vote.

Despite this decline in the Sovereign's power, Victoria showed that a

monarch who had a high level of prestige and who was prepared to master the

details of political life could exert an important influence. This was

demonstrated by her mediation between the Commons and the Lords, during the

acrimonious passing of the Irish Church Disestablishment Act of 1869 and

the 1884 Reform Act. It was during Victoria's reign that the modern idea of

the constitutional monarch, whose role was to remain above political

parties, began to evolve. But Victoria herself was not always non-partisan

and she took the opportunity to give her opinions - sometimes very

forcefully - in private.

After the Second Reform Act of 1867, and the growth of the two-party

(Liberal and Conservative) system, the Queen's room for manoeuvre

decreased. Her freedom to choose which individual should occupy the

premiership was increasingly restricted. In 1880, she tried,

unsuccessfully, to stop William Gladstone - whom she disliked as much as

she admired Disraeli and whose policies she distrusted - from becoming

Prime Minister. She much preferred the Marquess of Hartington, another

statesman from the Liberal party which had just won the general election.

She did not get her way. She was a very strong supporter of Empire, which

brought her closer both to Disraeli and to the Marquess of Salisbury, her

last Prime Minister. Although conservative in some respects - like many at

the time she opposed giving women the vote - on social issues, she tended

to favour measures to improve the lot of the poor, such as the Royal

Commission on housing. She also supported many charities involved in

education, hospitals and other areas.

Victoria and her family travelled and were seen on an unprecedented

scale, thanks to transport improvements and other technical changes such as

the spread of newspapers and the invention of photography. Victoria was the

first reigning monarch to use trains - she made her first train journey in

1842.

In her later years, she almost became the symbol of the British Empire.

Both the Golden (1887) and the Diamond (1897) Jubilees, held to celebrate

the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the queen's accession, were marked with

great displays and public ceremonies. On both occasions, Colonial

Conferences attended by the Prime Ministers of the self-governing colonies

were held.

Despite her advanced age, Victoria continued her duties to the end -

including an official visit to Dublin in 1900. The Boer War in South Africa

overshadowed the end of her reign. As in the Crimean War nearly half a

century earlier, Victoria reviewed her troops and visited hospitals; she

remained undaunted by British reverses during the campaign: 'We are not

interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.'

Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, on 22 January 1901

after a reign which lasted almost 64 years, the longest in British history.

She was buried at Windsor beside Prince Albert, in the Frogmore Royal

Mausoleum, which she had built for their final resting place. Above the

Mausoleum door are inscribed Victoria's words: 'farewell best beloved, here

at last I shall rest with thee, with thee in Christ I shall rise again'.

SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA

The name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha came to the British Royal Family in 1840 with

the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert, son of Ernst, Duke of

Saxe-Coburg & Gotha. Queen Victoria herself remained a member of the House

of Hanover.

The only British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was King

Edward VII, who reigned for nine years at the beginning of the modern age

in the early years of the 20th century. King George V replaced the German-

sounding title with that of Windsor during the First World War. The name

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha survived in other European monarchies, including the

current Belgian Royal Family and the former monarchies of Portugal and

Bulgaria.

SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA

1837 - 1917

THE WINDSORS

1917 – PRESENT DAY

VICTORIA = m. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg &

Gotha

(1837-1910) (Prince Consort)

EDWARD VII = m. Princess Alexandra, dau.

of CHRISTIAN IX, King of

(1910 – 1936) Denmark

DUKE OF WINDSOR

GEORGE VI = m. Lady Elizabeth

EDWARD VIII

1936-1952 Bowes-Lyon, dau. of Earl of

(abdicated 1936)

Strathmore and

Kinghorne

(Queen

Elizabeth

The

Queen Mother)

QUEEN ELIZABETH II

(1952 – present day)

EDWARD VII (1901-10)

Edward VII, born November 9, 1841, was the eldest son of Queen Victoria.

He took the family name of his father, Prince Consort Albert, hence the

change in lineage, although he was still Hanoverian on his mother's side.

He married Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863, who bore him three sons

and three daughters. Edward died on May 6, 1910, after a series of heart

attacks.

Victoria, true to the Hanoverian name, saw the worst in Edward. She and

Albert imposed a strict regime upon Edward, who proved resistant and

resentful throughout his youth. His marriage at age twenty-two to Alexandra

afforded him some relief from his mother's domination, but even after

Albert's death in 1863, Victoria consistently denied her son any official

governmental role. Edward rebelled by completely indulging himself in

women, food, drink, gambling, sport and travel. Alexandra turned a blind

eye to his extramarital activities, which continued well into his sixties

and found him implicated in several divorce cases.

Edward succeeded the throne upon Victoria's death; despite his risquй

reputation, Edward threw himself into his role of king with vitality. His

extensive European travels gave him a solid foundation as an ambassador in

foreign relations. Quite a few of the royal houses of Europe were his

relatives, allowing him to actively assist in foreign policy negotiations.

He also maintained an active social life, and his penchant for flamboyant

accouterments set trends among the fashionable. Victoria's fears proved

wrong: Edward's forays into foreign policy had direct bearing on the

alliances between Great Britain and both France and Russia, and aside from

his sexual indiscretions, his manner and style endeared him to the English

populace.

Social legislation was the focus of Parliament during Edward's reign. The

1902 Education Act provided subsidized secondary education, and the Liberal

government passed a series of acts benefiting children after 1906; old age

pensions were established in 1908. The 1909 Labour Exchanges Act laid the

groundwork for national health insurance, which led to a constitutional

crisis over the means of budgeting such social legislation. The budget set

forth by David Lloyd-George proposed major tax increases on wealthy

landowners and was defeated in Parliament. Prime Minister Asquith appealed

to Edward to create several new peerages to swing the vote, but Edward

steadfastly refused. Edward died amidst the budgetary crisis at age sixty-

eight, which was resolved the following year by the Liberal government's

passage of the act.

Despite Edward's colorful personal life and Victoria's perceptions of him

as profligate, Edward ruled peacefully (aside from the Boer War of 1899-

1902) and successfully during his short reign, which is remarkable

considering the shifts in European power that occurred in the first decade

of the twentieth century.

THE HOUSE OF WINDSOR

The House of Windsor came into being in 1917, when the name was adopted

as the British Royal Family's official name by a proclamation of King

George V, replacing the historic name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. It remains the

family name of the current Royal Family.

During the twentieth century, kings and queens of the United Kingdom have

fulfilled the varied duties of constitutional monarchy. One of their most

important roles was national figureheads lifting public morale during the

devastating world wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45.

The period saw the modernization of the monarchy in tandem with the many

social changes which have taken place over the past 80 years. One such

modernization has been the use of mass communication technologies to make

the Royal Family accessible to a broader public the world over. George V

adopted the new relatively new medium of radio to broadcast across the

Empire at Christmas; the Coronation ceremony was broadcast on television

for the first time in 1953, at The Queen's insistence; and the World Wide

Web has been used for the past five years to provide a global audience with

information about the Royal Family. During this period British monarchs

have also played a vital part in promoting international relations,

retaining ties with former colonies in their role as Head of the

Commonwealth.

GEORGE V (1910-36)

George V was born June 3, 1865, the second son of Edward VII and

Alexandra. His early education was somewhat insignificant as compared to

that of the heir apparent, his older brother Albert. George chose the

career of professional naval officer and served competently until Albert

died in 1892, upon which George assumed the role of the heir apparent. He

married Mary of Teck (affectionately called May) in 1893, who bore him four

sons and one daughter. He died the year after his silver jubilee after a

series of debilitating attacks of bronchitis, on January 20, 1936.

George ascended the throne in the midst of a constitutional crisis: the

budget controversy of 1910. Tories in the House of Lords were at odds with

Liberals in the Commons pushing for social reforms. When George agreed to

create enough Liberal peerages to pass the measure the Lords capitulated

and gave up the power of absolute veto, resolving the problem officially

with passage of the Parliament Bill in 1911. The first World War broke out

in 1914, during which George and May made several visits to the front; on

one such visit, George's horse rolled on top of him, breaking his pelvis -

George remained in pain for the rest of his life from the injury. The

worldwide depression of 1929-1931 deeply affected England, prompting the

king to persuade the heads of the three political parties (Labour,

Conservative and Liberal) to unite into a coalition government. By the end

of the 1920's, George and the Windsors were but one of few royal families

who retained their status in Europe.

The relationship between England and the rest of the Empire underwent

several changes. An independent Irish Parliament was established in 1918

after the Sinn Fein uprising in 1916, and the Government of Ireland Act

(1920) divided Ireland along religious lines. Canada, Australia, New

Zealand and South Africa demanded the right of self-governance after the

war, resulting in the creation of the British Commonwealth of Nations by

the Statute of Westminster in 1931. India was accorded some degree of self-

determination with the Government of India Act in 1935.

The nature of the monarchy evolved through the influence of George. In

contrast to his grandmother and father - Victoria's ambition to exert

political influence in the tradition of Elizabeth I and Edward VII's

aspirations to manipulate the destiny of nations - George's royal

perspective was considerably more humble. He strove to embody those

qualities, which the nation saw as their greatest strengths: diligence,

dignity and duty. The monarchy transformed from an institution of

constitutional legality to the bulwark of traditional values and customs

(particularly those concerning the family). Robert Lacey describes George

as such: ". . . as his official biographer felt compelled to admit, King

George V was distinguished 'by no exercise of social gifts, by no personal

magnetism, by no intellectual powers. He was neither a wit nor a brilliant

raconteur, neither well-read nor well-educated, and he made no great

contribution to enlightened social converse. He lacked intellectual

curiosity and only late in life acquired some measure of artistic taste.'

He was, in other words, exactly like most of his subjects. He discovered a

new job for modern kings and queens to do - representation."

EDWARD VIII ( JANUARY-DECEMBER 1936)

As Prince of Wales, Edward VIII (reigned January-December 1936) had

successfully carried out a number of regional visits (including areas hit

by economic depression) and other official engagements. These visits and

his official tours overseas, together with his good war record and genuine

care for the underprivileged, had made him popular.

The first monarch to be a qualified pilot, Edward created The King's Flight

(now known as 32 (The Royal) Squadron) in 1936 to provide air transport for

the Royal family's official duties.

In 1930, the Prince, who had already had a number of affairs, had met and

fallen in love with a married American woman, Mrs Wallis Simpson. Concern

about Edward's private life grew in the Cabinet, opposition parties and the

Dominions, when Mrs Simpson obtained a divorce in 1936 and it was clear

that Edward was determined to marry her.

Eventually Edward realised he had to choose between the Crown and Mrs

Simpson who, as a twice-divorced woman, would not have been acceptable as

Queen. On 10 December 1936, Edward VIII executed an Instrument of

Abdication which was given legal effect the following day, when Edward gave

Royal Assent to His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act, by which

Edward VIII and any children he might have were excluded from succession to

the throne. In 1937, Edward was created Duke of Windsor and married Wallis

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