When he was born, George V had little expectation of becoming king. He stood third in line for the throne behind his older brother, Prince Albert Victor, and father, then-Prince Albert Edward. Both died of pneumonia—Albert in 1892 (aged 28) and Edward in 1910 (aged 68)—prompting George's unexpected rise to the throne.
"I have lost my best friend and the best of fathers," he had written in his diary upon his father's death. "I never had a [cross] word with him in my life. I am heart-broken and overwhelmed with grief but God will help me in my responsibilities and darling May will be my comfort as she has always been. May God give me strength and guidance in the heavy task which has fallen on me."
He married his late brother's fiancée, Mary of Teck, at the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace in 1893.
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