Mary of Teck 1867–1953

Mary of Teck was born a Victorian, and was crowned Queen at the end of the Edwardian era. The reign of King George V and Queen Mary marked ­– from 1917 – the inception of the House of Windsor.

Determined, pragmatic and materialistic Mary of Teck endured a penurious childhood. Her father, the Duke of Teck, was a weak and self-indulgent fop who married Princess Mary Adelaide, who was massively overweight and needlessly extravagant, the Tecks lived on Queen Victoria’s charity (Mary and Victoria were first cousins), and the family was eventually housed in White Lodge in Windsor Great Park.

Their daughter, Princess Mary (known as May), lacked charm or beauty, but was competent and dutiful and singled out as a wife for Eddy, the dim-witted Prince of Clarence, well known for his homosexual escapades and doomed love affairs. Queen Victoria backed the match, although Eddy’s parents – Bertie, the Prince of Wales and his wife Alexandra – were not keen. Then, disaster struck: Eddy fell ill and was dead within a week; the Waleses turned to Eddy’s fiancée for comfort. Queen Victoria had decided that George (Eddy’s younger brother, a plain-spoken, ill-educated sailor, who loved country pursuits) should marry May and eventually the somewhat reluctant George was dragged to the altar on 6 July 1893.

May went on to have five sons and one daughter, though she was far from maternal. Indeed, she completely rejected her youngest son, John, who was epileptic and suffered from learning difficulties. He was exiled to a farm just two miles from Sandringham, where he lived in the care of his doting nurse. His siblings visited him regularly; his mother would have nothing to do with him. When he died in his sleep in 1919, she wrote:“I cannot say how grateful we feel to God for having taken him in such a peaceful way.”

On the death of Queen Victoria, George and May became the Prince and Princess of Wales and moved to Marlborough House, where they lived a comfortable life, away from the excitement of the court. But in 1910 Edward VII died, leading to the accession of George V and May (now known as Mary) as his queen.

The Great War showed Queen Mary at her best, revealing her to be an excellent organiser and dogged relief worker. In the interests of patriotism, it also saw the Anglicisation of the Germanic Saxe-Coburgs to the House of Windsor. The roaring twenties did not suit Queen Mary at all: she maintained her Victorian style, appearance and values and was appalled by the antics of the flappers and fast set, which rapidly absorbed her eldest son, David, Prince of Wales.

The greatest crisis of her life followed the death of George V in January 1936, and David’s accession to the throne as Edward VIII. After affairs with a string of mistresses he had fallen passionately in love with the American divorcée, Wallis Simpson. Only one divorced woman, Eleanor of Aquitaine, had ever been a queen consort, and her royal credentials were impeccable. It soon became apparent that if Edward wanted to marry Wallis, he would be forced to abdicate, which he did on 11 December 1936. Queen Mary showed no emotion to her son, and when she met him at Windsor after his abdication speech to the British people, she merely wished him goodbye and God bless, and turned to her second son, Bertie, curtseying and proclaiming “God save the King”. She left without a backward glance.

All her service, duty and devotion was lavished on the new royal family, and she played a major role in the upbringing of her favourite grandchild, Princess Elizabeth. She lived long enough to see the coronation of Elizabeth, and died in March 1953, marking the true end of the Victorian era.