That Edward VII was unfaithful to his long-suffering wife, Alexandra of Denmark, is undeniable, but despite how poor his reputation is, there is actually a surprising dearth of information on who, when and where. Edward, or Bertie as he is better known (his given name was Albert Edward), maintained a coterie of female companions, but who actually rose to the level of mistress is debatable. Among the most famous of these women is Alice Keppel.
Charles II was a bit of a man-whore – there’s not really another way to put it. He kept dozens of mistresses over the course of his life and ended up siring 20 bastard children. He was also married, so let’s take a moment to pity his poor wife, Catherine of Braganza, a convent-reared princess from Portugal who spent her life in England humiliated by her husband’s infidelities and forced to watch them give birth to his children when she could not.
Continue reading “Not So Merry England: Catherine of Braganza at the Court of Charles II”
On January 21, 1936, this happened. Now, I only recently found this out, having given it literally no amount of thought, but monarchs don’t watch the formal proclamation of their accession. In Edward’s case, he not only did it, but he did it publicly from a window in St. James’s Palace next to none other than his long-time, still-married companion, Wallis Simpson. #Scandal. Well, sort of.
Edward’s father, George V, died on January 20 at Sandringham House in Norfolk after a 25-year reign. Edward was 43, unmarried, childless and had, in certain circles, a reputation for being a bit of playboy, particularly if the women in question were married.
At the time that he became king, his relationship with Wallis Simpson wasn’t well-known to the public – thus, seeing them together wouldn’t raise alarm bells for most people. But it certainly did for those who knew who Wallis was, particularly members of Edward’s government, his family and his courtiers. As Edward was about to find out, what had been tolerated for the throne’s heir, would emphatically not be for its king.
