Royal Insight Forum

When he was the Prince of Wales, King Edward VII danced a can-can with the Duchess of Manchester.

Albert Edward, Prince of Wales was over fifty years old before Queen Victoria told him anything of cabinet proceedings.

I have always believed Queen Victoria was a third rate mum. She could churn them out but never could really look after them. All her children were traumatized by her constant put-downs, bullying and generally controlling behavior. It is rare to find a great monarch who is a good parent too. The Hanoverians (including the present ruling house) are notorious for getting on badly with their successors. The Tudors simply murdered or tried to murder their potential successors.

^ I suppose Victoria had some excuse as she had the most peculiar and isolated childhood. Albert too was more than a bit controlling. In a way these two typified the stereotypical Mama and Papa of the 19th century. Albert did at least play and roughhouse with his children when they were small, whereas Victoria was a constant nag. Any forgotten family anniversary or non remembrance of a relative's death by her adult children, even when they lived abroad, was treated like a major crime.
As for poor old Teddy he was the proverbial square peg being pushed into a round hole by his parents, tutors and Baron Stockmar. Unfortunately he suffered from having an intellectually precocious elder sister (to whom he was devoted btw.)

Very true Curryong. I read somewhere that Victoria was trying to play one child against the other through gossipy and malicious letters. Unfortunately because of the vast amount of poison pen letters she was producing, the great queen got confused and sent one of the letters to the person she was dissing. When she realized her mistake, she simply said that she was the victim all along and had been played false by the "traitor" in her family. What a woman :lol: :teehee:

King Edward VII was distressed to see men wearing their uniforms improperly or turning out in civilian clothes which he considered inappropriate for the occasion.     

Edward VII became King on January 22, 1901. He did not bestow the title Prince of Wales until November 1901 to his son Prince George. Edward felt that he had held the title for so long himself, it might cause confusion in the public mind for Prince George to hold it immediately.

In Austria King Edward VII once went for a drive with the English War Minister, Haldane. Edward proposed that he and Haldane should go in plane clothes as though they were Austrians. The first thing Edward did was to make Haldane buy an Austrian hat so to look like a native.

Just before Christmas of 1868, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales went to Stockholm, Sweden to spend a few days with King Charles XV. Charles XV initiated Albert Edward into the Order of Freemasons.

Albert Edward got a tatoo when he was The Prince of Wales. He got five crosses forming a Crusader's Jerusalem cross on his forearm.

The Transformation of Prince Albert Edward to King Edward VII   
King Edward VII | Transformation From 1 To 68 Years Old - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUhWZtTjPbE)

King Edward VII wrote to his prime minister, H. H. Asquith, expressing the view that a European war was possible, but, he hoped, improbable.

Well, Edward died early in 1910. He probably didn't think a general European war was immediately on the cards, though there were several crises during his reign, in the Balkans and with some spats over spheres of influence in North Africa. If he didn't notice that from the 1890s on Europe was becoming more and more like an armed camp, with huge rivalries between France and Germany and Great Britain and Germany, and tensions between Russia and Austria Hungary, then he must have been deaf, blind and stupid, which I don't think he was.

he said ti was possible. I think that in spite of the rivalry, and the crises, there was a belief that there could not be a really major war again, that nobody would really want to plunge Europe into the horrors of war, even the Kaiser.. But the Kaiser was  crazy enough to indulge in brinkmanship and it got away with him...

There hadn't really been a  war involving all the major powers though, since the Crimea. There was the ferocious skirmish in 1870 between Prussia and France that left France in the dust, but no-one else got involved, and lots of colonial wars, but nothing more. It's ironic that in 1914 there were several celebrations planned to celebrate the sixty years of peace since the end of the Crimean conflict while at the same time there were alliances and 'understandings' which resulted Europe on a knife edge. That including the Entente Cordiale between Britain and France, of course, which Edward himself had done much to foster. 

It was a bit like the Cold war.. no major wars but there were skirmishes and occasional flare ups where it seemsed like a big war was going to happen.  But the peace had held from 1815 with the exception of the Crimean war...but I think that people belived that while no one would actually set off the spark for a major war, that it was too terrible to contemplate.. but the Kaiser played with fire a bit too much and then found that he had set into motion forces that he could not control...

It was Austro-Hungary, which was worried about nationalist forces in its disparate and creaking Empire, which was determined to press Serbia to the limit (because of Princip's assassination of the ArchDuke Ferdinand) that started it off though. At the beginning several of the countries that became involved thought that Austria's angry response could be negotiated down and there need not be even a skirmish, (a bit like the Franco-Prussian conflict) which Servia would naturally lose.

The British Liberal Govt for one was not anxious for war and for a while it looked as if it would blow over. It was the impetuous Kaiser and his generals (several of whom really wanted a European war so they could give France a poke in the eye again) who assured Austria that they would stand by her and urged a military solution for Serbia. Russia would inevitably move to help its fellow Slavs in that country. 

I don't know that everyone thought that, even if a general war broke out involving the major European powers that it would be too terrible to contemplate. The tank, gas, and all-out trench warfare was not really thought of. Many expected a sharp short war, with everyone 'home by Christmas', which was the catch cry.

yes, some believed that it would be a short war.. that was tolerable.  But only a few realised that if things got out of hand, it would not be a short quick easily won war, but a long painful haul...

Throughout their married life as The Prince and Princess of Wales, Edward and Alexandra made a practice of coming to Sandringham for his birthday in November, for Alexandra's birthday on December 1, and for the Christmas holidays.   
 

Xmas in a Norfolk country house would be very nice I think. However, the royal couple held enormous house parties (usually Bertie's Society friends) as, after about 1885 Alexandra became profoundly deaf and Edward didn't have the patience to deal with it. He preferred Society gossip, repartee and witty women. Due to Alexandra being advised to have no more children after John's death and Bertie's flagrant infidelity from the late 1860s onwards the marriage was virtually a shell, in spite of the gatherings for birthdays etc.

Edward VII received the royal titles of Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Saxony.   
Domestically he opposed Irish home rule and women's suffrage.

Prince Albert Edward and Princess Alexandra were asked to go to Ireland in 1885. Their reception in Dublin and the North was welcoming enough. However, in Cork they were booed and pelted with onions.

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on January 18, 2017, 11:58:14 PM
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales was over fifty years old before Queen Victoria told him anything of cabinet proceedings.

I often wonder what his behavior and accomplishments would have been had his parents been more in-tuned to his strengths and learning style. They were so insensitive, and he was a very different child than his sister. It was agony for him to sit still in the schoolroom.  From what I have read he faced constant criticism. 

On March 10, 1863, at Prince Albert Edward and Princess Alexandra's wedding, the choir sang a chorale of Prince Consort Albert's composition. It was nice that through music Prince Consort Albert's influence was at his son's wedding.

The original coronation had been planned for June 26, 1902. Edward VII's coronation had to be postponed when he needed emergency surgery for acute appendicitis. Edward had the operation.

King Edward VII supported reform of the army following the Boer War. He supported Admiral Fischer's expansion of the Royal Navy including the new Dreadnaught battleships.

Sir Ernest Cassel's handling of King Edward VII's finances from 1890 made Edward more richer than Queen Victoria.

Sir Ernest was a great friend of Bertie?s as well as his financial advisor. Bertie had been in considerable debt at certain periods of his time as POW, due to trying to keep up with extremely wealthy friends in his circle. Indeed PM Gladstone?s Private Sec recorded the old man expressing anxieties about some possibly corrupt activity to do with Bertie incessantly pressing on him the name of a prominent building developer in the 1880s to be awarded a peerage. So perhaps it was just as well that Cassel got his finances in order.

It could be said also that Bertie had a great many more expenses than the Queen. Victoria scarcely entertained anyone in her Palaces in the last thirty odd years of her reign except during the Golden and Diamond Jubilees.

It?s true that her son was entertained lavishly by the British aristocracy. However he had to return the favour at least sometimes, and large house parties at Sandringham and balls and dinners at Marlborough House resulted. He also went abroad quite frequently, and had more fun while there than Victoria did. He gambled at casinos abroad, and in private homes in Britain, resulting in The Great Baccarat Scandal of 1892. He had mistresses, also had a stable of race horses and sailed in his own yacht, not inexpensive hobbies. Add to that his wife and children?s expenses and it adds up to quite a sum. 

King Edward VII on board the Victoria and Albert at Portsmouth on the return of the S.S. Ophir 
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