Secrets of Edward VII - The Playboy Prince Who Changed Britain - UK Royal Documentary

[Music] king edward vii gregarious flirtatious self-indulgent and the eldest son of queen victoria he was a big person and he liked being quite debonair he knew exactly what to say to people he had a reputation for being able to put people at their ease he dragged the united kingdom out of the victorian era into a shiny new century and inspired the edwardian age he's like a great big sunburst this was written as a very very wealthy empire the edwardians enjoyed a golden era it is a time of great privilege and luxury but no one ever thought edward would be a success they had very low expectations of him as a potential king as king in waiting he was written off as a useless philanderer with a long-suffering wife the prince of pleasure are edward the caressa he does have lots and lots of players lots of girlfriends in this program we reveal the full extent of his scandalous private life he's very happy to disavow harriet in court and that ultimately results in her being confined for the rest of her life in a lunatic asylum how his beautiful wife queen alexandra stood by him she was so tolerant of his misbehaviors and maybe that also undermined her health and ultimately how this playboy prince turned it all around to become one of britain's most successful and popular monarchs who saved the royal family the monarchy was really not fit for purpose edward did manage to pull it back quite quickly he was truly the first people's king [Music] london the 9th of august 1902 coronation day for the new king edward vii the ceremony marks the dawn of a new century and a new era of british royalty after 64 years of queen victoria edward's coronation was a huge affair much was expected of it and really the eyes of the world were fixed upon london anticipating this great event he absolutely knew as king it needed to be one of those occasions with great ceremony and drama and he made absolutely certain that he was the principal in that story king edward was driven to westminster abbey accompanied by his consort queen alexandra his wife of nearly 40 years the ceremony wasn't filmed but this fascinating footage reveals what it might have looked like it was filmed more than a month beforehand in front of a charming painted backdrop of the abbey it was released on coronation spectacular triumph it would pave the way for the edwardian age which would go on to last for more than a decade until the outbreak of the first world war the edwardians enjoyed the spoils of the british empire in an era that would be known for its elegance in fashion and the arts and its advances in design and technology it was all a long way away from the gloomy formality of the victorian age it's ceasing to be the sort of horse-drawn slow society it's becoming the fast transit modern society with developments it's in transport telecommunications assembly lines are coming in so this is becoming a recognizably modern society and for the upper classes i think you could probably say they never had it so good the luxurious lifestyle of the edwardian aristocracy is perfectly demonstrated in glossy romantic dramas like downton abbey low-paid domestic staff service the needs of their lords and ladies of the manor a tradition that continued into the reign of king edward's son george v royal historian aleister bruce is an expert on the edwardian era in downton abbey you see this sense of everyone having their place for you the king emperor at the top or the person who scrubbed the streets or lit the gas right from the start of his reign king edward was keen to transform the public face of the monarchy that included upgrading buckingham palace and building admiralty arch transforming the mall into a world-class ceremonial route the royal pageants we know today the weddings jubilees and flypasts all have their roots in the plans of edward vii going under admiralty arch down towards buckingham palace all of that in a way was being constructed in this period and sort of being presented as something that had happened from time immemorial king edward's mother queen victoria was rarely seen in public she had spent much of the last 40 years of her reign in mourning for her husband albert now edward wanted to put on a show this era is beginnings of celebrity and he's right at the heart of this very sort of glamorous world he goes to the theater you know the west end becomes this very glamorous thing and edward is sort of touching all these different bits because he's very much a man about town he just never stopped eating drinking and smoking cigars and i think with his top hat at its daunting angle he represented the very embodiment of the age that took his name edward vii became a hugely popular monarch but at the start of his reign no one took him very seriously at all he was thought to be a prince of pleasure with little experience of state responsibilities there were reservations among some that really this was a an intellectual he was a kind of good time boy he could take people out he would entertain them at banquets he knew exactly what to say to people there were all these sort of rumors that surrounded the new king and kipling the writer called him a corpulent voluptuary he had a reputation as a playboy as a womanizer henry james the great american writer who lived in britain called him the arch bulgarian the womanizing king had had several high-profile relationships outside his marriage pushing against the accepted boundaries of the time and one of these relationships would end in a very public and scandalous trial that had the nation gripped lady morden was sectioned effectively she was declared mad her own family say oh she's mad and they put her in a loony bin [Music] before he became king edward vii had a reputation as a carefree prince of pleasure with dozens of mistresses known to his family and friends as dirty his first encounters with women took place when he was just 19 at a time when queen victoria and prince albert kept the life of their son at air under strict control throughout time human beings will find their sexual expression and that was no different for aristocrats and even princes of the royal blood and yet for bertie it was difficult because he had parents who established such strong moral codes into which he was actually a prisoner his mother queen victoria despaired of bertie's potential as heir to the throne he was to her really a massive let down certainly compared to his father albert and edward really turned his attention away from the school room and instead lived a life of pleasure at the age of 19 in a break from his studies at cambridge bertie was sent to train with the grenadier guards in ireland the queen thought this might knock a sense of duty into him see in the eyes of his family makes his first really big mistake in in 1861. he's living at an army camp in the current in ireland a kind of sexual prank takes place in the some of his fellow officers invite this woman nelly clifton the woman of easy virtue and he goes and he finds her in his camp bed and he's very keen on this and i remember when i was researching this and looking at um bertie's diaries there's an entry around his time at which he says nc first time nc is nelly clifton nc second time nc third time there's absolutely no question that the young prince slept with nelly clifton but this was something that was complete it was only natural that his fellow brother officers would give him the chance to discover his sexual identity too and what human being of that generation given that huge opportunity in relation to the prison he'd lived in would turn it down when victoria and albert found out they were appalled and urged bertie not to be tempted by women they were also trying to arrange his marriage to princess alexandra of denmark albert dreaded the effect of what he called bertie's fall from grace on their wedding plans with this incident it was his great worry that the future king of denmark would not allow his daughter princess alexandra to marry a broken prince albert needn't have worried bertie's engagement to alex went ahead without difficulty living in different countries meant they barely got to know each other before their marriage and they met for the first time in the cathedral of sphere and near heidelberg they got on very well but of course the wedding itself had to wait several years because she was young alex was 16 at the time the sweet natured oldest child of prince christian of denmark she was famously gorgeous she was very lively she wasn't particularly bright or well educated but she loved having a good time and she rode a horse beautifully she was a lot of fun to be with they married two years later in 1863 and were very much in love bertie was faithful to alex at the start and she had no idea he had a roving eye but he was soon meeting other women at first out of her sight in the brothels of paris he does have lots and lots of affairs a lot of girlfriends even after he gets married he had a tremendous reputation in paris for visiting brothels and going to the theater and having affairs with opera singers and actresses in bertie's social circle adultery was really a sort of recognized sport but he may have thought well you know they're all at it why on earth shouldn't i bertie's adventures in paris began in 1864 when he was 23 just a year after his marriage to alex we know that we went to a very classy brothel called le chabane our knowledge about this mainly comes from later years when the fixtures and fittings of this very fancy brothel were sold off and and certain certain kind of objects become associated with bertie the prince is said to have used this chair to entertain two women at once this is a kind of two-level construction it has a kind of a platform at the top and a platform at the bottom it has handles and it's quite hard to be absolutely friend to work out quite what you would do on this it's believed bertie also enjoyed the use of this silver swan filled with champagne to entertain his ladies alien champagne seems like the idea is probably better than the execution [Music] bertie may have pulled off these escapades in france without the knowledge of his wife or his controlling mother but he had other relationships closer to home which soon came to their attention it's very hard to know how many mistresses bertie had there's hardly any letters any correspondence from women is preserved in bertie's papers and this makes it very difficult to trace the exact nature of his relationships with with all the women who were named [Music] bertie's favorite women came from aristocratic and celebrity backgrounds he would meet them at society dinners dances and even at the theater we know he had very much a soft spot for wagner but we also know that he liked a more kind of rambustious sort of theater the sort of theater in which uh you know people showed their legs [Applause] [Music] a mysterious word today implies a slightly seedy relationship perhaps and probably an adulterous relationship fredwood the seventh i think he thought these relationships were sort of what he deserved to have as prince one of bertie's best-known lady friends was lily langtry he met her at a dinner party in 1877 when he was 35 and she was 23 she launched her acting career off the back of her friendship with bertie lily langtry was this married woman from jersey whose father was a cleric she arrived in london with her husband and very soon seemed to have charmed all of london society including the prince of wales who couldn't get enough of her he showered her with very expensive gifts they went to a party on board a ship and the captain for a joke filled the cabins with laughing gas and you can imagine that was a rather riotous occasion when lily wrote her memoirs she played up her role as a royal mistress but bertie's surviving letters and diaries offer no evidence of a physical relationship really a break came between them when she put a spoonful of strawberry ice down the back of his neck in public and that a line that she crossed and the relationship really cooled after that lily had affairs with other young aristocrats and gave birth to a baby daughter outside her marriage bertie was quick to distance himself from lily but his intimate relationships with other women showed no signs of slowing down his 30-year friendship with lady jennifer churchill the mother of winston churchill started because bertie was friends with her husband lord randolph one of the few relationships that's quite well documented his letters to her survive because she's come to luncheon very often there's a lot of sort of endearments but it doesn't mean that this was a sexual relationship in her lifetime jenny churchill was rumored to have slept with 200 men but there is no hard evidence that bertie was one of them winston churchill is said to have asked her whether she thought she might be in with the chance of becoming the first lady of the bed chamber the once close friendship between bertie and lord randolph churchill suffered one of the tensions in the relationship between lord randolph churchill and bertie was of course the fact that bertie had this long-standing flirtatious relationship with lord randolph's wife when lord randolph died of syphilis in 1895 jenny sought advice in arranging his funeral among those she turned to was bertie's wife princess alexandra some of bertie's mistresses were not unknown to alexander they were from their mutual social circle so jenny churchill did consult with alexandra this was about protocol but it certainly shows this extraordinary attention at this time for preserving appearances the minute there was say a court case because of a divorce that led to you know serious shutdown but if it was sort of people were discreet they could behave in quite a immoral way one of bertie's female friendships did lead to a divorce case and a serious scandal it had begun in 1867 when he started calling on lady harriet mordant her sisters were friends of bertie's harriet mordant was a young woman who was married off to sir charles a rich aristocrat harriet was 20 and 12 years younger than her husband when he went abroad on a fishing holiday bertie visited her in the country and watched her riding her two new white ponies but sir charles came home early and found them together historian and somerset is one of harriet's descendants he flew into a terrible rage and uh the prince of wales made himself scarce so charles had the ponies dragged before harriet and and the ponies were shot before her eyes worse was to come eight months later when harriet gave birth to her daughter violet the premature baby made harriet panic the child sort of developed something slightly wrong with her eyes and harriet leaps to the conclusion that she's infected her with venereal disease so she calls sir charles to her and she tells him that the child isn't his that she's misbehaved with a number of men including the prince of wales once again sir charles flew into a rage he ransacked harriet's desk and found letters from several men including bertie bertie is witness but in the end rather than go to trial lady mordant was sectioned effectively she was declared mad her family her own family say oh she's mad and they put her in a loony bin rather than allow her to appear in court despite his wife's absence sir charles pressed on with the trial it led to lurid headlines and papers such as the illustrated police news with bertie tagged as the royal visitor the prince of wales was the star witness but little more than five minutes in the witness box he was questioned in a very cursory way in that court he wasn't asking anything very detailed he was simply asked in a way to deny the affair he's very happy to disavow harriet in court under oath and you know that ultimately results in her being confined for the rest of her life in a lunatic asylum no one claimed bertie was the father of harriet's child but there have been suggestions of conspiracy to silence her something which suited several people her own family said she was mentally incapable and royal doctors agreed so she never got to defend herself there's a suggestion that you know bertie was sort of colluding with harriet's father sir thomas moncrieff to ensure that she was declared insane and certainly they all seem to have been prepared to sacrifice her providing that the so-called honor of the family and indeed the status of the royal family was protected bertie assured his wife alex and mother queen victoria that he had done nothing wrong and they believed him while lady harriet was locked away for nearly 40 years until her death in 1906 in these sort of days of the metoo movement many people would feel more severe about him i think in all fairness one should play credit to his better qualities his achievements as king and how he actually is sort of managed to be a very popular monarch thirty years after the modern scandal bertie was crowned king his relationships were so well known in society by then that they were amusing rather than scandalous he insisted that a group of his former mistresses should be invited to the coronation accompanying edward his coronation was of course his queen alexander of denmark but also a group of women the king's mistresses who were together in a pew that was dubbed the king's loose box and so mistresses of long-standing jenny churchill winston churchill's mother indeed and alice keppel so long-standing mistresses of edward were there at the heart of this establishment occasion one wonders slightly what the atmosphere was like within it been a playboy all his life a trend that would continue into his reign and the excesses extended to other areas of his lifestyle too his drinking eating and smoking was infamous and soon it would bring him to the brink of death let's not forget this 48 inch chest 48 inch waist there is a kind of foul burst that comes from it that says there's been an abscess in his flesh edward vii spent more than two-thirds of his life with alexandra of denmark his wife and queen consort at the age of 18 alex took part in an arranged marriage with the rebellious and hedonistic prince edward who had grown up starved of affection by his strict parents i think it's quite clear that bertie turned out the way he did because he felt neglected and unloved at whom he had so little love in his family that he went out of his way to find affection outside alex tried her utmost to be the love of bertie's life but when he needed more than she could provide alex found ingenious ways to ease the heartache it caused her there's something about the the nature of that marriage that that in part explains why he was never faithful to her because it was one that was in essence imposed upon him but it was advertised as a love match alex was three years younger than bertie he first saw her photo in 1861 when she was 16. her father prince christian was heir to the throne of denmark they lived in the palace in copenhagen alexandra made her own clothes as a child she shared a bedroom with her sister into her teens there are stories about her recycling her clothes as as furniture cupboards can't really imagine queen victoria doing that they were very fond of each other and they were also very active alexandra's father made them all do kind of i think what you call calisthenics now you know they had to kind of go outside and jump and do star jumps bertie and alex's wedding took place under a cloud his father albert had died and queen victoria was in mourning she insisted the ceremony should take place in windsor queen victoria thoroughly approved of princess alexandra and indeed to a certain extent had sort of hustled bertie into proposing to her but she didn't want it to be forgotten that she was this grieving widow still in the throes of terrible unhappiness having lost albert the newspapers were very critical of victoria's decision um in an obscure berkshire village uh which only had an old castle and very poor sanity was chosen as a private venue convenient for the queen so she would not have to leave the castle or meet the public victoria sent word that the guests and bridal party should dress in colours of mourning at least alex was allowed to wear white it's a great painting by frith in which you see the married couple and then above there's a sort of box in the wall where the queen stands and all the light is on the queen the queen's grief also taints the wedding photographs she insisted that a bust of albert should join them while she sat between the married couple albert has to be brought into the photograph it's like kind of weekend at bernie's thing isn't it his corpse is almost in that photograph with them having cast a shadow over bertie and alex's wedding the queen would exert a similar controlling grip over their marriage though he loved his mother and wanted to please her bertie struggled to find a role for himself she tries very hard to stop them from having dinner parties and tells them they shouldn't be going out and that when alexandra has her period queen victoria wants to know about it and she shouldn't be going ass on her son and her daughter-in-law and she refused to kind of give him access to cabinet papers she really didn't want him to step up and play a role there was the thought that edward would if he was given responsibilities he wouldn't necessarily stick to them or he would go off partying or he'd show the papers inappropriately to other people with no immediate royal duties to take up after their wedding bertie and alex moved into molbra house on london's pal mao a stately home less than a mile from buckingham palace the young couple became the toast of high society when bertie and alex sort of plunged themselves into the social world it was very exciting invitations to marlborough house were hotly coveted the mulberry set of the people associated with them there's a sort of frat house kind of atmosphere i think everybody stays up late they play billiards they drink quite a lot bertie and alex were london's most fashionable couple and alex soon established herself as an influencer society women rushed to follow her example alexandra had an incredibly good figure and she loved clothes and she had an actual sense of what looked good she popularized jeweled chokers or multiple strings of pearls or diamonds but actually that that was to hide a scar on her neck but she looked so attractive that other ladies adopted the whole fashion and that became all the rage alex also had a positive influence on the reputation of the royal family she was a person who worked through persuasion rather than by aggressive argument but she found ways of being her own way alex was soon boosting the royal couple's reputation around the world when they visited egypt and turkey she was paid a great honour by one of the world's most influential leaders one of the great powers at the time was the ottoman empire and of course it was muslim at heart and the sultan who ruled it was one who observed all those ancient structures of his faith and yet a very special opportunity was given to alex to be his guest for dinner now this was incredibly rare it was actually unheard of and yet because i think she had set such a fine example she was always so adroit in her behavior and she was always so poised that the sultan expressed his own affection for the united kingdom and the power of the british empire by giving this very single privilege [Music] the prince and princess of wales had six children five of whom survived into adulthood the queen was determined to watch them all being born but the last thing alex wanted was her controlling mother-in-law to show up this may be nothing more than kind of rude to kind of wrong foot victoria so she wasn't there waiting outside the door to impose herself as each new baby arrived alexandra had three children within the first four years of her marriage they weren't perfect pregnancies at all i mean her first child eddie was two months premature and her third child louise was born when herself was ill at the time of princess louise's birth alex was so ill with rheumatoid fever that rumors of her imminent death began to circulate the times newspaper had to publish an official denial the severe pain in her knees and legs meant she could only sleep with the help of opium or lordan alex was also hard of hearing and her illness made it worse as alex grew older she was almost stone deaf and she also had a limb and she was therefore very conscious in public and she couldn't sort of participate in you know in in bertie's vigorous social life of of dancing and parties alex was determined not to be overwhelmed by her health problems once she'd recovered and resumed her role as bertie's rock she found ways to create a rewarding social life that meant she could avoid his late nights out she insisted on dancing she was a great dancer she was wonderful at like woolsey and she always danced with what came to be known as the alexandra glide which was keeping one leg straight she developed a limp but she limped so gracefully that other ladies actually sort of started copying her and affected a slight limp themselves alex preferred the quiet life at sandringham to noisy london society she loved bertie despite his affairs and grew to accept the life said in london with other women bertie couldn't manage without her and always went home to his wife and family she was looked after by bertie and he was a devoted husband and father it's difficult to know how accepting alexandra was of edwards philandering ways and i think there is evidence to show that she came to a certain level of acceptance and yet she was so tolerant of his misbehaviors maybe that also undermined her health but together they were a great team queen victoria may have supported bertie in public but thought his behavior was not befitting of a future king all his life bertie was a constant disappointment to his mother except in the last moment before she died she seems pleased to see him and she speaks his name so that as far as we know bertie is the last word that victoria spoke and it's a kind of forgiveness i think perhaps at the end after nearly 60 years in waiting bertie the prince of wales was now king edward vii but his decades of smoking drinking and overeating were quickly catching up with him his doctors warned him that without urgent treatment he might die in the middle of his coronation ceremony there's a possibility that it's appendicitis but once trees cuts into the body let's not forget this 48 inch chest 48 inch waist there is a kind of foul burst that comes from it that says there's been an abscess in in his flesh the nation indeed the world held their breath in the end the 40-minute procedure was successful he sat up in bed he emerged in a way this added to the sense of excitement and expectation the coronation was delayed two months to allow him time to recuperate king edward vii was determined to drag britain into the modern age but not everyone was happy about it many british people who were quite restrained saw this old building that they loved turned into something like the interior of a french hotel and that was probably quite surprising [Music] when edward finally became king he was determined to modernize the monarchy the start of his reign heralded a new era of hope optimism and creativity he began by insisting the family should leave their beloved home at marlborough house and move into the main royal residence of buckingham palace which had been largely left empty by his reclusive mother alexandra was totally against the idea but edward said it was essential to make the monarchy more visible she was desperate she didn't want to leave at all and she put up all sorts of reasons why it was impossible for her to uproot herself and only very reluctantly um does she agree to go vacuum palace was full of junk full of things that have just been cluttered full of full of and everything terribly dirty and the king wants to get rid of everything that reminds him of his parents and then um to redecorate it and to create a buckingham palace which will be an ideal backdrop for the ceremonial court that he intends to hold edward and alexandra hired theater designers and decorators to make the palace look more glamorous some people said that his decoration of buckingham palace looked a bit like the ritz hotel it was all red carpets and gold leaf but all the same it was it did give the sort of theatrical appearance that he wanted to give to his monarchy many british people who were quite restrained saw this old building that they loved turned into something like the interior of a french hotel of this new era and king edward vii used buckingham palace and all these new ideas to be at the forefront of a new empire and a new way it really was a case of kind of charging recharging rebooting um the monarchy and he really did hit the ground running and it was about getting rid of the old and bringing in the new in many ways he immediately shows that he's going to embrace a completely different style of of kingship you know queen victoria had basically hidden herself away for decades and she very reluctantly came out he's like a great big sunburst basically he is bringing monarchy into the 20th century and it's going to be visible and it's going to be glorious and gilded and splendid this ceremonial side of the monarchy was right at the top of bertie's agenda the opening of his first parliament in 1901 was the perfect occasion for him to create a public spectacle this was a really important act uh because it marked a a real break with what had happened under queen victoria queen victoria uh particularly in the last 40 years of her reign after albert's death uh very rarely open parliament with um edward all that changes he goes to parliament in a marvelous coach wonderful horses he's wearing you know all his robes alexander sitting next to him um in mourning but looking absolutely marvelous as only she could do when he gets to parliament um the king reads speech himself and this is a very um important sign that the monarchy is going to play this very sort of ceremonial position within the constitution so here we have him basically saying you know it's now different i am going to be a very present kind of monarch and yes of course he kind of cleared out um some of the the furnishings of victoria who of course you know his mother she's been queen for decades so you know there was a lot of stuff to sort out totally unlike his excessively private mother edward wanted the public to see the changes he was making edward vii was perhaps the first monarch to realize the importance of not just doing the job but being seen to be king to be constantly in the public view to be constantly photographed which was now becoming possible so his legacy perhaps was his understanding of the importance of being a king who could reach out to his people who could be seen sort of driving in his car um through crowds of people um uh waving and and being amongst them he was very conscious that he must show himself be accessible to his people and not hide himself away as his mother had done all too often the king needed to be seen to be believed and the imperial britain felt that it needed spectacle to seduce the masses really these great state of events which proliferate through the majesty of monarchy are kind of reformulated at the beginning of edward's reign as prince of wales edward had already cultivated a reputation that was almost the polar opposite of his mother's but as king the traits which his mother had deplored in him extravagance lack of formality became a real asset i think there's one way in which you can really see edward as as as embodying the spirit of his age and that he is in a way a kind of anti-victorian that whole decade is shaped by the desire i think to put the 19th century behind it there's a kind of disgust for the victorian that that is is very apparent in the early years of the 20th century and became even greater later and in a sense that whole era is rebelling against victoria is trying to make a break with her just in the way that he also tried to expunge the victoria from his life once she departed the picture here was something new and a chance to be breaking free of all that constraint all that endless british expectation of good behavior this was a new king who represented that burst of joy burst of change and opportunity for the aristocratic classes to have their great time in the sun and the abundance that had perhaps got him into trouble became the very element that made him the success he was the king loved the new technology that was coming on stream and he was personally involved in a major moment in international communication when the first uh transatlantic radio message is is beamed by marconi the sender is teddy roosevelt the recipient is bertie that's part of the story of the special relationship the fact that this uh this morse message goes across the atlantic and goes from roosevelt to to bertie when he received a message from the president of the united states it was the start of something exciting and new in the 20th century and of course he was the first great monarch of that century this was also the era of the motor car which gave individuals such freedom to roam but this exciting invention was a status symbol that only the rich could afford he was a great aficionado of it he loved being driven around i mean they must have been terrible smokey old things but he was determined to represent the creative empire that he was looking for and after all britain had brought the world the industrial revolution and its success as a trading nation depended upon its capacity to stay at the forefront of all ingenuity and technology and he recognized his role in that in this era of exciting technological advancement the edwardians also adopted radical new look and edward himself was regarded worldwide as an arbiter of men's fashion when edward vii became king it was a time when gentlemen of his state would change no less than seven times a day and so dress and clothing was very much a part of the apparel of kingship and there was a lot to cover he was a big person and he liked being quite debonair quite uh ebullient in the way he chose to dress he also set another trend which still holds today the tradition of uh having the lower button on a waistcoat uh undone again that was edward's invention as a product of his large stomach it's still something that you're told to do if you get married in a suit from moss bros and it said that he's the founder of this tradition and it's slightly a way of disguising the fact that his belly is kind of bursting through this this garment for the ladies voluminous skirts were out and the gibson girl was in named after an american artist this embodiment of the ideal edwardian woman was slender with an ample bosom and hips and hair piled up on her head it's a period of a great change in in women's fashions that gibson girl look um with the with the waistline going higher and the neckline going lower and all of those enormous picture hats that would have been a great annoyance to anybody in the cinema i think or in the theater the actual materials that were being used to craft these fantastic ensembles was very much about creating a sense of richness it is an era that really celebrated innovation uh in terms of fashion using chemical lace using machine-made um objects using garments that were made it's really the beginning of the fast fashion era of mass manufacture and so there's a great sense of uh of the new of new designers new in all sorts of different ways that punctuates it as a very exciting decade in fashion [Music] under the fun-loving king the leisure and pleasure industries boomed the apollo theatre and the london hippodrome opened and another famous landmark the ritz hotel on piccadilly which quickly became the ultimate high society destination [Music] the king was a big fan and loyal client of hotelier cesar ritz as these elegant vintage photographs demonstrate the glitzy new hotel's groundbreaking features included ensuite bathrooms double glazing walk-in wardrobes and beds made of brass rather than wood the definition of luxury there's also an interesting architectural term here that that we can call the edwardian baroque you know you've got buildings that are on the inside are extremely modern like the ritz hotel which has a kind of skyscraper structure it's steel inside there but the outside of it you'd think it was um you know it was something that had dropped down from the palace of versailles it's very ornate it's gold leaf when you're walking inside it's like a kind of uh versailles hall of mirrors effect everyone hankered for a taste of the high society glamour of edward's lifestyle even if the rips was a little beyond their means they too could enjoy the sophistication of taking afternoon tea at one of the many corner houses maisons that sprang up across the country especially those belonging to the lions corner house chain life might have been fine and dandy in edwards britain for those who could afford it but there was a less golden side to the golden era a huge divide between the haves and have nots it's probably too easy to sort of forget about the fact that all sorts of people were actually living in considerable hardship and and in fact you know there were very bad um class tensions which were intensifying during the rain many thousands of men and women were in service at this time it was a it was a huge employer but there's no doubt that the hours were long it was incredibly difficult work often the treatment could be very poor and so life in service really highlighted that distinction between the super rich and those people who were actually providing them with service in the country house setting the edwardian era is um it's a kind of golden age before the horrors of the first world war it is a time of great privilege and luxury but on the other hand where the edwardian era gets its sort of tension from is that it's also a period of extreme um inequality in income a period of acute poverty and a period when you see the beginning of important welfare reforms though like edwardian times changed dramatically some things stayed the same edward was still seeking companionship from women who were not his wife and one of them has a direct link to prince charles [Music] bertie had strayed throughout his marriage and that didn't change when he was king and one woman had the dubious honor of becoming known as his last mistress alice keppel was famous before she started her affair with edward because she was dinner parties were a hot ticket because lots of politicians and you know famous aristocrats would be there people are made to understand that if they want to have the king to dinner or if they want to have him to stay mrs keppel must come too so she constantly has accompanies him and and she has a very good effect on the king she was able to put a good mood if you wanted something out of the king the best thing was to ask mrs keppel um and she will um get the right answer um she was witty she was um quick she was interested in politics she was able to act to the kind of bridge between the king and some of the liberal leaders with whom he didn't get on very well people like lloyd george um and um basically they both um enjoyed being with each other i don't think it was a very passionate affair um but it was a sort of um it was rather a grown-up relationship mrs kepler is very interesting because she is much younger than him and the relationship is one of companionship and friendship um i don't think it is necessarily the same sort of sexually promiscuous relationship that he may have enjoyed in his youth there's an interesting way that history repeats itself in the relationship between bertie and alice keppel because of course two direct descendants of those people are prince charles and camilla parker bowles camilla the current duchess of cornwall happens to be the great granddaughter of mrs cappell it says something about what i'm going to call a kind of class consciousness that goes down the generations here these are people who are all from the same part of society they all had relationships with each other those lines of descent follow and all their great great grandchildren still all know each other so i think it says something about a kind of continuity of of social life and possibly a continuity of morays from beginning of the 20th century to the end of it two women played a crucial part in shaping the king bertie became mrs keppel helped him to broker his relationships with the leading politicians of the day meanwhile his wife alexandra was by his side on big state occasions helping him wow the crowds and also throwing herself into charity work alexander is strong-minded and she had a very strong sense of dress and um she also had a sense of theater the night that morning for queen victoria was was due to end uh there was a a court ball and uh she was repeatedly asked if uh ladies were still expected to be in black and she was very evasive she managed not to give any sort of answer so the lady guests took the decision to play safe and all came dressed in black suddenly the doors open and alex enters looking sort of radiant stunning uh all in white with diamonds uh and uh sort of say bright plumage whereas all the others were like sort of dowdy crows her lady in waiting described it as that she was shining like a star in the night sky and it was a declaration of her prominence that she was compared to the london ladies as she called them she was the most prominent woman in the room as bertie continued being unfaithful to her alexandra found all manner of ways to communicate her displeasure alexandra was clever at managing edward and [Music] punishing his indiscretions uh fairly subtly she was deeply hurt and often humiliated by bertie and his shenanigans especially because it was impossible to keep it private one of the ways in which alex responded to her husband's affairs was to take herself out of the picture almost completely you know she traveled to visit relatives in denmark or russia or traveled in the mediterranean making it very clear that she wanted to distance herself from her husband because she disapproved of his actions and there was another surefire way to put him in his place he's obsessed with punctuality and she is constantly blithely infuriatingly late for everything the idea of keeping a king waiting is completely unacceptable but alexander knew exactly what she was doing and she would appear looking absolutely wonderful and the king would fume and the point would be made but despite the friction over his affairs the relationship between bertie and alex had lots of strengths there are plenty of eyewitness accounts of great fondness almost a sort of jollity really going on between them they enjoyed each other's company they were good humored in each other's company i think in a way it's a surprisingly functional relationship um given the circumstances and a relationship of some complexity there doesn't seem to be much agony in it if i can put it like that aside from her mischievous attempts to punish her unfaithful husband alexandra threw herself into charity work cassandra has an extraordinary sort of innate sympathy a bit like princess diana she was able to visit hospitals to talk to everybody she could see to shape people's hands to cheer them up she helped raise funds to fit out a hospital ship named the princess of wales that was used to bring back wounded soldiers from the boer war she brought a sense of responsibility and kindness to the monarchy queen alexandra in her own quiet and dignified way which was compassion that sense of the charitable and the loving nature of a state that was in its own way becoming more liberal and more aware of those who needed help the value that alexandra brought his queen to her relationship with edward as king cannot be underestimated and in some ways she can be seen as his saving grave but edward's excessive eating drinking and smoking were finally catching up with him every ladder had been opened to him every drinks cabinet and a lifetime of that indulgence was bound to take its course and his health did decline and everyone could see it queen alexandra watches this with great sadness he had achieved so much since he came to the throne but his reign was about to come to an abrupt end [Music] edward vii was the first king to foster a truly public persona and to be toppled from their thrones after so many years where the queens hadn't been visible and there really was a rising tide of republicanism it seemed that you know the monarchy was really not fit for purpose it was out of touch it lost its way in many ways so it's quite remarkable really uh the edward did manage to pull it back and pull it back quite quickly actually he won heart and he did prove himself to be a king fit for the times and though edward's reputation as a fun-loving playboy never left him his many triumphs far weigh this i think we remember edward as a man overly devoted to pleasure but there is a a serious side to him that is neglected and and unremembered he's one of the brokers of the anton cordial for instance that made relations between france and britain a lot more friendly than they've been in the past so if we're going to kind of refocus him slightly let's think less about the the cigars and the horses and maybe more about this side of him about his political nows and when edward went on an official visit to india he also demonstrated an enlightened outlook on race relations he was deeply shocked by the behavior of some of the british officials out there and he came back determined that something must be done to stop the racist behavior of the english against the indians he writes home to his mother that all the people in india would be far more accepting of our rule if he actually treated them with firmness but kindness not with brutality he had defied all expectations of him particularly those of his mother and he was determined to make sure he didn't make the same mistakes with his own children as she had with him edward said about training his son up to be king you know he makes sure that george has a desk next to him you know he makes that part and parcel of of what you do for an air is that you prepare them towards the end of 1909 bertie's health was failing he just won't look after himself he goes on smoking cigars he goes on eating huge amounts he finds it harder and harder to walk um and you know basically his body gives out on him alexandra returned from a trip abroad to find him seriously ill and on the 6th of may 1910 edward suffered a series of heart attacks but even at this difficult time the king's mistresses were never far away mrs keckle had a letter which the king had written to her um telling her uh that if ever he um became ill or was on his deathbed um she produced this letter and alexandra on the strength of this allows mrs keppel uh to come and say her goodbyes to the dying king and mrs kevin when she saw him so ill has a sort of hysterical fit starts weeping and making a lot of noise and being very sort of what you don't want to have in the sick room so she's bundled out of the um out of the room um and um uh shortly afterwards the king dies after he dies alexandra has his body laid out at buckingham palace for eight days [Music] his sudden death produces a sort of extraordinary massive outpouring of public grief the shops are all great with black people are in tears and his son george makes the decision edward vii should lie instead and um at westminster hall um his coffin lies and for several days the crowds come filing past you know the queues go stretching right through the sort of streets of westminster people wearing black people of all classes you know a lot of poor people not just the rich and the privileged predictions he would be a terrible king had been proved totally wrong his funeral was held 11 days after his death and it too drew huge crowds the funeral of edward vii is in a way it's the biggest production number of his career it's the climax of it all um he has been the person pushing for this kind of monarchy this highly um ritualized um spectacular version of monarchy where all its processes are attended by a sense of choreography a sense of style too and a sense of the people being involved as as spectators and and participants when the crowds cheered him when his courthouse passed down the streets of london they were there out of love love for a king that in a very short period of time had managed to establish a relationship with the people that was unprecedented he was truly the first people's king i think he'd represented the grandfather everybody wanted and this is what royalty does it sort of embodies that generational reality that every human being lives and he was very much a part of a dying age and with the death of the king the joy and privilege represented and embodied i mean literally embodied was seen to be vulnerable mortal and gone edward vii is remembered as a wise king and a great sportsman the edwardian era like the victorian era has now become a legend had managed to create an entirely fresh new era one that is still very much remembered and loved today a lot of people felt a great sense of regret that the reign of edward vii was cut short and people some people suggested that you know if he'd lived um possibly um the golden era could have continued and um possibly the first world war uh could have been avoided one legacy of his reign was the fact that the monarchy in britain survived as it did throughout the 20th century you know particularly the first world war when so many other kings fell from their friends edward vii did succeed in reforming and modernizing the monarchy and perhaps more than that um uh making the monarchy as central uh to people's sense of being british he showed how he could play a difficult situation in lots of ways with you know the rising tide of political and social reform and the pressures in europe he actually played those to his strength and was seen to be a measured peacemaking constitutional monarch actually exactly what was needed at the time after less than 10 years on the throne edward vii created an impressive legacy and what of the era that was named after him when people look back at that time there is with at one level a great deal of nostalgia for a you know a lost age of long lazy afternoons hunting on the rivers and evening spent in you know going to the theaters or the musicals in in london he reigned during a remarkable period of flux and it's left us with romantic impressions of high society living and a touch of bygone luxury that we all secretly long for [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] how this playboy prince turned it all around to become one of britain's most successful and popular monarchs who saved the royal family the monarchy was really not fit for purpose edward did manage to pull it back quite quickly he was truly the first people's king [Music] london the 9th of august 1902 coronation day for the new king edward vii the ceremony marks the dawn of a new century and a new era of british royalty after 64 years of queen victoria edwards coronation was a huge affair much was expected of it and really the eyes of the world were fixed upon london anticipating this great event he absolutely knew as king it needed to be one of those occasions with great ceremony and drama and he made absolutely certain that he was the principal in that story king edward was driven to westminster abbey accompanied by his consort queen alexandra his wife of nearly 40 years the ceremony wasn't filmed but this fascinating footage reveals what it might have looked like it was filmed more than a month beforehand in front of a charming painted backdrop of the abbey it was released on coronation spectacular triumph it would pave the way for the

Channel: UK Documentary

Views: 44,129

Keywords: Queen, PrinceCharles, PrincessDiana, PrinceWilliam, Kate, PrinceHarry, MeghanMarkle

Id: QsBBPS6yQAw

Length: 64min 25sec (3865 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 30 2021