EDWARD VI! 



2805 



EDWARD VII 



EDWARD VII : KING AND PEACEMAKER 



J. G. J. Penclerel-Brodhurst, Author, The Life and Times of Edward VII 



As in the case of other kings of England, an article is devoted to the 



life and work of this monarch. For the history of his time see 



Europe ; France ; United Kingdom, etc. See also Victoria 



Albert Edward, the second child 

 and eldest son of Queen Victoria 

 and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, 

 was born at Buckingham Palace, 

 Nov. 9, 1841. He was educated 

 upon pedantic and rigid lines, which 

 made his boyhood a weariness and 

 his adolescence a struggle for 

 emancipation. His day was care- 

 fully mapped out ; every hour had 

 its allotted subject, and light read- 

 ing was frowned upon ; he was 

 kept in on every side by governors 

 and tutors, and allowed to asso- 

 ciate intimately only with youths 

 of his own age. carefully chosen for 

 their high qualities. This method 

 excluded much of the human side 

 of life, and left little room for the 

 escape of the high animal spirits 

 which Edward VII possessed almost 

 to the last. He studied science 

 at Edinburgh, and went up succes- 

 sively to Christ Church, Oxford, 

 and Trinity, Cambridge, but took 

 no degrees. The wisest part of his 

 education consisted of travel, and 

 the Prince Consort exhibited ad- 

 mirable foresight when, in 1860, 

 he arranged a long tour for his son 

 in Canada and the U.S.A. At the 

 end of 1861 Prince Albert died, 

 and immediately afterwards hie 

 son paid a visit to the Holy Land. 



In 1863 he married Princess 

 Alexandra, daughter of Prince 

 Christian of Gliicksburg, who 

 shortly afterwards became king 

 of Denmark. Good-looking, good- 

 humoured, frank and open, with 

 an untiring zest for life, of cosmo 

 politan tastes, yet an Englishman 

 to the core, his marriage greatly 

 increased the popularity which he 

 had always enjoyed. For very 

 many years he performed with 

 tact and assiduity the representa- 

 tive functions which Queen Vic- 

 toria felt herself unable to face. 

 The more tedious duties of royal 

 personages in a democratic mon- 

 archy are hardly a training for 

 statesmanship, but they bring a 

 prince into contact with the people, 

 and provide him with the means 

 of becoming acquainted with every 

 corner of his country and with 

 many social grades. 



King Edward made the best ot 

 such opportunities. He had an in- 

 exhaustible interest in men. They 

 were the books from which he 

 learned, and as time went on his 

 knowledge of social and political 

 movements became extensive. He 

 knew all the distinguished men in 

 Europe, and gradually developed 

 a keen and sane interest in affairs, 



and especially in foreign politics. 

 Yet his political knowledge was 

 acquired externally and by inter- 

 course with politicians. Not until 

 he was turned fifty was Queen 

 Victoria's assent obtained to his 

 receiving copies of important dis- 

 patches. Foreign politics fasci- 

 nated him, and from middle life 

 to the close of his short but bril- 

 liant reign he was profoundly in- 

 terested in the external relations 

 of the Empire. 



Side by side with this absorbing 

 interest he developed keen sym- 

 pathy with social reform. He was 

 a member of a royal commission 

 on the housing of the poor ; to 

 him the London hospitals owe in 

 large measure the present living 

 interest in their work. His solici- 

 tude for the alleviation of pain 



and sickness was to some extent 

 the outcome of his own grave 

 illness from typhoid in 1871, when 

 he was saved from death only by 

 the most skilful nursing and a 

 robust constitution. It was the 

 social and charitable side of free- 

 masonry which made him an en- 

 thusiast for " the Craft," and 

 brought him to the English grand 

 mastership. 



As heir to the throne the prince 

 necessarily sat upon the cross- 

 benches of the House of Lords. 

 Both as prince of Wales and as 

 king he was a great traveller, and 

 in 1875 he paid a memorable visit 

 to India which laid the founda- 

 tions of the more modern rela- 

 tions of that empire with the 

 mother-country. Yet, despite the 

 popularity won by his unfailing 

 tact, inherent dignity, and careful 

 attention to the duties which fell 

 upon him, or which he made for 

 himself, he was not exempt from 

 criticism. There were those to 

 whom his love of the turf he 



Frnm the portrait 6y BaroJd Speed. 

 By permission of the Fine Arts Publishing C 



