Celta, I came across this interesting substack article written in 2024 by Alexandra Churchill, a historian who was granted access to read King George V’s private papers and letters in order to write her 2018 book “In the Eye of the Storm: George V and the Great War.”
It was very revealing in showing that King George V was far from being the tyrannical father he’s been portrayed in recent decades in books and films. In fact he was quite a loving father.
A lot of the King’s supposed negative conduct towards his sons was due to David’s “harsh criticism of his father came after his own abdication, when he had fallen out with his brother and was embittered about the (apparent lack of) free money he was being given.”
It’s amazing how David could get away with this 90 years ago in recasting his father as an uncaring ogre compared to today when there’s readily more information on members of the Royal Family for public consumption.
Link: https://achurchill.substack.com/p/free-article-happy-159th-birthday
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Hi TeaWithBooks,
I am glad that the historical documents show a different George V to that portrayed by his estranged and embittered son. I am assuming that the negative portrayal of King George V stuck due to 1) people enjoying the thought of him as a horrible person (either due to the drama it creates, the fact that they dislike the BRF, or other reasons) and 2) (this is the main reason) the lack of public evidence to the contrary at the time, as the private life of the BRF was and is just that - private - unless they choose to make it known to the public.
For me, it is like someone taking Harry’s book Spare as the truth about the BRF. Thank goodness we have enough evidence today to contradict the obvious lies being spread about the BRF. Poor King George V was not so lucky.
