George V was the second son of Edward VII. Until his elder brother, Prince Albert, died in 1892, George had not anticipated he would be the next in line to the throne after his father. He had opted for a career in the navy, like William IV, starting as a naval cadet at Dartmouth in 1877 and rising to the rank of commander in 1891. Unfortunately a bout of typhoid, followed by news of his brother's death, ended his naval career and he had to adjust to the prospect of becoming king. He had sufficient sense of duty to do this, though he did not welcome it, and neither did he like the additional political and language studies he had to do. He was not fond of intellectual pursuits, preferring, like his father, a sporting life. Unusually for the Hanoverian line, George was on very good terms with his father, but he did not copy him in any other way, especially the playboy role. George was rather shy, which he overcame by talking loudly in a booming voice, but he much preferred solitary pursuits and it was not unusual for him to hide away at Sandringham for periods of time, hunting, fishing and developing his collection of stamps of the British Empire. He was slightly below average height (about five feet seven inches) and had inherited his father's good looks and had captivating blue eyes.

George married his late brother's betrothed, Princess Mary of Teck, in 1893. He was twenty-eight; she was twenty-six. They had five sons and a daughter, Mary, who became the Princess Royal in 1932. Their two eldest sons became respectively Edward VIII and George VI. Their third son, Henry, duke of Gloucester, lived until 1974. The fourth son, George, duke of Kent, was killed on active service in the Second World War, when his plane crashed into a Scottish hillside in August 1942. Their youngest son, John, was an epileptic and was kept out of the public gaze at Sandringham, where he died in 1919 aged thirteen. Their marriage was not a love match but by all accounts George was faithful. An early allegation that he had married the daughter of Admiral Culme-Seymour before his marriage to Mary was rapidly squashed and the perpetrator of the story prosecuted and imprisoned. There was never more than minor gossip about George's love life and he was the first king since Charles I not to have any sexual scandal attached to his name.

Although Edward VIl did his best to prepare George for the monarchy, both in terms of becoming acquainted with the political process, and in visits to foreign courts, George felt ill equipped for the political crisis that he was plunged into after his father's death in May 1910. The Liberals' budget of 1909, which had included provision for a super-tax to cover the cost of old-age pensions, had been rejected by the House of Lords. Prime Minister Asquith had asked Edward VII to consider appointing additional Liberal peers to the House to vote the budget through. Edward had died before making a decision and George was now placed in a difficult position. In the end it was referred to a committee, followed by a general election where the increased Liberal majority caused the Lords to accept public opinion. George, however, did not like having been brought into party politics and made his views forcibly known.

George's coronation was held in Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1911, but he also had the idea of being crowned Emperor in India, which neither his father nor grandmother had been. He and the queen sailed for India in November and were jointly crowned emperor and empress on 11 December 1911 at Delhi. It was on that occasion that Delhi became the country's capital. George VI did not repeat this second coronation, so it was a unique event.

It was also the last moment of glory of the old world, for soon after the situation in Europe worsened. The immediate problem was in Ireland. Asquith sought to introduce a Home Rule Bill and, though it was rejected twice by the House of Lords, the King was prepared to give it his support. However the lawyer and politician, Sir Edward Carson (the man whose cross-examination of Oscar Wilde had been the ruin of the playwright in 1895), refused to accept the provision of the Bill and in 1913 mobilised a force of Ulster Volunteers. The king, fearing civil war, called a meeting of all parties at Buckingham Palace in July 1914 to consider an amended Home Rule Bill that excluded Ulster. No decision was reached and discussions were set aside when war broke out in Europe.

In the years leading up to war, King George had repeatedly warned his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II, that if Germany showed any aggression towards Russia or France, Britain would come to their aid. He also expressed the hope that they would not have to be drawn in. Britain's past record suggested to Germany that they would remain neutral, so when the catastrophic sequence of events sparked off by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914 escalated into war, Germany declared war on Russia and France and, to add to the problem, marched on France through Belgium. Britain, tied by its treaties to its allies, declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. The King did what he could to keep morale high. He shared in the rationing, not wishing to be shown special treatment. He paid five visits to the Grand Fleet and seven visits to armies in France and Belgium. On one visit in 1915, he was thrown from his horse and fractured his pelvis. The King did what he could behind the scenes and the public seemed to accept his genuine patriotism, but when anti-German feeling became intense in 1917 he took the counsel of his government and changed his family name from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor. Even before the war had finished, there was revolution in Russia. George's cousin Alice had married Tsar Nicholas 11 and the couple, with all their children, were murdered on July 16th 1918. George was devastated by the news. The old Europe was crumbling and Victoria's descendants were being replaced. Kaiser Wilhelm survived the war but fled from Germany and spent the rest of his life in the Netherlands.

After the war, the matter of Ireland still needed to be resolved. The Easter Rising of April 1916 had done little to help the situation, the execution of the rebels Pearce,Connolly and others only shifting support to the nationalists. King George opted for a conciliatory approach. The Government of Ireland Act of 1920 proposed for separate parliaments in Dublin and Belfast. The king and queen opened the Ulster Parliament in June 1921. Sinn Fein rejected the proposal for southern Ireland and it was not until the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 6 December 1921 that all of Ireland, except for Ulster, was recognized as the Irish Free State.

To George the old order continued to fade away. In 1924 the first Labour government was formed under Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. George was surprised to find the ministers easy to operate with. Unfortunately the Zinoviev letter, allegedly written by the head of the Communist International, encouraged armed revolution. The Labour Party was tainted with Communism and the letter contributed to their downfall. The General Strike of 1926 was further evidence of civil strife and potential revolution. The Baldwin government took a hard line with the strikers while the king had been prepared to be more conciliatory. It became evident as the years progressed and the strife grew that England was in the grip of a world depression. King George took a cut in his own pay via the Civil List. It was George who actively encouraged the idea of a National Government to tackle the problem, and this eventually came in under Ramsay MacDonald in 1931. It was this sense of needing to hold the nation together that caused George V to introduce two traditions in 1932. The first was his own personal distribution of Maundy Money on the Thursday before Easter. The tradition dated back to the time of Edward III in 1363, but since the Reformation had been conducted by the Lord High Almoner. His other innovation was to broadcast a Christmas Day message over the radio, which also continues to this day. These acts immediately brought the king to the hearts of people who otherwise had never seen him, let alone heard him, and it did more than any other action that he took to personalize the king. It undoubtedly contributed to his popularity, which he had never courted. He was overwhelmed at the enthusiasm and warmth accorded him at his silver jubilee in 1935.

In 1931 the Statute of Westminster made the change from the British Empire to the Commonwealth, with Parliament ceasing to control some of the overseas dominions directly. The King remained as Head of the Commonwealth and, in many cases, as head of state, but it was a further slide away from the old regime under which George had been reared and where he still felt most at home.

The king's health had declined in the last few years. In November 1928 he had suffered a near fatal bout of septicaemia, which weakened his constitution. He had been sent to Bognor Regis to recuperate. Thus, when he entered his final illness with a severe bronchial infection in January 1936, Queen Mary suggested he might again visit Bognor. This gave rise to his alleged but doubtless apocryphal last words, "Bugger Bognor!"

George V succeeded more than he ever realised in moulding together the disciplinarian approach of Victoria and Albert with the homely geniality of Edward VII to produce a monarch who stood for the best standards and principles of the nation. Few of his contemporaries fully appreciated the lengths to which he went to understand the problems of Britain and to promote stability and understanding throughout Europe. He succeeded far more than he failed, and the love he received from the nation was the testament to that.