Edward, Prince of Wales (1841-1901)
Edward VII (Albert Edward) (1841-1910), king of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, the eldest son and second child of Queen Victoria and of Albert, prince consort, was born at Buckingham Palace on the 9th of November 1841. He was created prince of Wales and earl of Chester on the 4th of December following, and was baptized on the 25th of January 1842. In his childhood he was educated by the dowager Lady Lyttelton; and in his boyhood successively by the Rev. Henry Mildred Birch, Mr F. W. Gibbes, the Rev. C. F. Tarver and Mr Herbert W. Fisher. He afterwards resided at Edinburgh, studying chemistry in its industrial applications under Professor (afterwards Lord) Playfair at the university; at Christ Church, Oxford; and at Trinity College, Cambridge. In November 1858 he was made a knight of the Garter and a colonel in the army. In 1859 he traveled in Italy and Spain, and in 1860 paid a visit as "Lord Renfrew" to the United States and Canada.
Upon the completion of his Cambridge course in June 1861 he joined the camp at the Curragh. The prince consort died on the 13th of December, and in 1862 the prince of Wales went for a tour in the Holy Land (February-June) under the guidance of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, afterwards dean of Westminster. Early in 1863 he was sworn of the privy council, and took his seat in the House of Lords as duke of Cornwall. The estate of Sandringham, in Norfolk, was purchased for him out of the savings of his minority, and his town residence was fixed at Marlborough House.
His impending marriage to the princess Alexandra, daughter of Christian IX, king of Denmark (b. December 1, 1844), had already been announced, and took place on the 10th of March at Windsor, the beauty and grace of the princess captivating the heart of the nation. Parliament granted the prince an income of £40,000 a year, exclusive of the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall, and he relinquished his right of succession to the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Prince Albert Victor, afterwards duke of Clarence, was the first offspring of the marriage, being born on the 8th of January 1864. The births followed of Prince George Frederick Ernest Albert, afterwards duke of York (see George V.), on the 3rd of June 1865; Princess Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar, by marriage duchess of Fife, princess royal, on the 20th of February 1867; Princess Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary, on the 6th of July 1868; and Princess Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria, afterwards queen of Norway, on the 26th of November 1869.
From the time of their marriage the prince and princess were prominently before the country. Queen Victoria remained in retirement, but they filled her place at important public functions. The prince's readiness to promote every worthy cause was most marked; no one was a more constant attendant at meetings for objects of public utility of a non-political nature, and his speeches were always characterized by excellent sense. The most important external event of these years was a tour to Egypt, undertaken in 1869 in company with the duke of Sutherland, Sir Samuel Baker and others, an account of which was published by Mrs William Grey. The prince also visited Ireland more than once, and opened the International Exhibition of 1871.
On the 23rd of November 1871 it was announced that the prince would be prevented from paying a visit which had been arranged to the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh by a feverish attack. It soon appeared that the malady was typhoid, contracted. as was supposed, on a visit to Scarborough. The case became so serious that on November 29 the queen and Princess Alice hurried to Sandringham. On the 1st of December there was a slight rally, but on the 8th so serious a relapse occurred that for some days the prince's life was despaired of. Under the skilful treatment of Sir William Jenner, Sir William Gull and Sir James Paget, however, the crisis was surmounted by December 16, and by Christmas day the danger was regarded as virtually over. On the 27th of February 1872 a thanksgiving was held at St Paul's, amid imposing demonstrations of public joy.
In January 1874 the prince of Wales attended the marriage at St Petersburg of his brother, the duke of Edinburgh, with the grand-duchess Marie of Russia. In the same year he paid a historic visit to Birmingham, where Mr Joseph Chamberlain, not yet a member of parliament, received him officially as mayor. In March 1875 it was officially announced that he would make a visit to India, carrying out an idea originally conceived by the first Indian viceroy, Earl Canning. He was supposed to travel as heir-apparent, not as representative of the queen; but the characters could not be kept apart, and in fact the prince's visit was a political event of great importance. Leaving England on October 11, he was received at Bombay by the viceroy, Lord Northbrook. Here he met a very large number of Indian feudatory princes, whose acquaintance he subsequently improved by visiting at their courts during the seventeen weeks which he spent in the country. During these four months the prince traveled nearly 8000 miles by land and 2500 miles by sea, became acquainted with more rajahs than had all the viceroys who had reigned over India, and saw more of the country than any living Englishman. The visit led up to the queen's assumption of the title of empress of India in the following year.
The prince's life after this date was full of conspicuous public appearances. In 1885 he visited Ireland at a time of much political excitement, and was received enthusiastically in many quarters and without symptoms of ill-will in any. In 1886 he filled the presidency of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, opened the Mersey Tunnel, and laid the first stone of the Tower Bridge. In 1887 a large share of the arrangements for the queen's Jubilee devolved upon him. On the 27th of July 1880 his eldest daughter, Princess Louise, was married to the duke of Fife. In the autumn he paid a semi-incognito visit to Paris, where he was always highly popular, viewed the Exhibition, and ascended the Eiffel Tower.
In 1800 he opened the Forth Bridge. On the 14th of January 1892, however, a heavy blow fell upon him and his house by the death of his eldest son, Prince Albert Victor, duke of Clarence, after a brief illness. The young prince, who with his brother George had made the tour of the world (1879-1882) in H.M.S. "Bacchante," and after a short career at Oxford and Cambridge was just settling down to play his part in public life, had recently become engaged to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (b. May 26, 1867), and the popularity of the heir to the crown had been increased by the expression of his satisfaction at his son's bride being an English princess. On the 6th of July 1893 the broken thread was reunited by her marriage to Prince George, duke of York.
The year 1894 was a busy one for the prince of Wales, who became a member of the royal commission on the housing of the poor, opened the Tower Bridge, attended the Welsh Eisteddfod and was duly initiated, and paid two visits to Russia—one for the marriage of the grand-duchess Xenia, the other for the funeral of the tsar, his brother-in-law. In 1896 he became first chancellor of the university of Wales, and his first act after his installation at Aberystwyth was to confer an honorary degree upon the princess. He had already been for some years a trustee of the British Museum. On the 2 2nd of July 1896 his daughter, Princess Maud, was married to Prince Charles of Denmark, who in 1905 was offered and accepted the crown of the new kingdom of Norway. The arrangements for the queen's 'jubilee of 1897 depended upon the prince even more than those of the corresponding celebration in 1887: he rode on the queen's right at the great procession to St Paul's, and as an admiral of the fleet presided at the naval review at Spithead.
In July 1898 the prince had the misfortune to fracture his knee-cap while on a' visit to Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, but completely recovered from the effects of the accident. In December 1899, while passing through Brussels on his way to St Petersburg, he was fired at by a miserable lad named Sipido, crazed by reading anarchist literature. Fortunately no injury was done.
It was the especial distinction of Albert Edward, while prince of Wales, to have been a substantial support of the throne before he was called upon to fill it. This cannot be said of any of his predecessors except Edward the Black Prince. He was exemplary in the discharge of his public duties, and in his scrupulous detachment from party politics. He was a keen patron of the theater, and his thoroughly British taste for sport was as pronounced as his inclination for most of the contemporary amusements of society. The "Tranby Croft Case" (1890), in which Sir William Gordon Cumming brought an unsuccessful libel action for having been accused of cheating at a game of baccarat, caused some comment in connection with the prince's appearance in the witness-box on behalf of the defendants.
But it did him no disservice with the people to have twice won the Derby with his horses Persimmon (1896) and Diamond Jubilee (1900) — his third victory, in 1909, with Minoru, being the first occasion on which the race had been won by a reigning sovereign; and his interest in yacht-racing was conspicuously shown at all the important fixtures, his yacht " Britannia " being one of the best of her day. His activity in the life of the nation may be illustrated by his establishment (1897) of the Prince of Wales's (afterwards King Edward's) Hospital Fund, his devotion to the cause of Masonry (he was first elected grand master of the Freemasons of England in 1874), and his position as a bencher of the Middle Temple, where he also became (1887) treasurer.
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