The Heir Apparent

by Jane Ridley

106. Hibbert, Edward VII, pp. 197–98.

  107. John Martin Robinson, Buckingham Palace (Royal Collection, 2000), p. 125.

  108. Cust, Edward VII, p. 91. Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 1, pp. 306–7 (Lord Esher to Arthur Ellis, 20 February 1901).

  109. Ellenberger, “Transformation of London ‘Society’ at the End of Victoria’s Reign: Evidence from the Court Presentation Records,” Albion, vol. 22 (1990), esp. pp. 638–53.

  CHAPTER 22: “EDWARD THE CONFESSOR NUMBER TWO” 1902

  1. Lord Salisbury, quoted in Roberts, Salisbury, p. 798.

  2. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 51.

  3. RA VIC/Add U/28, Treves, “Illness of King Edward VII,” pp. 57–58. Hibbert, Edward VII, plates 45, 46.

  4. RA VIC/Add U/28, Treves, “Illness of King Edward VII,” p. 8. Hibbert, Edward VII, p. 223.

  5. RA VIC/Add U/28, Treves, “Illness of King Edward VII,” pp. 5–6.

  6. Cust, Edward VII, pp. 32–33.

  7. RA VIC/Add U/28, Treves, “Illness of King Edward VII,” pp. 10–11, 86.

  8. Ibid., pp. 6–7.

  9. RA VIC/EVIID/1902: 15 June.

  10. Lancet, 25 June 1902.

  11. Ibid., 5 July 1902.

  12. Lancet, 25 June 1902.

  13. RA VIC/Add U/28, Treves, “Illness of King Edward VII,” p. 47.

  14. Hibbert, Edward VII, p. 282. According to one of the doctors present, the King ceased breathing twice. Stephen Trombley, Sir Frederick Treves (Routledge, 1989), p. 130.

  15. Lancet, 25 June, 5 July 1902.

  16. RA VIC/Add U/28, Treves, “Illness of King Edward VII,” pp. 74, 79.

  17. RA VIC/Add A5/472, B to Mrs. Keppel, “Wednesday 10 a.m.” [25 June 1902].

  18. RA VIC/Add A5/473, B to Mrs. Keppel, “Thursday 9 a.m.” [26 June 1902].

  19. RA VIC/Add U/28, Treves, “Illness of King Edward VII,” pp. 60, 87, 89.

  20. RA VIC/Add U/28, Treves, “Illness of King Edward VII,” p. 93.

  21. Kenneth James, Escoffier: The King of Chefs (Hambledon, 2002), pp. 186–88.

  22. Yvonne Ward, “ ‘Gosh! Man I’ve Got a Tune in my Head’: Edward Elgar, A. C. Benson and the Creation of ‘Land of Hope and Glory,’ ” Court Historian, vol. 7 (2002), pp. 17–39.

  23. J. E. C. Bodley, The Coronation of Edward the Seventh (Methuen, 1903), p. 201.

  24. Fitzroy, Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 96. Kuhn, Democratic Royalism, pp. 125–28.

  25. Fitzroy, Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 98–99. Kuhn, Democratic Royalism, p. 95. Holmes, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 513.

  26. Balsan, Glitter and Gold, p. 132.

  27. Holmes, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 513.

  28. Keay, Crown Jewels, p. 164.

  29. Holmes, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 516.

  30. See Camp, Royal Mistresses, p. 376, for the controversy as to who exactly was sitting in the box.

  31. Balsan, Glitter and Gold, p. 132. Battiscombe, Queen Alexandra, pp. 249–50.

  32. Magnus, Edward VII, p. 299.

  33. Keay, Crown Jewels, p. 166. Alix’s crown had four intersecting arches in the manner of continental crowns, including those of Denmark, rather than the pair of crossing arches found on English crowns.

  34. For Alix’s baldness, see Frank Harris, “Some New Stories of King Edward,” Pearson’s Magazine (1916), p. 317.

  35. A. Escoffier, A Guide to Modern Cookery (William Heinemann, 1911), pp. 481–82, 667. James, Escoffier, pp. 92–93, 181, 189, 204–5.

  36. Bodleian Library, Lincolnshire Papers, MS Film 1121, Carrington Diary (4 February 1901).

  37. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 139.

  38. Rose, George V, pp. 145–46.

  39. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 140.

  40. David Cannadine, “The Last Hanoverian Sovereign?: The Victorian Monarchy in Historical Perspective, 1688–1988,” in The First Modern Society: Essays in English History in Honour of Lawrence Stone, ed. A. L. Beier, David Cannadine, and James M. Rosenheim (Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 156–58.

  41. Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 1, p. 415 (29 June 1903).

  42. RA VIC/Add C07/1, Thomas Sanderson to Francis Knollys, 27 October 1902. RA VIC/Add C07/1, Lord Lansdowne to Knollys, 28 October 1902.

  43. RA VIC/X29/76c, Lady Gwendolen Cecil to Sidney Greville, 27 August 1903.

  44. BL, Sidney Lee Papers, Add MS 56087A, Lee’s Notes of Interview with Balfour, 24 November 1911.

  45. The Crawford Papers, ed. John Vincent (Manchester University Press, 1984), p. 39 (2 June 1897).

  46. Lord Salisbury, quoted in Roberts, Salisbury, p. 798.

  47. B to Lord Salisbury, 17 February 1901, in Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 23.

  48. Roberts, Salisbury, p. 798.

  49. Schomberg McDonnell’s memo to Lord Salisbury, 13 February 1902, in Simon Heffer, Power and Place: The Political Consequences of King Edward VII (Phoenix, 1999), pp. 124–25.

  50. Lord Salisbury’s note on McDonnell’s memo, 13 February 1902, in ibid., p. 125.

  51. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 97.

  52. RA VIC/W38/1, Lord Esher to Francis Knollys, 22 May 1900.

  53. B to Lord Salisbury, 20 April 1902, in Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 98.

  54. Heffer, Power, pp. 128–29. Stanley Martin, The Order of Merit (Tauris, 2007).

  55. Longford, Louisa, p. 97.

  56. RA VIC/W36/9, A. J. Balfour to Lord Knollys, 10 May 1902. Francis Knollys was created Viscount Knollys in the Coronation Honours of 1902.

  57. The society doctor Sir Douglas Powell advised Lord Salisbury not to attend the Coronation on account of “irritability of the bladder and liability to over distension which would result in serious trouble. I am quite sure that if the King had any idea of this risk he would wish you to avoid it.” (RA VIC/W36/18, Lord Salisbury to B, 29 July 1902, enclosing Sir D. Powell to Salisbury, 28 July 1902.)

  58. Arthur Balfour to Lady Elcho, 10 February 1901, in The Letters of Arthur Balfour and Lady Elcho, 1885–1917, ed. by Jane Ridley and Clayre Percy (Hamish Hamilton, 1992), p. 177.

  59. BL, Sidney Lee Papers, Add MS 56087A, Lee’s Notes of Interview with Balfour, 24 November 1911.

  60. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist 718, fols. 19–21, Arthur Balfour to Lord Knollys, 9 February 1901; fols. 26–28, Knollys to Balfour, 9 February 1901; fols. 19–21, Balfour to Knollys, 9 February 1901.

  61. BL, Add MS 48371, Diary of Almeric Fitzroy (9, 11 February 1901).

  62. BL, Sidney Lee Papers, Add MS 56087A, Lee’s Notes of Interview with Balfour, 24 November 1911.

  63. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist, c. 718, fols. 116–17, Lord Knollys to J. S. Sandars, 18 July 1902.

  64. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, pp. 146–47.

  65. RA GV/GG9/218, Frederick Ponsonby to Arthur Davidson, 15 January 1913.

  66. Heffer, Power, p. 148.

  67. Arthur Balfour to Lord Knollys, 3 November 1902, in ibid., pp. 150–51.

  CHAPTER 23: KING EDWARD THE PEACEMAKER 1903–5

  1. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, pp. 154, 159.

  2. Roderick R. McLean, Royalty and Diplomacy in Europe, 1890–1914 (Cambridge, 2001), pp. 143–44.

  3. Ibid., p. 146.

  4. Daisy, Princess of Pless, From My Private Diary (John Murray, 1931), pp. 91–92 (29 March 1901).

  5. RA GV/AA23/38, B to George, 12 April 1903.

  6. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 155.

  7. RA VIC/W43/77, Frederick Ponsonby to Lord Knollys, 22 April 1903.

  8. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 159.

  9. BL, Sidney Lee Papers, Add MS 56087A, fols. 134–38, Charles Hardinge to Sidney Lee, 14 November 1920.

  10. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 161.

  11. Magnus, Edward VII, p. 384.

  12. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist c. 719, fols. 58–59, Lord Knollys to Arthur Balfour, 16 March 1903; fols. 60–61, Knollys to Balfour, 19 March 1903; fols. 66–67, Knollys to Balfour, 23 March 1903; fols. 70–71, Knollys to J. S. Sandars, 26 March 1903.

  13. Bodleian L
ibrary, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist, c. 719, fols. 77–78, Duke of Norfolk to Charles Hardinge, draft telegram [8 April 1903].

  14. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, pp. 162–64. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, pp. 230–33.

  15. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng. Hist, c. 719, fols. 152–56, Charles Hardinge to Arthur Balfour, 29 April 1903.

  16. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 237.

  17. For B’s friendship with Jeanne Granier, see Frank Harris, My Life and Loves (privately printed, 1922–27), vol. 2, pp. 467–69. This book is still considered so obscene that readers at the London Library are required to sit at a special desk supervised by a librarian; it is disappointingly bland. Bertie stayed at Cannes 16 February–6 March 1889, and visited Monte Carlo, where he stayed for two nights: 21–22 February. (RA VIC/EDVIID/1889: 16 February–6 March.) Randolph Churchill, who was also in Monte Carlo, wrote to Jennie about Jeanne Granier. Churchill Archives Centre, Jennie Churchill Papers, CHAR 28/9/9, Randolph Churchill to Jennie Churchill, 19 February 1889.

  18. BL, Sidney Lee Papers, Add MS 56087A, fols. 1–3, George Saunders to Lee, 22 November 1911.

  19. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 171.

  20. Shane Leslie, Long Shadows (John Murray, 1966), p. 97.

  21. Pless, Diary, p. 95 (15 May 1903).

  22. Jullian, Edward and the Edwardians, p. 248.

  23. McLean, Royalty and Diplomacy, p. 148.

  24. Memorandum by Eyre Crowe, 1 January 1907, in British Documents on the Origins of the War, vol. 3, The Testing of the Entente, 1904–6, ed. G. P. Gooch and Harold Temperley (HMSO, 1928), p. 397.

  25. BL, Sidney Lee Papers, Add MS 56087A, fols. 7–9, Lee’s Note of Interview with Balfour, 24 November 1911.

  26. McLean, Royalty and Diplomacy, pp. 141–42.

  27. See ibid., p. 142, note 7, for a list of modern analyses of British foreign policy during the reign that virtually ignores King Edward VII.

  28. H. C. G. Matthew, “Edward VII,” ODNB.

  29. BL, Sidney Lee Papers, Add MS 56087A, fols. 1–3, George Saunders to Sidney Lee, 22 November 1911.

  30. Christopher Andrew, “France and the Making of the Entente,” Historical Journal, vol. 10 (1967), esp. pp. 101, 103–4.

  31. Roberts, Salisbury, p. 643.

  32. W. C. Sellers and R. J. Yeatman, 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England (Methuen, 2005), pp. 164–65.

  33. Fulford, “The King,” p. 33.

  34. RA VIC/X/19/23e, Kaiser William to B, telegram, 1 April 1905.

  35. Miranda Carter, The Three Emperors (Fig Tree, 2009), pp. 319–20.

  36. B to Lord Lansdowne, 15 April 1905, in Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 340.

  37. B to Louis Battenberg, 15 April 1905, in McLean, Royalty and Diplomacy, p. 115.

  38. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 211.

  39. McLean, Royalty and Diplomacy, p. 115.

  40. The Times, 1 May 1905.

  41. BL, Sidney Lee Papers, Add MS 56087A, fols. 1–3, George Saunders to Sidney Lee, 22 November 1911.

  42. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, pp. 216–17.

  43. Souhami, Mrs. Keppel, p. 72.

  44. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 216.

  45. McLean, Royalty and Diplomacy, p. 118.

  46. George Wyndham to Pamela Tennant, 26 July 1903, in J. W. Mackail and Guy Wyndham, Life and Letters of George Wyndham (Hutchinson, 1925), vol. 2, p. 462.

  47. Fitzwilliam, Wilfrid Blunt Papers, MS 10–1975, Diary, 7 May 1910, reporting conversation with Lady Elcho.

  48. The Times, 22 July 1903.

  49. Mary Kenny, Crown and Shamrock (New Island, 2009), pp. 83–89.

  50. Mackail and Wyndham, George Wyndham, vol. 2, pp. 462–65.

  51. Vincent, Crawford Papers, p. 67 (15 June 1902).

  52. Sonia Keppel, Edwardian Daughter (Hamish Hamilton, 1958), p. 23.

  53. Trefusis, Don’t Look Round, p. 33.

  54. Fitzwilliam, Wilfrid Blunt Papers, MS 7–1975, Diary, 12 July 1904.

  55. Vita Sackville-West, The Edwardians (Hogarth Press, 1930), p. 147.

  56. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 152.

  57. Balsan, Glitter and Gold, p. 120.

  58. Phillips, Last Edwardians, p. 21.

  59. Fitzwilliam, Wilfrid Blunt Papers, MS 7–1975, Diary, 12 July 1904.

  60. Sackville-West, Edwardians, pp. 204–5.

  61. McKinstry, Rosebery, p. 496.

  62. Fitzroy, Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 160–61.

  63. Diane Urquhart, The Ladies of Londonderry (I. B. Tauris, 2007), pp. 82–84.

  64. Fitzroy’s MSS diary, 18 October 1903, in Richard Davenport-Hines, Ettie (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2008), p. 152.

  65. See Warwick, Afterthoughts, pp. 46, 256.

  66. The Times, 6 January 1904.

  67. Pless, Diary, pp. 126–27 (10, 12 January 1904). Vane, Affair of State, p. 241.

  68. Bodleian Library, Lincolnshire Papers, MS Film 1121, Carrington Diary, 2 February 1906.

  69. Magnus, Edward VII, p. 316.

  70. Bodleian Library, Lincolnshire Papers, MS Film 1121, Carrington Diary, 12 September 1903.

  71. Magnus, Edward VII, p. 318.

  72. Fitzroy, Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 146.

  73. Bodleian Library, Lincolnshire Papers, MS Film 1121, Carrington Diary, 29 September 1903.

  74. Magnus, Edward VII, pp. 318–19.

  75. Heffer, Power, p. 180.

  76. RA VIC/Add C7/2/S, B to Lord Knollys, 28 August 1903.

  77. David Gilmour, Curzon (John Murray, 1994), pp. 291–92.

  78. Earl of Midleton, Records and Reactions (John Murray, 1939), pp. 159–62.

  79. Lord Esher to Maurice Brett, 21 September 1903, in Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, p. 14.

  80. Lord Esher to Arthur Balfour, 25 September 1903, in ibid., vol. 2, p. 19.

  81. Lord Esher to Maurice Brett, 11 October 1903, in ibid., vol. 2, p. 27.

  82. Lees-Milne, Esher, pp. 16, 136.

  83. Lord Esher to Admiral John Fisher, 6 August 1904, in Arthur J. Marder, ed., Fear God and Dread Nought: The Correspondence of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone (Cape, 1952–59), vol. 1, p. 324.

  84. Lord Esher to Arthur Balfour, 16 January 1904, in Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, p. 38.

  85. W. S. Hamer, The British Army: Civil-Military Relations, 1885–1905 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), pp. 13–14, 36–37.

  86. Ibid., pp. 243–44.

  87. Ibid., p. 225.

  88. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist. c. 720, fols. 80–90, Lord Salisbury to Arthur Balfour, 21 April 1905.

  89. Bodleian Library, Lincolnshire Papers, MS Film 1121, Carrington Diary, 11 December 1905.

  90. Lord Esher to Maurice Brett, 5 March 1906, in Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, p. 149.

  91. Lees-Milne, Esher, p. 161.

  92. B to Lord Knollys, 16 April 1904, in Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 253.

  93. Fulford, “The King,” pp. 26–27.

  94. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist, c. 719, Lord Knollys to J. S. Sandars, 22 December 1903.

  95. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist, c. 719, fols. 247–48, J. S. Sandars to Lord Knollys, 27 December 1903 (draft).

  96. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 243.

  97. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist, c. 720, fol. 37, Lord Knollys to Arthur Balfour, 16 February 1905.

  98. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist, c. 720, fol. 109, Lord Knollys to Arthur Balfour, 25 July 1905.

  99. Gilmour, Curzon, pp. 217, 236.

  100. Lord Knollys to Arthur Balfour, 1 September 1905 (telegram), in St. Aubyn, Edward VII, p. 391.

  101. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist, c. 720, fol. 128b, Arthur Balfour to Lord Knollys, 1 September 1905 (copy).

  102. See Gilmour, Curzon, p. 348.

  103. Bodleian Library, Sandars Papers, MS Eng Hist, c. 720, fols. 129–30, Lord Knollys to J. S. Sandars, 2 September 1905.

  104. RA VIC/Add C07//P, Arthur Balfour to Lord Knol
lys, 6 September 1905.

  CHAPTER 24: UNCLE OF EUROPE 1905–7

  1. Census Records, 1881, 1891, 1901. The Times, 22 April 1914.

  2. Stamper, What I Know.

  3. Rose, George V, p. 296.

  4. Keppel, Edwardian Daughter, p. 20.

  5. Bodleian Library, Lincolnshire Papers, MS Film 1121, Carrington Diary, 5 February 1905.

  6. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 204. The Times, 6, 7, 9, 11 December 1905.

  7. RA GV/AA24/29, B to George, 30 November–1 December 1905.

  8. RA GV/AA24/30, B to George, 8 December 1905.

  9. Asquith, Autobiography, vol. 2, p. 72.

  10. Lord Knollys to B, 8 December 1905, in Heffer, Power, p. 208.

  11. Fitzroy, Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 272.

  12. RA VIC/Add A17/1033, B to Louise, 11 December 1905.

  13. RA GV/AA24/31, B to George, 15 December 1905.

  14. Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, pp. 126–27.

  15. Frank Hardie, The Political Influence of the British Monarchy, 1868–1952 (Batsford, 1970), p. 83.

  16. R. B. Haldane to Lord Knollys, 12 September 1905, and Knollys’s reply, in John Wilson, CB: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Constable 1973), pp. 427–30.

  17. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 234.

  18. Wilson, CB, p. 426.

  19. RA VIC/Add U417, B to the Marquis de Soveral, 27 August 1905. Wilson, CB, pp. 144–45, 427.

  20. Heffer, Power, p. 208.

  21. RA VIC/Add C07/9, Lord Esher to Lord Knollys, 10 October 1905.

  22. RA GV/AA24/32, B to George, 22 December 1905.

  23. BL, Sidney Lee Papers, Add MSS 56087A, fols. 134–38, Charles Hardinge to Sidney Lee, 14 November 1920.

  24. Carter, Three Emperors, pp. 306–8.

  25. RA VIC/Add C07/2/Q, Charles Hardinge to Lord Knollys, 27 September 1905.

  26. RA GV/AA 23/27, B to George, 17 November 1905.

  27. Quoted in Harold Nicolson, Sir Arthur Nicolson, First Lord Carnock (Constable, 1930), p. 214.

  28. Ibid., pp. 171, 212.

  29. Williams, It Was Such Fun, pp. 223–24.

  30. Zara Steiner, “The Last Years of the Old Foreign Office, 1898–1905,” Historical Journal, vol. 6 (1963), p. 80.

  31. Ibid., p. 82.

  32. Charles Hardinge to Lord Knollys, 25 May 1904, in Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 291.