Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence
Encyclopedia
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (Albert Victor Christian Edward; 8 January 1864 – 14 January 1892) was a member of the British Royal Family
. He was the eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and Alexandra, Princess of Wales
(later Queen Alexandra), and the grandson of the reigning monarch, Queen Victoria. From the time of his birth, he was second in the line of succession to the throne
, but he did not become king because he died before his father and his grandmother, the Queen.
Albert Victor was known to his family as "Eddy" and many later biographers have referred to him by this pet name. When young, he travelled the world extensively as a naval cadet. As an adult he joined the army, but did not undertake any active military duties. After two unsuccessful courtships, he was engaged to be married to Mary of Teck
in late 1891. Just a few weeks later, he died in an influenza pandemic
. Mary later married his younger brother, George
, who became King George V in 1910.
Albert Victor's intellect, sexuality and sanity have been the subject of much speculation. Rumours linked him with the Cleveland Street scandal
, which involved a homosexual brothel, but there is no conclusive evidence verifying or disproving the rumours or his sexual orientation. Some authors have argued that he was the serial killer
known as Jack the Ripper
. Contemporary documents indicate that Albert Victor could not have been in London
at the time of the murders, however, and the claim is widely dismissed.
, Windsor, Berkshire
. He was the first child of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales
, and Alexandra, Princess of Wales
(formerly Alexandra of Denmark). Following his grandmother Queen Victoria
's wishes, he was named Albert Victor, after herself and her late husband Albert, but was known informally as "Eddy". As a grandchild of the reigning British monarch
in the male line, he was styled His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor of Wales from birth.
Albert Victor was christened in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace
on 10 March 1864 by the Archbishop of Canterbury
, Charles Thomas Longley
. His godparents were Queen Victoria (his paternal grandmother), King Christian IX of Denmark
(his maternal grandfather, represented by his brother Prince Johann of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg), King Leopold I of Belgium
(his great great-uncle), the Dowager Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (his maternal great-grandmother, for whom the Duchess of Cambridge stood proxy), the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (his great-aunt by marriage, for whom the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz stood proxy), the Landgrave of Hesse (his maternal great-grandfather, for whom Prince George, Duke of Cambridge
, stood proxy), the Crown Princess of Prussia (his paternal aunt, for whom The Princess Helena
, her sister, stood proxy) and The Prince Alfred
(his paternal uncle).
When Albert Victor was just short of seventeen months old, his brother, Prince George of Wales
, was born on 3 June 1865. Given the closeness in age of the two royal brothers, they were educated together. In 1871, the Queen appointed John Neale Dalton
as their tutor. The two princes were given a strict programme of study, which included games and military drills as well as academic subjects. Dalton complained that Albert Victor's mind was "abnormally dormant". Though he learned to speak Danish, progress in other languages and subjects was slow. Albert Victor never excelled intellectually. Lady Geraldine Somerset blamed Dalton for Albert Victor's poor education, but possible physical explanations for Albert Victor's inattention or indolence in class include his premature birth, which can be associated with learning difficulties, or petit mal
, a mild form of epilepsy
manifested in childhood as periods of mental vacuity
. Sir Henry Ponsonby
thought that Albert Victor might have inherited his mother's deafness.
Separating the brothers for the remainder of their education was considered, but Dalton advised the Prince of Wales against splitting them up as "Prince Albert Victor requires the stimulus of Prince George's company to induce him to work at all." In 1877, the two boys were sent to the Royal Navy
's training ship, HMS Britannia
. They began their studies there two months behind the other cadets as Albert Victor contracted typhoid fever
, for which he was treated by Sir William Gull. Dalton accompanied them as chaplain to the ship. In 1879, after a great deal of discussion between the Queen, the Prince of Wales, their households and the Government, the royal brothers were sent as naval cadets on a three-year world tour aboard HMS Bacchante
. Albert Victor was rated midshipman on his sixteenth birthday. They toured the British Empire
, accompanied by Dalton, visiting the Americas, the Falkland Islands
, South Africa
, Australia
, Fiji
, the Far East
, Singapore
, Ceylon, Aden
, Egypt
, the Holy Land
and Greece
. They acquired tattoos in Japan
. By the time they returned to the UK, Albert Victor was eighteen.
The brothers were parted in 1883; George continued in the navy and Albert Victor attended Trinity College, Cambridge
. James Kenneth Stephen
was appointed as a tutor and lived partly at Sandringham
during his tutorship, along with Dalton who was still in attendance both at Sandringham and at Trinity. Some biographers have said that Stephen was a misogynist, although this has recently been questioned, and he may have felt emotionally attached to Albert Victor, but whether or not his feelings were overtly homosexual is open to question. It is not known whether Albert Victor had any sexual experiences at Cambridge, but partners of either sex would have been available to him. He showed little interest in the intellectual atmosphere and he was excused examinations, though he did become involved in undergraduate life. In August 1884, he spent some time at the University of Heidelberg studying German. Leaving Cambridge in 1885, where he had already served as a cadet in the 2nd Cambridge University Battalion, he was gazetted as an officer in the 10th Hussars.
One of Albert Victor's instructors said he learnt by listening rather than reading or writing and had no difficulty remembering information, but Prince George, Duke of Cambridge
, had a less favourable opinion of him, calling him "an inveterate and incurable dawdler". Much of Albert Victor's time at his post in Aldershot
was spent drilling, which he disliked, though he did like to play polo
. He passed his examinations, and in March 1887, he was posted to Hounslow
where he was promoted to captain. He was given more public engagements, visited Ireland
and Gibraltar
, and opened the Hammersmith suspension bridge
. Of his private life, a childhood friend of Albert Victor later recalled that it was uneventful: "his brother officers had said that they would like to make a man of the world of him. Into that world he refused to be initiated."
In July 1889, the Metropolitan Police
uncovered a male brothel in London's Cleveland Street
. Under police interrogation, the male prostitutes and pimps revealed the names of their clients, who included Lord Arthur Somerset, an Extra Equerry
to the Prince of Wales. At the time, all homosexual acts between men were illegal, and the clients faced social ostracism, prosecution, and at worst, two years' imprisonment with hard labour. The resultant Cleveland Street scandal implicated other high-ranking figures in British society. Rumours swept upper-class London of the involvement of a member of the royal family: Prince Albert Victor. The prostitutes had not named Albert Victor and it is suggested that Somerset's solicitor, Arthur Newton, fabricated and spread the rumours to take the heat off his client. Letters exchanged between the Treasury Solicitor
, Sir Augustus Stephenson, and his assistant, The Hon. Hamilton Cuffe
, make coded reference to Newton's threats to implicate Albert Victor. The Prince of Wales intervened in the investigation; none of the clients were ever prosecuted and nothing against Albert Victor was proven. Although there is no conclusive evidence for or against his involvement, or whether or not he ever visited a homosexual club or brothel, the rumours and cover-up led some biographers to suppose that he did visit Cleveland Street, and that he was "possibly bisexual, probably homosexual". This is contested by other biographers, one of which refers to him as "ardently heterosexual" and his involvement in the rumours as "somewhat unfair". The historian H. Montgomery Hyde wrote, "There is no evidence that he was homosexual, or even bisexual."
Somerset's sister, Lady Waterford
, denied that her brother knew anything about Albert Victor, "I am sure the boy is as straight as a line ... Arthur does not the least know how or where the boy spends his time ... he believes the boy to be perfectly innocent", she wrote. In surviving private letters from Somerset to his friend Lord Esher
, Somerset denies knowing anything about Albert Victor, but confirms that he has heard the rumours and hopes that they will help quash any prosecution. He wrote, "I can quite understand the Prince of Wales being much annoyed at his son's name being coupled with the thing but that was the case before I left it ... we were both accused of going to this place but not together ... they will end by having out in open court exactly what they are all trying to keep quiet. I wonder if it is really a fact or only an invention." He continued, "I have never mentioned the boy's name except to Probyn, Montagu and Knollys
when they were acting for me and I thought they ought to know. Had they been wise, hearing what I knew and therefore what others knew, they ought to have hushed the matter up, instead of stirring it up as they did, with all the authorities."
The rumours have persisted; sixty years later the official biographer of King George V, Harold Nicolson
, was told by Lord Goddard
, who was a twelve-year old schoolboy at the time of the scandal, that Albert Victor "had been involved in a male brothel scene, and that a solicitor had to commit perjury
to clear him. The solicitor was struck off the rolls for his offence, but was thereafter reinstated." None of the lawyers in the case was convicted of perjury or struck off during the scandal but Somerset's solicitor, Arthur Newton, was convicted of obstruction of justice for helping his clients escape abroad and was sentenced to six weeks in prison. Over 20 years later in 1910, Newton was struck off for 12 months for professional misconduct after falsifying letters from another of his clients—the notorious murderer Dr. Hawley Crippen
. In 1913, he was struck off indefinitely and sentenced to three years' imprisonment for obtaining money by false pretences.
from October 1889 to avoid the gossip which swept London society in the wake of the scandal. This is not true; the trip had actually been planned since the spring. Travelling via Athens
, Port Said
, Cairo
and Aden
, Albert Victor arrived in Bombay on 9 November 1889. He was entertained sumptuously in Hyderabad by the Nizam
, and elsewhere by many other maharaja
hs. He spent Christmas at Mandalay
and the New Year at Calcutta. Most of the extensive travelling was done by train, although elephants were ridden as part of ceremonies. In the style of the time, a great many animals were shot for sport.
During the trip, Albert Victor met Mrs. Margery Haddon, the wife of a civil engineer, Henry Haddon. After several failed marriages and Albert Victor's death, Margery came to England and claimed the Prince was the father of her son, Clarence Haddon. There was no evidence and her claims were dismissed. She had become an alcoholic and seemed deranged. The allegations were reported to Buckingham Palace and the head of the police Special Branch
investigated. Papers in the National Archives show that neither courtiers nor Margery had any proof of the allegation. In a statement to police Albert Victor's lawyers admitted that there had been "some relations" between him and Mrs. Haddon, but denied the claim of fatherhood.
However, in the 1920s, the son, Clarence, repeated the story and published a book in the United States, My Uncle George V, in which he claimed he was born in London in September 1890, about nine months after Albert Victor's meeting with Mrs. Haddon. In 1933, he was charged with demanding money with menace and attempted extortion after writing to the King asking for hush money. At his trial the following January, the prosecution produced documents showing that Haddon's enlistment papers, marriage certificate, officer's commission, demobilisation papers and employment records all showed he was born in or before 1887, at least two years before Albert Victor met Mrs. Haddon. Haddon was found guilty and the judge, believing Haddon to be suffering from delusions, did not jail him but bound him over for three years on the condition that he made no claim that he was Albert Victor's son. Haddon breached the conditions and was jailed for a year. Dismissed as a crank, he died a broken man. Even if Haddon's claim had been true, as with other royal illegitimacies, it would have made no difference to the royal line of succession. On his return from India, on 24 May 1890, Albert Victor was created Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Earl of Athlone
.
Several women were lined up as possible brides for Albert Victor. The first, in 1889, was Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine but she did not return his affection and refused his offer of engagement. She married Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
in 1894, and was killed along with her husband and children
after the Russian revolution of 1917. The second, in 1890, was a love match with Princess Hélène of Orléans, a daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, and great-granddaughter of King Louis-Philippe I, the last Bourbon King of France.
At first, Queen Victoria opposed any engagement because Hélène was Roman Catholic
. Victoria wrote to her grandson suggesting another of her grandchildren Princess Margaret of Prussia
, as a suitable alternative, but nothing came of her suggestion and once the couple confided their love to her, the Queen relented and supported the marriage. Hélène offered to convert, and Albert Victor offered to abdicate his succession rights to marry her. To the couple's disappointment, her father refused to countenance the marriage and was adamant she could not convert. Hélène travelled personally to intercede with Pope Leo XIII
but he confirmed her father's verdict, and the affair ended. She later became the Duchess of Aosta
.
In mid-1890, Albert Victor was attended by several doctors, but in correspondence his illness is only referred to as "fever" or "gout". Many biographers have assumed that he was suffering from "a mild form of venereal disease", perhaps gonorrhea
, but there is no known source confirming this. It is claimed that in 1891 Albert Victor was subject to blackmail
by two prostitutes to whom he had written incriminating letters. The letters supposedly referring to the case were sold at Bonham's auction house in London in 2002. Owing to discrepancies in the dates and spelling of the letters, however, they are suspected of being forgeries.
In 1891, Albert Victor wrote to Lady Sybil St Clair Erskine
that he was in love once again, though he does not say with whom, but by this time another potential bride, Princess Mary of Teck
, was under consideration. Mary was the daughter of Queen Victoria's first cousin Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck
. Queen Victoria was very supportive, considering Mary ideal—charming, sensible and pretty. On 3 December 1891 Albert Victor, to her "great surprise" proposed to Mary at Luton Hoo
, the country residence of the Danish ambassador to Britain. The wedding was set for 27 February 1892.
Just as plans for both his marriage to Mary and his appointment as Viceroy of Ireland were under discussion, Albert Victor fell ill with influenza in the great influenza pandemic
of 1889–92. He developed pneumonia and died at Sandringham House
in Norfolk
on 14 January 1892, less than a week after his 28th birthday. The Prince and Princess of Wales, Princesses Maud and Victoria, Prince George, Princess Mary, the Duke and Duchess of Teck, three doctors (Manby, Laking and Broadbent
) and three nurses were present. The Prince of Wales's chaplain, Canon Frederick Hervey
, stood over Albert Victor reading prayers for the dying.
The nation was shocked. Shops put up their shutters. The Prince of Wales wrote to Queen Victoria, "Gladly would I have given my life for his". Princess Mary wrote to Queen Victoria of the Princess of Wales, "the despairing look on her face was the most heart-rending thing I have ever seen." His younger brother Prince George wrote, "how deeply I did love him; & I remember with pain nearly every hard word & little quarrel I ever had with him & I long to ask his forgiveness, but, alas, it is too late now!" George took Albert Victor's place in the line of succession, eventually succeeding to the throne as King George V
in 1910. Drawn together during their shared period of mourning, Prince George later married Mary himself in 1893. She became Queen on George's accession.
Conspiracy theories surrounding Albert Victor's death—that he died of syphilis
or poison, that he was pushed off a cliff on the instructions of Lord Randolph Churchill
or that his death was faked to remove him from the line of succession—are fabrications.
Albert Victor's mother, Alexandra, never fully recovered from her son's death and kept the room in which he died as a shrine. Poignantly, at the funeral Mary laid her bridal wreath of orange blossom upon the coffin. Remarkably, James Kenneth Stephen
, Albert Victor's former tutor, refused all food from the day of Albert Victor's death and died 20 days later; he had suffered a head injury in 1886 which left him suffering from psychosis. The Prince is buried in the Albert Memorial Chapel close to St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
. His tomb, by Alfred Gilbert
, is "the finest single example of late nineteenth-century sculpture in the British Isles". A recumbent effigy of the Prince in a Hussar uniform (almost impossible to see properly in situ) lies above the tomb. Kneeling over him is an angel, holding a heavenly crown. The tomb is surrounded by an elaborate railing, with figures of saints. The perfectionist Gilbert spent too much on the commission, went bankrupt, and left the country. Five of the smaller figures were only completed with "a greater roughness and pittedness of texture" after his return to Britain in the 1920s.
, who had met both Albert Victor and his brother George, noted that they had "a total absence of affectation or haughtiness". On the day of Albert Victor's death, the leading Liberal
politician, William Ewart Gladstone
, wrote in his personal private diary "a great loss to our party". However, Queen Victoria referred to Albert Victor's "dissipated life" in private letters to her eldest daughter
, which were later published and, in the mid-twentieth century, the official biographers of Queen Mary and King George V, James Pope-Hennessy
and Harold Nicolson
respectively, promoted hostile assessments of Albert Victor's life, portraying him as lazy, ill-educated and physically feeble. The exact nature of his "dissipations" is not clear, but in 1994 Theo Aronson
favoured the theory on "admittedly circumstantial" evidence that the "unspecified 'dissipations' were predominantly homosexual". Aronson's judgement was based on Albert Victor's "adoration of his elegant and possessive mother; his 'want of manliness'; his 'shrinking from horseplay'; [and] his 'sweet, gentle, quiet and charming' nature", as well as the Cleveland Street rumours and his opinion that there is "a certain amount of homosexuality in all men". He admitted, however, that "the allegations of Prince Eddy's homosexuality must be treated cautiously."
Rumours that Prince Albert Victor may have committed, or been responsible for, the Jack the Ripper
murders were first mentioned in print in 1962. It was later alleged, amongst others by Stephen Knight in Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution, that Albert Victor fathered a child with a woman in the Whitechapel
district of London
, and either he or several high-ranking men committed the murders in an effort to cover up his indiscretion. Though repeated frequently, scholars have dismissed the claims as fantasies, and refer to indisputable proof of the Prince's innocence. For example, on 30 September 1888, when Elizabeth Stride
and Catherine Eddowes
were murdered, Albert Victor was at Balmoral
, the royal retreat in Scotland
, in the presence of Queen Victoria, other family members, visiting German
royalty and a large number of staff. According to the official Court Circular
, family journals and letters, newspaper reports and other sources, he could not have been near any of the murders.
Albert Victor's posthumous reputation became so bad that in 1964 Philip Magnus called his death a "merciful act of providence", supporting the theory that his death removed an unsuitable heir to the throne and replaced him with the reliable and sober George V. In 1972, Michael Harrison
was the first modern author to re-assess Albert Victor and portray him in a more sympathetic light. In recent years, Andrew Cook has continued attempts to rehabilitate Albert Victor's reputation, arguing that his lack of academic progress was partly due to the incompetence of his tutor, Dalton; that he was a warm and charming man; that there is no tangible evidence that he was homosexual or bisexual; that he held liberal views, particularly on Irish Home Rule
; and that his reputation has been diminished by biographers eager to improve the image of his brother, George.
's Sherlock Holmes
' mystery Murder by Decree
was released in 1979 with "Duke of Clarence (Eddy)" played by Robin Marshall. David Wickes' Jack the Ripper was released in 1988 with Marc Culwick
as Prince Albert Victor. Janet Meyers' The Ripper was released in 1997 with Samuel West
as "Prince Eddy". Coincidentally, West had played Albert Victor as a child in the TV miniseries Edward the Seventh which starred his father Timothy West
as the title character. The Hughes Brothers
' From Hell
was based on the graphic novel of the same name
by Alan Moore
and Eddie Campbell
, and was released in 2001. Mark Dexter
portrayed both "Prince Edward" and "Albert Sickert". The story is also the basis for the play Force and Hypocrisy by Doug Lucie.
A pair of alternative history novels, written by Peter Dickinson
, imagine a world where Albert Victor survives and reigns as Victor I. In Gary Lovisi's parallel universe
Sherlock Holmes
short story, "The Adventure of the Missing Detective", he is portrayed as a tyrannical king, who rules after the deaths (under suspicious circumstances) of both his grandmother and father. The Prince also appears as the murder victim in the first of the Lord Francis Powerscourt
crime novels Goodnight Sweet Prince, as a vampire in the novel I, Vampire by Michael Romkey
, and as a murder suspect in the novel Death at Glamis Castle by Robin Paige
.
Foreign Honours Knight Grand Cross, Order of the Netherlands Lion Grand Cross, Order of the Tower and Sword
Grand Cross, Order of Charles III Grand Cross, Order of the Osmanli Grand Cross, Order of the Star Grand Cross, Order of the Annunziata
Grand Cross, Order of the Southern Cross
and a label
of three points argent
, the centre point bearing a cross gules
.
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
. He was the eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and Alexandra, Princess of Wales
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...
(later Queen Alexandra), and the grandson of the reigning monarch, Queen Victoria. From the time of his birth, he was second in the line of succession to the throne
Line of succession to the British Throne
The line of succession to the British throne is the ordered sequence of those people eligible to succeed to the throne of the United Kingdom and the other 15 Commonwealth realms. By the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701, the succession is limited to the descendants of the Electress Sophia of...
, but he did not become king because he died before his father and his grandmother, the Queen.
Albert Victor was known to his family as "Eddy" and many later biographers have referred to him by this pet name. When young, he travelled the world extensively as a naval cadet. As an adult he joined the army, but did not undertake any active military duties. After two unsuccessful courtships, he was engaged to be married to Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
in late 1891. Just a few weeks later, he died in an influenza pandemic
Influenza pandemic
An influenza pandemic is an epidemic of an influenza virus that spreads on a worldwide scale and infects a large proportion of the human population. In contrast to the regular seasonal epidemics of influenza, these pandemics occur irregularly, with the 1918 Spanish flu the most serious pandemic in...
. Mary later married his younger brother, George
George V
George V was king of the United Kingdom and its dominions from 1910 to 1936.George V or similar terms may also refer to:-People:* George V of Georgia * George V of Imereti * George V of Hanover...
, who became King George V in 1910.
Albert Victor's intellect, sexuality and sanity have been the subject of much speculation. Rumours linked him with the Cleveland Street scandal
Cleveland Street scandal
The Cleveland Street scandal occurred in 1889, when a homosexual male brothel in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, London, was discovered by police. At the time, sexual acts between men were illegal in Britain, and the brothel's clients faced possible prosecution and certain social ostracism if discovered...
, which involved a homosexual brothel, but there is no conclusive evidence verifying or disproving the rumours or his sexual orientation. Some authors have argued that he was the serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
known as Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
. Contemporary documents indicate that Albert Victor could not have been in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
at the time of the murders, however, and the claim is widely dismissed.
Early life
Albert Victor was born two months premature on 8 January 1864 at Frogmore HouseFrogmore House
Frogmore House is a 17th-century country house standing at the centre of the Frogmore Estate, amongst beautiful gardens, about a half a mile south of Windsor Castle in the Home Park at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is a Grade I listed building.-Early tenants:The original house on...
, Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
. He was the first child of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, and Alexandra, Princess of Wales
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...
(formerly Alexandra of Denmark). Following his grandmother Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
's wishes, he was named Albert Victor, after herself and her late husband Albert, but was known informally as "Eddy". As a grandchild of the reigning British monarch
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
The monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
in the male line, he was styled His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor of Wales from birth.
Albert Victor was christened in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
on 10 March 1864 by the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, Charles Thomas Longley
Charles Thomas Longley
Charles Thomas Longley was a bishop in the Church of England. He served as Bishop of Ripon, Bishop of Durham, Archbishop of York and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1862 until his death.-Life:...
. His godparents were Queen Victoria (his paternal grandmother), King Christian IX of Denmark
Christian IX of Denmark
Christian IX was King of Denmark from 16 November 1863 to 29 January 1906.Growing up as a prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a junior branch of the House of Oldenburg which had ruled Denmark since 1448, Christian was originally not in the immediate line of succession to the Danish...
(his maternal grandfather, represented by his brother Prince Johann of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg), King Leopold I of Belgium
Leopold I of Belgium
Leopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians, following Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...
(his great great-uncle), the Dowager Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (his maternal great-grandmother, for whom the Duchess of Cambridge stood proxy), the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (his great-aunt by marriage, for whom the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz stood proxy), the Landgrave of Hesse (his maternal great-grandfather, for whom Prince George, Duke of Cambridge
Prince George, Duke of Cambridge
Prince George, Duke of Cambridge was a member of the British Royal Family, a male-line grandson of King George III. The Duke was an army officer and served as commander-in-chief of the British Army from 1856 to 1895...
, stood proxy), the Crown Princess of Prussia (his paternal aunt, for whom The Princess Helena
Princess Helena of the United Kingdom
Princess Helena was a member of the British Royal Family, the third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert....
, her sister, stood proxy) and The Prince Alfred
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
(his paternal uncle).
Education
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
, was born on 3 June 1865. Given the closeness in age of the two royal brothers, they were educated together. In 1871, the Queen appointed John Neale Dalton
John Neale Dalton
Canon John Neale Dalton KCVO CMG was a chaplain to Queen Victoria and tutor to King George V of the United Kingdom.-Life history:...
as their tutor. The two princes were given a strict programme of study, which included games and military drills as well as academic subjects. Dalton complained that Albert Victor's mind was "abnormally dormant". Though he learned to speak Danish, progress in other languages and subjects was slow. Albert Victor never excelled intellectually. Lady Geraldine Somerset blamed Dalton for Albert Victor's poor education, but possible physical explanations for Albert Victor's inattention or indolence in class include his premature birth, which can be associated with learning difficulties, or petit mal
Absence seizure
Absence seizures are one of several kinds of seizures. These seizures are sometimes referred to as petit mal seizures ....
, a mild form of epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
manifested in childhood as periods of mental vacuity
Vacuity
Vacuity can refer to:*Emptiness*Śūnyatā, the Buddhist term about the impermanent nature of form*Vacuity , an alternative rock band from Kitchener, Ontario...
. Sir Henry Ponsonby
Henry Ponsonby
Sir Henry Frederick Ponsonby GCB was a British soldier and royal court official who served as Queen Victoria's Private Secretary.-Biography:He was the son of the British Army general, Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby....
thought that Albert Victor might have inherited his mother's deafness.
Separating the brothers for the remainder of their education was considered, but Dalton advised the Prince of Wales against splitting them up as "Prince Albert Victor requires the stimulus of Prince George's company to induce him to work at all." In 1877, the two boys were sent to the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
's training ship, HMS Britannia
HMS Prince of Wales (1860)
HMS Prince of Wales was one of six 121-gun screw-propelled first-rate three-decker line-of-battle ships of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 25 January 1860...
. They began their studies there two months behind the other cadets as Albert Victor contracted typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
, for which he was treated by Sir William Gull. Dalton accompanied them as chaplain to the ship. In 1879, after a great deal of discussion between the Queen, the Prince of Wales, their households and the Government, the royal brothers were sent as naval cadets on a three-year world tour aboard HMS Bacchante
HMS Bacchante (1876)
HMS Bacchante was a Bacchante-class ironclad screw-propelled corvette of the Royal Navy. She is particularly famous for being the ship on which the Princes George and Albert served as midshipmen....
. Albert Victor was rated midshipman on his sixteenth birthday. They toured the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, accompanied by Dalton, visiting the Americas, the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Ceylon, Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
and Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. They acquired tattoos in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. By the time they returned to the UK, Albert Victor was eighteen.
The brothers were parted in 1883; George continued in the navy and Albert Victor attended Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
. James Kenneth Stephen
James Kenneth Stephen
James Kenneth Stephen was an English poet, and tutor to Prince Albert Victor, eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.-Early life:...
was appointed as a tutor and lived partly at Sandringham
Sandringham House
Sandringham House is a country house on of land near the village of Sandringham in Norfolk, England. The house is privately owned by the British Royal Family and is located on the royal Sandringham Estate, which lies within the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.-History and current...
during his tutorship, along with Dalton who was still in attendance both at Sandringham and at Trinity. Some biographers have said that Stephen was a misogynist, although this has recently been questioned, and he may have felt emotionally attached to Albert Victor, but whether or not his feelings were overtly homosexual is open to question. It is not known whether Albert Victor had any sexual experiences at Cambridge, but partners of either sex would have been available to him. He showed little interest in the intellectual atmosphere and he was excused examinations, though he did become involved in undergraduate life. In August 1884, he spent some time at the University of Heidelberg studying German. Leaving Cambridge in 1885, where he had already served as a cadet in the 2nd Cambridge University Battalion, he was gazetted as an officer in the 10th Hussars.
One of Albert Victor's instructors said he learnt by listening rather than reading or writing and had no difficulty remembering information, but Prince George, Duke of Cambridge
Prince George, Duke of Cambridge
Prince George, Duke of Cambridge was a member of the British Royal Family, a male-line grandson of King George III. The Duke was an army officer and served as commander-in-chief of the British Army from 1856 to 1895...
, had a less favourable opinion of him, calling him "an inveterate and incurable dawdler". Much of Albert Victor's time at his post in Aldershot
Aldershot
Aldershot is a town in the English county of Hampshire, located on heathland about southwest of London. The town is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council...
was spent drilling, which he disliked, though he did like to play polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
. He passed his examinations, and in March 1887, he was posted to Hounslow
Hounslow
Hounslow is the principal town in the London Borough of Hounslow. It is a suburban development situated 10.6 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It forms a post town in the TW postcode area.-Etymology:...
where he was promoted to captain. He was given more public engagements, visited Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, and opened the Hammersmith suspension bridge
Hammersmith Bridge
Hammersmith Bridge is a crossing of the River Thames in west London, just south of the Hammersmith town centre area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham on the north side of the river. It allows road traffic and pedestrians to cross to Barnes on the south side of the river...
. Of his private life, a childhood friend of Albert Victor later recalled that it was uneventful: "his brother officers had said that they would like to make a man of the world of him. Into that world he refused to be initiated."
Cleveland Street scandal
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
uncovered a male brothel in London's Cleveland Street
Cleveland Street, London
Cleveland Street in central London runs north to south from Euston Road to the junction of Mortimer Street and Goodge Street. It lies within Fitzrovia, in the W1 post code area...
. Under police interrogation, the male prostitutes and pimps revealed the names of their clients, who included Lord Arthur Somerset, an Extra Equerry
Equerry
An equerry , and related to the French word "écuyer" ) is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually upon a Sovereign, a member of a Royal Family, or a national...
to the Prince of Wales. At the time, all homosexual acts between men were illegal, and the clients faced social ostracism, prosecution, and at worst, two years' imprisonment with hard labour. The resultant Cleveland Street scandal implicated other high-ranking figures in British society. Rumours swept upper-class London of the involvement of a member of the royal family: Prince Albert Victor. The prostitutes had not named Albert Victor and it is suggested that Somerset's solicitor, Arthur Newton, fabricated and spread the rumours to take the heat off his client. Letters exchanged between the Treasury Solicitor
Treasury Solicitor's Department
The Treasury Solicitor's Department is the largest in-house legal organisation in the United Kingdom's Government Legal Service.The Department is headed by the Treasury Solicitor. This office goes back several centuries...
, Sir Augustus Stephenson, and his assistant, The Hon. Hamilton Cuffe
Hamilton Cuffe, 5th Earl of Desart
Hamilton John Agmondesham Cuffe, 5th Earl of Desart, KP, KCB, PC was an Irish peer and solicitor.-Early life:...
, make coded reference to Newton's threats to implicate Albert Victor. The Prince of Wales intervened in the investigation; none of the clients were ever prosecuted and nothing against Albert Victor was proven. Although there is no conclusive evidence for or against his involvement, or whether or not he ever visited a homosexual club or brothel, the rumours and cover-up led some biographers to suppose that he did visit Cleveland Street, and that he was "possibly bisexual, probably homosexual". This is contested by other biographers, one of which refers to him as "ardently heterosexual" and his involvement in the rumours as "somewhat unfair". The historian H. Montgomery Hyde wrote, "There is no evidence that he was homosexual, or even bisexual."
Somerset's sister, Lady Waterford
John Beresford, 5th Marquess of Waterford
John Henry de la Poer Beresford, 5th Marquess of Waterford KP, PC , styled Earl of Tyrone from 1859 to 1866, was an Irish peer and Conservative politician...
, denied that her brother knew anything about Albert Victor, "I am sure the boy is as straight as a line ... Arthur does not the least know how or where the boy spends his time ... he believes the boy to be perfectly innocent", she wrote. In surviving private letters from Somerset to his friend Lord Esher
Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher
Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher, GCVO, KCB, PC, DL was a historian and Liberal politician in the United Kingdom.Brett was the son of William Baliol Brett, 1st Viscount Esher and Eugénie Mayer...
, Somerset denies knowing anything about Albert Victor, but confirms that he has heard the rumours and hopes that they will help quash any prosecution. He wrote, "I can quite understand the Prince of Wales being much annoyed at his son's name being coupled with the thing but that was the case before I left it ... we were both accused of going to this place but not together ... they will end by having out in open court exactly what they are all trying to keep quiet. I wonder if it is really a fact or only an invention." He continued, "I have never mentioned the boy's name except to Probyn, Montagu and Knollys
Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys
Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys, GCB, GCVO, KCMG, PC, ISO , was Private Secretary to the Sovereign 1901–1913....
when they were acting for me and I thought they ought to know. Had they been wise, hearing what I knew and therefore what others knew, they ought to have hushed the matter up, instead of stirring it up as they did, with all the authorities."
The rumours have persisted; sixty years later the official biographer of King George V, Harold Nicolson
Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician. He was the husband of writer Vita Sackville-West, their unusual relationship being described in their son's book, Portrait of a Marriage.-Early life:Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the younger son of...
, was told by Lord Goddard
Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard
Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard was Lord Chief Justice of England from 1946 to 1958 and known for his strict sentencing and conservative views. He was nicknamed the 'Tiger' and "Justice-in-a-jiffy" for his no-nonsense manner...
, who was a twelve-year old schoolboy at the time of the scandal, that Albert Victor "had been involved in a male brothel scene, and that a solicitor had to commit perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
to clear him. The solicitor was struck off the rolls for his offence, but was thereafter reinstated." None of the lawyers in the case was convicted of perjury or struck off during the scandal but Somerset's solicitor, Arthur Newton, was convicted of obstruction of justice for helping his clients escape abroad and was sentenced to six weeks in prison. Over 20 years later in 1910, Newton was struck off for 12 months for professional misconduct after falsifying letters from another of his clients—the notorious murderer Dr. Hawley Crippen
Hawley Harvey Crippen
Hawley Harvey Crippen , usually known as Dr. Crippen, was an American homeopathic physician hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, on November 23, 1910, for the murder of his wife, Cora Henrietta Crippen...
. In 1913, he was struck off indefinitely and sentenced to three years' imprisonment for obtaining money by false pretences.
Tour of India
The foreign press suggested that Albert Victor was sent on a seven-month tour to British IndiaBritish Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
from October 1889 to avoid the gossip which swept London society in the wake of the scandal. This is not true; the trip had actually been planned since the spring. Travelling via Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Port Said
Port Said
Port Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787...
, Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
and Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
, Albert Victor arrived in Bombay on 9 November 1889. He was entertained sumptuously in Hyderabad by the Nizam
Nizam
Nizam-ul-Mulk of Hyderabad popularly known as Nizams of Hyderabad was a former monarchy of the Hyderabad State, now in the states of Andhra Pradesh , Karnataka , and Maharashtra in India...
, and elsewhere by many other maharaja
Maharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
hs. He spent Christmas at Mandalay
Mandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....
and the New Year at Calcutta. Most of the extensive travelling was done by train, although elephants were ridden as part of ceremonies. In the style of the time, a great many animals were shot for sport.
During the trip, Albert Victor met Mrs. Margery Haddon, the wife of a civil engineer, Henry Haddon. After several failed marriages and Albert Victor's death, Margery came to England and claimed the Prince was the father of her son, Clarence Haddon. There was no evidence and her claims were dismissed. She had become an alcoholic and seemed deranged. The allegations were reported to Buckingham Palace and the head of the police Special Branch
Special Branch
Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in the Royal Thai Police...
investigated. Papers in the National Archives show that neither courtiers nor Margery had any proof of the allegation. In a statement to police Albert Victor's lawyers admitted that there had been "some relations" between him and Mrs. Haddon, but denied the claim of fatherhood.
However, in the 1920s, the son, Clarence, repeated the story and published a book in the United States, My Uncle George V, in which he claimed he was born in London in September 1890, about nine months after Albert Victor's meeting with Mrs. Haddon. In 1933, he was charged with demanding money with menace and attempted extortion after writing to the King asking for hush money. At his trial the following January, the prosecution produced documents showing that Haddon's enlistment papers, marriage certificate, officer's commission, demobilisation papers and employment records all showed he was born in or before 1887, at least two years before Albert Victor met Mrs. Haddon. Haddon was found guilty and the judge, believing Haddon to be suffering from delusions, did not jail him but bound him over for three years on the condition that he made no claim that he was Albert Victor's son. Haddon breached the conditions and was jailed for a year. Dismissed as a crank, he died a broken man. Even if Haddon's claim had been true, as with other royal illegitimacies, it would have made no difference to the royal line of succession. On his return from India, on 24 May 1890, Albert Victor was created Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Earl of Athlone
Earl of Athlone
The title of Earl of Athlone has been created three times. It was created first in the Peerage of Ireland in 1692 by King William III for the Dutch General Baron Godard van Reede, Lord of Ginkel, to honour him for his successful battles in Ireland. The title also had the subsidiary title of Baron...
.
Prospective royal brides
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
in 1894, and was killed along with her husband and children
Shooting of the Romanov family
The shooting of the Romanov family, of the Russian Imperial House of Romanov, and those who chose to accompany them into exile, Dr. Eugene Botkin, Anna Demidova, Alexei Trupp, and Ivan Kharitonov, took place in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918 on the orders of Vladimir Lenin, Yakov Sverdlov, and the...
after the Russian revolution of 1917. The second, in 1890, was a love match with Princess Hélène of Orléans, a daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, and great-granddaughter of King Louis-Philippe I, the last Bourbon King of France.
At first, Queen Victoria opposed any engagement because Hélène was Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. Victoria wrote to her grandson suggesting another of her grandchildren Princess Margaret of Prussia
Princess Margaret of Prussia
Princess Margaret of Prussia was a daughter of Frederick III, German Emperor and Victoria, Princess Royal. She married Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse. In 1926 they became Landgrave and Landgravine of Hesse...
, as a suitable alternative, but nothing came of her suggestion and once the couple confided their love to her, the Queen relented and supported the marriage. Hélène offered to convert, and Albert Victor offered to abdicate his succession rights to marry her. To the couple's disappointment, her father refused to countenance the marriage and was adamant she could not convert. Hélène travelled personally to intercede with Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
but he confirmed her father's verdict, and the affair ended. She later became the Duchess of Aosta
Duke of Aosta
In the mid-13th century the Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II made the County of Aosta a duchy; its arms were carried in the Savoyard coat-of-arms until the unification of Italy in 1870. The region remained part of Savoy lands, with the exception of a French occupation, 1539—1563...
.
In mid-1890, Albert Victor was attended by several doctors, but in correspondence his illness is only referred to as "fever" or "gout". Many biographers have assumed that he was suffering from "a mild form of venereal disease", perhaps gonorrhea
Gonorrhea
Gonorrhea is a common sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The usual symptoms in men are burning with urination and penile discharge. Women, on the other hand, are asymptomatic half the time or have vaginal discharge and pelvic pain...
, but there is no known source confirming this. It is claimed that in 1891 Albert Victor was subject to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
by two prostitutes to whom he had written incriminating letters. The letters supposedly referring to the case were sold at Bonham's auction house in London in 2002. Owing to discrepancies in the dates and spelling of the letters, however, they are suspected of being forgeries.
In 1891, Albert Victor wrote to Lady Sybil St Clair Erskine
Robert St Clair-Erskine, 4th Earl of Rosslyn
Robert Francis St Clair-Erskine, 4th Earl of Rosslyn , styled Lord Loughborough until 1866, was a Scottish Conservative politician...
that he was in love once again, though he does not say with whom, but by this time another potential bride, Princess Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
, was under consideration. Mary was the daughter of Queen Victoria's first cousin Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck
Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge
Princess Mary Adelaide Wilhelmina Elizabeth of Cambridge was a member of the British Royal Family, a granddaughter of George III, and great-grandmother of Elizabeth II. She held the title of Duchess of Teck through marriage.Mary Adelaide is remembered as the mother of Queen Mary, the consort of...
. Queen Victoria was very supportive, considering Mary ideal—charming, sensible and pretty. On 3 December 1891 Albert Victor, to her "great surprise" proposed to Mary at Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo straddles the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire borders between the towns of Harpenden and Luton. The unusual name "Hoo" is a Saxon word meaning the spur of a hill, and is more commonly associated with East Anglia.- Early History :...
, the country residence of the Danish ambassador to Britain. The wedding was set for 27 February 1892.
Death
Influenza pandemic
An influenza pandemic is an epidemic of an influenza virus that spreads on a worldwide scale and infects a large proportion of the human population. In contrast to the regular seasonal epidemics of influenza, these pandemics occur irregularly, with the 1918 Spanish flu the most serious pandemic in...
of 1889–92. He developed pneumonia and died at Sandringham House
Sandringham House
Sandringham House is a country house on of land near the village of Sandringham in Norfolk, England. The house is privately owned by the British Royal Family and is located on the royal Sandringham Estate, which lies within the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.-History and current...
in Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
on 14 January 1892, less than a week after his 28th birthday. The Prince and Princess of Wales, Princesses Maud and Victoria, Prince George, Princess Mary, the Duke and Duchess of Teck, three doctors (Manby, Laking and Broadbent
William Broadbent
Sir William Henry Broadbent, 1st Baronet was an English neurologist who was born in Lindley, now part of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. He studied medicine at Owens College and the Royal School of Medicine in Manchester...
) and three nurses were present. The Prince of Wales's chaplain, Canon Frederick Hervey
Lord Alfred Hervey
Lord Alfred Hervey , known before 1826 as Alfred Hervey, was a minor British politician. He was the youngest son of Frederick Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol. He was a Junior Lord of the Treasury in Lord Aberdeen's coalition government and Lord Palmerston's first government.Lord Alfred was one of...
, stood over Albert Victor reading prayers for the dying.
The nation was shocked. Shops put up their shutters. The Prince of Wales wrote to Queen Victoria, "Gladly would I have given my life for his". Princess Mary wrote to Queen Victoria of the Princess of Wales, "the despairing look on her face was the most heart-rending thing I have ever seen." His younger brother Prince George wrote, "how deeply I did love him; & I remember with pain nearly every hard word & little quarrel I ever had with him & I long to ask his forgiveness, but, alas, it is too late now!" George took Albert Victor's place in the line of succession, eventually succeeding to the throne as King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
in 1910. Drawn together during their shared period of mourning, Prince George later married Mary himself in 1893. She became Queen on George's accession.
Conspiracy theories surrounding Albert Victor's death—that he died of syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
or poison, that he was pushed off a cliff on the instructions of Lord Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill MP was a British statesman. He was the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough and his wife Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane , daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry...
or that his death was faked to remove him from the line of succession—are fabrications.
Albert Victor's mother, Alexandra, never fully recovered from her son's death and kept the room in which he died as a shrine. Poignantly, at the funeral Mary laid her bridal wreath of orange blossom upon the coffin. Remarkably, James Kenneth Stephen
James Kenneth Stephen
James Kenneth Stephen was an English poet, and tutor to Prince Albert Victor, eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.-Early life:...
, Albert Victor's former tutor, refused all food from the day of Albert Victor's death and died 20 days later; he had suffered a head injury in 1886 which left him suffering from psychosis. The Prince is buried in the Albert Memorial Chapel close to St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
St George's Chapel is the place of worship at Windsor Castle in England, United Kingdom. It is both a royal peculiar and the chapel of the Order of the Garter...
. His tomb, by Alfred Gilbert
Alfred Gilbert
Sir Alfred Gilbert was an English sculptor and goldsmith who enthusiastically experimented with metallurgical innovations...
, is "the finest single example of late nineteenth-century sculpture in the British Isles". A recumbent effigy of the Prince in a Hussar uniform (almost impossible to see properly in situ) lies above the tomb. Kneeling over him is an angel, holding a heavenly crown. The tomb is surrounded by an elaborate railing, with figures of saints. The perfectionist Gilbert spent too much on the commission, went bankrupt, and left the country. Five of the smaller figures were only completed with "a greater roughness and pittedness of texture" after his return to Britain in the 1920s.
Legacy
During his life, the bulk of the British press treated Albert Victor with nothing but respect and the eulogies that immediately followed his death were full of praise. The radical politician, Henry BroadhurstHenry Broadhurst
Henry Broadhurst was a leading early British trade unionist and a Lib-Lab politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1885 and 1906....
, who had met both Albert Victor and his brother George, noted that they had "a total absence of affectation or haughtiness". On the day of Albert Victor's death, the leading Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician, William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
, wrote in his personal private diary "a great loss to our party". However, Queen Victoria referred to Albert Victor's "dissipated life" in private letters to her eldest daughter
Victoria, Princess Royal
The Princess Victoria, Princess Royal was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert. She was created Princess Royal of the United Kingdom in 1841. She became German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Frederick III...
, which were later published and, in the mid-twentieth century, the official biographers of Queen Mary and King George V, James Pope-Hennessy
James Pope-Hennessy
James Pope Hennessy CVO was a British biographer and travel writer.-Life:Richard James Arthur Pope-Hennessy was born in London on 20 November 1916, the younger son of Ladislaus Herbert Richard Pope-Hennessy, a soldier from County Cork in Ireland, and his wife, Una Constance Pope-Hennessy who was...
and Harold Nicolson
Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician. He was the husband of writer Vita Sackville-West, their unusual relationship being described in their son's book, Portrait of a Marriage.-Early life:Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the younger son of...
respectively, promoted hostile assessments of Albert Victor's life, portraying him as lazy, ill-educated and physically feeble. The exact nature of his "dissipations" is not clear, but in 1994 Theo Aronson
Theo Aronson
Theodore Ian Wilson Aronson was a royal biographer with an easy manner which enabled him to meet and earn the trust of his subjects....
favoured the theory on "admittedly circumstantial" evidence that the "unspecified 'dissipations' were predominantly homosexual". Aronson's judgement was based on Albert Victor's "adoration of his elegant and possessive mother; his 'want of manliness'; his 'shrinking from horseplay'; [and] his 'sweet, gentle, quiet and charming' nature", as well as the Cleveland Street rumours and his opinion that there is "a certain amount of homosexuality in all men". He admitted, however, that "the allegations of Prince Eddy's homosexuality must be treated cautiously."
Rumours that Prince Albert Victor may have committed, or been responsible for, the Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
murders were first mentioned in print in 1962. It was later alleged, amongst others by Stephen Knight in Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution, that Albert Victor fathered a child with a woman in the Whitechapel
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...
district of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and either he or several high-ranking men committed the murders in an effort to cover up his indiscretion. Though repeated frequently, scholars have dismissed the claims as fantasies, and refer to indisputable proof of the Prince's innocence. For example, on 30 September 1888, when Elizabeth Stride
Elizabeth Stride
Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride is believed to be the third victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer called Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.She was nicknamed "Long Liz"...
and Catherine Eddowes
Catherine Eddowes
Catherine Eddowes was one of the victims in the Whitechapel murders. She was the second person killed on the night of Sunday 30 September 1888, a night which already had seen the murder of Elizabeth Stride less than an hour earlier...
were murdered, Albert Victor was at Balmoral
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and east of Braemar. Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British Royal Family since 1852, when it was purchased by Queen Victoria and her...
, the royal retreat in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, in the presence of Queen Victoria, other family members, visiting German
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
royalty and a large number of staff. According to the official Court Circular
Court Circular
The Court Circular is the official record that lists the engagements carried out by the Monarch of the United Kingdom and of the other Commonwealth Realms; the Royal Family; and appointments to their staff and to the court. It is issued by Buckingham Palace and printed a day in arrears at the back...
, family journals and letters, newspaper reports and other sources, he could not have been near any of the murders.
Albert Victor's posthumous reputation became so bad that in 1964 Philip Magnus called his death a "merciful act of providence", supporting the theory that his death removed an unsuitable heir to the throne and replaced him with the reliable and sober George V. In 1972, Michael Harrison
Michael Harrison (writer)
Michael Harrison was the pen name of English detective fiction and fantasy author Maurice Desmond Rohan.- Biography :Michael Harrison was born in Milton, Kent, England, on 25 April 1907...
was the first modern author to re-assess Albert Victor and portray him in a more sympathetic light. In recent years, Andrew Cook has continued attempts to rehabilitate Albert Victor's reputation, arguing that his lack of academic progress was partly due to the incompetence of his tutor, Dalton; that he was a warm and charming man; that there is no tangible evidence that he was homosexual or bisexual; that he held liberal views, particularly on Irish Home Rule
Home rule
Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....
; and that his reputation has been diminished by biographers eager to improve the image of his brother, George.
Fictional portrayals
The conspiracy theories surrounding Albert Victor have led to his portrayal in film as somehow responsible for or involved in the Jack the Ripper murders. Bob ClarkBob Clark
Benjamin "Bob" Clark was an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer best known for directing and writing the script with Jean Shepherd to the 1983 Christmas film A Christmas Story...
's Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
' mystery Murder by Decree
Murder by Decree
Murder by Decree is an Anglo-Canadian thriller film involving Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in the case of the serial murderer Jack the Ripper...
was released in 1979 with "Duke of Clarence (Eddy)" played by Robin Marshall. David Wickes' Jack the Ripper was released in 1988 with Marc Culwick
Marc Culwick
Marc Culwick is a British-born actor whose most famous role was as Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward in the 1988 adaption of the Jack the Ripper legend starring Michael Caine....
as Prince Albert Victor. Janet Meyers' The Ripper was released in 1997 with Samuel West
Samuel West
Samuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in Howards End and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ENRON...
as "Prince Eddy". Coincidentally, West had played Albert Victor as a child in the TV miniseries Edward the Seventh which starred his father Timothy West
Timothy West
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor.-Career:West's craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of...
as the title character. The Hughes Brothers
Hughes Brothers
Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes , known together professionally as the Hughes brothers, are American film directors, producers and screenwriters...
' From Hell
From Hell (film)
From Hell is a 2001 American crime drama horror mystery film directed by the Hughes brothers. It is an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell about the Jack the Ripper murders.-Plot:...
was based on the graphic novel of the same name
From Hell
From Hell is a comic book series by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, originally published from 1991 to 1996, speculating upon the identity and motives of Jack the Ripper. The title is taken from the first words of the "From Hell" letter, which some authorities believe was an authentic...
by Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell is a Scottish comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Australia. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell , Campbell is also the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus , a wry adventure...
, and was released in 2001. Mark Dexter
Mark Dexter
Mark Dexter is a British RADA trained actor.Dexter's early successes were on stage, in particular with two high-profile productions of Tennessee Williams plays, beginning with Sam Mendes' 1995 Olivier Award winning production of The Glass Menagerie at the Donmar Warehouse, in which he played The...
portrayed both "Prince Edward" and "Albert Sickert". The story is also the basis for the play Force and Hypocrisy by Doug Lucie.
A pair of alternative history novels, written by Peter Dickinson
Peter Dickinson
Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE is an English author and poet who has written a wide variety of books, notably children's books and detective stories, over a long and distinguished career.-Life and work:...
, imagine a world where Albert Victor survives and reigns as Victor I. In Gary Lovisi's parallel universe
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
short story, "The Adventure of the Missing Detective", he is portrayed as a tyrannical king, who rules after the deaths (under suspicious circumstances) of both his grandmother and father. The Prince also appears as the murder victim in the first of the Lord Francis Powerscourt
Lord Francis Powerscourt
Lord Francis Powerscourt is a fictional Victorian-Edwardian detective created by the author David Dickinson who has, as of 2011, appeared in ten novels, with an eleventh due out for publication.-Background:...
crime novels Goodnight Sweet Prince, as a vampire in the novel I, Vampire by Michael Romkey
Michael Romkey
Michael Romkey is a newspaper editor and author. Well known for his vampire novels, his first book, Fears Point, was released in 1989.- Novels :*Fears Point *I, Vampire *The Vampire Papers...
, and as a murder suspect in the novel Death at Glamis Castle by Robin Paige
Robin Paige
Robin Paige is the pseudonym of husband-and-wife team writing team Susan Wittig Albert and Bill Albert.See the entry on Susan Wittig Albert....
.
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
- 8 January 1864 – 24 May 1890: His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor of Wales
- 24 May 1890 – 14 January 1892: His Royal Highness The Duke of Clarence and Avondale
Honours
British Honours- KG: Knight of the GarterOrder of the GarterThe Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...
, 3 September 1883 - KP: Knight of St PatrickOrder of St. PatrickThe Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick is a British order of chivalry associated with Ireland. The Order was created in 1783 by George III. The regular creation of knights of Saint Patrick lasted until 1921, when most of Ireland became independent as the Irish Free State...
, 28 June 1887 - ADC(P): Personal Aide-de-CampPersonal Aide-de-CampA Personal Aide-de-Camp is a senior officer of the military of any Commonwealth realm who is appointed to act as the honorary military attendant to the monarch or any of his or her viceroys...
to the Queen, 1887 - LL.D: Doctor of Laws, University of DublinUniversity of DublinThe University of Dublin , corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin , located in Dublin, Ireland, was effectively founded when in 1592 Queen Elizabeth I issued a charter for Trinity College, Dublin, as "the mother of a university" – this date making it...
, 1887 - LL.D: Doctor of Laws, University of CambridgeUniversity of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, 1888
Foreign Honours Knight Grand Cross, Order of the Netherlands Lion Grand Cross, Order of the Tower and Sword
Order of the Tower and Sword
The Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit is a Portuguese order of knighthood and the pinnacle of the Portuguese honours system. It was created by King Afonso V in 1459....
Grand Cross, Order of Charles III Grand Cross, Order of the Osmanli Grand Cross, Order of the Star Grand Cross, Order of the Annunziata
Order of the Most Holy Annunciation
The Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation is an order of chivalry, or knighthood, originating in mediæval Italy. It eventually was the pinnacle of the honours system in the Kingdom of Italy, which ceased to be a national order when the kingdom became a republic in 1946...
Grand Cross, Order of the Southern Cross
Order of the Southern Cross
The National Order of the Southern Cross is a Brazilian order of chivalry founded by Emperor Pedro I on 1 December 1822. This order was intended to commemorate the independence of Brazil and the coronation of Pedro I...
Military
- 1877–1879: Cadet aboard training ship HMS Britannia, Dartmouth, DevonDartmouth, DevonDartmouth is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the banks of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes...
- 1879–1880: Cadet, HMS BacchanteHMS Bacchante (1876)HMS Bacchante was a Bacchante-class ironclad screw-propelled corvette of the Royal Navy. She is particularly famous for being the ship on which the Princes George and Albert served as midshipmen....
- Mid, 1880–1883: Promoted to MidshipmanMidshipmanA midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
, HMS Bacchante - Lt, 1886–1887: Appointed LieutenantLieutenantA lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
, 10th (Prince of Wales' Own) Royal Hussars10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own)The 10th Royal Hussars was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1715 to 1969.-Early history:In response to the Jacobite Rebellion, the regiment was raised in 1715 as Humphrey Gore's Regiment of Dragoons... - Capt, 1887: Promoted to Captain, 9th Queen's Royal Lancers9th Queen's Royal LancersThe 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, or the Delhi Spearmen, were a cavalry regiment of the British Army. They are best known for their roles in the Indian mutiny of 1857 and for their part in the North African campaign of World War II including the retreat to and the battle of El Alamein in 1942.-Early...
- Capt, 1887–1889: Captain, 3rd King's Royal Rifle CorpsKing's Royal Rifle CorpsThe King's Royal Rifle Corps was a British Army infantry regiment, originally raised in colonial North America as the Royal Americans, and recruited from American colonists. Later ranked as the 60th Regiment of Foot, the regiment served for more than 200 years throughout the British Empire...
- Maj, 1889–1892: MajorMajorMajor is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
, 10th (Prince of Wales' Own) Royal Hussars10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own)The 10th Royal Hussars was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1715 to 1969.-Early history:In response to the Jacobite Rebellion, the regiment was raised in 1715 as Humphrey Gore's Regiment of Dragoons...
Honorary military appointments
British- Honorary ColonelColonelColonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
, of
4th Regiment, Bengal Infantry - Honorary Colonel, of 4th Bombay Cavalry
- Honorary Colonel, of 1st Punjab Cavalry
Arms
With his dukedom, Albert Victor was granted a coat of arms, being the royal arms of the United Kingdom, differenced by an inescutcheon of the arms of SaxonyCoat of arms of Saxony
-See also:*Royal Arms of England*Coat of arms of Portugal*Coat of arms of Belgium*Coat of arms of Bulgaria...
and a label
Label (heraldry)
In heraldry, a label is a charge resembling the strap crossing the horse’s chest from which pendants are hung. It is usually a mark of difference, but has sometimes been borne simply as a charge in its own right....
of three points argent
Argent
In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it...
, the centre point bearing a cross gules
Gules
In heraldry, gules is the tincture with the colour red, and belongs to the class of dark tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of vertical lines or else marked with gu. as an abbreviation....
.