CHAPTER XXII. Serious Illness of the King 380 CHAPTER XXIII. The Coronation 391 CHAPTER XXIV. The Reign of King Edward 420 CHAPTER XXV. The King as a Diplomatist and Peace-maker 432 CHAPTER XXVI. The Death of King Edward 440 CHAPTER XXVII. The Solemn Funeral of the King 451 CHAPTER XXVIII. The New King and His Imperial Responsibilities 461 [Illustration] [Illustration: THE PRINCESS ALEXANDRA At the time of her marriage] [Illustration: KING EDWARD AS PRINCE OF WALES IN 1879] [Illustration: MARRIAGE OF EDWARD AND ALEXANDRA, THEN PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES, 1863 From a painting at Windsor by W. P. Firth R.A.] CHAPTER I. The Crown and the Empire The great development of a political nature in the British Empire of the nineteenth century was the complete harmony which gradually evolved between the Monarchy and a world-wide democracy. This process was all-important because it eliminated an element of internal discord which has destroyed more than one nation in the past; because it permitted the peaceful progress of scattered states to continue through the passing years without having questions of allegiance to seriously hamper their growth; because it trained political thought along lines of stability and continuity and made loyalty and liberty consistent and almost synonymous terms; because it made the Crown the central symbol of the Empire's unity, the visible object of a world-wide allegiance, the special token of a common aspiration and a common sentiment amongst many millions of English-speaking people--the subject of untutored reverence and unquestioned respect amongst hundreds of millions of other races. THE POSITION OF THE CROWN