King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India
1865 CE
to 1936 CE
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; June 3, 1865 – January 20, 1936) is King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from May 6, 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Queen Victoria, George is third in the line of succession behind his father, Prince Albert Edward, and his own elder brother, Prince Albert Victor.
From 1877 to 1891, George serves in the Royal Navy, until the unexpected death of his elder brother in early 1892 puts him directly in line for the throne.
On the death of his grandmother in 1901, George's father ascends the throne as Edward VII, and George is created Prince of Wales.
He becomes king-emperor on his father's death in 1910.
George V's reign sees the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changes the political landscape.
The Parliament Act 1911 establishes the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords.
As a result of the First World War (1914–1918), the empires of his first cousins Nicholas II of Russia and Wilhelm II of Germany fall, while the British Empire expands to its greatest effective extent.
In 1917, George becomes the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renames from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment.
In 1924 he appoints the first Labor ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognizesthe dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the British Commonwealth of Nations.
He has smoking-related health problems throughout much of his later reign and at his death is succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII.
