Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/612

 On 9 August the postponed coronation took place in Westminster Abbey. The ritual was The post-somewhat abbreviated, but the poned coro- splendour scarcely diminished, nation, 9 Aug. Although many of the foreign guests had left London, the scene lost little of its impressiveness. The crown was placed on the king's head by Frederick Temple, archbishop of Canterbury. Queen Alexandra was crowned at the same time by W. D. Maclagan, archbishop of York. There followed a series of public functions which aimed at associating with the ceremony various sources of imperial strength. An investiture and parade of colonial troops took place on 12 Aug., a review of Indian troops on 13 Aug., and a naval review at S pithead on 16 Aug. Next day at Cowes the king received visits from the Boer generals Delarey, De Wet, and Botha, who had greatly distinguished themselves in the late war and had come to England to plead on behalf of their conquered country for considerate treatment. The shah of Persia arrived to pay the king his respects three days later. On 22 Aug. the king and queen started for Scotland in the royal yacht Victoria and Albert ; they went by the west coast, and visited on the passage the Isle of Man. On the return of the court to the metropolis, the king made a royal progress through south London (24 Oct.), and lunched with the lord mayor and corporation at the Guildhall. Two days later he attended at St. Paul's Cathedral a service of thanksgiving for his complete restoration to health.

With the close of the South African war England began to emerge from the cloud of animosity in which the popular sentiment of a great part of Europe had enveloped her. There was there ^iG every reason why the king should now gratify his cosmopolitan sympathies and his lively interest in his large circle of kinsmen and friends abroad by renewing his habit of foreign travel. Save during the pro-Boer outbreak of ill-will, he had always been a familiar and welcome figure among .all classes on the continent. His cheering presence invariably encouraged sentiments of good-will, and it was congenial to him to make show of a personal contribution to an improvement of England's relations with her neighbours, and to a strengthening of the general concord. He acknowledged the obligation that lay on rulers and statesmen of preserving European peace ; and he wished England, subject to a fit recognition of her rights, to stand well with the world. At the same time his constitutional position and his personal training disqualified him from exerting substantive influence on the foreign policy which his ministers alone could control. He repeatedly gave abroad graceful expression of general approval of his ministers' aims, and his benevolent assurances fostered a friendly atmosphere, but always without prejudice to his ministers' responsibilities. He cannot be credited with broad diplomatic views, or aptitude for technical negotiation. While he loved conversation with foreign statesmen, his interest in foreign lands ranged far beyond politics. In the intimacies of private intercourse he may have at times advanced a personal opinion on a diplomatic theme which lacked official sanction. But to his unguarded utterances no real weight attached in official circles either at home or abroad. His embodiment in foreign eyes of English aspirations inevitably exaggerated the popular importance of his public activities abroad. The foreign press and public often made during his reign the error of assuming that in his frequent interviews with foreign rulers and statesmen he was personally working out a diplomatic policy of his own devising. Foreign statesmen and rulers knew that no subtler aim really underlay his movements than a wish for friendly social intercourse with them and the enjoyment of life under foreign skies, quite unencumbered by the burden of diplomatic anxieties.

In his eyes all rulers of state were bound together by ties of affinity, and these ties His kinship were strengthened for him by with foreign many bonds of actual kinship, rulers. ^.t his accession the rulers of Germany, Russia, Greece, and Portugal were related to him in one or other degree, and two additions were made to his large circle of royal relatives while he was king. In October 1905 his son-in-law, Prince Charles of Denmark, who had married his youngest daughter, Maud, in 1896, was elected king of Norway (as Haakoii VII) when that country severed its union with Sweden; while on 31 May 1906 Alfonso XITI, king of Spain, married Princess Ena of Battenberg, daughter of the king's youngest sister, Princess Beatrice. There was good justification for the title which the wits of Paris bestowed on him of Toncle de 1'Europe.' Most of the European courts were the homes of his kinsfolk, whose domestic hospitality was always hi readiness for him. In return it gratified his hospitable instinct to