The education of King Edward VII's sons

[QueenAlex]

He surprised everyone when he became king and seemed to have a talent or understanding about foreign affairs. When I read that I thought about the description of his father's (and his father's advisor) educational regime for him...different from his brothers' and sisters' education, because he was the heir.  He was pushed and bullied and enormous pressure was put on him as a young boy. They were also constantly comparing him to his sister.  Whether or not he had ADD they may have ruined any chance of his thriving in a scholastic environment. Albert himself was very cerebral and was a serious student and assumed he could bend and mold his son. It's a bit spooky to read. Yet, those ten short years as king are impressive.

He was a very social person, and that helped him to do the "soft diplomacy" side of the job. I don't think he was exceptional at it, but given that he had been seen as spoiled, wilful, and dedicated to pleasure seeking, he came across as Kng a lot better than expected. But he was often very badly behaved as a young boy and stupid and selfish as a young man