Edward VII: The Last Victorian King

by Hibbert, Christopher; Thomas, Hugh

• ISBN13: 9781403983770
• ISBN10: 1403983771
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-06-12
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Summary

To his mother, Queen Victoria, he was 'poor Bertie,' to his wife he was 'my dear little man,' while the President of France called him 'a great English king,' and the German Kaiser condemned him as 'an old peacock.' King Edward VII was all these things and more, as Hibbert reveals in this captivating biography. Shedding new light on the scandals that peppered his life, Hibbert reveals Edward's dismal early years under Victoria's iron rule, his terror of boredom that led to a lively social life at home and abroad, and his eventual ascent to the throne at age 59. Edward is best remembered as the last Victorian king, the monarch who installed the office of Prime Minister.

Author Biography

CHRISTOPHER HIBBERT, "a pearl of biographers" (New Statesman), is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of Disraeli  (Palgrave Macmillan), The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, The English: A Social History, and Cavaliers and Roundheads. He lives in Oxfordshire, England.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Author's Note and Acknowledgements	p. xi
List of Illustrations	p. xiv
Prince of Wales, 1841-1901
'Poor Bertie'	p. 3
'A Private Student'	p. 19
The Suitor	p. 36
The Bridegroom	p. 50
Marlborough House and Sandringham	p. 67
A Troubled Family	p. 81
Rounds of Pleasure	p. 93
The Prince Under Fire	p. 107
A Passage to India	p. 129
Exclusion	p. 140
'Other Ladies'	p. 153
'Inconvenient' Friends and 'Ill-bred' Children	p. 174
King, 1901-1910
King of the Castle	p. 191
The King at Work	p. 205
The King at Home	p. 221
The King Abroad	p. 236
L'Oncle de l'Europe	p. 249
The King and the Kaiser	p. 265
The Final Months	p. 280
Drawn Blinds	p. 297
Reference Notes	p. 306
Bibliography	p. 320
Index	p. 326
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