{"id":21593,"date":"2023-01-24T11:55:01","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T10:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=223402"},"modified":"2023-01-24T12:35:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T11:35:18","slug":"edward-vii-a-guide-to-the-king-who-ruled-over-the-edwardian-age","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/edward-vii-a-guide-to-the-king-who-ruled-over-the-edwardian-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward VII: a guide to the king who ruled over the Edwardian age"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Emma Slattery Williams\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 24 January 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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When 59-year-old Edward VII came to the throne in January 1901, he couldn\u2019t have been more different to his late mother, Queen Victoria<\/a>. The king and former Prince of Wales was the complete opposite of the Victorian ideal of propriety; he lived for life\u2019s excesses, and was renowned for his love of smoking, gambling and cavorting with his many mistresses.<\/p>\n

Born on 9 November 1841, Albert Edward was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert<\/a>. Much to his parents\u2019 dismay, the young Bertie \u2013 as he was known to his family \u2013 was a boisterous boy, and struggled to keep up with the strict educational regime imposed by his private tutors. Despite later flourishing in his studies at Oxford and Cambridge universities, he was at his happiest while partying in Parisian nightclubs and enjoying the company of his private court, which embodied the fashionable and high society elite.<\/p>\n

Read more | Who were Queen Victoria\u2019s children? Everything you need to know about her sons and daughters<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Overall, the prince had a strained relationship with his parents, and things would come to a head when Victoria blamed Bertie for his father\u2019s death<\/a>. While gaining military experience in Ireland, Bertie had spent three nights with an actress who had been smuggled into his camp. A furious Prince Albert visited his eldest son in November 1861 to rebuke him; three weeks later, the prince consort was dead from typhoid \u2013 his demise allegedly hastened by the stress his son had caused. Victoria would later write to her eldest daughter, Vicky, of Bertie: \u201cI never can, or shall, look at him without a shudder.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
In 1863, Bertie married Alexandra, daughter of Christian IX of Denmark, and together they had five surviving children. Despite his mother\u2019s misgivings (and his involvement in the occasional scandal), the people came to adore the genial heir, and his recovery from a severe bout of typhoid \u2013 almost exactly 10 years since the disease had claimed the life of his father \u2013 was greeted with relief across Britain.<\/p>\n
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