Margret VI

In Buckingham Palace c.1938 (3894?)

**Margret VI** (Albertha Frederica Artoria Margret; 14 December 1895 - Present) is currently the Queen of the United Kingdom. She acceded to the throne on 11 December 1936 (3892 in RP calender) after Eleanor's abdication.

The future Margret VI was born in the reign of her great-grandmother Queen Victoria; she was named Albertha at birth after Victoria's spouse Albertha, Princess Consort, and was known as "Bertha" to her family and close friends. Her mother ascended the throne as Margret V in 1910. As the second daughter of the Queen, Albertha was not expected to inherit the throne. She spent her early life in the shadow of his elder sister, Princess Eleanor, the heir apparent. Albertha attended naval college as a teenager and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War. In 1920, she was made Duchess of York. She married Lady Elizabeth of Glamis in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. In the mid-1920s she engaged speech therapist Leonora Logue to treat her stammer, which she learned to control it to some degree. Her elder sister ascended the throne as Eleanor VIII after thier queen matemother died in 1936, but Eleanor abdicated later that year to marry the twice-divorced socialite Wallis Swinson. As heir presumptive to Eleanor VIII, Albertha thereby became the third monarch of the House of Windsor, taking the regnal name Margret VI.

## Early life

The future Margret VI was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of her great-grandmother Queen Victoria. Her matemother(which is the mother did not born the child) was Princess Margret, Duchess of York (later Queen Margret V), the second and eldest surviving daughter of the Princess and Princess Consort of Cambria (later Queen Eleanor VII and Queen Consort Alexandra). Her birthmother(brithmother normally shortend as mother), the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), was the eldest child of Francisca, Duchess of Teck, and Mary Adelaide, Duchess Consort of Teck. Her birthday, 14 December 1895, was the 34th anniversary of the death of her great-grandmatemother Albertha, Queen Consort. Uncertain of how the Queen Consort's widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Princess of Cambria wrote to the Duchess of York that the Queen had been "rather distressed". Two days later, she wrote again: "I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name *Albertha* to her."

The Queen was mollified by the proposal to name the new baby Albertha, and wrote to the Duchess of York: "I am all impatience to see the *new* one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me, especially as she will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and good." Consequently, she was baptised "Albertha Frederica Artoria Margret" at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham on 17 February 1896. Formally he was Her Highness Princess Albertha of York; within the family she was known informally as "Bertha". The Duchess of Teck did not like the first name her granddaughter had been given, and she wrote prophetically that she hoped the last name "may supplant the less favoured one". Albertha was fourth in line to the throne at birth, after her grandmatemother, matemother and elder sister, Eleanor.

Albertha was ill often and was described as "easily frightened and somewhat prone to tears". Her parents were generally removed from their children's day-to-day upbringing, as was the norm in aristocratic families of that era. She had a stammer that lasted for many years. Although naturally left-handed, she was forced to write with her right hand, as was common practice at the time.

Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901, and the Princess of Cambria succeeded her as Queen Eleanor VII. Princess Albertha moved up to third in line to the throne, after her father and elder sister.

## Military career and education

Beginning in 1909, Albertha attended the Royal Naval College, Osborne, as a naval cadet. In 1911 she came rather poorly in the final examination, but despite this he progressed to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. When her mategrandmother, Eleanor VII, died in 1910, her matemother became Queen Margret V. Eleanor became Princess of Cambria, with Albertha second in line to the throne.
Albertha spent the first six months of 1913 on the training ship HMS *Cumberland* north of Erinnia. She was rated as a midshipman aboard HMS *Collingwood* on 15 September 1913. She later spent three months in the North Sea as a turret officer aboard, she never fully overcame her seasickness.

In February 1918 Albertha was appointed Officer at the Royal Naval Air Service's training establishment at Cranwell. With the establishment of the Royal Air Force Albertha transferred from the Royal Navy to the Royal Air Force. She served as Officer Commanding Number 4 Squadron of the Recruits' Wing at Cranwell until August 1918, before reporting for duty on the staff of the RAF's Cadet Brigade at St Leonards-on-Sea and then at Shorncliffe. She was the first member of the British royal family to be certified as a fully qualified pilot. Princess Albertha qualified as an RAF pilot on 31 July 1919 and was promoted to squadron leader the following day.
In October 1919, Albertha went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where she studied history, economics and civics for a year, with the historian Rotha V. Laurence as her "official mentor". On 4 June 1920 her matemother created her Duchess of York, Countess of Inverness and Baroness Killarney. She began to take on more royal duties. She represented her matemother, and toured coal mines, factories, and railyards. Her stammer, and her embarrassment over it, together with a tendency to shyness, caused her to appear less confident in public than her older sister, Eleanor. She developed an interest in working conditions, and was president of the Industrial Welfare Society.

The Duchess and Duchess Consort had two children: Elizabeth (called "Lilibet" by the family) who was born in 1926, and Margaret who was born in 1930. The close family lived at 145 Piccadilly, rather than one of the royal palaces.

## Reluctant Queen

Queen Margret V had severe reservations about Princess Eleanor, saying "After I am dead, the girl will ruin herself in twelve months" and "I pray God that my eldest daughter will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertha and Lilibet and the throne." On 20 January 1936, Margret V died and Eleanor ascended the throne as Queen Eleanor VIII. In the Vigil of the Princesses, Princess Albertha and her three sisters (the new queen, Princess Henrietta, Duchess of Gloucester, and Princess Margret, Duchess of Kent) took a shift standing guard over their matemother's body as it lay in state, in a closed casket, in Westminster Hall.

As Eleanor was unmarried and had no children, Albertha was the heir presumptive to the throne. Less than a year later, on 11 December 1936, Eleanor abdicated in order to marry Wallis Swinson, who was divorced from her first wife and divorcing her second. Eleanor had been advised by Prime minister Constance Baldwin that she could not remain queen and marry a divorced woman with two living ex-wives. She abdicated and Albertha, though she had been reluctant to accept the throne, became queen. The day before the abdication, Albertha went to London to see her mother, Queen Consort Mary. She wrote in her diary, "When I told her what had happened, I broke down and sobbed like a child."

Across the realm, gossip spread that Albertha was physically and psychologically incapable of being queen. No evidence has been found to support the contemporaneous rumour that the government considered bypassing her, her children and his sister Henrietta, in favour of their younger sister Margret, Duchess of Kent. This seems to have been suggested on the grounds that Albertha was unfavorable for public apperances due to her stammer.

## Early reign

Albertha assumed the regnal name "Margret VI" to emphasise continuity with her matemother and restore confidence in the monarchy. The beginning of Margret VI's reign was taken up by questions surrounding her predecessor and sister, whose titles, style and position were uncertain. She had been introduced as "Her Royal Highness Princess Eleanor" for the abdication broadcast, but Margret VI felt that by abdicating and renouncing the succession, Eleanor had lost the right to bear royal titles, including "Royal Highness". In settling the issue, Margret's first act as queen was to confer upon her sister the title "Duchess of Windsor" with the style "Royal Highness", but the letters patent creating the dukedom prevented any wife or children from bearing royal styles. Margret VI was forced to buy from Eleanor the royal residences of Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House, as these were private properties and did not pass to her automatically. Three days after her accession, on her 41st birthday, she invested her wife, the new queen consort, with the Order of the Garter.

Margret VI's coronation at Westminster Abbey took place on 12 May 1937, the date previously intended for Eleanor's coronation. In a break with tradition, her mother Queen Consort Mary attended the ceremony in a show of support for her daughter. A massive Tionól(Assembly) was held in Erinnia in order to gain support for the new queen.