Prince Edward, Duke of Kent : Father of the Canadian Crown

It was to the old capital of New France that the 24-year-old Prince Edward Augustus arrived with his regiment, the Royal Fusiliers (7th Regiment of Foot), in 1791. Exiled from court for his lavish spending habits, the Prince was accompanied by his long-time mistress Julie de St. Laurent. Together they found themselves immersed in a society struggling for an identity. Even though much of his time on the continent was filled with pleas to be sent away from it, Prince Edward's life became woven into the fabric of a highly-charged society, deeply scared by social and political divisions. If only Edward, shivering in the cold of his first Canadian winter, could have foreseen that seventy years later Canada would be united under the crown of his daughter, Queen Victoria.