The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Wednesday 23 March 2005

The Princess of Wales' Wayward Son
Or, The Trouble with Eddy

As snow glistened in the afternoon sun, the lively and beautiful 19-year-old Princess of Wales was forced to sit and watch others enjoying themselves. The merry band of revelers strapped skates to their feet and launched onto the ice. Everyone except the pretty princess agreed it was best for the lovely Alexandra to be left out of the fun. A natural athlete and lifelong ice skater, the teenager, however, was not content to cool her heels, despite her seven-month pregnancy.  

Instead, she persuaded a friend to push her in a chair across the ice, while her bon vivant husband, Bertie, skated beside hers. This was the exactly the kind of activity Alexandra�s mother-in-law, Queen Victoria found disconcerting. Although Victoria adored the loving Danish princess, she had hoped Alexandra would have a calming affect on her wayward son and heir. Instead, she was discovering that Bertie�s hijinks were enlivening Alexandra�s own high spirits. A skating party was certainly not an appropriate activity for an expectant mother, in Queen Victoria�s view. 

As the sun climbed the sky and began to descend again, Alexandra did not mention a nagging discomfort that had recurred periodically throughout the day. By the time the party returned to the house, she finally confided in one of her ladies. As the mother of 13, Lady Macclesfield immediately recognized the princess�s predicament and sent for the doctors.  

Although royal fathers rarely attended the births of their children�even Prince Philip was not present when Prince Charles was born in 1948�Bertie was pressed into service as Lady Macclesfield�s assistant as the labor progressed. With the doctors still in transit, Lady Macclesfield used her own petticoat to delivere a prince, who weighed just a little more than three pounds. When the Queen rushed down to see him, she found him a pitiful little thing. 

Despite his inauspicious beginnings, the infant survived. Against his parents� wishes, Queen Victoria insisted he be named Albert Victor after her deceased husband and herself. (She continued to insist that all of her descendants bear at least one name in honor of Albert or herself.) Bertie and Alexandra accepted under protest, adding Christian�after Alexandra�s father, the King of Denmark�and Edward. Then, they nicknamed him �Eddy,� much to the Queen�s dismay. 

Prince Eddy was soon joined by a little brother, Georgie, and three sisters, Louise, Maud and Victoria, all of whom also were born �prematurely.� While Eddy�s prematurity was genuine, his siblings� early births may have been contrived. Princess Alexandra, who did not relish Queen Victoria�s desire to attend the births of children and great grandchildren, tended to announce later due dates to thwart her mother-in-law�s plans. Her final pregnancy, however, was even more premature than the first, and the little Prince Alexander did not survive a day. 

Despite that tragedy, the Wales household was a joyous one. As children, Bertie had been stifled by his parents� stringent strictures while Alexandra had thrived in a household filled with rambunctious games and lively activities. The young parents, therefore, both agreed to raise their children with great indulgence. Not many upper class Victorians could be found bathing their children, but Alexandra was a very hands-on mother, even inviting guests to help her with the ritual. Several people, who no doubt left their own children�s care to nannies, were surprised to find themselves up to the elbows in a royal baby bath. 

The Wales� London home, Marlborough House, and their country estate, Sandringham, rang with the laughter of children, and was overrun by dogs, cats, birds, ponies and animals of every sort. Eddy and his siblings enjoyed practical jokes that some guests found annoying but Bertie and Alexandra found amusing. When the youngsters brought a pony into their fashionable mother�s bedroom, she merely laughed. �I was much worse at their age,� she would say when others complained about the �wild Waleses.� 

Eddy was not Victoria�s first or favorite grandson�both of those honors went to the future Kaiser Wilhelm�but she was keenly interested in his upbringing and education because of his destiny as heir to the throne. Neither Bertie nor Alexandra were particularly intellectual and were not terribly troubled over their children�s education. Nevertheless, tutors were brought in for the boys and while neither seemed terribly bright, Eddy was clearly slow and lethargic. Eventually, even his father grew concerned about his lack of energy and his inability to learn. 

Alexandra, however, adored her first born and he was greatly attached to her. Long after most boys begin to break away from their mother�s, Eddy still clung to Alexandra. He was a very handsome and affectionate child, but his indolence did not bode well for his future. 

Parents and grandmother finally agreed that Eddy and Georgie should be sent to school when they were twelve and ten years old. The school they preferred, however, was beyond either boy�s academic abilities according to their tutor. Alexandra and Bertie proposed the naval college at Dartmouth for both, but Queen Victoria thought there was no reason they both should attend, opting instead to send Bertie for shipboard naval training. Once again, the tutor intervened, warning that Eddy would never be induced to learn without the presence of his little brother. So it was, that both boys were sent off to the navy. They visited both the West Indies and Australia on their cruises, but Eddy made woeful little progress. When he was later sent to try life as a soldier, he had little more success. A stint at university �earned� him an honorary degree and also began to reveal a less attractive side of his charming personality. 

The young Eddy seemed to be able rouse himself only for rabble-rousing. He was said to be attractive to both men and women, frequenting prostitutes of both sexes. It is very likely that he contracted gonorrhea as well as syphilis. Even as his growing debauchery led some people to believe he might even be Jack the Ripper, the extent of his behavior was kept secret from Victoria. Nevertheless, the aging Queen despaired of what would happen to the throne after her death with Bertie, whom she never believed capable, and slow-witted Eddy to succeed her.  

By the time Eddy reached his mid-twenties, the Queen and his parents determined that marriage was the key to helping the lethargic prince. The problem was finding a suitable princess who would be willing to marry him. Even the lofty idea of being the future Queen of England did not prove ample enticement to overcome Eddy�s reputation. Overcoming her fear of consanguinity�her own marriage to a first cousin had possibly led to hemophilia in one of her sons and several of her grandsons�Victoria even proposed several of granddaughters as potential brides. Each of the princesses, however, refused to marry their cousin. Eddy himself found his own candidates, including a nobleman�s daughter whom the Queen deemed unsuitable for a future king, and a French princess. Initially, Victoria refused to entertain the idea of Eddy marrying Helene of Orleans, daughter of the French pretender to the throne. Eddy and the lovely Helene, from whom the crown of England outshone Eddy�s faults, became secretly engaged. Relying on his own charms and on his grandmother�s sense of romance, Eddy took his fianc�e for a surprise visit to the Queen. The attractive couple won the Queen�s approval with one tiny caveat: Helene would have to forsake her Catholicism. When her father learned this, he immediately cancelled the engagement and Eddy was once again on the market.  

Slowly, Queen Victoria began to reconsider a candidate she had earlier rejected, Princess May of Teck. The daughter of Victoria�s cousin, �Fat Mary� of Cambridge, May had been raised in England. Her mother was extremely popular throughout the country but was not well liked by the Queen, who found Mary and her husband too �jolly.� The Duke and Duchess of Teck were rarely invited to see the Queen and, therefore, Victoria had not met 24-year-old Princess May in several years. Still preferring to avoid Fat Mary, Victoria invited May and her old brother to visit her privately in early November. Bertie, Alexandra and Eddy also were left out of this exclusive gathering. Victoria was impressed by the slim, quiet and dignified young woman. Within a month, Eddy was instructed to propose. 

Meanwhile, Georgie fell ill with typhoid and was unable to attend the engagement festivities. His illness heightened everyone�s awareness of Eddy�s need to marry and father children. Georgie recovered enough over the next few weeks that full attention could once again focus on the upcoming wedding. The Tecks joined the Waleses for Eddy�s 28^th birthday festivities at Sandringham. Eddy, who had caught a cold at a recent family funeral, went out hunting one day during the party. The next day, he joined everyone downstairs, but he was clearly unwell with the flu. Within a few more days, his condition had deteriorated to pneumonia, although the doctors hesitated to use the word, opting instead to call it an inflammation of the lungs. With his doting mother and his composed fianc�e at his side, Eddy died. 

Alexandra, the royal family and the nation were stunned by his sudden demise. Messages of solace streamed in from throughout the country. Bertie continually visited his son�s room until the funeral. Alexandra took Eddy�s hat and hung it in her bedroom. Then, she ordered that not a single thing in his room be changed. For decades, the soap was replaced regularly and the fire was kept burning. Georgie wrote Queen Victoria that he would gladly have taken his brother�s place. And, Victoria wrote in her journal, �Poor, poor parents, poor May. . .Poor me, in my old age to see this young promising life cut short!� 

Victoria, Alexandra and the nation, however, had no intention of letting May slip away from them. In just a few months time, everyone had come to recognize her as an invaluable asset to the royal family and the nation. Young Georgie, whose naval career was now suspended, was encouraged to make his brother�s fianc�e his bride, after a suitable time had elapsed. In addition to his career, Georgie was forced to give up his personal plans to marry his cousin, Princess Marie of Edinburgh, who later became Queen of Rumania. It was inauspicious beginning for a marriage. Nevertheless the two quiet, aloof young people proved to be very compatible. 

- Cheryl