Then we talked about the king’s illness, and Steed related some interesting details concerning George V and his predecessors. On Victoria: in the 1880s, as a result of certain romantic involvements after the death of Albert,

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, prince consort of Queen Victoria, 1840–61.

she began to lose her popularity, and the republican movement began to emerge in the country. But in the 1890s the affairs came to an end, the queen’s reputation was re-established, and the republican movement subsided. On King Edward VII: Steed once found himself among the royal retinue in Karlsbad, where the king had gone for a cure. King Edward had to send a complimentary telegram to the Boy Scouts in England. The king’s secretary asked Steed if he would write the draft. Steed did so. The next day the secretary ruefully informed Steed: ‘Nothing doing, I’m afraid. The king read your draft and said: these are not the words of a father-king to his children, but an editorial from The Times. This won’t do for me.’ Edward composed the telegram himself; according to Steed, it really was much better than the one he had written.

King George also wrote most of his own speeches and addresses to the nation. A few years ago, when Steed was still working at The Times, the king’s secretary asked him to send a man to draft the monarch’s speeches. Steed sent a brilliant journalist. A month later the journalist returned to Steed in disappointment and said: ‘I am not needed there at all. Whatever draft I tried to write, the king would rewrite it from scratch and barely a sentence of my own would remain. I resigned my post in the palace.’ Steed claims that in 1928, shortly before his illness, the king was in a very depressed frame of mind. He felt that he was coping poorly with his duties and steadily losing authority and respect among his subjects. He even toyed with the idea of abdication. Baldwin, who was prime minister at the time, tried to reassure the king and resolutely opposed abdication. In December 1928, George fell seriously ill. The general sympathy displayed by the public during his illness impressed the king deeply. He became calmer, having decided that the Empire needed him; his will to live came sharply into focus. This psychological state greatly facilitated the king’s almost miraculous recovery seven years ago. ‘Perhaps the same will to live will save the king even now,’ Steed concluded. ‘Who knows?…’