Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor

Excellent read for anyone who is interested in history or the royal family. For me this followed another terrific book, In Destiny's Hands, Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa by Justin Vovk. The two women were certainly cut from the same mold. Both were utterly single minded in their devotion to monarchy. For both of them it was an obsession. Maria Theresa wanted her children to rule the world (and almost did it) but Queen Mary was content to just keep the British throne in one piece. A hard enough job that was in her time!Anne Edwards did a great deal of research and the she gives Queen Mary's life and times a thorough examination, and she gives us an excellent picture of a girl born in the right time and place-who was, perhaps, the reason the monarchy survives today. I don't believe she was the ultimate queen as Edwards does, and that might be the only detraction from the work I can think of- she's a little too enamored of her subject. Not that she whitewashes her character; she doesn't. But all that hyperbole could have been toned down a bit. She was a queenly, regal, lovely woman, and oh yes she had the hardware to prove it (and wore it well) - we get it. Underneath that diamond breastplate was one tough lady, and not an altogether admirable one.Although Queen Mary's time was after the divine right of kinds, I don't think she knew it or acknowledged it, at least from Anne Edwards' point of view. Without a doubt she felt the Monarchy was infallible. Queen Mary bridged an amazing period of history, all the way from Victoria to the current queen. She was raised in a time of great stability in Great Britain. At the time of her birth and childhood there had been toppled crowns all over Europe (many descended from Maria Theresa) yet Britain managed to stay stable much of it thanks to Victoria and perhaps even more so, Albert. After the hodge podge of Hanover- too old, too ugly, too dissipated, too boring- the royal family managed to mold themselves into exactly what their subjects wanted- a 'normal' family on the throne. Distant and royal but domestic in their ways and most of all, no scandal. When May of Teck (as Queen Mary was known then) joined the family, she had just the right mix of beauty, breeding and brains. Just what the royal family needed.Edwards goes a long way to give us a picture of not only the immediate family but the far-flung relations who were perched on their thrones, and the tumult surrounding them, and how Queen Mary really was the lynchpin in keeping the monarchy smooth. But she also manages to get some really intimate details in there as well, like the struggle the new King George V had to get his mother to shove over after the death of Edward VII, and the really petty jealousies of Queen Alexandra. It's almost comical. Not what one thinks as royal behavior, at all. But, very human, nonetheless! One subject that kept popping up was the strange 'poodle' hair that was May's signature look, and never changed. I loved it being described as a sponge on top of her head! How un-royal. I have to wonder if anyone ever told her it wasn't her best look. A most interesting woman was May's mother, Princess Mary Adelaide, stage mother extraordinaire, and cousin to Queen Victoria. She certainly did enough to push her daughter into the family to the point of vacationing awfully close to the monarch and risking a royal snubbing.One has to wonder about all the what ifs in history, and she certainly lived through many of them. I never knew she was engaged to the heir apparent, Prince Eddy, who (thankfully?) died before the wedding so she could marry George. The most tragic section of the book deals with the Russian royal family. I always wondered why the Romanov family hadn't been rescued by their cousins, and Edwards does a great job of showing the terrible dilemma the family were faced with. Everything they did as a family, every action and word, was judged by their government and their people, so it was impossible for them to offer help without it being judged a political move. It must have been horrible for them, since the family was close and loving, from all accounts, not just Edwards. I even felt some sympathy for Kaiser Wilhelm (he's another story!) in that situation. And who knew the Kaiser had a sense of humor, cracking a joke about the Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg when the family officially changed the name to Windsor. It's these such anecdotes that make this book a success.Edwards uses many quotes from the memoirs of the Duke of Windsor, the abdicated King Edward VIII, her son. These perhaps give the greatest insight into Queen Mary as a person rather than a monarch. She gives a good account of the abdication, and I happen to agree with her opinion of the Duke, that he was vapid, weak, bigoted and somewhat masochistic, but pro-peace rather than very pro-German, which is an unpopular opinion today. The Duke and Duchess were incredibly self serving and one of the most interesting quotes is from the Duke himself, that the crown meant nothing to him but it did to Wallis!! Edward VIII had a hard time of it, apparently, since the queen was so obsessed with monarchy it seems she assumed her children were as well. She tried to raise them to be little royal robots. I can't help thinking that the remote control parenting of the royal children at that time trickled down to the current queen, who seems to have many of the same traits as her grandmother and perhaps the Charles and Diana debacle finally broke the tradition of raising terribly neurotic royals. There's hope for Will and Kate's children.In all I highly recommend this book. She's entertaining, thorough and informed. I haven't read any of her other books, but will.

One of the earliest defining points of Queen Mary's life was when she was still Princess May and her fiance, Prince Eddy died, just as she was serenely contemplating her future as Princess of Wales and then Queen of England. When Eddy died, young Princess May did not make a single false move and within a decent interval she was engaged to Eddy's brother George, who was now second in line to the throne. This smooth transition between fiances to secure her future as Queen of England highlights the Queen's own ambition and dedication to the creed of royalty.At the time of Princess May's marriage to the future King George V, Queen Victoria (Aunt Queen to May; Grandmama to George) was still on the throne; when Queen Mary died, her grand-daughter Elizabeth was preparing for her coronation. So Queen Mary was a central figure in major events of the early 20th century, such as the two World Wars, and an enduring symbol of British royalty when other royal families were destroyed or exiled.Anne Edwards paints a portrait of a single-minded woman who puts her duty to the Crown above all else - this duty and loyalty was a positive central force in her marriage and a strong positive symbol for England - behind the scenes, however, it was also an excuse to ignore and neglect her six young children. Queen Mary did not have any natural maternal instinct, so her only connection with her children was through her passion for the Crown - it is significant, that as an adult her son Bertie refers to his brother the King as "David" in his diary, but his mother is consistently called "Queen Mary". With no maternal influence over the nursery, her two older sons were abused and neglected by a mentally incompetent nanny for four years before a senior member of staff told the Queen that her older son was bruised and the younger boy was seriously malnourished. She maintained a cold and distant relationship with all her children for the rest of their lives, leading to severe psychological problems in her two oldest sons.Reading about the Duke of Windsor's upbringing and his relationship with his parents gives new insight into the Abdication Crisis. When he was Prince of Wales, he was surprisingly responsible and involved during the First World War, but for the first time I wondered about the impact of the Russian tragedy - when his cousins, the Tsar, his wife and children were all shot during the Russian Revolution. Surely this had some impact on his attitude to the throne? Ultimately, however, he was a man with extremely low self esteem and a poor understanding of his place in the constitution, who distracted the politicians from weightier world matters during the 1930s - he had to go. If Queen Mary ever questioned whether she held any blame for his inability to take the throne, she never said so. Once her son abdicated his crown and his responsibilities, she saw no place for him again, and she never mentioned his occasional visits in her diary.If you are interested in the intricacies of royal relationships threaded into historical events, then this is an excellent book for you. While Queen Mary may have felt justified in neglecting her children for her royal duties, eventually they paid the price for her neglect, yet they could only admire her unswerving dedication to her responsibilities. While David (Prince of Wales/ Duke of Windsor) failed to live up to expectations, her son Bertie managed to surpass anyone's expectations, leading England successfully through World War II with the support of his mother, his wife and his daughters. Ultimately it was Queen Mary's unwavering strength of purpose that helped the British royal family endure when other royal families crumbled.

Magnificently written biography. I recently read another book on the same subject and have read lots of book about members of the royal family, past and present. This was a terrific addition

Ms Edwards writes well about a figure that my father remembers well. She has left a huge impression on Britian, which still holds.After having read this book, it was easy to recognise Queen Mary in our present queen as well as in HRH Prince Charles. Many of their characteristics can be directly traced back to this formidable woman, who married the job, not the man. Extremely fortunate for both herself and her husband, they loved each other deeply although they may not have been the best parents to their children. Ms Edwards implies that the abuse inflicted on the two elder sons by their nanny, unbeknownst to Princess May and her husband, may have contributed to the Adbication Crisis - an intriguing theory.I would thoroughly recommend this as a insightful biography which turns a distant figure into a very human person and which in turn sheds light on our present monarchy.

Ben scritto le pagine scivolano via raccontando la storia di questa principessa poi regina, convinta di dover preservare il trono come era nel se olo passato

I loved reading the beginning about the book since not only is Queen Mary's road to becoming Queen interesting it also gives you a great perspective of what the turn of the century was like and which changes people encountered. However, once Mary actually was crowned the repetitions especially of the detailled descriptions of what people were wearing at official function made me skip over more and more pages until I stopped reading. Mind you - Queen Mary's like probably was very repetitive and wardrobe played a huge role in her life, so I guess it is justified in a book like this. Not my cup of tea, though.

Discovered a lot of things I didn't know, and it explained a lot about how the monarchy still functions today. Very Interesting.