How Edwardian was King Edward?

If, as we have seen, Victoria personally embodied the spirit of Victorianism, the brief reign of Edward VII was, in many ways, also characterized by the attitudes and habits of its monarch. In particular, the toleration of a kind of limited anarchy that violated, but did not fundamentally challenge the social status quo that is evident in much of Edwardian literature was also present in the life of Edward. As the longtime prince in waiting and then as king, Edward often flouted codes of both Victorian etiquette and conventional morality in person, but was also credited with ushering in a new kind of social order and mannerliness in British society. This tension, was well known in the press of the day and may have emboldened his peers and eventually his subjects to live their lives in the same manner; all of which has lent the era of his kingship a tone of barely restrained excess and a festive, but vaguely dissipated spirit.

Since his early life and childhood Edward had been regarded by his parents and the public at large as a somewhat unworthy heir to the great Victoria. Despite specific training that was designed to teach him to avoid “dandyism” and to “eschew gossip, cards and billiards” (Weintraub, 131) Edward still seemed unable to live up to his mother’s aspirations for him. She confided to her daughter Vicky, “he is so idle and weak…God grant that he may take things more to heart and be more serious for the future” (Weintraub, 132). This sense that Edward was an indulgent, perpetual child was also present in the public papers.
























As he grew older, the perception that Edward’s sense of propriety was distinctly different from his mother’s was reinforced time and again. Against her reputation as a devoted wife, mother and, eventually, widow Edward was known as a philanderer and, perhaps worse, an unapologetic one at that. In a particular incident in which Edward sought to visit Knole House, the stately home of Victoria Sackville-West, he inquired whether he could bring his entire entourage, male and female alike. Eventually the retinue was declined but the fact that “he had intended to bring with him not only his royal spouse, but his discarded mistress as well as his new inamorata, awed Lady Sackville” (Weintraub, 361). Gambling was also widely considered a public scourge and one which Victoria had explicitly warned Edward against as a youth. The game of Baccarat, illegal in Britain, was the centre of a scandal known as the Tranby Croft affair in which Edward was called as an “expert” witness. In the wake of the trial, “Victoria insisted that her son write a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to be made public, deploring gambling. It was an empty gesture recognized as ludicrous by readers who knew the Prince of Wales had been betting on horses at Ascot as the jury was rendering its decision (Weintraub, 323). The press had a field day with, among others, Puck featuring the following cartoon in June 1891. The list of offenses reads: “keeping low company,” “advertising actresses,” “hard drinking,” “in debt to everybody,” “loose morals,” “inveterate gambling propensities,” and “too, too, too fond of baccarat!” (Weintraub, 324).

When Edward ascended the throne early in the new century, everyone in England and much of the rest of the world anticipated a distinct change.

One of the more notable observations of the change wrought by Edward came from outside of Britain in a magazine piece written well into Edward’s reign on June 14, 1908, by the New York Times. In it the author describes the notable changes — both good and bad — that had occurred in British society under Edward’s leadership. The subtitle of the article begins, “In Various Ways the Social Restraints Characteristic of Queen Victoria’s Reign Have Been Relaxed.”

The article cites notable changes in the status at court of divorcees, observance of the Sabbath (which had prompted an unprecedented open letter from the various clergy of the high and low churches of England), and the author’s own sense that the code of honour surrounding gambling had almost completely evaporated.



The article goes on to note that while these issues seem to have developed under Edward’s kingship, there were other great improvements in the moral fibre of British society.





























It is in this article’s critique and measured praise of King Edward that we can see the manner in which the Edwardian age was a true match for the spirit of its King. At the same time as Edward privately tolerated (and personally indulged in) breaks with conventional manners, he was just as surely entrenching those manners as key to the development of the “Jolly Old England” often thought of today.

Works Cited:

Weintraub, Stanley. Edward the Caresser: The Playboy Prince Who Became Edward VII. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001.