They were too often surprised by the simplest manifestations of childishness in children

Yet it cannot be denied that, between them, King George and Queen Mary manged to be rather unsuccessful and somewhat unsympathetic parents. They were too often surprised by the simplest manifestations of childishness in children. Why was their eldest son so 'fidgetty', so 'jumpy' as a tiny boy? 'David was "jumpy" yesterday morning, however he got quieter after being out, what a curious child he is', Princess May wrote when Prince Edward of York [Edward VIII] was scarcely two years old.

J . Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary (1959), 392

Princess May took a quite professional interest in anarchists

In common with every other member of a European Royal House, Princess May took a quite professional interest in anarchists. Nor was this interest an academic exercise: for she lived to know of several royal assassinations.

...

Princess May, like [Alexandra] the Princess of Wales, was in favour of lynch-law for active anarchists. Prince George considered 'hanging or shooting ... much too good for ... an Anarchist, they all ought to be exterminate like wasps'. 

J . Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary (1959), 237-8

Russian Grand Dukes made notoriously bad husbands

The old Duchess of Cambridge had begun to derive a genuine delight from her granddaughter's appearance ... and urged that she should marry the Grand Duke Michael Michailovich*, who was in London in the spring of 1886. this suggestion was strongly combated by the Duke of Cambridge** and also by [her father] the Duke of Teck, the latter stating categorically that he would not be a party to 'sacrificing his child', that Russian Grand Dukes made notoriously bad husbands, that Russia was a horrid country and and the Russians were 'our enemies'.

J . Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary (1959), 166-7

* Grandson of Nicholas I, 1861-1929
** Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge, 1819-1904

Tackling was below him

J.P.R. Williams admits to surprise at [Barry] John's heroics. 'What was great about Barry was that we all knew he was never going to tackle,' he laughs. 'If the opposition had the ball I would move forward behind Barry to tackle. Tackling was below him. But with the pressure we were under with the French even Barry tackled for the first time in his life.'

D. Tossell, Nobody beats us: the inside story of the 1970s Wales rugby team, (2009), 107

I wonder what it's thinking? Nothing at all of course, stupid little thing

Princess May was never maternal. Showing Juliet one of the babies in its cot she once remarked: 'I wonder what it's thinking? Nothing at all of course, stupid little thing.'

....

In a later, earnest and somewhat pathetic conversation the Duke [of Gloucester] related that the biggest compliment his mother ever paid him, and which delighted him, was at her second tour of inspection at Barnwell Manor, after his alterations: she turned to him and said, 'Well, Harry, I would never have thought you could make this house habitable, but you have'. High praise, he indicated.


J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 138, 200

The list of Queen Mary's lack of interest in small children is extensive. These were my favourites.

There in the shelter sat Queen Mary perfectly dressed with her pearls, doing a crossword puzzle

During the first air-raid a message was sent to the Duchess [of Beaufort] that the Queen was in the reinforced shelter and wished her to come down. 'It was a mistake of course, she hadn't sent for me at all. Well there I was in the middle of the night, with my hair all anyhow and in a filthy old dressing gown; and there in the shelter sat Queen Mary perfectly dressed with her pearls, doing a crossword puzzle.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 324

Chances are you'll notice that it's a shallow, narcissistic whine

Books have their own sweet spot. Some arrive too late (the window for The Cather in the Rye is narrow; read it after the age of 16, and chances are you'll notice that it's a shallow, narcissistic whine) and some too soon: I was put off the whole of Russian literature by too early an encounter with Alexander Solzhenitsyn. But others have perfect pitch and perfect timing, and recalling your first encounter is like remembering a summer day from your teens. They're the books that lodge in your heart while it's still wide open. and they become the platform the reading that you'll do ever after.

I read enough at that age to have a fairly wide platform, even it 's one whose strength I've not often tested in the intervening years. Nobody wants to discover that they're walking on rotting woodwork.

M. Herron,'Partying down at the Palace', Slightly Foxed 66 (2020), 35

And you say I can't give a blessing because the Archbishop of Liverpool is present?

'You can't expect me  to like all the propaganda about "getting England back for the Faith"? How could I? At Westminster they always go on about their feelings being hurt, but I said to one of them (over the Hungarians at the Albert Hall) don't you suppose I've  got any feelings to hurt? Here I am, in my country, head of my country's church, and you say I can't give a blessing because the Archbishop of Liverpool is present? They saw the point.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 226

It's a tendency of all our royal family. They came from the continent you see.'

[JP-H:] 'I understand there is what is called a High Church and a Low Church. Now the Duchess of Teck was Low Church, and hated anything that "smacked of ritualism" and they all though going to mass in Florence (which they often did to hear the  singing) was mummery.'

[Archbishop Fisher:] 'Do you know Lady Cynthia Colville?'

'I know her well. But she  is very High Church I believe.', A

'That's what I mean. She could tell you, because she isn't Low Church. Now let me see, yes, Queen Mary was what you would call Low Church, it's a tendency of all our royal family. They came from the continent you see.'

....

Take Princess Margaret now, she understands doctrine - knows what it's all about. In fact Princess Margaret is a thoroughly good churchwoman.'

...

He took me out into the passage and promised to read the doctrinal passages in my proofs.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 222-3, 224, 227

A good deal of is time is spent not listening

[Henry, Duke of Gloucester] He is not at all the stupid man he is thought to be. He simply works on a different system to most ordinary people. He has, to begin with, the royal trait of expecting you to know what he is thinking about, and tosses out apparently irrelevant remarks at intervals which you have to catch ad return like longstop in cricket. He treats himself as if he were somebody else, e.g., coming down to Sunday breakfast: 'I'm sorry to say this wind is going to make me very cwoss and irritable today, very cwoss and irritable I'm afraid.' A good deal of is time is spent not listening.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 187-88

The private chapel of a family of ailing megalomaniacs

[The chapel at Sandringham] Not, as the books say, like an ordinary country church in the least, but more like the private chapel of a family of ailing megalomaniacs: the shrine of a clique.

....

To sum up: this is a hideous house with a horrible atmosphere in parts, and in others no atmosphere at all. It was like a visit to a morgue, and everywhere were their [i.e., royal family] faces, painted, drawn or photographed: few pictures not directly related to themselves: ... Almost monastic in its seclusion with the added safety that where a monastery would have religious paintings they lived with nothing higher than paintings of themselves.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 94, 100

She carried a note in her handbag, saying 'I am the Queen of Sweden' in case she was knocked over

Queen Louise [of Sweden*] had nursed in the First World War, where she learned to swear like a trooper. During the Second World War, Sweden being neutral, she had acted as an intermediary between her various royal relations different countries. She was extremely modest, and when she visited London, stayed at the Hyde Park Hotel. She carried a note in her handbag, saying 'I am the Queen of Sweden' in case she was knocked over, which members of her family thought was the surest way to get herself locked up.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 73
This note by Vickers.

* Lady Louise Alexandra Marie Irene Mountbatten (13 July 1889 – 7 March 1965). Born Princess Louise of Battenberg; Queen of Sweden as the wife of King Gustaf VI Adolf

Foul as it is, Hell is made fouler by the presence of John

A man of forty-eight years, who had presided over the disintegration of the great Angevin Empire and brought the kingdom of England to its knees. A number of chroniclers confidently predicted that the late king would be condemned to Hell. One even added that: 'Foul as it is, Hell is made fouler by the presence of John,'

T. Asbridge, The greatest knight: the remarkable life of William Marshal, the power behind five English thrones (2015), 338

He is citing Matthew Paris, I think. This otherwise excellent book is marred by the absence of proper footnotes and instead their irritating replacement by textual references in the back

Knights could wage war with relative impunity

Burdensome though mail, helm and shield may have been, they rendered William and his peers virtually invulnerable. Most sword and arrow strikes could not penetrate through these layers of defence, though lethal blows to the face and eyes were possible, and broken bones (especially from crushing lance attacks) were more common. Only crossbow bolts had the puncturing force to pierce mail and the padding below to reach flesh, and this helps to explain why the papacy sought to ban their use against Christians from 1139 onwards. In the majority of settings, however knights could wage war with relative impunity, and for fully equipped members of this warrior class death in battle was a relatively rare, even shocking, occurrence, 

T. Asbridge, The greatest knight: the remarkable life of William Marshal, the power behind five English thrones (2015), 51