Andrew Lownie Literary Agency :: Book :: King of Hearts: Edward VII and the Women in his Life Catharine Arnold From the real-life Downton Abbey world of American heiresses, stately homes and aristocratic love affairs to the brothels of Paris, this is the world of King Edward VII, playboy monarch and celebrated lover. Gossipy, anecdotal and peopled with unforgettable characters, King of Hearts sees Catharine Arnold cast an amused and tolerant eye over Edward’s amorous adventures in a hugely enjoyable, gossipy book peopled with unforgettable characters. As guests thronged into Westminster Abbey to take their appointed places for the coronation of King Edward VII on 9 August 1902, they were greeted by a pew reserved for ‘the King’s special ladies’ otherwise known as ‘the King’s loose box.’ It was more like the winner’s enclosure. King Edward’s coronation gave him the opportunity to display his thoroughbred fillies, and thank them for years of loyal service.

Here sat Alice Keppel, Bertie’s Mistress in Chief, and great grandmother of Camilla Parker Bowles, wife of our current Prince of Wales; actresses Lillie Langtry and Sarah Bernhardt; panther-eyed Jennie Churchill, mother of Winston; American heiress Minnie Stevens, and at least two of Bertie’s illegitimate daughters, Princess Daisy of Pless and Baroness Olga de Meyer. If you can tell a man by the company he keeps, then these ladies tell us everything we want to know about the character of Edward VII, or ‘Bertie.’ Charming and dissolute, Bertie admired beautiful, spirted women who sparkled in his company. While Bertie certainly had a physical ‘type’, his lovers embraced a wide field of occupations. Lillie Langtry rose from obscurity to become Bertie’s first public mistress. Bertie lavished a fortune on Lillie, and once informed her that ‘I spent enough on you to buy a battleship!’ to which lively Lillie retorted: ‘and you’ve spent enough in me to launch one!’ Daisy Brooke, Countess of Warwick was an extravagant socialite who discovered socialism and later stood for Parliament on a Labour ticket.

French actress Sarah Bernhardt, a bisexual opium addict, represented a departure from Bertie’s normal type, but he was besotted with her and they once appeared together on stage. Also against type was starchy matron Agnes Keyser, founder of a hospital for officers. Larger than life with king-sized appetites, Bertie conducted his liaisons against the glittering backdrop of London society, the Continent and the stately homes of England, where a strict code of honour insulated the night time corridor creepers from scandal. In Paris, Bertie was a regular at the Moulin Rouge music hall, where his nickname was ‘Kingy!’ and the dancer ‘La Goulue’ yelled to him from the stage, ‘ello, Wales! Are you going to pay for my champagne?’ In his later years, Bertie was an honoured guest at Le Chabanais, a palatial bordello known as the best ‘house’ in Paris.

It was here that the ageing Bertie indulged in champagne baths in a copper tub, and entertained his female companions on a specially designed ‘siege d’amour’ or ‘love seat.’ The coronation represented triumph and vindication for long suffering Princess Alexandra, who had stood by Bertie for forty years. As Bertie’s indiscretions became common knowledge, Alix gained in popularity. ‘So beautiful, so pure, so badly-treated. Marvellously dressed, radiant, gracious, pouring forth smiles’ the country idolised her. They even called Alix ‘the Queen of Hearts.’ Drawing comparisons with the late Princess Diana is inevitable. But there was to be no royal divorce for Alix. She stayed with Bertie, became his queen, and when Bertie died, it was Alix who declared ‘He always loved me best!’ Book Details: The Coronations of 1902 and 1911 | Encyclopedia Titanica Message Board Encyclopedia Titanica Message Board This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

The Coronations of 1902 and 1911 Martin Williams Member I very much enjoyed participating in the recent discussion on the presentation of debutantes at the English Court. I therefore think it is high time I started a new thread devoted to information and anecdotes about the two great 'State' occasions of the Edwardian Era - the Coronations of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902 and George V and Queen Mary in 1911. As we all know, Edward VII was fortunate to be crowned at all. Only hours before the ceremony, when London was packed with thousands of dignitaries from every corner of the globe, he succumbed to an acute attack of appendicitus and almost died. When the Coronation finally took place, in Westminster Abbey on 9th August, it was noted that the King looked 'pale and tired' but was clearly thrilled at the rapturous reception he received from the assembled crowds. Every Coronation is a spectacular affair but that of Edward and Alexandra was particularly splendid. Not a penny was spared to ensure that the scene within the Abbey was one of unprecedented opulence.

Indeed, so thick was the pile on the royal-blue carpet laid down the nave that many peeresses were observed to be struggling to walk upon it - their ermine-lined trains stuck to the velvet like velcro! As might have been expected, lovely Queen Alexandra rose magnificently to the occasion. To her enraptured Lady-in-Waiting, the Countess of Antrim, 'she made one rub one's eyes and think of fairy stories - and even then, not half is said.' Alexandra's gauze train, hand-embroidered in gold thread by Indian women in tribute to the country she was never allowed to visit, was carried by six young pages, each of whom was a peer in his own right. Her bodice was so thickly encrusted with ropes of diamonds and pearls that her breast seemed to be a sheet of flame. At the moment of the Queen's actual crowning, the canopy was supported by four of England's most beautiful women - the Duchesses of Marlborough, Sutherland, Portland and Montrose.

The Duchess of Marlborough (the former Consuelo Vanderbilt) had always maintained a rather cynical outlook on the arrogance of the British aristocracy into which she had married but, in her memoirs, she freely states that she felt tears of emotion fill her eyes as the Archbishop of York brought the crown down on Alexandra's serene brow. As he did so, the serried ranks of peeresses gathered in the nave - duchesses, marchionesses, countesses, viscountesses and baronesses - simultaneously raised their white-gloved arms and put on their own coronets with, as one bedazzled observer later noted, 'a rustle like a million swans' wings.' Solemn though the occasion was, there were a few characteristically 'Edwardian' touches. In a prominent position, just above the Royal Family, was a box containing a row of the king's 'special favourites' in full magnificence - his current mistress, Alice Keppel, in the centre, flanked on either side by former lovers like Lillie Langtry, Jennie Churchill, Mrs Ronnie Greville and Mrs Arthur Paget. One wag christened this 'the King's Loose Box'.

Martin Williams Member I can't imagine that there would have been many raised eyebrows at Consuelo's participation in the service - we should remember that in 1902, and even more so in 1911, there were dozens of American peeresses! Consuelo's husband, the 9th Duke, had an even more prominent role than his wife. He carried St. Edward's Crown itself, flanked by the Dukes of Norfolk and Fife and preceded by the Marquess of Londonderry bearing the Sword of State. If the Dollar Princesses were in evidence at the Coronation, then so too were the actresses and music hall stars who had married into the aristocracy. It is fascinating to consider that, for many of these women, a career on the stage was a direct route from poverty to the peerage. What must have been the thoughts of the Countess of Clancarty, a dazzling beauty who had once trodden the boards as the singer and dancer, Belle Bilton?

She was the daughter of a man who laboured in the docks of the East End and yet I've seen pictures of her dressed in her robes for the Coronation of Edward VII, looking every bit as regal and inscrutable as the Queen herself. Another prominent member of the 'actressocracy' was the lovely Rosie Boote, who married the Marquess of Headfort. She too would have been present at the Coronations of 1902 and 1911, although Cynthia Asquith notes in her diaries that George V was not too happy at the notion of a former Gaiety Girl coming to Court! I was interested to discover that even more American women married into the Italian aristocracy than they did into the English or French. I gather that, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, the government had handed out titles like sweets so that, by the Edwardian Era, the entire concept of a hereditary nobility in Italy had become rather devalued. Wasn't Emma Bucknell's daughter married to an Italian count? And do we know when Spencer's sister became Lady-in-Waiting?

In any case, she would not have been present at the Coronation of 1902, since it took place weeks later than originally planned, by which time most of the foreign royals and dignitaries gathered in London had returned home. One notable 'hanger on' was the Crown Princess of Roumania, Edward VII's lovely niece, Princess Marie of Edinburgh. She enjoyed a wonderful summer in her native country as she waited for her uncle's recovery and seemed so reluctant to return to Roumania that one wit christened her 'Marie Remained Here'. Noelle Rothes and her husband, the 19th Earl, would certainly have attended the Coronations of Edward VII and George V - the latter only months before the 'Titanic' sailed. Martin Williams Member A coronation calls for all sorts of finery from those commanded to attend. In both 1902 and 1911, peeresses wore low cut gowns of white, silver or gold satin, intricately embroidered with metallic thread and encrusted with seed pearls and sequins. Over the top, they wore red velvet robes, lined with ermine or miniver. The robes varied slightly in style, according to the rank of the wearer.

I believe that, in 1902, an order was initially given that peeresses should NOT wear tiaras but this was quickly repealed and the nave of Westminster Abbey would have been a truly dazzling sight, with each woman literally dripping with diamonds and other precious stones. It was observed that, at the moment of crowning, some peeresses had a struggle to fit their coronets behind their tiaras. Of course, some women went a bit too far - Queen Alexandra's ever-devoted (and rather plain) Lady of the Bedchamber, Charlotte Knollys, wore so many jewels that some claimed she was trying to outdo her mistress! For anybody trying to imagine the splendour of the scene in the Abbey when a monarch is crowned, I can't do better than to recommend Handel's quartet of spectacular 'Coronation Anthems'. Beginning with the famous 'Zadok the Priest', they were first performed at the Coronation of George II and Queen Caroline in the eighteenth century and have been played on each subsequent occasion.

There is a very funny story about the famous 'Double Duchess', Louisa Devonshire, who was pushing seventy by 1902 but who had effectively maintained her position at the very apex of London Society. When the ceremony was finally over, there was - naturally - a rush of ladies from the galleries to the handful of lavatories that had been built in an annex of the Abbey. However, according to protocol, the Royal Family had to leave the building before anybody else. Despite her age and venerability, the soldiers on the door commanded the duchess to return to her seat. As a swarm of distressed peeresses hopped from foot-to-foot behind her, like a lot of bejewelled toddlers, Louisa got more and more desperate, first attempting to pull rank before finally trying to force her way through the line. Unfortunately, during the fracas, she fell and rolled all the way to the bottom of the steps, where she landed in a heap of velvet and bruised dignity. Margot Asquith recovered her coronet, which had fallen off, and the Marquis de Soveral (an intimate of the King and Queen) picked her up and brushed her off before she went on her way.

Even when they had made it into the lavatories, some peeresses found that their troubles were only just beginning. Teresa Londonderry's truly magnificent diamond crown fell off and lodged itself in the pan. It took a lot of energy and - eventually - a pair of forceps to extricate it. Brian Ahern Member Wow! Now that's an anecdote. Especially striking since it involves the lovely, regal Teresa Londonderry (I know not everyone might characterize her as such but most of the sketches I've read of her were written by friends such as the Countess of Fingall, and so were very flattering). The thread mentioning Mr. Spencer's sister is here: Carole Lindsay mentioned her role at the Italian court, but doesn't mention when it was. I scanned the thread for the prince's name and have forgot it already (Prince Cenci di Cavaro, maybe?) Emma Bucknell's daughter became the Countess Pecorini. I remember because I think that's a great name. Yes, I remember seeing an Italian count interviewed on British TV a few years ago who said that there were 1,000 counts in Rome alone.

But I'm sure the "real" Italian nobles were very mindful of who could be considered one of their own and who couldn't be. I've read that in France, a family can be considered noble and not be titled, and can be titled but not be noble. The current Queen of Denmark is married to a Frenchman who I've read has a legitimate right to the title "Count" but whose family is still not noble. And wasn't the noble standing of the Count de Feuillide (sp?), who married Jane Austen's cousin, very dubious? I think British peers have always been the silver tuna for Americans searching for titled mates. I'm not a fan of Edith Wharton, but I am fascinated by the Old New York she creates in the Age of Innocence (which is why I keep bringing it up); and it has a of couple details that are indicative of the anglo-centricity of 19th century American Society. One of Mrs. Manson Mingott's daugthers is married to an English banker and the other to an Italian marquis, and the two are mentioned together in the same sentence in a way that I doubt very much an Italian banker and an English marquess would be.

But a title from any country is obviously quite something, as we see when Mrs. Mingott scoffs at the Countess Olenska for wanting to divorce her husband and resume her maiden name "when she could be a married lady and a countess!" One thing I always wonder about is how those Protestant Americans who had to make do with French or Italian noblemen handled the religious question. Would the next Count Pecorini (assuming Mrs. B. had a grandson) be an Episcopalian? João Carlos Pereira Martins Guest You may say I'm wrong but I'm inclined to say that the Coronation of 1911 was more impressive and spectacular than the one of 1902. This is because at the beginning of George V's reign, the power, the height and the grandiosity were in its maximum and the monarchy took all that benefits. Besides that, let's not forget that both queens of this time were quite different from each other. Alexandra was beautiful and wore splendorous pieces of jewellery in public, but she was regarded as simple and modest in private life.

Queen Mary was known for superbly bejewelling herself on formal and state occasions, and she would put a tiara and wear full evening dress every night, even if she was dining alone with the king. Furthermore, her love for jewels was almost a legend and she was very fond of breathtaking displays of pearls, cascades of diamonds and sapphires and heavy and imposing tiaras and she had an enormous collection to use as she wanted, which included many ornaments that had once belonged to Queen Victoria and to her mother-in-law. Also, although Germany, Japan and the US were already starting to emerge as great global powers in 1911, the British owned the majority of the world's surface at that time, the government safes were full of money from the trade, they had the largest fleet and plenty of natural resources in their Empire, such as silver and gold mines, precious stones from South Africa, oil explorations and India, with thousands of dignitaries, and I believe that the 1911 ceremony was really amazing and grand, a show of colours, uniforms, gliterring tiaras and decorations.

Many of you will have a different opinion but I regard George V's coronation as one of the greatest official ceremonies ever held in the world. Best, Dave Gittins Member A small correction, as they say on the charts. Of Handel's anthems, only Zadok the Priest has been performed at every coronation since it was composed. The entire set takes almost 40 minutes to perform. They include the deathless line, "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and queens thy nursing mothers." I like Sir William Walton's idea for a coronation march for Prince Charles. He composed two marches for coronations, each named after one of the attributes of a monarch listed in Henry V. For George VI, Crown Imperial. For Elizabeth II, Orb and Sceptre. For Prince Charles, had Sir William lived to compose it, the march was to be Bed Majestical. From the top (as they say): Brian, I would agree that the British aristocracy was the one most Dollar Princesses sought to marry into. It was less stuffy than the Austrian, less hidebound than the French, more prestigious than the Italian and MUCH more glamorous than the German!

At the beginning of 'The House of Mirth', Lily Bart considers who would be her 'ideal' match and decides that either an English earl or an Italian prince might do. Although she wasn't American, I can think of at least one foreigner who married into the German nobility - Princess Daisy of Pless, who was the daughter of Edward VII's former flame, Patsy Cornwallis-West, and the sister of the Duchess of Westminster. Come the Great War, poor Daisy (she of the violet embroidered court train) must have found her loyalties sadly divided but, in 1902, she was one of the women who viewed the Coronation from a seat in the 'Loose Box'. With regard to the French, you are absolutely correct. The 'real' aristocracy has always differentiated itself from those it considers to be arrivistes. In this case, who the 'real' aristocracy actually are is open to question - the nobles who can trace their ancestry back to the ancien regime? Those created under Napoleon? Those created under the Second Empire? I'd be a braver man than I am if I got involved with that particular question! Teresa Londonderry is certainly a study.

I myself would have been terrified of her and it was an equally formidable character like Gladys de Grey who had the courage to tangle with her (and tangle she did). During one of his visits to England, the Shah of Persia was so impressed by Lady Londonderry that he offered to buy her from her husband. I have read the article you refer to about Queen Marie's visit to Chicago (during her 1926 trip to the States, I believe) and agree that Emily Ryerson comes across as a delightful character. The author, Beverley Nichols, was also acquainted with Lady Duff Gordon. She may have been a great beauty, and was a fascinating character besides, but I think Marie would have been hard work for anybody who had to put up with her for more than a few hours. Consuelo Marlborough was distinctly unimpressed when she came to visit Blenheim. As a footnote to her story, I can add that she was once considered as a possible bride for her cousin, Prince George of Wales.

Marie's mother, the Duchess of Edinburgh, who was a daughter of Alexander II of Russia and possessed the pride of the Romanovs in full measure, declared that Marie could NEVER settle for a younger son as she herself had done and so put the stopper on that little dalliance. The irony is that the prince, following the death of the Duke of Clarence, went on to become George V and, had things worked out differently, Marie could have been crowned Queen-Empress in Westminster Abbey. But perhaps he was better off with Princess May. Marie's story is a fascinating one but it doesn't belong on this thread. On, and by the way - you and I might have to have words about Edith Wharton, Brian. She is far and away my favourite author and I am frankly astounded to learn that you dislike her! Joao, It is a debatable question, and ultimately a subjective one, whether the Coronation of 1902 was grander than the Coronation of 1911 (or vice versa). To a large measure, it would depend upon your opinion of the chief protagonists. Queen Alexandra was the more beautiful woman but Queen Mary was the more majestic.

I once discussed this very issue with a good friend of mine, a historian and jewellery specialist, and he absolutely shares your opinion that Mary wore her rocks with more 'style' than her mother-in-law. One important point that you've missed in your post above is that George and Mary subsequently travelled to India to be acclaimed as King-Emperor and Queen-Empress by their subjects there. I have seen a few photographs of the Durbar of 1911 and would argue that THIS was perhaps the most glittering occasion, the high point, in Britain's imperial history. I think (and I may need to check this) that Queen Mary had a special tiara made for the ceremony which was recently seen on the brow of the Duchess of Cornwall. Each Coronation has had a different flavour. I prefer the little touches in 1902 (the 'Loose Box', the four beautiful duchesses) which made the event so characteristic of the personalities of the man and woman at the centre of attention.

It is worth remembering that many people lived long enough to be present at the Coronations of 1902, 1911, 1937 AND 1953 and were able to compare them to one another. Vita Sackville-West gives a wonderful account of the Coronation of 1911 in the final pages of 'The Edwardians'. Dave, Thank you for that correction. 'Zadok the Priest' is my own favourite among the 'Coronation Anthems' and it seems fitting that this one, among all four, should have become a fixed part of the ceremony. Martin Williams Member Thank you, that is indeed the tiara I had in mind. It is a most impressive piece although it seems a touch OTT when worn with a short, twenty-first century hairstyle. I have never seen the Durbar tiara worn by any other member of the Royal Family in recent years - I imagine there is a collection of jewels held in reserve, so to speak, which can be drawn on when a new member joins The Firm! I am intending to buy James Pope-Hennessy's classic biography of Queen Mary, which is the seminal work on this brave and formidable woman.

I was flicking through a copy at my local bookshop a few days ago and it seems that the royal (or should I say, imperial?) trip to India in late 1911 made a huge impact on both husband and wife. And it appears that George and Mary only returned to England in the first few weeks of 1912 - just months before the 'Titanic' sailed on her maiden voyage. Martin Williams Member Brave? Perhaps not. Resilient? Unquestionably. Let's not forget that Queen Mary weathered every storm the twentieth century could throw at her with impeccable style and panache. She saw her husband crowned King-Emperor in India in 1911 and then, over the next four decades, watched imperialism go into an inglorious and terminal decline. Catastrophic wars were waged against Germany, a country with which she had the strongest personal and political connections. In her old age, the inhabitants of that same country perpetrated perhaps the greatest crime in human history - the cold-blooded and systematic extermination of over six million men, women and children.

Her Russian cousins, the Romanovs, were butchered in the most savage way by a political regime not WHOLLY friendly to those of royal or aristocratic birth. Her cousins at the other end of Europe, Spain, survived with their lives but were forced into an ignominious exile. Her eldest son rejected his throne, his family, his duty and his heritage to marry a twice-divorced American. If this was not enough, Mary also saw THREE of her other sons (Prince John, the Duke of Kent and George VI) into their graves - besides her husband too, of course. Was Queen Mary courageous? I don't know. But she certainly came through every difficulty with her dignity magnificently and formidably intact. In my humble opinion, nobody - not Elizabeth II, not the late Queen Mother - has greater claim to being a truly ROYAL survivor. Monica Hall Member OK. Resilient, I'll go with that. But let's not forget that she was raised for this (which she might very well have regretted, of course, but we'll never know).

And she seems to have acquiesced in this, which is understandable maybe in a young girl, but not in a maturer woman, who lived a luxurious life. You're betrothed to the Prince of Wales (Albert) but he dies. So you are then re-betrothed to his younger brother, and you don't protest, but meekly marry him. I suppose this does show resilience of a sort, but also, maybe, ambition. Then you bear his children, acquiescing in his brutal treatment of them, which results in one unable to sustain being King, and the poor next one having to overcome a dreadful stutter to take up his unwelcome monarchical duties. Worse, you confine Prince John to purgatory because he's 'odd', and bury him anonymously when he dies as a child. Finally, you wear silly hats as an old woman and bully people into giving you their best furniture, silver, pictures etc., merely because you are a Queen. Doesn't sound too good to me. Martin Williams Member Yet was she so different, and so much worse, than many of her contemporaries? I don't think so.

No modern 'working mother', no high-flying banker, lawyer or businesswoman, has more demands on her time than Queen Mary did! It is regrettable that she couldn't spend longer in the nursery when her children were growing up - even more regrettable that she was seemingly so unable to display her maternal feelings more openly - but I for one don't blame her for either of these facts. '...you confine Prince John to purgatory because he's 'odd', and bury him anonymously when he dies as a child.' We might wonder why the King and Queen felt so compelled to keep Prince John in seclusion for most of his short life. But epilepsy was not so well understood a century ago - and, having suffered from epilepsy myself, I've looked into the history and treatment of the condition in some depth. Until his premature death, John received excellent care from a nurse who, by all accounts, loved him like a mother. The British public were well aware of his existence and the King and Queen met with considerable sympathy when he died.

Coming only months after the end of the most devastating war in history, with an entire nation in mourning, a 'royal' funeral of pomp and circumstance for a young boy barely into his teens might not have been deemed to be in the best of taste. sashka pozzetti Guest Are there any impartial contemporary views of Queen Mary by others? I hope you don't mid me saying this but I don't really think that more or less disowning your son because he married an American (shock!) who was twice divorced (further shock!) is in any way brave, or commendable. It is the kind of weak, old fashioned reaction that may have been more understandable at the time, but that doesn't make it admirable now. After all, it was a King (Henry) who (thankfully) gave us divorce, and a Queen (Elizabeth) who sponsored the early European settlement of North America. Obviously there needs to be context, but like Monica, from what I have read, I can't help but be very wary of being too impressed.

King Edward VII | Britroyals Born: November 9, 1841 at Buckingham Palace Parents: Queen Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Relation to Elizabeth II: great-grandfather House of: Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Ascended to the throne: January 22, 1901 aged 59 years Crowned: August 9, 1902 at Westminster Abbey Married: Alexandra, daughter of Christian of Denmark Children: Three sons including George V, and three daughters Died: May 6, 1910 at Buckingham Palace, aged 68 years, 5 months, and 24 days Buried at: Windsor Reigned for: 9 years, 3 months, and 12 days Succeeded by: his son George V He was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and known to his family as �Bertie�. As Prince of Wales he did not meet his parent�s expectations of duty and during his mother�s long reign devoted himself to being self-indulgent.

He was likeable, sociable and outgoing but became known as a playboy interested in horse racing, shooting, eating, drinking and other men�s wives. In 1863 he married Alexandra of Denmark and the marriage was a reasonably happy producing 6 children. Alexandra tolerated his succession of mistresses who included Lille Langtry (actress), Lady Churchill (mother of Winston Churchill), Sarah Bernhardt (actress) and Alice Keppel (great-grandmother of Camilla wife of Charles the current Prince of Wales). Having mistresses was at the time not uncommon amongst the aristocracy, but his mother despaired of him and kept him away from taking an active part in politics even after Albert's death and she was elderly and retired to Balmoral and Osborne. In 1871 Edward survived a serious illness of typhoid which had killed his father. His eldest son Albert who was engaged to Mary of Teck died of pneumonia. Edward was well received abroad and as heir-apparent toured India in 1875.

When he finally became King Edward VII on the death of his mother in 1901, he frequently made trips to Europe including France where he contributed to the Anglo-French �Entente Cordiale� signed in 1904, to Russia and the Triple Entente between Britain, Russia and France which a few years later would play an important role in affairs on the outbreak of World War I. He supported reform of the army following the Boer War, and Admiral Fisher�s expansion of the Royal Navy including building the new Dreadnought battleships. The Edwardian period was seen as golden age for the upper class in Europe and America, but society was changing � socialism, women suffragettes, the Labour party and trade unions were becoming powerful and the founding of Britain�s Welfare State. �We are all socialists now� he is reported to have remarked. In an increasing democratic society Edward saw the importance of displaying the mystique of pomp and circumstance of the monarchy, and seeing and being seen by the people. A role he and his successors took to well. He died of pneumonia at Buckingham Palace in 1910 and was succeeded by his second son George V.

King Edward VII's Signature Quotes: �I never can, or shall, look at him without a shudder� � Queen Victoria (who had a low opinion of her eldest son Edward) �Because a man has a black face and a different religion from our own, there is no reason why he should be treated as a brute.� - Edward (complaining to his mother about British treatment of native Indians) �We are all socialists now� - King Edward VII (observing changes in society) �I believe the emperor of Germany hates me� - King Edward VII (on rising tensions with his nephew Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany). Timeline for King Edward VII Year Alice Keppel | The Honest Courtesan The Honest Courtesan Frank commentary from an unretired call girl Feeds: July 17, 2014 by Maggie McNeill I do not mind what she does as long as she comes back to me in the end. – George Keppel Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII of the United Kingdom, had an interest in women which is notable even by the promiscuous standards of noblemen.

Naturally, among his dalliances were a plethora of professionals, among them Skittles and La Belle Otero . His first semi-official mistress was Lillie Langtry , whom we discussed in May; today I’ll introduce you to the last (and longest-lasting) lady to hold that position, from three years before his coronation until the day he died. She had a number of things in common with Lillie: an ability to get along with their royal patron’s wife, Princess (later queen) Alexandra; a gift for discretion so highly-developed that many people to this day don’t realize (or else deny) that they were whores; and most importantly, a similar motive for taking up the profession. Alice Frederica Edmonstone was born on April 29th, 1868, the daughter of Sir William, 4th Baronet Edmonstone, and his wife Mary. Sir William was a retired admiral, and Alice (the youngest of nine children, all but one girls) grew up in Duntreath Castle on Loch Lomond, the home of her family since the 14th century.

Her childhood appears to have been wholly unremarkable; none of the short biographies I consulted have anything at all to say about her personal life before June 1st, 1891, when she married George Keppel, son of the 7th Earl of Albemarle. But while her husband was of a good family with a long history of service to the Crown, he had very little money; had the two of them been content to raise their daughters quietly in the country his income would have sufficed, but both of them loved city life. It was expensive to keep up with London society in those days, and since Alice was strikingly beautiful (with an hourglass figure, alabaster skin and thick chestnut hair) the two of them soon hit upon a simple plan: she would take on wealthy lovers whose income would finance their lifestyle and provide George with business connections. He wasn’t her pimp, not exactly; she found her patrons and charmed them with her own abilities. George’s contribution was to stay out of the way and provide her with the appearance of respectability.

The historian Victoria Glendinning wrote that Alice had the “sexual morals of an alley cat…sexual faithfulness to her husband wasn’t a value to her.” But this is merely the ignorant attitude of an prudish amateur. Cheating “alley cats” hide their affairs from their husbands; Alice planned hers with George. Nor was he a weak cuckold sitting alone at home while his wife wandered; he also had many affairs, with Alice’s full knowledge and approval. Her daughters later described their parents’ marriage as a “companionship of love and laughter”, and though this certainly could be taken as a biased view, it must be pointed out that the Keppels remained happily married for 56 years and died within two months of one another; though there is some speculation that Violet (born 1894) may have been the daughter of a lover, Sonia (born 1900) strongly resembled George, so there is little doubt that he was her father. Though their relationship may seem strange to those outside of the demimonde, I’m sure every sex worker reading this will recognize it; they loved and trusted each other, and sex with others had no effect on that.

Alice’s first arrangement, with Ernest Beckett (later the 2nd Baron Grimthorpe), began less than two years of her marriage; it is Beckett who is believed to be the biological father of Violet. Next was Humphrey Sturt, the 2nd Baron Alington. There were a few others in the second half of the ‘90s, but on February 27th, 1898 she met “Bertie”, and the rest is literally history; within weeks she had replaced his previous mistress (the indiscreet Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick), and she remained with him until his death in 1910. The arrangement was extremely lucrative for the Keppels: though Edward was notoriously stingy (by courtesan standards) with direct payments, he enriched them indirectly in several ways. First, he gave her part ownership of a rubber company, from which she made £50,000 (about £3 million today); he also had his own top-notch financial advisers manage her investments, and got a high-paying job for George.

Even before she met the (then) Prince, Alice had acquired the reputation of being one of the most talented hostesses of her era. She was intelligent, witty, well-informed and never unkind or intemperate, and she brought these characteristics and others into her role as royal mistress. She was so discreet she even hated people to mention her relationship with the King a quarter-century after his death, and she was the only person who could bring him out of the black moods he often fell into. These traits made Queen Alexandra actually fond of her, thus smoothing what could otherwise have been an extremely difficult relationship: His Majesty insisted on having Alice in his entourage practically everywhere he went. This was not only for her companionship; she was noted for her wisdom and political judgment, and the King depended on her advice. Furthermore, so great was her skill at conversation he often employed her to feel people out on delicate topics, or to let his opinion be known without making an official announcement. The reverse was also true; when ministers or other officials wanted to further explain opinions with which Edward disagreed, Alice could present them to him in such a way that he would at least listen without getting angry.

But despite her influence, she was unable to convince the King to cut back on his smoking and heavy eating, even after his health began to fail. When he was dying in May of 1910 he asked for her to come to his deathbed, but apparently that was too much for the Queen; as soon as he lost consciousness she ordered the doctors to get rid of Alice, who reacted with uncharacteristic loss of composure. She became so upset and hysterical, in fact, that she had to be removed by the guards; from that point on she was no longer welcome at court. Alice had developed genuine feelings for Edward over the past 12 years; furthermore, she was by this time 42 and had become a bit plump, so she was no longer able to function as a courtesan. She and George decided it would be best to leave London for a while, so they spent two years travelling in the Far East (ostensibly for their daughters’ education). Upon coming home they bought a new house and returned to society, albeit more quietly; Alice also helped run a hospital in Boulogne during the First World War.

In 1927 they bought the Villa dell’ Ombrellino near Florence and lived there the rest of their lives except for 1940-1946, when the Second World War forced them to return to the UK; they stayed in the country for a time, but then moved into the Grosvenor Hotel in London in spite of the Blitz. By the time they returned to Italy Alice was terminally ill with cirrhosis; she died at the age of 79 on September 11th, 1947, and George followed her two months later. Famous harlots do not usually have interesting descendants, but Alice Keppel is an exception. Her elder daughter, Violet, became involved in a torrid lesbian affair with the poetess Vita Sackville-West ; apparently, Alice’s sexual liberality stopped short of That Sort of Thing, so Violet was induced to marry Denys Trefusis and break up with Vita. Violet became a novelist and her affair appears in fictionalized form in a number of works, notably Virginia Woolf’s Orlando; she subsequently had other lesbian affairs, but because she learned to be discreet about them after Vita her mother had no objection.

The younger daughter, Sonia, married Roland Cubitt and had a daughter, Rosalind, who in turn married Bruce Shand and bore a daughter, Camilla, less than two months before Alice died. When Camilla grew into a young woman she met and became involved with a great-great grandson of her great-grandmother’s most famous patron, but because he needed to make a political marriage, she instead married a cavalry officer named Andrew Parker Bowles. The tendency to be a royal mistress, it seems, runs in families, though unlike her famous ancestress the Duchess of Cornwall eventually married her Prince of Wales. Share this: Earls, counts, even a future King - she had more than 200 lovers, some of them younger than her son. As a new documentary reveals, it's no wonder high society wits called Winston Churchill's wayward mother Lady Randy | Daily Mail Online Earls, counts, even a future King - she had more than 200 lovers, some of them younger than her son.

As a new documentary reveals, it's no wonder high society wits called Winston Churchill's wayward mother Lady Randy comments She is said to have had more than 200 lovers, some of them younger than her own son. Strikingly beautiful, with amber eyes, dark-brown hair, full breasts and an irrepressible lust for life, Jennie Jerome was irresistible to men. Earls, lords, counts, even the randy old Prince Of Wales, the future Edward VII, lusted after her. And she willingly complied. When Edward was crowned in 1902, she sat in a special pew in Westminster Abbey, which society wits dubbed 'the loose box' on account of its rather promiscuous occupants. She shared it with half a dozen other royal mistresses, including Alice Keppel and Lillie Langtry. Enlarge Lady Randy was well known for her lifestyle and lovers Jennie, Winston Churchill's American mother, was very different from her son, who was utterly devoted to one woman: his darling wife, Clemmie. And it is this contrast that makes their relationship - the subject of Lady Randy, a new Channel 4 documentary - so fascinating. Her background is extraordinary.

Descended quite possibly from an American Indian who had raped a white settler, she was born into a notoriously lascivious family, conceived in Italy and named after a popular singer who was probably one of her father's mistresses. She was possibly pregnant with Winston when she walked up the aisle to marry his father, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill. When Lord Randolph died, apparently of syphilis, her next two marriages were to men more than 20 years her junior, earning her a reputation for vanity and frivolity. Despite always being hard up, she was also a shameless spendthrift and wafted around London in the finest Paris gowns, entertaining the smartest trendsetters, courting lovers and sporting a provocative snake tattoo on her wrist. Wherever she went, she was the talk of the town. Jennie Jerome was born in New York in 1854 - and named after the opera singer Jenny Lind. Her father, Leonard Jerome, had been an investor in railroad stock. But when the stock fell, he lost everything and declared himself bankrupt.

He didn't stay down for long and soon developed a peculiarly topical talent: selling short (that is, selling borrowed stock in the hope he could buy it back when it had gone down in value). It was as uncertain a trade then as it is now, and Jerome was not above manipulating prices by summoning newspaper editors to lunch and spreading some self-serving rumour. And he did well. Before long, he was one of the nouveau riche millionaires of the so-called Flash Age. Jennie benefitted accordingly. She and her two sisters, Clara and Leonie, learned to be young ladies, riding, skating and playing the piano, while their parents entertained on such a grand scale that there was always a fountain flowing with real champagne at their parties. Winters were spent in Manhattan, summers in fashionable Newport, Connecticut, with billionaire neighbours such as the Vandebilts. Leonard bought himself a big yacht and built a private theatre where he paraded a series of opera-singing mistresses in front of his long-suffering wife.

He later became an influential newspaper proprietor and noted racehorse owner, and his political activities in support of President Lincoln and his anti-slavery drive during the Civil War stimulated an interest in world affairs in Jennie, his favourite daughter. Irresistible: Lady Churchill with a young Winston But his financial ups and downs, not to mention his mistresses, became too much for his wife Clara, who in 1867 took off for Paris with her daughters. Jennie, by then an impressionable 15-year-old, was dazzled by the bohemian decadence of the city. Then history took control of events. In 1870, Germany invaded France and the family fled to England. And it was there, on a trip to the Isle of Wight, that the 19-year-old Jennie met Lord Randolph Churchill, the 23-year-old second son of the Duke of Marlborough, at a party. The Marlboroughs were as disreputable in England as the Jeromes were in the US Charming and arrogant, they spent lavishly, demonstrating, as Prime Minister William Gladstone noted, neither morals nor principles.

Jennie and Randolph, who would soon become Winston Churchill's parents, fell in love at first sight. But they had to endure strong opposition from Randolph's family until a settlement of $250,000 by Jennie's father finally won the Marlboroughs over. The couple began having frequent premarital trysts in Paris, which had become so intense by early 1874 that there is a strong possibility that the future statesman was conceived in Randolph's hotel room on Rue du Rivoli. The couple were married in the British embassy in the city that April, and Winston Leonard was born eight months later in Blenheim Palace, Oxford - and deemed to be rather healthy and pretty for a premature baby. Until she married, Jennie had never seen Blenheim, which was in a shocking state of disrepair. Its 200 rooms were lined with old masters but many were destined for auction to raise funds for the Marlborough's lifestyle. Often left with her mother-in-law while her husband pursued parliamentary business, Jennie found married life difficult. Randolph was mercurial and unstable and despite being in poor health smoked 40 hand-rolled Turkish cigarettes a day.

Meanwhile, Jennie missed the fun of her courtship and showed little interest in her son, who was largely cared for by his nanny. History may have been very different had Jennie married Kinsky Right from the start, tongues wagged about her relationships with men. When she gave birth to a second son, John, six years later, rumours about whether Randolph was his father were rife. Apart from anything else, Jennie was spending less and less time with her husband who, according to the rumours, had visited a toothless old prostitute after drinking too much champagne, and had contracted syphilis. Despite everything, however, the marriage survived. Jennie moved the family into a new London home, near Marble Arch, which became a curiosity in itself as the first house in the capital to have electricity. But she still held Winston at arm's length, confessing he was a demanding child who teased his baby brother and could be uncontrollable. 'It is said that famous men are usually the product of an unhappy childhood,' Winston wrote later.

'The stern compression of circumstances, the twinges of adversity, the spur of slight and taunts in early years are needed to evoke that ruthless fixity of purpose and tenacious mother wit without which great actions are seldom accomplished.' He was certainly speaking from experience. Even by the standards of the age, Winston's parents were less than attentive. His mother put him on the train to his first boarding school at the age of eight, and failed to read between the lines of his letters home, which begged her to write or visit. No doubt she was too preoccupied with her own lifestyle, which consisted of charity work, shopping and entertaining gentlemen friends at lunch. Even before he went away to school, little Winston had become suspicious of her amorous activities after noting one day that a hole in her stocking was on one leg when she left home and on the other when she returned. By the mid-1880s, Jennie was madly in love with London's man of the moment, the handsome Austrian Count Charles Kinsky, who had just won the Grand National. While everyone suspected the liaison, no one seemed to mind, including Randolph, who enjoyed the Count's company.

When Winston came home from school one weekend, he discovered his mother and the count openly breakfasting together. After ten years, his mother was living in an open marriage. Not only did his father have other women, including Gladys, Countess de Grey, the most beautiful woman of her generation (to whom Oscar Wilde dedicated his play A Woman Of No Importance), and the actress Ellen Terry, there was also talk of homosexual liaisons during his frequent visits to Paris. Sir Winston and Lady Churchill (centre) had a very different relationship to his parents. Randolph himself confessed that he preferred 'rough women who dance and sing and drink' to society ladies like his wife. Jennie, however, put up with it all, content with her place as the wife of a rising political star. But then, out of the blue, Randolph resigned from government. His career was over and divorce was seriously discussed. Although the marriage survived, Jennie, by then 32, was left with little of her former standing - nor the income which she had once taken for granted. But she still insisted on buying beautiful gowns to keep up appearances, a rule she had learned from her mother, and what Jennie wore immediately became the fashion.

One person who noticed her flair was the 45-year-old Prince of Wales. An affair almost certainly followed. She received the Prince at home alone and even hired a soon-to-be-famous cook, Rosa Lewis, to prepare private dinners for him. But her royal admirer was not her only love interest. One American magazine referred to her as Lady Jane Snatcher, due to her fondness for snaffling up likely escorts, and she was also known as Lady Randy. Amid all her other distractions, she even found time for a rapprochement with her husband. Both were so busy that neither found the time to visit Winston at school on his 13th birthday, and when he returned for the Christmas holidays, he found the house empty - his parents had gone to Russia together. 'My darling Mummy,' the boy wrote plaintively, 'I do wish you were at home, it would be so nice.' At this stage, Winston was not his mother's priority. She was the centre of Europe's attention. Russia loved her. Germany, including Count Herbert Bismarck, son of the German Chancellor, fell at her feet.

And when she visited relatives in Paris at the end of 1888, she added a number of French suitors to her conquests. While their marriage had now been reduced to a mutual concern for each other's health, she and Randolph still decided to embark on a world tour together, taking with them a leadlined coffin in case he died en route. He was so ill that Jennie was pinning her hopes on marrying the highly eligible Count Kinsky as soon as she was free. In Rangoon, however, her hopes were dashed. There, Jennie received a telegram announcing the Count's engagement to another woman. Randolph made it home to England but died aged 44, in January 1895, and was buried at Blenheim. Jennie was now 41, alone in the world and living on a very restricted income - the family couldn't even rustle up enough money to send Winston to Cambridge. For the time being, her best bet seemed to be joining her sisters in Paris. And there, as usual, new opportunities presented themselves.

After countless flirtations with British gentry, including John Delacour, Lord Wolverton and Lord Astor, Jennie fell in love with a fellow American, Bourke Cockran, who would become another of Winston's surrogate fathers. And just as Jennie's Parisian lovers came in useful when she decided Winston should learn French, Cockran was now instructed to introduce her 22-year-old son to New York. There, Winston was so popular that back in England Jennie set out to sing her son's praises wherever she went. Having failed to boost Randolph's career, she was determined to bolster her son's - to his great benefit. Despite all her pushiness and vanity, and her compulsion to be a social butterfly, Jennie was still an admirable character. She was a woman on her own in a foreign country, but was an indefatigable networker and was determined to make the most of life. She started a literary magazine, she took a hospital ship to South Africa to help in the Boer War effort, she wrote a play, she took up interior design, and she helped establish Winston, who had inherited her resourcefulness, in politics. Had she married Kinsky, it might have been a very different story.

Absorbed in a new husband, she might not have poured all her hopes into Winston - and the course of history might have taken a very different course. But two years after Randolph's death, she fell in love once again. At the Duchess of Devonshire's fancydress ball, the highpoint of the London season, she met George Frederick Middleton Cornwallis, a 23-year-old contemporary of Winston's. He was exquisitely handsome and dressed as a black slave. Jennie was smitten. Despite protests from his family and the Prince of Wales, she married George in 1900 in a grand Knightsbridge wedding. Winston stood gamely by his mother's side. But while Jennie thought George stood to inherit two large estates, he actually had no money at all. When he was declared bankrupt in 1914, she divorced him. By the end of World War I, however, she had a new young admirer, Montagu Porch, the son of a Somerset landowner. She married him in 1918 at Harrow register office. Porch was 32, Jennie 65, but she had not given up her lust for life.

She took a part in a film, and she filled her life with travelling and decorating - for Winston, now married to his Clemmie and making his way in the world of politics, was no longer so dependent. The end came out of the blue. One day, while visiting a friend in Somerset, Jennie, who was wearing some shoes she had just bought in Rome, slipped on the oak staircase. A bad fracture ended in gangrene and amputation of a leg, and a couple of months later she suffered a fatal haemorrhage. 'I do not feel a sense of tragedy but only loss,' wrote Winston loyally. 'Her life was a full one. The wind was in her veins.' As for poor Porch, her young husband, he returned too late from a trip abroad to an empty house - and a mountain of his wife's debts. After all her excesses, it was perhaps a fitting legacy. • Lady Randy: Churchill's Mother will be screened on Channel 4 on Tuesday, November 11, at 9pm.

People should 'know stuff' before entering politics | Daily Mail Online People should 'know stuff' before entering politics comments Lets hope Health Minister MP Anne Milton doesn't lose her job to someone younger in the coming reshuffle Health minister Anne Milton, a nurse for 25 years, thinks people should wait until they’re 45 and ‘know stuff’ before going into politics. ‘Going into politics later in life is a good thing,’ she says. Mrs Milton, MP for Guildford, is 55. Prime Minister David Cameron is 44. (As is Nick Clegg. Chancellor George Osborne is 39.) Let’s hope the sensible Mrs M doesn’t lose her job to someone younger in the coming reshuffle by wet-behind-the-ears Cameron. The former Oxford historian Norman Stone, who appeared at an Oldie lunch yesterday, explained why he moved to Ankara, Turkey, rather than the wealthy groves of U.S. academe. Smoking bans.

‘When I arrived in Ankara and saw at the airport six policemen smoking under a No Smoking sign I realised it was the place for me.’ Peter Bowles, 74, says he nearly gave up acting before landing the part of Richard DeVere opposite Penelope Keith in To The Manor Born. ‘I’d spent all my life as a supporting actor, even in the theatre, where I was held back by my height (6ft 2ins), elocution and, in part, because I wasn’t gay.’ Gays discriminating against straights – who’d have guessed it!?! Billed as a great scoop, the BBC’s ‘interview’ with Libyan defector Musa Kusa by security correspondent Gordon Corera was a joke. Taken to a secret address – clearly the Dover Street area of Piccadilly – Corera (and viewers) were treated to a brief speech in Arabic by Kusa. What’s our Government up to with the doleful Kusa? Is he being groomed as Libya’s new leader?

Lillie Langtry (1859-1929) captivated The Prince of Wales and was to become his mistress By inviting six former ‘partners’ to their wedding – supposedly a very modern gesture – Prince William and Kate Middleton are merely following King Edward VII, who, at his 1902 coronation, set aside a special pew in Westminster Abbey for the sole use of half a dozen former lovers, including the famous actress Lillie Langtry, pictured right. The pew in question was known among courtiers as ‘the loose box’. Speaking on behalf of nurses this week on Radio 4: Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing. Why’s a doctor running the nurses’ professional body? Carter’s doctorate is in philosophy, not medicine. But his PhD thesis might have endeared him to the nation’s angels. It was on ‘understanding why nurses abuse patients’. Reader John Earlswood of Solihull writes to say: ‘So, Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivory Coast evil dictator who refused to acknowledge basic democratic principles, had 45 per cent of the popular vote in the last regulated general election, and was justifiably removed.

Meanwhile our own leader presumes to teach these dastardly dictators a lesson in democracy, from the sturdy platform of 36 per cent of the popular vote in his last general election. Funny old world isn’t it?’ Quite so.

Question: Who sat in the 'Loose Box' of Edward VII's coronation at Westminster Abbey, his?
Answer: Mistresses