DA567.R53

Part 1 Youth Chapter 1 Victoria and Albert 1841 3 Chapter 2 "Our Poor Strange Boy" 1841-56 18 Chapter 3 "Neither Fish nor Flesh" 1856-60 42 Chapter 4 Bertie's Fall 1861 60 Chapter 5 Marriage 1861-63 77 Chapter 6 "Totally Totally Unfit…for Ever Becoming King" 1863-65 94 Chapter 7 Alix's Knee 1865-67 114 Chapter 8 Marlborough House and Harriett Mordaunt 1868-70 135 Chapter 9 Annus Horribilis 1870-71 163 Part 2 Expanding Middle Chapter 10 Resurrection? 1871-75 191 Chapter 11 India 1875-76 212 Chapter 12 The Aylesford Scandal 1876 223 Chapter 13 Lillie Langtry 1877-78 244 Chapter 14 Prince Hal 1878-81 260 Chapter 15 Prince of Pleasure 1881-87 282 Chapter 16 William 1887-89 301 Chapter 17 Scandal 1889-90 320 Chapter 18 Nemesis 1890-92 340 Chapter 19 Daisy Warwick 1892-96 361 Chapter 20 "We Are All in God's Hands" 1897-1901 389 Part 3 King Chapter 21 King Edward the Caresser 1901-2 421 Chapter 22 "Edward the Confessor Number Two" 1902 440 Chapter 23 King Edward the Peacemaker 1903-5 455 Chapter 24 Uncle of Europe 1905-7 478 Chapter 25 King Canute 1908-9 504 Chapter 26 King of Trumps 1909-10 526 Chapter 27 The People's King: March-May 1910 543

This richly entertaining biography chronicles the eventful life of Queen Victoria’s firstborn son, the quintessential black sheep of Buckingham Palace, who matured into as wise and effective a monarch as Britain has ever seen. Granted unprecedented access to the royal archives, noted scholar Jane Ridley draws on numerous primary sources to paint a vivid portrait of the man and the age to which he gave his name. Born Prince Albert Edward, and known to familiars as “Bertie,” the future King Edward VII had a well-earned reputation for debauchery. A notorious gambler, glutton, and womanizer, he preferred the company of wastrels and courtesans to the dreary life of the Victorian court. His own mother considered him a lazy halfwit, temperamentally unfit to succeed her. When he ascended to the throne in 1901, at age fifty-nine, expectations were low. Yet by the time he died nine years later, he had proven himself a deft diplomat, hardworking head of state, and the architect of Britain’s modern constitutional monarchy. Jane Ridley’s colorful biography rescues the man once derided as “Edward the Caresser” from the clutches of his historical detractors. Excerpts from letters and diaries shed new light on Bertie’s long power struggle with Queen Victoria, illuminating one of the most emotionally fraught mother-son relationships in history. Considerable attention is paid to King Edward’s campaign of personal diplomacy abroad and his valiant efforts to reform the political system at home. Separating truth from legend, Ridley also explores Bertie’s relationships with the women in his life. Their ranks comprised his wife, the stunning Danish princess Alexandra, along with some of the great beauties of the era: the actress Lillie Langtry, longtime “royal mistress” Alice Keppel (the great-grandmother of Camilla Parker Bowles), and Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston. Edward VII waited nearly six decades for his chance to rule, then did so with considerable panache and aplomb. A magnificent life of an unexpectedly impressive king, The Heir Apparent documents the remarkable transformation of a man—and a monarchy—at the dawn of a new century.