Good Old Teddy - The Life of Edward VII Quiz

Answer: James Buchanan

In May of 1859, the government of the Province of Canada invited Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to tour the country, with a major element being the hope that the Queen would open the newly completed Victoria Bridge across the St Lawrence River. Although the Queen declined the invitation, she offered to send her eldest son, the Prince of Wales, in her place. The trip was planned as a "coming out" for the 19-year old Prince, and was greeted with significant enthusiasm, both by the Canadians, and subsequently from the United States, with President Buchanan extending an invitation that he also make a visit to the country while on the tour.

The tour lasted between July and November 1860, and saw the Prince, in addition to opening the Victoria Bridge, visit Ottawa, where he laid the cornerstone of the new Canadian Parliament building, as well as a visit to Niagara Falls, where he saw Charles Blondin cross by highwire, and three days at the White House as the guest of President Buchanan, who also accompanied Edward to visit the tomb of George Washington at Mount Vernon. The trip was a diplomatic success, as well as a personal triumph for the Prince of Wales, with acclaim heaped on him from all sides. President Buchanan and Queen Victoria exchanged letters praising the Prince for his conduct during the visit, which led to the Queen stating that he "deserves the highest praise".

Answer: Grenadier Guards

Edward had desired to embark on a career in the British Army, but this idea was prevented by his parents. However, as an attempt to instill a degree of discipline in their son, they allowed him to join the Grenadier Guards, who were stationed at The Curragh in County Kildare, for ten weeks for the regiment's exercises. At the time, Edward was inexperienced with women; his only time had been with an Irish actress named Nellie Clifden, to whom he had been introduced while at Cambridge University. His inexperience led to his fellow officers bringing Nellie Clifden into camp, where she spent several nights with the Prince, with each noted in his appointment book.

Despite efforts at secrecy, news of Edward's liaison eventually reached the ears of Edward's parents. Upon his return to Cambridge from Ireland in November 1861, Edward was visited by his father, Prince Albert. Despite feeling very unwell, Albert insisted on taking a long walk in the rain with his son to discuss the issue. Following this, he returned to Windsor, where his health grew worse, and he died on 14 December. The Queen believed that the stress of the situation with their son contributed to the death of her husband, with it affecting their relationship for the rest of her life.

Answer: St George's Chapel, Windsor

In an effort to curb their son's reputation as a "playboy", his parents sought a suitable bride for him, and eventually settled on Alexandra, the eldest daughter of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, the heir to the Danish throne. The two met for the first time during Edward's visit to his elder sister, Victoria, in Speyer Cathedral in September 1861. Although Edward's father died two months later, the effort to engineer an engagement continued and, in September 1862 at the Palace of Laeken in Belgium, Edward proposed to Alexandra. Having accepted, Alexandra eventually came to England on 7 March 1863, three days before the planned date of the wedding.

Queen Victoria had decided that the wedding would take place at St George's Chapel, located within the precincts of Windsor Castle. This was not usual, as most royal weddings at the time tended to take place in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace in London. There was some grumbling from the press about the venue, as it meant fewer people would be able to see the couple. The wedding was officiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, with a banquet held in St George's Hall in the castle, and the couple honeymooning at Osborne on the Isle of Wight.

Answer: Marlborough House

Marlborough House was originally built in 1711 for Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, and served as the London residence of the Dukes of Marlborough for more than a century. Following the death of the 4th Duke of Marlborough in 1817, the building was purchased as a home for Princess Charlotte of Wales and her husband, Prince Leopold. Although she died before they could move in, Leopold used the building as his own home until he became King of the Belgians in 1831. Subsequently used by Queen Adelaide until her death in 1849, it was assigned for the use of the Prince of Wales once he turned 19. Between 1861 and 1863, Marlborough House was expanded, being completed in time for the Prince of Wales and his new bride to move in.

Marlborough House subsequently became one of the centres of London society during the time that the Prince and Princess of Wales lived there, with the Prince's fast-living social circle referred to by Queen Victoria as the "Marlborough House set". The couple lived at Marlborough House until Edward succeeded his mother as King, after which his son George used it as his home with his own wife, Mary.

Answer: Typhoid

Typhoid is a bacterial disease that is generally spread when people eat or drink food and water that has been contaminated. During the 19th century it was one of a number of diseases that were fairly endemic around the world, including in the United Kingdom, and were liable to afflict anyone, from the highest to the lowest in society. In the winter of 1871, while he was staying at Londesborough Lodge near Scarborough, Edward contracted typhoid. At the time, this was believed to have been the disease that killed his father, Prince Albert, almost exactly a decade previously, and there were fears that the Prince of Wales may not survive either.

At the time, Edward's relationship with his mother was still poor, owing to what she saw as his role in the death of Prince Albert. However, Queen Victoria was grief stricken that her eldest son was so ill, and rejoiced alongside the rest of the nation when he finally recovered. There was a strong feeling of national unity over Edward's illness, which went some way to dampening the rising tide of republicanism in the country, and improved the overall popularity of the monarchy after what had been a difficult decade of absence from public life by the Queen.

Answer: Diamond Jubilee

Edward began to take an interest in horse racing in the 1870s. Initially an enthusiast of jump racing, in the mid 1880s he also became a fan of flat racing, with his first win as an owner on the flat coming at Sandown Park in 1886. In 1888, the Prince's trainer, John Porter, purchased a mare called Perdita II for £900. Although she had had some success as a racehorse, it was as a broodmare that she gained recognition, with, among her offspring, three of the Prince's most famous horses - Florizel, Persimmon and Diamond Jubilee. The third of these was born in 1897, and was named for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

The year 1900 was Diamond Jubilee's three-year old season - his training during the winter led to people expecting great things, and he went on that year to become the ninth horse to win English racing's Triple Crown of the 2000 Guineas, the Derby and the St Leger, in addition to which he also won both the Newmarket Stakes and the Eclipse Stakes. Diamond Jubilee's total prize money of almost £28,000 helped to make Edward that year's flat racing Champion Owner. However, this success on the flat did not eclipse Edward's success as an owner over jumps, as the same year as Diamond Jubilee's Triple Crown also saw another of his horses, Ambush II, win the Grand National.

Answer: Appendicitis

Following the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901, the Prince of Wales acceded to the throne, taking the name Edward VII as his regnal name, rather than Albert, which was his first given name, as his mother had planned. As king, Edward intended to be a broom sweeping away what he perceived as the dull fustiness of his mother's long reign, and introduced what he perceived as some much needed gaiety to the life of the nation. As part of this, he planned to have a magnificent coronation, in keeping with his desire for splendour, both for himself, but also as colour and pagentry to cheer the nation. Following a suitable period of mourning for the late queen, the coronation was scheduled for 26 June 1902.

However, in the two weeks prior to the coronation, Edward was struck with increasingly bad abdominal pain, combined with other symptoms that led to a diagnosis of appendicitis. At the time, surgery for the condition was rare and high risk, but the King was convinced to undergo an operation when confronted with the potential that he might not live to see his coronation. On 24 June, in a makeshift operating theatre at Buckingham Palace, the surgeon Frederick Treves performed a surgery that saw a pint of puss drained from an abscess on Edward's appendix. The surgery was so successful that, following a fortnight's recuperation, it was apparent that the King would be fine, with the delayed coronation eventually taking place on 9 August 1902.

Answer: Norway

In 1896, Princess Maud of Wales, the youngest daughter of Edward and Alexandra, married her cousin, Prince Carl of Denmark, the second son of King Frederick VIII, who was the elder brother of the Princess of Wales. At the time, as a second son, there was little prospect of Carl acceding to the Danish throne, and he had become a career naval officer in the Royal Danish Navy. However, the period saw a number of European countries gaining independence, with many choosing to go down the route of monarchy as their system of government. This led to lower ranked members of several royal families in Europe, including Denmark's, being offered the chance to become monarchs in their own right.

In 1905, Norway achieved full independence from its neighbour, Sweden, when the union between the two countries was dissolved. Once this had occurred, the Norwegian government sought someone to assume the Norwegian throne, with Prince Carl of Denmark eventually becoming a leading candidate, not least of which because he could trace descent from the last native Norwegian kings of the 14th century. While Carl was flattered by the approach, he insisted that he would only take the throne if the people agreed to a monarchy in a referendum. With the result clearly in favour, the Norwegian government offered Prince Carl the throne on 18 November 1905, which he accepted, taking the Old Norse name Haakon as his regnal name to reign as King Haakon VII.

Answer: Biarritz

Edward was a great traveler, and during the year would often go overseas. Two places he visited annually were the spa town of Marienbad in Bohemia, and the resort of Biarritz on the Bay of Biscay, where he would venture in the late spring and early summer. In April 1908, the King was making his annual visit to Biarritz when news reached him that his Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, was very ill and sought to resign. The Prime Minister submitted his resignation by letter to the King on 3 April, recommending that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, H.H. Asquith, replace him. At the time, Edward himself was in poor health, and it was decided that, rather than make the arduous journey back to London to offer Asquith the premiership, Asquith should instead travel to the King.

Asquith eventually arrived in Biarritz on 8 April, where he formally "kissed hands", the term used when the monarch appoints a new prime minister, at the Hôtel du Palais before returning to London. The act of summoning Asquith to Biarritz brought Edward significant criticism from the press and public, as there was a degree of political turmoil around the powers of the House of Lords, with its in-built Conservative majority, preventing the Liberal government from passing its agenda. The criticism was magnified as a result of the King's poor health not being made public.

Answer: Kempton Park

In March 1910, Edward was on his annual trip to Biarritz when he collapsed. As his health was growing steadily worse, he was advised to remain there, although this again was not made public, which saw criticism heaped on him for staying away during the increasing constitutional crisis between the Liberal House of Commons and Conservative dominated House of Lords. As a result, suffering from severe bronchitis, Edward returned to London on 27 April. However, his health did not improve, to the extent that a message was sent to Queen Alexandra to return from her visit to her brother, King George of Greece, in Corfu.

On 6 May, he began to suffer several heart attacks during the day, despite which he refused to go to bed, defiantly stating that he would "work to the end". As the evening progressed, his son and heir, George, Prince of Wales, brought him the news that one of his horses, Witch of the Air, had won the Kempton Spring Plate at Kempton Park that afternoon, to which Edward replied "Yes, I have heard of it, I am very glad". Not long afterwards, Edward lapsed into unconsciousness, and died at around 11:45pm.