3.6.1865 King George V of Great Britain is born.

He was an avid smoker and preferred a quieter life in seclusion. King George V of Britain was born in early June 1865. His reign was marred by the First World War.

George V continued the anti-German orientation of his father Edward VII, the outward manifestation of which was the change in 1917 of the name of the ruling Saxe-Coburg dynasty to Windsor. Initially, George was not expected to ascend to the royal throne at all. He had an older brother Albert, who died of pneumonia at the age of twenty-eight. There has been speculation that the cause of death was in fact syphilis, a heroin overdose or the targeted removal of the heir to the throne.

Albert was engaged to Mary of Teck, arranged by his grandmother Queen Victoria. After the death of the young prince, Mary married George, who became the heir to the throne. Her coronation took place on 22 June 1911. George originally wanted to marry his cousin Mary of Edinburgh, with whom he had fallen in love. She was the daughter of George's uncle Alfred, under whose command the future king served in the navy. Grandmother, father and uncle all agreed to the marriage. Under pressure from her mother, however, Mary did not agree to the marriage and later became Queen of Romania.

Unlike his parents, George V preferred a quieter life in seclusion. His hobbies included stamp collecting. However, from the beginning of his reign he had to deal with a number of domestic problems. Moreover, three years after his coronation, the First World War broke out. It was during the war that George had the name of the royal family changed to German. At the same time, the members of the royal family renounced their German titles. This was because Britain was in a state of war with Germany. Moreover, the German Emperor William II, himself a disaster for Britain, was George's cousin.

King George V was an avid smoker and, combined with the effects that the First World War had left on him, his health was deteriorating towards the end of the 1920s. He had respiratory problems and recurrent bronchitis. For the rest of his reign he had to be very careful of himself, but he could not stop smoking. He became really seriously ill in 1928, when even George's son Edward had to perform some of his duties as a statesman. George eventually managed to recover from his serious health problems, but he never fully recovered.

In 1932, he gave a Christmas speech on the radio, although he was not very enthusiastic about it. But he wanted to encourage the public, who wanted the King to say a few words during the holidays. To this day, this tradition is still maintained. George V died on 20 January 1936

Sources: www.britannica.com, www.panovnici.cz, https://althistory.fandom.com/