 Despite Lang 's long involvement with the poorest of society , after becoming Archbishop of York he increasingly detached himself from everyday life . The historian Tom Buchanan wrote that Lang 's sympathy with ordinary people was replaced by " an upper class affectation and a delight in the high society in which his office allowed him to move " . No archbishop has been as close as Lang to the Royal Family ; a Channel Four television history of the British monarchy maintained that Lang " held a view of Christianity in which the monarchy , rather than the cross , stood centre stage as the symbol of the nation 's faith " . Successive generations of the Royal Family considered him their friend and honoured him . King George V appointed him to the largely ceremonial post of Lord High Almoner , and after the 1937 Coronation George VI created him a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order ( GCVO ) , a rare honour which , like the Royal Victorian Chain , lay in the private gift of the Sovereign . A friend , commenting on the transformation of Lang 's perspective , said of him : " He might have been Cardinal Wolsey or St Francis of Assisi , and he chose to be Cardinal Wolsey . " 
