Did King George V dislike Alix?
There have been indication saying that he was relieve that she and the Romanovs were dead, and he wrote in diary on why he despised her. Why?
"Did you think that I would harm her?"-The Phantom
Alexandra was disliked by a lot of people for her cold, aloofness and what appeared to be melodramatic nature. I remember reading a book years ago aboout the RomanoffsI think it was called The Last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia and Alexandra and the daughters came across as very passionate, perhaps outspoken women and if you compare that to Mary's very controlled behaviour then perhaps this would grate on people's nerves.
I think it is intersting to see how the two families dealt with children with inflictions, obviously Johnny was locked away from public view and Bertie had a difficult time within the family but Little Alexi (who must have been the same age as Johnny) was not only protected by the family but his parents never liked to leave him for too long. Nicholas might have been a bad leader but he was probably the better father.
It's really not right to compare the two illnesses. Alexei wasn't an "embarrassment" to the family and people with hemophilia weren't ostracized as those with epilepsy where at the time. Even today people who have a seizure in public are almost "untouchables". People avoid helping someone in seizure whereas they would help say a heartattack victim. Alexei wouldn't have any reason to be kept from public life because his illness didn't affect his behavior and hemophilia was the "royal disease". However, Little Johnnie having a seizure in the middle of a viewing parade for instance would've been seen as weak, if not worse. People didn't understand it then. Once thought to be caused by possession of demons!
Two totally different situations is the point I'm trying to make. Plus John was a "spare" well down the line of succession so his absence wasn't noticed really. Alexei's was seen often because he was the heir. He couldn't quietly disappear. But from my understanding, his hemophilia wasn't general public knowledge at the time either.
I'm not saying the families were similar or that the Romanovs wouldn't have handled it more better or even publically perhaps. Wouldn't it have been wonderful if the Windsor's had used this opportunity to highlight epilepsy and educate the public properly about the illness. So sad, but not uncommon at the time to push him to the back as they did. I imagine the Romanov's may have done similar but seen him more often and let hom live at home out of the public eye. Who knows. I think John had a better life with his caregiver than he would've had in the daily company of his parents considering the hell his siblings lived through.