Royals Who Actually Do Something: Difference between revisions
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*** Prince Andrew has retired from Fleet Air Arm with full honours as a fully served Rear Admiral. He was a career officer to the boot.
** Both George V and George VI were second sons not intended to inherit, and as such had real careers prior to becoming King. Some might suggest that this is why they were actually pretty good at the job. George VI even volunteered to join the army to take part in the Normandy landings, although this was mostly a [[Batman Gambit]] to stop Churchill using his Prime Ministerial authority to reactivate his own commission and have himself ordered to take part. George VI, his wife, and the children (including Elizabeth) also refused to leave London for Canada ''during the Blitz''. This meant the genuine danger of being killed and the annoyance of rationing, and initially hostile reactions to Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Consort) visiting the bombed-out areas, particularly the extremely hard-hit East End. However, their presence served as a major morale boost; after all, it's hard to complain of facing the bombs because you're lower class when the Royal Family is dodging them themselves. Case in point, when Buckingham Palace got ''bombed'', Queen Elizabeth had this to say: "Finally. Now I can look the East End in the face."
*** Queen Consort Elizabeth is also famous for her comment when asked why the younger Royals at least were not being sent to safety in Canada to preserve the succession: "The children cannot go without me, and I will not go without the King, and the King will never leave his country."
***George V between the wars patronized the British secret service and got it through budget difficulties.
** William IV had served in the Royal Navy and was called "The Sailor King" as a result. Being not a second but a ''third'' son, he had not prepared to be King ''at all'', and did such scandalous things as refuse to use ride the Royal Carriage to his coronation (he walked instead). He was famous for the whole [[King Incognito]] thing, going around London and Brighton unaccompanied to get a proper view of these cities. Although he was just as dissolute as his brothers, he's considered to have been a slightly better king than his predecessor (George IV), but not as good as his older brother Frederick (the Grand Old Duke of York and by the end of the wars a skilled general in the Army) would have been.
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