Everything about Edward Vii Of The United Kingdom totally explained
» For the warship see HMS King Edward VII.
Edward VII (Albert Edward;
9 November 1841 –
6 May 1910) was
King of the
United Kingdom and the British
Dominions and
Emperor of India from
22 January 1901 until his death on
6 May 1910. He was the first
British monarch of the
House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which was renamed the
House of Windsor by his son,
George V.
Before his accession to the throne, Edward held the title of
Prince of Wales, and has the distinction of being
heir apparent to the throne longer than anyone in English or British history. During the long widowhood of his mother,
Queen Victoria, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite.
The
Edwardian period, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including
powered flight and the rise of
socialism. Edward played a role in the modernisation of the
British Home Fleet, the reform of the
Army Medical Services, and the reorganisation of the British army after the
Second Boer War. His work in fostering good relations between Great Britain and other
European countries, especially
France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker", was unable to prevent the outbreak of
World War I in 1914.
Early life
Edward was born at 10:48 on
9 November 1841 in
Buckingham Palace. His mother was
Queen Victoria, the only daughter of
Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, and granddaughter of
King George III. His father was
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, first cousin and
consort of Victoria. He was christened
Albert Edward (after his father and maternal grandfather) at
St. George's Chapel, Windsor on
25 January 1842, and his godparents were
The King of Prussia, his great-uncle
The Duke of Cambridge, his first cousin once-removed
The King of Portugal, his aunt
The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha,
The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Altenburg and his great-aunt
The Princess Sophia. He was known as
Bertie to the family throughout his life.
As the eldest son of a British sovereign, he was automatically
Duke of Cornwall and
Duke of Rothesay at birth. As a son of Prince Albert, he also held the titles of Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and
Duke of Saxony. Queen Victoria created her son
Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on
8 December 1841. He was created
Earl of Dublin on
17 January 1850, a
Knight of the Garter on
9 November 1858, and a
Knight of the Thistle on
24 May 1867. In 1863, he renounced his succession rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in favour of his younger brother,
Prince Alfred.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert determined that their eldest son should have an education that would prepare him to be a model constitutional monarch. At age seven, Edward embarked upon a rigorous educational programme devised by Prince Albert, and under the supervision of several tutors. However, unlike
his elder sister, Edward didn't excel in his studies. He tried to meet the expectations of his parents, but to no avail. Although Edward wasn't a diligent student—his true talents were those of charm, sociability, and tact—
Benjamin Disraeli described him as informed, intelligent and of sweet manner.
After an educational trip to
Rome, undertaken in the first few months of 1859, he spent the summer of that year studying at the
University of Edinburgh under, amongst others,
Lyon Playfair. In October he matriculated as an undergraduate at
Christ Church, Oxford. Now released from the educational strictures imposed by his parents, he enjoyed studying for the first time and performed satisfactorily in examinations.
The following year he undertook the first tour of
North America by a British heir to the throne. His genial good humour and confident
bonhomie made the tour a great success. He inaugurated the
Victoria Bridge, Montreal, across the
St Lawrence River, and laid the cornerstone of
Parliament Hill, Ottawa. He watched
Blondin traverse
Niagara Falls by highwire, and stayed for three days with President
James Buchanan at the
White House. Vast crowds greeted him everywhere; he met
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
Ralph Waldo Emerson and
Oliver Wendell Holmes; and prayers for the royal family were said in
Trinity Church, New York, for the first time since 1776. Edward hoped to pursue a career in the
British Army, but this was denied him because he was heir to the throne. His military ranks were honorary. In September that year, Edward was sent to Germany, supposedly to watch military manoeuvres, but actually in order to engineer a meeting between him and Princess
Alexandra of Denmark, the eldest daughter of
Prince Christian of Denmark. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had already decided that Edward and Alexandra should marry. They met at
Speyer on
24 September under the auspices of his elder sister,
the Crown Princess of Prussia.
From this time, Edward gained a reputation as a playboy. Determined to get some army experience, Edward attended manoeuvres in
Ireland, during which an actress,
Nellie Clifden, was hidden in his tent by his fellow officers. Prince Albert, though ill, was appalled and visited Edward at
Cambridge to issue a reprimand. Albert died in December 1861 just two weeks after the visit. Queen Victoria was inconsolable, wore mourning for the rest of her life, and blamed Edward for his father's death. At first, she regarded her son with distaste as frivolous, indiscreet, and irresponsible. She wrote to her eldest daughter, "I never can, or shall, look at him without a shudder."
Marriage
Once widowed, Queen Victoria effectively withdrew from public life. Shortly after Prince Albert's death, she arranged for Edward to embark on an extensive tour of the Middle East, visiting
Egypt,
Jerusalem,
Damascus,
Beirut and
Constantinople. As soon as he returned to Britain, preparations were made for his engagement, which was sealed at
Laeken in
Belgium on
9 September 1862. Edward and Alexandra married at
St. George's Chapel, Windsor, on
10 March 1863.
Edward and his wife established
Marlborough House as their London residence and
Sandringham House in
Norfolk as their country retreat. They entertained on a lavish scale. Their marriage met with disapproval in certain circles because most of Queen Victoria's relations were German, and
Denmark was at loggerheads with Germany over the territories of
Schleswig and
Holstein. When Alexandra's father inherited the throne of Denmark in November 1863, the German Confederation took the opportunity to invade and annex Schleswig-Holstein. Queen Victoria was of two minds whether it was a suitable match given the political climate. After the couple's marriage, she expressed anxiety about their
socialite lifestyle and attempted to dictate to them on various matters, including the names of their children.
Edward had mistresses throughout his married life. He socialised with actress
Lillie Langtry;
Lady Randolph Churchill (mother of
Winston Churchill);
Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick; actress
Sarah Bernhardt;
Alice Keppel; and wealthy humanitarian
Agnes Keyser. How far these social companionships went isn't always clear. Edward always strove to be discreet, but this didn't prevent society gossip or press speculation.
In 1869,
Sir Charles Mordaunt, a British
Member of Parliament, threatened to name Edward as co-respondent in his divorce suit. Ultimately, he didn't do so but Edward was called as a witness in the case in early 1870. It was shown that Edward had visited the Mordaunts's house while Sir Charles was away sitting in the
House of Commons. Although nothing further was proved, and Edward denied he'd committed adultery, the suggestion of impropriety was damaging.
Edward's last mistress, society beauty
Alice Keppel, was even invited by Alexandra to his bedside at Buckingham Palace at his death in 1910. One of Keppel's great-granddaughters,
Camilla Parker Bowles, became the mistress and then wife of
Charles, Prince of Wales, one of Edward's great-great grandsons. It was rumoured that Camilla's grandmother,
Sonia Keppel (born in May 1900), was the illegitimate daughter of Edward. However, Edward never acknowledged any illegitimate children. His wife, Alexandra, is believed to have been aware of most of his affairs, and to have accepted them.
Heir apparent
During Queen Victoria's widowhood, Edward represented her at public ceremonies and gatherings—opening the
Thames Embankment,
Mersey Tunnel, and
Tower Bridge—pioneering the idea of royal public appearances as we understand them today. However, his mother didn't allow Edward an active role in the running of the country until 1898. He annoyed his mother by siding with Denmark on the
Schleswig-Holstein Question in 1864 (she was pro-German), and in the same year annoyed her again by making a special effort to meet
Garibaldi.
In 1870, republican sentiment in Britain was given a boost when the French Emperor,
Napoleon III, was defeated in the
Franco-Prussian War and the French
Third Republic was declared. However, in the winter of 1871, a brush with death led to an improvement both in Edward's popularity with the public as well as in his relationship with his mother. While staying at
Londesborough Lodge, near
Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Edward contracted typhoid, the disease that had killed his father. There was great national concern, and one of his fellow guests (
Lord Chesterfield) died. Edward's recovery was greeted with almost universal relief,
In 1875, Edward set off for India on an extensive eight-month tour of the sub-continent. His advisors remarked on his habit of treating all people the same, regardless of their social station or colour. In letters home, he complained of the treatment of the native Indians by the British officials: "Because a man has a black face and a different religion from our own, there's no reason why he should be treated as a brute." At the end of the tour, his mother was given the title Empress of India by Parliament, in part as a result of the tour's success.
Edward was a patron of the arts and sciences and helped found the
Royal College of Music. He opened the college in 1883 with the words, "Class can no longer stand apart from class … I claim for music that it produces that union of feeling which I much desire to promote." He also laid out a
golf course at Windsor. By the 1870s the future king had taken a keen interest in horseracing and steeplechasing. In 1896, his horse Persimmon won both the
Derby Stakes and the
St. Leger Stakes. In 1900, Persimmon's brother, Diamond Jubilee, won five races (Derby, St Leger,
2,000 Guineas Stakes,
Newmarket Stakes and
Eclipse Stakes) and another of Edward's horses, Ambush II, won the
Grand National.
Edward made wearing
tweed,
Homburg hats and
Norfolk jackets fashionable. He popularised the wearing of black ties with dinner jackets, instead of
white tie and tails, and pioneered the pressing of trouser legs from side to side in preference to the now normal front and back creases. The tradition of men not buttoning the bottom button of suit-coats is said to be linked to Edward, who supposedly left his undone due to his large girth. He introduced the practice of eating roast beef, roast potatoes, horseradish sauce and yorkshire pudding on Sundays, which remains a staple British favourite for Sunday lunch.
In 1891, Edward was embroiled in the
Royal Baccarat Scandal, when it was revealed he'd played an illegal card game for money the previous year. The Prince was forced to appear as a witness in court for a second time when one of the players unsuccessfully sued his fellow players for slander after being accused of cheating. In the same year Edward became embroiled in a personal conflict, when
Lord Charles Beresford threatened to reveal details of Edward's private life to the press, as a protest against Edward interfering with Beresford's affair with Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick. The friendship between the two men was irreversibly damaged, and their bitterness would last for the remainder of their lives. Usually, Edward's outbursts of temper were short-lived, and "after he'd let himself go … [hewould] smooth matters by being especially nice".
In 1892, Edward's eldest son, Albert Victor, was engaged to
Princess Victoria Mary of Teck. Just a few weeks after the engagement, Albert Victor died of pneumonia. Edward was grief-stricken. "To lose our eldest son", he wrote, "is one of those calamities one can never really get over". Edward told Queen Victoria, "[Iwould] have given my life for him, as I put no value on mine".
On his way to Denmark through
Belgium on
4 April 1900 Edward was the victim of an attempted assassination, when
Jean-Baptiste Sipido shot at him in protest over the
Boer War. Sipido escaped to France; the perceived delay of the Belgian authorities in applying for extradition, combined with British disgust at Belgian atrocities in the
Congo, worsened the already poor relationship between the United Kingdom and the Continent. However, in the next ten years, Edward's affability and popularity, as well as his use of family connections, assisted Britain in building European alliances.
King
When Queen Victoria died on
22 January 1901, Edward became King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and, in an innovation, King of the British
Dominions. Then 59, he'd been heir apparent for longer than anyone else in British history. He chose to reign under the name Edward VII, instead of Albert Edward—the name his mother had intended for him to use, declaring that he didn't wish to diminish the status of his father with whom alone among royalty the name Albert should be associated. The number VII was occasionally omitted in
Scotland, even by the
national church, in deference to protests that the previous Edwards were English kings who had "been excluded from Scotland by battle".
He donated his parents' house,
Osborne on the
Isle of Wight, to the state and continued to live at Sandringham. He could afford to be magnanimous; it was claimed that he was the first heir to succeed to the throne in credit. Edward's finances had been ably managed by Sir
Dighton Probyn, Comptroller of the Household, and had benefited from advice from Edward's Jewish financier friends, such as
Ernest Cassel,
Maurice de Hirsch and the
Rothschild family. At a time of widespread anti-Semitism, Edward attracted criticism for openly socialising with Jews.
Edward VII and Alexandra were crowned at
Westminster Abbey on
9 August 1902 by the 80-year-old
Archbishop of Canterbury,
Frederick Temple, who died only four months later. Edward's coronation had originally been scheduled for
26 June, but two days before on
24 June, Edward was diagnosed with
appendicitis. Thanks to developments in
anaesthesia and
antisepsis in the preceding 50 years, he was able to undergo a life-saving operation, performed by Sir
Frederick Treves. This was at a time when appendicitis was generally not treated operatively and carried a high mortality rate. Treves, with the support of
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, performed a then radical operation of draining the infected appendix through a small incision. The next day Edward was sitting up in bed smoking a cigar. Two weeks later it was announced that the King was out of danger. Treves was honoured with a baronetcy (which Edward had arranged before the operation) and appendix surgery entered the medical mainstream.
Edward refurbished the royal palaces, reintroduced the traditional ceremonies, such as the
State Opening of Parliament, that his mother had foregone, and founded new orders of decorations, such as the
Order of Merit, to recognise contributions to the arts and sciences. The Shah of Persia,
Mozzafar-al-Din, visited England in 1902 expecting to receive the
Order of the Garter. Edward refused to give this high honour to the Shah, because the order was in his personal gift and the Government had promised the order without the King's consent. His refusal threatened to damage British attempts to gain influence in Persia, but Edward resented his ministers' attempts to reduce the King's traditional powers. Eventually, he relented and Britain sent a special embassy to the Shah with a full Order of the Garter the following year.
"Uncle of Europe"
As king, Edward's main interests lay in the fields of foreign affairs and naval and military matters. Fluent in
French and
German, he made a number of visits abroad, and took annual holidays at
Biarritz and
Marienbad.
Edward, mainly through his mother and his father-in-law, was related to nearly every other European monarch and came to be known as the "uncle of Europe". However, there was one relation whom Edward didn't like and his difficult relationship with his nephew,
Wilhelm II, exacerbated the tensions between Germany and Britain.
In 1908, Edward became the first British monarch to visit the
Russian Empire, despite refusing to visit in 1906, when Anglo-Russian relations were strained in the aftermath of the
Dogger Bank incident, the
Russo-Japanese war and the Tsar's dissolution of the
Duma.
Political controversies
Edward involved himself heavily in discussions over army reform, the need for which had become apparent with the failings of the
South African War. He supported the re-design of army command, the creation of the
Territorial Army, and the decision to provide an Expeditionary Force supporting France in the event of war with Germany. Reform of the navy was also suggested, and a dispute arose between Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, who favoured increased spending and a broad deployment, and the
First Sea Lord Admiral Sir
John Fisher, who favoured efficiency savings, scrapping obsolete vessels, and deploying in home waters, as a means of countering the increasing menace of the German fleet. Edward lent support to Fisher, in part because he disliked Beresford, and eventually Beresford was dismissed. Beresford continued his campaign outside of the navy, and Fisher resigned. Nevertheless, Fisher's policy was retained.
In the last year of his life, Edward became embroiled in a constitutional crisis when the Conservative majority in the
House of Lords refused to pass the "
People's Budget" proposed by the Liberal government of Prime Minister
H. H. Asquith. The King let Asquith know that he'd only be willing to appoint additional peers, if necessary, to enable the budget's passage in the House of Lords, if Asquith won two successive general elections.
Edward was rarely interested in politics, although his views on some issues were notably liberal for the time. During his reign he said use of the word "
nigger" was "disgraceful" despite it then being in common parlance. While Prince of Wales, he'd to be dissuaded from breaking with constitutional precedent by openly voting for
Gladstone's
Representation of the People Bill in the
House of Lords. On other matters he was less progressive—he didn't favour
Irish Home Rule (initially preferring a form of
Dual Monarchy) or giving
votes to women, although he did suggest that the social reformer
Octavia Hill serve on the Commission for Working Class Housing. Edward lived a life of luxury that was often far removed from that of the majority of his subjects. However, his personal charm with people at all levels of society and his strong condemnation of prejudice went some way to assuage republican and racial tensions building during his lifetime. Between moments of faintness, the Prince of Wales (shortly to be
King George V) told him that his horse, Witch of the Air, had won at
Kempton Park that afternoon. The King replied, "I am very glad": his final words. and on Edward's death George wrote in his diary that he'd lost his "best friend and the best of fathers … I never had a [cross] word with him in my life. I'm heart-broken and overwhelmed with grief". Edward received criticism for his apparent pursuit of self-indulgent pleasure but he received great praise for his affable and kind good manners, and his diplomatic skill. As his grandson wrote, "his lighter side … obscured the fact that he'd both insight and influence." "He had a tremendous zest for pleasure but he also had a real sense of duty", wrote J. B. Priestley.
Lord Esher wrote that Edward was "kind and debonair and not undignified – but too human". Edward VII is buried at
St George's Chapel,
Windsor Castle. As
Barbara Tuchman noted in
The Guns of August, his funeral marked "the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last".
Edward had been afraid that his nephew, the German Emperor
William II, would tip Europe into war. Four years after his death,
World War I broke out. The naval reforms and the Anglo-French alliance he'd supported, and the relationships between his extended royal family, were put to the test. The war marked the end of the Edwardian way of life.
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
Arms
When he was created Prince of Wales, Edward was granted a coat of arms. These were those of the kingdom (and his mother), differenced by a label argent, of three blank points, and an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony, representing his father. When he acceded as King, he gained the arms of the kingdom, undifferenced.
Issue
Ancestors
Further Information
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