THE SWEET HEIR-AFTER
Will and Kate’s second child set to join a long line of royal understudies,
Born: June 3, 1865 Place: Marlborough House, London Older sibling: Prince Albert Victor (Eddy) Succession at birth: Third. But he became second in line when Albert Victor died in 1891 at the age of 28, and then king when his father, Edward VII, died in 1910. Death of brother: It was considered a tragedy at the time, but some historians would look back on Eddy’s death of pneumonia in 1891 in a less charitable light. “Queen Victoria was always kind to Eddy, but she must have wondered whether the monarch would ever survive the reign of this dissipated halfwit,” writes Celia Clear in Royal Children. (Some historians have argued that Eddy never had the opportunity to rise to the occasion, and that his correspondence has shown him to be thoughtful, notes royal historian Carolyn Harris.) Scandal: As a second son, George had a career in the navy, which he gave up when he became heir. George married Eddy’s fiancée, Mary of Teck. Harris says there had been speculation that George had a secret marriage and fathered illegitimate children while he was in the navy, and those rumours had to be firmly quashed when he came to the throne. He dealt with some tabloid press accusations of bigamy, but the rumours were unsubstantiated, she says. Legacy: A traditionalist who liked his hemlines long, George was seen as old-fashioned and perhaps a little dull, but he was popular. He was monarch during the First World War and was pitted against his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. In 1917, he changed the family name, SaxeCoburg-Gotha, to Windsor and relinquished his German titles. He started the tradition of the royal Christmas broadcast in 1932.