Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/618

 (20 June) of three members of parliament, who had questioned his prudence. His irritation soon passed away, but his mode of avowing annoyance was denounced by the labour party 'as an attempt by the court to influence members of parliament.' It was the only occasion during the reign on which the king invited any public suspicion of misinterpreting his constitutional position. The criticism to which he was subjected was due to a misunderstanding of the character of his foreign tours, but the interpellation was no infringement of public right.

He was hardly conscious of the deep-seated feeling which the alleged tyranny of the Russian government had excited in many quarters in England. When in the customary course of etiquette the king received the tsar as his guest at Cowes in August the tsar in 1909 a fresh protest against his friendly attitude took the form of an influentially signed letter to the foreign secretary. But politics did not influence the king's relations with the tsar. The tsar was accompanied at Cowes by his foreign minister, M. Isvolsky; but as far as the king was concerned, the visit was solely a confirmation of old personal ties with the Russian sovereign, and lengthened impressively the roll of European rulers whom he sought to embrace in his comprehensive hospitality.

With the perilous vicissitudes of royalty the king naturally had a lively sympathy, and he suffered a severe shock on learning of the assassination of his friend and cousin and recent guest, King Carlos of Portugal, and of his son the crown prince in Lisbon on 2 Feb. 1908. Queen Amelie of Portugal had been a prominent figure in the great assembly of royal personages at Windsor less than three months before. By way of emphasising their intense sorrow the king and queen and other members of the royal family defied precedent by attending a requiem mass at St. James's church, Spanish Place, near Manchester Square, on 8 Feb. in memory of the murdered monarch. It was the first time that an English sovereign had attended a Roman catholic service in Great Britain since the Reformation. By the king's wish, too, a memorial service was held next day in St. Paul's cathedral, which he and his family also attended. Both houses of parliament presented an address to the crown expressing indignation and deep concern at the outrages. The king's heartfelt sympathy went out to the new king of Portugal, the late king's younger son, Manoel, and in November next year he entertained the young monarch at Windsor, investing him with the order of the Garter, and greeting him at a state banquet on 16 Nov. as 'the heir of our oldest ally in history.' King Manoel was King Edward's last royal guest. There was some irony in the circumstance. King Manoel's royal career was destined to be brief, and within five months of King Edward's death his subjects established a republic and drove him from his throne to seek an asylum in England.

XII Although so substantial a part of his reign was passed abroad, the king manifested activity in numberless directions when he was at home. From London, which was his headquarters, he made repea tedexpeditions into the country. As of old he was regular in attendance at Newmarket and other race meetings. Although he did not repeat during the reign his early triumphs on the turf, the successes of his horse Minoru, who won the Derby in 1909, greatly delighted the sporting public. He encouraged the opera and the theatres by frequent attendance. He was lavish in entertainment at Buckingham Palace and freely accepted hospitalities at the London houses of his friends. He was indefatigable in paying attention to foreign visitors to the capital, especially those of royal rank. When the duke of Abruzzi came at the end of 1906 to lecture to the Royal Geographical Society on his explorations of the Ruwenzori mountains in east Africa, the king was present and with impromptu grace and manifest desire to prove his interest in foreign policy moved a vote of thanks to the lecturer, whom he hailed as a kinsman of his ally the king of Italy (2 Jan. 1907). At stated seasons he was the guest for shooting or merely social recreation at many country houses, where he met at ease his unchanging social circle. From 1904 to 1907 he spent a week each January with the duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. In the autumn he went a round of Scottish mansions.

While unremitting in his devotion to social pleasures, he neglected few of the philanthropic or other public movements with which he had already identified himself. Occasionally his foreign tours withdrew him from functions which could only be performed effectively at