Jane Ridley (1) (1953–)

The playboy prince gets some new respect

This cradle to grave biography of Queen Victoria’s colorful, often rebellious son King Edward VII, or Bertie, weaves a detailed, hard-to-stop-reading account of the Victorian and brief but influential Edwardian eras in Britain and the Continent through the lives of their interrelated royals. Belittling, controlling, and emotional, Queen Victoria as seen in The Heir Apparent is a mother you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, much less the future show more king of Britain.

Author Jane Ridley had new access to royal archives that allowed her to create this somewhat revisionist look at Bertie’s reign, taking his diplomatic successes--including his work to increase the popularity of the royal family--more seriously than previous biographers. There is even an actually interesting Afterward in which the author gives the history behind some of Bertie’s other biographies and critiques them for spin. As someone fascinated by Edwardian and Victorian history, royalty, and literature I found a lot to enjoy in this book. show less

Very enjoyable biography of Bertie. I am pretty sketchy on the English monarchy so it was like fitting a puzzle piece that makes a picture come clearer. Queen Victoria emerges as a cranky old lady who was an awful mother and a neglectful queen, favoring a life of mourning for Albert over duties of state. Bertie was inauspicious to begin but eventually, for all his flaws and philandering ways, emerges with a degree of dignity--and ultimately beloved of his people. Not to say, that the whole show more royal family wasn't a pampered, indolent lot. It's almost comical--their yachts, their taking the cure, their house parties, their vast appetites.

Bertie died just a few years before WWI. But the clouds were gathering and the book provides glimpses Nicky the hapless Czar and William, Bertie's nephew, who becomes Kaiser Wilhelm--a villain if ever there was one.

Like most books that I really like, this story was vivid and easy to inhabit for the duration--a tribute to Jane Ridley's writing and organization of the material. show less

To be honest, most Englishmen cannot really remember the kings and queens between Victoria and Elizabeth. The 20th century was all about war and politics and for much of it the monarchy, if not irrelevant, was at best just a spectator and definitely not a player. This magnificent biography of Edward VII, Victoria's firstborn son and immediate successor, shows how much we may have missed. A misspent youth (and manhood - Victoria lived a long time) suggested he would never be the serious sober show more monarch required by 19th century convention. But Bertie was crowned in the 20th century and became a key player in holding Europe together, staving off war until 1914 and after his death. Without his personal intervention and monarchic interventions the Great War may well have been fought much earlier than it was.

Bertie was a playboy who loved manly sports and pursuits, including women. He was dismissed as a wastrel but ultimately showed he had inherited the family skills of devotion to country and relationship politics on a grand scale. An echo of his life sits well with his queen, Alexandra. Initially an unwanted arranged marriage and a fish-out-of-water in the future that was England, she grew into her role and became feted as beautiful, talented and strong-willed. Both Bertie and Alexandra put real effort into charitable and good works and did as much to lay the foundations of the modern monarchy as Victoria and Albert.

Ridley uses sources well and provides quotes that enlighten and drive the historical narrative forwards. She has recognised that Bertie's life was exciting and was driving upwards to a climax when he became king and that he was not always a nice person with some not nice habits. show less

Summary: An award-winning biography of Edward VII, often criticized for his faults of character as heir to the throne under Victoria, whose reign ushered in a critical transition in the British monarchy in the first decade of the twentieth century.

This biography poses the question of whether a badly-behaved individual can make a good king. Jane Ridley explores the life of Albert Edward, known as "Bertie" to those intimate with him, who lived in the shadow of Queen Victoria for six decades show more before accessed to the British throne in the last decade of his life as Edward VII.

Ridley used access to Royal Archives and extensive research to write what may be the definitive biography of Edward VII. She traces his childhood, and the strict regime and moral rectitude of Albert and Victoria that proved singularly unhelpful. He was lax and undisciplined in his studies, hated reading (even as an adult the most he read were novels when ill), and incurred his parents disapproval. This worsened as he matured. His "fall" with actress Nellie Clifden broke his father's heart and Victoria blamed his death, coming soon after on Bertie.

His response was to become a womanizer. He had a succession of affairs and mistresses, chronicled at length, though with restraint. This continued throughout his marriage to Alexandra and included actress Lillie Langtry, Jennie Churchill, socialist Daisy Warwick, and "royal mistress" Alice Keppel (great-grandmother of Camilla Parker Bowles!). When he accessed to the throne, he was dubbed "Edward the Caresser."

Victoria more or less wrote him off and tried to limit his access to official reports. So he did the social rounds to the country estates of the elite, raced horses, gambled, and ate, drank, and smoked prodigiously. He loved dressing well and expected those around him to be meticulous in their dress.

One would think such an individual would be a disaster as a king. Yet it turned out that this was not the case. After Albert's death, Victoria became something of a recluse. Edward became the public face of the royal family, both in making public appearances throughout the country, and in tours abroad. He cultivated relationships with the royalty of Europe, most of whom were related to him in some way or another. He was known as "the Uncle of Europe" who counted Kaiser Wilhelm as nephew, and Czar Nicholas of Russia as nephew-in-law.

Edward VII became King in his sixties in 1901. He was overweight, incessantly smoked, had a cancer on his nose that was treated with radium, and already had survived several brushes with death as well as outliving siblings and some of his children. He had to postpone his coronation due to appendicitis. He probably would have been diagnosed with COPD or emphysema today. Yet he worked hard and tirelessly as King, demonstrated a "common touch" that endeared him to the people. He exercised a kind of personal diplomacy that complemented formal efforts with European heads of state, and opened the doors to an alliance with France that decisively shifted the balance of power when the war he strove so hard to avoid came. He modernized the kingship and helped redefine the idea of a constitutional monarchy before his death from severe bronchitis and heart attacks in 1910. Over 400,000 people filed past his coffin when he lay in state.

Ridley has given us a magnificent portrait of this heir and king who turned out to be far more than he appeared to be. It took a wife who looked past his womanizing, unpardonable as it was. It took mistresses who were discrete (most were). But it particularly took someone who understood what people wanted of their king, who would be the people's king. It took someone who understood the uses and limits of his power, and exercised this to the full, both with a succession of Prime Ministers, and foreign heads of state. One wonders what he could have done had he come to the throne sooner and/or lived longer. Ridley does a great service in chronicling the life of this deeply human and under-estimated king.

The Heir Apparent was named one of the best books of the year in 2013 by The New York Times Book Review and The Boston Globe. show less