Both as Prince and King, Edward was immensely sociable and fun loving. He combined royal dignity with friendliness and majesty with personal warmth, yet also possessed that much-admired quality in a privileged royal, the “common touch.” This enabled Edward to communicate with anyone, from the highest to the humblest, and put all of them at ease.
Lillie Langtry’s Big Mistake
Although Edward never forgot who he was, and expected everyone else to be aware of it, too, he was still a perfect fit for the role of leader of London high society, and an inveterate partygoer. At times, though, he was so convivial that his guests were sometimes tempted to relax too much and overstep the barriers.
Even those closest to Edward received the cold shoulder when they went too far. His beautiful mistress, Lillie Langtry - known as the Jersey Lily - once poured a handful of ice down the back of his neck as a joke during a costume ball. An awful silence ensued. The royal face went black with fury and Edward stared fixedly at Lillie for several seconds before stalking from the room.
From then on, Lillie Langtry was persona non grata in London high society and it took Edward a long time to forgive her and take her back. What Lillie had forgotten was that the Prince of Wales, as Edward then was, was extremely conscious of his royal persona and that no one, not even the famed Jersey Lily could make him look a fool in public and get away with it.
How Edward Escaped Scandal
Edward, on the other hand, consistently “got away with it” when it came to his collection of mistresses. This was far from easy in the Victorian age when promiscuity was regarded as a social evil and treated as if it did not exist. However, both as Prince and King, a way out was devised for Edward in an effort to keep the scandals he created from being revealed.
High society and the press conspired to protect him and even though the gossips knew all about his flamboyant way of life - or thought they did - it was “not done” to talk openly about it. The deferential press volunteered not to publicize the royal escapades or spell out the ways in which the situation was known, but concealed.
For instance, in country houses where Edward and his current mistress stayed at weekends, the couple were quietly given adjoining rooms. This ensured that Edward could not be caught creeping along the corridors at night, on the way to an illicit tryst.
Scandalizing Victorian Society
Mistresses, though, were only one aspect of a life which involved Edward in almost every sin and solecism that scandalized straightlaced Victorian society. Edward drank, smoke, feasted and gambled, all to excess. When he was abroad, he frequented the brothels of Paris and hunted fresh game at Marienbad and other European spas where hordes of women, from society ladies to courtesans, were there for the picking.
In 1870, Edward came close to being cited as co-respondent in the controversial Mordaunt divorce case. In this instance, the worst was averted and he escaped cross-examination when Lady Mordaunt was declared insane.
Cheating at Cards
Nevertheless, time and age failed to cure the errant royal. In 1890, when he was nearly fifty, Edward caused fresh furore when he was involved in a messy court wrangle after his partner in an illegal game of baccarat at Tranby Croft, a country house in Yorkshire, was accused of cheating. Cheating at cards was the ultimate social crime in Victorian society, and the scandal reached its climax when Edward appeared in the witness box at the trial.
Members of the Royal Family, particularly the heir to the throne, were supposed to be proof against such public exposure. Instead, there was no holding back the gossip and there was talk that Edward was not fit to inherit the throne. The French press, which was not under the same restraints as its British counterpart, freely speculated that Edward was going to give up his right to succeed.
Edward, A Bit of a Lad
But what the French and Edward’s other critics overlooked was that in itself, royal immorality had never wrecked the prospects of an heir to the English throne. However much the prudes and Puritans disapproved, there was an undertow of popular feeling that Edward was simply doing what came naturally to a red-blooded male.
Besides, ordinary British people who lacked the self righteous snobbery of the upper classes had a special place in their hearts for a prince and king who was “a bit of a lad” and had the same human frailties as themselves.
Sources
Hibbert, Christopher and Thomas, Hugh: Edward VII: The Last Victorian King (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)ISBN-10: 1403983771/ISBN-13: 978-1403983770
Thomas, Pauline Weston. "The Mood of Edwardian Society." fashion-era.com
Thompson, Paul Richard: The Edwardians: The Remaking of British Society (Florence, Kentucky: Routledge, 2004) ISBN-10: 0415061148/ISBN-13: 978-0415061148
Brenda Ralph Lewis - My interest in history dates from childhood. I am presently the author of 120 books and hundreds of articles, all on historical ...
