She was also, often, somewhat stubborn. Upon the death of Queen Victoria, when her husband ascended the throne, Alexandra was not eager to move into Buckingham Palace and stalled as long as she could. This wouldn’t have been a big deal except that her son (George V) and Princess Mary were awaiting the chance to move into their new home, Marlborough House. Since the new Queen was dragging her feet in the move to Buckingham Palace, she didn’t vacate Marlborough House and George and Mary had to wait for quite some time before they could move.
Then, when Edward VII passed away, Alexandra didn’t want to leave Buckingham Palace. Despite her initial protestations, nine years in the palace had been long enough for the dowager Queen to get used to it, and she didn’t care to move. And, so, the new King George V, and his wife, Queen Mary, had to wait for Alexandra to vacate the palace before they could move in. This sort of behavior was most irksome to the punctual and level-headed Queen Mary who had always had a bit of a stiff relationship with her mother-in-law.
Even as a young bride, the future Queen Mary found that her mother-in-law, Alexandra was overly involved. In their own Royal version of “Everybody loves Raymond,” Mary and George lived on the grounds of Sandringham House (home of Edward VII and Alexandra) in York Cottage and was frustrated that Alexandra wouldn’t allow Mary to decorate her own home on her own.
All that said, Alexandra really did patiently suffer a lot at the hands of her husband, Edward VII, and tried her best to be supportive of her family. The British people loved her sense of quiet dignity and people in the court found her most agreeable. Of course, this is probably because she couldn’t hear a word they were saying and would, in fact, just nod—a lot.
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