Authors: Dennis Friedman
On her journey to Balmoral Princess May might have been wondering whether Eddy was able to make a commitment to women. She knew that he had had numerous girl-friends and recently, according to hearsay, had fallen in love with Princess Hélène d’ Orleans, daughter of Louis Philippe Albert d’Orleans, the Compte de Paris and Pretender to the throne of France. Princess May was impressed that a woman as beautiful as Princess Hélène loved her suitor. But what if Prince Eddy, despite his womanizing, refused to give her up.
Princess May would have been aware that Queen Victoria and Prince Edward were not opposed to the possibility of Eddy’s marriage to the Catholic Princess Hélène, provided she could be persuaded to renounce her religion. Because the Princess was so much in love with Prince Eddy, she needed little persuading to do so. The Compte de Paris, however, was
furious that his daughter, at twenty-one still under age according to French law, was contemplating becoming a Protestant. He refused to give permission for his daughter to marry the ‘dissolute’ and promiscuous Prince about whose sexual orientation rumours abounded. The despairing Princess appealed to the Holy Father himself, but Pope Leo XIII refused his dispensation and the engagement did not materialize.
Despite Princess May’s erstwhile friendship with Prince Eddy’s sisters, they all supported Princess Hélène’s claim, because they knew that she had been secretly in love with Prince Eddy for three years before declaring herself. This seemed to them to be the very stuff of romance (with Prince Eddy playing the role of Prince Charming), and they thought that such a fairy-tale marriage would bring a little excitement to their humdrum lives. Princess May might also have wondered whether Queen Victoria’s summons was merely a ploy on the part of the Palace to break up Prince Eddy’s relationship with the French Princess who had been forbidden to give up Catholicism for the Church of England.
In a letter to his brother, Prince Eddy wrote: ‘You probably know through the girls, who told me, that dear Hélène had been fond of me for some time. I did not realise this at first although the girls constantly told me she liked me, for she never showed it in any way.’ He went on to explain to his brother that he had seen Hélène on several occasions and had been impressed with the fact that she had shown interest in him. As a result, he had fallen in love with her and took the view that anyone who liked him must be a very special person. He was also perhaps still smarting from the fact that his first cousin, Princess Alix of Hesse, had recently turned him down.
It was soon after this that Prince Eddy realized that no one woman, no matter how beautiful, could satisfy his craving for affection. Despite his protestations of love for Princess Hélène and his conditional offer of marriage to her, he declared himself in love with Lady Sybil St Clair-Erskine, another lovely twenty-year-old and the second daughter of the Fourth Earl of Rosslyn. Like Princess Hélène, however, Lady Sybil was unacceptable. When she discovered that Prince Eddy was wooing her and at the
same time expressing undying love for Princess Hélène, she refused to have anything more to do with him. Prince Eddy had convinced himself that it was possible to be in love with two women at once, but while paying attention to one he would inevitably be turning his back on the other. Genuine commitment would be impossible with either, and each would experience him as disloyal. In the event Lady Sybil made her own decision and shortly afterwards married the thirteenth Earl of Westmoreland.
Possibly because of his lack of experience with women, Prince George was seen by his family as resolute, conscientious and pleasing, while Prince Eddy was regarded as immoral, foolish and prone to involvements not only hostile to women but regarded as ‘beyond the pale’. It was at about this time that forensic psychiatrists began to develop theories which led to the association of same-sex preferences with criminality. Havelock Ellis referred to homosexuals as ‘moral imbeciles’ and ‘degenerate lunatics’, providing authoritative labelling and medical sanction for prejudice. Increasing social pressures, aimed at consolidating family values, were also being brought to bear by the Church. Homosexuals who threatened these values were punished. All homosexual acts, from sodomy to mutual masturbation – whether in public or in private, with or without consent and at any age – had been criminalized under the terms of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885.
It was against this background that two years earlier Prince Eddy had been the subject of a scandal at a homosexual brothel, the Hundred Guineas, at 19 Cleveland Street in central London. During a police raid on the brothel one of Prince Eddy’s closest friends, Lord Arthur Somerset, had been discovered
in flagrante delicto
with a young man. Rather than face a possible charge under the new Act, Lord Somerset fled the country. It was rumoured that Prince Eddy (known as Victoria by his friends) was also an
habitué
of the brothel. Three men were arrested and sent to prison for ‘offences’ but, according to a report in the
North London Press,
others were claimed to have had their reputations protected because of their social standing. One of these was said to be the Duke of Clarence, another Lord Euston, heir to the Duke of Grafton. Lord Euston, however, successfully
sued the editor of the
North London Press
, who was sentenced to a year in prison for libel. Taking the view that discretion was the better part of valour Prince Eddy did nothing.
Prince Eddy, like his father, was considered to be sensual and attractive to women. When they came to know him better, however, they found him listless and dreamy. He was only too ready to turn away from them and pass them over either for the next woman who caught his eye or for occasional same-sex experimentation with like-minded friends. Princess May would not have known, and had she known would probably have been unaware of the significance of the fact, that when Prince Eddy was a student at Cambridge he had mixed with a group of young men, many of whom were known to be homosexual. He had also formed a close friendship with his tutor, James Stephen (a cousin of Virginia Woolf). Mr Stephen, described as a scholar ‘with cultivated taste and a natural bent towards dainty and exquisite language’, formed an attachment to the Prince. This attachment was so intense that when Eddy left Cambridge to join his regiment his tutor, unable to cope without his friend, gave up academic life. He was admitted to a mental hospital and later died while on a hunger strike begun during Prince Eddy’s final illness.
Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra laid the blame for most of Prince Eddy’s unsuitable attachments on his regiment, the 10th Hussars, which had a reputation for dissipation and drunkenness. Prince Eddy had a name for ‘dissolute’ behaviour. Years earlier he had been reported by Mr Dalton to have fraternized with ‘ruffians’ while drunk and on leave during his service on the
Bacchante.
In view of all this he would probably have thought himself fortunate to find any woman willing to take him on, regardless of the fact that he would one day be King of England.
Well aware of the drawbacks, but conscious also of the glittering prizes that lay ahead, Princess May prepared herself for what she hoped would be Queen Victoria’s offer to her. The importance of her meeting with the Queen, however, became overshadowed by the sudden illness of Prince George on 9 November1891 while he was celebrating his father’s fiftieth birthday at Sandringham. On 12 November he was diagnosed as having
typhoid fever and was immediately removed to Marlborough House in order that he might receive the best possible medical attention. Princess Alexandra was at Livadia in the Crimea with her two unmarried daughters on a visit to her sister Princess Dagmar and her husband Emperor Alexander III of Russia. The fact that she had chosen to be out of the country for her husband’s fiftieth birthday was seen by the Court as an act of revenge, the reason for which was assumed to be Prince Edward’s continuing flagrant infidelity. In the event this calculated snub took second place to Princess Alexandra’s concern for the health of her son. Summoned back to London, George’s mother and sisters arrived on 22 November. On 3 December an entry in his diary notes the engagement of Eddy and May, and Prince George had scarcely recovered from his typhoid fever when on 8 January 1892 the family gathered for another celebration, Prince Eddy’s twenty-eighth birthday.
Princess May not only received Queen Victoria’s approval but also that of Princess Alexandra, who was delighted that her reprobate son made no objection to the arrangements being made on his behalf. She immediately agreed to accept Princess May as her future daughter-in-law. Both Prince Eddy’s parents were fond of Princess May. They had known her since she was a baby and recognized in her qualities that fitted her for the role she would one day be called on to play. Their only anxiety was that she might have second thoughts about the marriage.
The deal having been struck, and with Prince George now convalescing from his illness, Princess Alexandra felt that she could visit her parents in Denmark. Plans for the official engagement went ahead in her absence. The Duke of Clarence proposed to Princess May of Teck on 2 December 1891 at a house-party given by the Danish Minister to the Court of St James, Christian de Falbe, and Madame de Falbe at their country home at Luton Hoo. The wedding was arranged for 27 February 1892, two months later, giving Princess May very little time to change her mind. Princess Alexandra was delighted that Prince Eddy had at last found a fiancée who was not only not German but suitable in every way. Writing to Queen Victoria to tell her how pleased she was with Prince Eddy’s choice, she was able also to express
her feelings for ‘the sad tragedy and blighted life of that sweet dear Hélène’. Not everyone was so delighted with the match. Sir Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victoria’s Private Secretary, commented in his private papers: ‘I am told he don’t care for Princess May of Teck and she appears too proud to take the trouble of running after him for which I rather admire her.’
On 4 January 1892 Princess May and her parents arrived at Sandringham to celebrate Prince Eddy’s twenty-eighth birthday. Three days later, having caught a cold while attending the funeral of Prince Hohenlohe, he developed a feverish flu-like illness and over the next few days became increasingly ill. By the time Dr Francis Laking, the Physician-in-Ordinary to the Royal Household, was called to attend to him the Prince was terminally ill with pneumonia. His death on 14 January 1892, six days after his birthday, was painful and slow. It took place in the presence of his parents, his sisters, his brother and his grieving bride-to-be. After days of delirium, incessant coughing and profound suffering which affected his family deeply, Prince Eddy’s last words were: ‘Something too awful has happened – my darling brother George is dead.’ These bizarre words may have reflected Prince Eddy’s realization that he was about to die. His defence against this fear was to project it on to his
alter ego,
his beloved brother George.
With the death of her eldest son, Princess Alexandra felt a sorrow made all the more poignant because Eddy, of all her children, had failed to live up to her expectations. His promiscuous need for approval (especially from women) made her wonder whether she had done enough for him as a child. Eddy had certainly never failed to love her and had been obedient and easygoing. She never forgot Eddy and kept his bedroom exactly as he had left it. The bed was draped with the Union Jack, his clothes remained in his cupboard and his soap on his wash-stand. He was not forgotten by others either. Princess May kissed his brow as she left his room, and on his tomb at Windsor a wreath inscribed ‘Hélène’ was left by another woman who, despite his shortcomings, had also loved him. Nine months later, in a conversation with the 72-year-old Queen Victoria, herself no stranger to sorrow, Princess Hélène said simply: ‘Je l’aimais tant,’ and, more surprisingly,
‘Il etait si bon.’ In a note to Alfred Lord Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, Queen Victoria wrote: ‘Was there ever a more terrible contrast, a wedding with bright hopes turned into a funeral?’ Tennyson’s response in his official verse was in the event less poetic than that of Princess Hélène who had truly loved Prince Eddy.
No one, however, mourned Prince Eddy as much as did Prince George. In a letter to a shipmate he expressed his feelings for his brother: ‘To me his loss is irreparable, as you know how devoted we always were and we had never been separated until I was eighteen … the whole of my life has changed.’ Despite the many cousins who had visited the Waleses at Sandringham and the shipmates who had served with him at sea, Prince George had been both a lonely child and a lonely adolescent. The only person with whom he had ever felt at ease, apart from his mother, was his brother. Prince Eddy had been his confidant. They had supported one another and wept with one another in their times of homesickness until finally they grew up. While Eddy searched for love from both men and women, George continued his quest for admiration and approval by serving his country, his parents and later his wife.
Inseparable in the nursery, in the school room and as naval cadets, the two brothers had depended on one another. Drawn together by what they regarded as their banishment from home, they shared their anger and puzzlement at having been abandoned by parents who they both knew really loved them. As their years in exile slowly passed, they came to realize that, although Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra had managed to convince themselves that the separation hurt them more than it hurt their children, this was a myth perpetuated by parents to protect themselves from the pain of their failure to respond to their children’s needs. Prince Eddy’s death, one week after the twenty-eighth anniversary of his birth, was his final rejection of a mother who should by rights have kept him by her side until he was ready to leave her but who instead had loved him and left him. Both the nation, which thought it knew him, and his family and friends, who did know him, mourned the heir apparent.
Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra, together with their family,
spent a few quiet weeks at Compton Place in Eastbourne, the home of the Duke of Devonshire, before leaving for Cap Martin in the South of France. They observed a period of mourning for the remainder of the year, broken only briefly on 23 May 1892 by a visit to Denmark for the Golden Wedding of Prince George’s maternal grandparents, the King and Queen of Denmark.