Usually well-behaved, he was, however, sometimes violent.

He had a will of his own, and asserted it; his elder brother was less passionate, less purposeful, and, in their wrangles, it was Albert who came out top.

The two boys, living for the most part in one or other of the Duke's country houses, among pretty hills and woods and streams, had been at a very early age--Albert was less than four--separated from their nurses and put under a tutor, in whose charge they remained until they went to the University.

They were brought up in a simple and unostentatious manner, for the Duke was poor and the duchy very small and very insignificant.
Before long it became evident that Albert was a model lad.

Intelligent and painstaking, he had been touched by the moral earnestness of his generation; at the age of eleven he surprised his father by telling him that he hoped to make himself "a good and useful man." And yet he was not over-serious; though, perhaps, he had little humour, he was full of fun--of practical jokes and mimicry.