Christopher Hibbert - Edward VII - The Last Victorian King

p. 137 Fights between wild animals: Lincolnshire Papers, MS. 1120.

Carrington reported to his mother: ‘8 wild elephants tied by the leg at each end. 18 pairs of naked wrestlers. About a hundred naked spearmen yelling and dancing about and bolting through holes in the walls when the brutes got too close.… Then 2 rhinoceros fought, then two bison — one broke the other’s horn straight off and he got through the bars and escaped. An elephant being driven out seized a chain in his trunk and let drive right and left.… Then a tiger led by ropes appeared, rams fought, and carriages drawn by black bucks and stags galloped about — you can’t imagine such fun. Just like a nightmare.’

p. 138 Prince commended by Lord Salisbury: Salisbury Papers, 13 May 1876. pp. 140–142 Aylesford–Blandford scandal: Papers quoted in companion volume to Randolph S. Churchill’s Winston S. Churchill: Young Statesman.

p. 144 Expedition to St Pancras: Lincolnshire Papers, Lord Carrington’s journal.

p. 145 Prince and Wolseley: Devonshire MSS. (340.1528). The Prince wrote to Lord Hartington, at that time Secretary for War, on 17 September 1884:

‘When I gave you the memorandum last week about the Adjutant General of the Indian Army I knew nothing could be done in the matter but only wished you to have some proof how the “Wolseyites”

get everything. I am quite aware that the present Adjutant-General did not fulfil the prescribed conditions but why should Sir T[homas] Baker simply because he is a “Wolseyite” have the same advantage. The whole matter resolves itself into this — however competent or able an officer may be, unless he belongs to the so called mutual admiration society, he has no chance of getting the “good things” in his profession.’ Despite the Prince’s protests, Sir Thomas Baker was nominated Adjutant-General on 10 October.

p. 149 Prince not kept informed: Knollys Papers. The situation did not improve. In 1899 the Prince was ‘much incensed with Mr Chamberlain for not having kept him informed’ on the Transvaal question (Salisbury Papers, 9 September 1899).

p. 150 Prince and Foreign Office Dispatches: Crewe Papers (C/30). ‘My dear Rosebery,’ the Prince was obliged to write soon after he had received the key (Rosebery MSS., 31 January 1893), ‘I am sorry to say that my Cabinet Key has come to grief and I send you its remnants! Can you let me have another? I only hope the Cabinet is not as ricketty as the Key!’

p. 152 Everyone afraid of Queen Victoria: ‘I was presented to Queen Victoria at Balmoral after dinner,’ Lord Carrington wrote in his journal on 31 August 1866. ‘As we were driving home [to Abergeldie] the Prince of Wales asked me, “Were you frightened?” I answered, “Well no, but I pretended to be as I thought the Queen would like it.”’

p. 153 Princess Alexandra and Queen Victoria: Downe Papers (2DS/W/97), 8 April 1901.

p. 153 Princess Alexandra and Prince: Downe Papers (2DS/W/101), 10

August 1871.

p. 159 ‘I asked him to tea’ and ‘she had cooled off and become reasonable’:

Pearson’s Magazine, October 1916, quoted by Margaret Blunden, p. 67.

pp. 160–161 Prince’s protest about Adjutant-General to Duke of Cambridge: FitzGeorge Papers, quoted by Giles St Aubyn, pp. 289–90.

p. 161 Lord Hartington’s advice about Tranby Croft: Devonshire MSS. (340.2385), 4 May 1891.

p. 162 Gordon Cumming sympathizers: Gordon Cumming Papers (National Library of Scotland, Box 172/2).

p. 163 Lord Salisbury’s letter: Devonshire MSS. (2387), 16 June 1891.

p. 163 Francis Knollys and the Archbishop: Devonshire MSS. (2389), 20

June 1891.

p. 164 Gordon Cumming’s daughter: Information given to Anita Leslie’s family.

p. 164 Lord Charles Beresford’s letter: Salisbury Papers, 12 July 1891. All the correspondence between the Beresfords and the Prince, as well as the letter from Lord Marcus Beresford, comes from the Salisbury Papers.

p. 167 Prince’s letters to Lady Brooke are quoted by Theo Lang.

p. 168 Lady Warwick to Frank Harris: Pearson’s Magazine, quoted by Margaret Blunden, p. 91.

p. 169 Cleveland Street affair: Papers in Public Record Office (DPP 1/95/

1–7). The Prince’s emissaries were Sir Francis Knollys and Sir Dighton Probyn. The Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions reported to the Director on 16 September 1889 that Lord Arthur Somerset’s solicitor was boasting that ‘if we go on a very distinguished person will be involved (P.A.V.)’ — Prince Albert Victor. ‘I don’t mean to say that I for one instant credit it,’ the Deputy Director added, ‘but in such a case as this one never knows what may be said, be concocted or be true.’ This is the only reference to Prince Eddy in the whole of the huge file on the case, and in the opinion of the Director (17

September 1889) the solicitor concerned was ‘a dangerous man’ who was quite likely to make ‘utterly false accusations against others’. Prince Eddy was certainly not a regular client at 19 Cleveland Street, as the police were watching the brothel over a long period of time, during which Lord Arthur Somerset was seen, shadowed and identified.

p. 169 Prince considers Somerset’s involvement ‘inconceivable’: Lincolnshire Papers, 20 October 1889.

p. 169 Prince’s verdict on Somerset: Salisbury Papers, 25 October 1889.

p. 172 Mrs Keppel ‘much toadied’ to: Lincolnshire Papers, MS., 1120. Lord Carrington attributed Princess Alexandra’s dislike of Sir Ernest Cassel to Mrs Keppel’s close friendship with him.

p. 172 Count Mensdorff diaries are quoted by Gordon Brook-Shepherd.

pp. 172–173 Mrs Keppel and the Archbishop of Canterbury: Private information from the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres.

p. 174 Prince and Jaraczewski in Paris: Dossier du Roi Edouard VII, Bureau des Archives, Préfecture de Police, 150100, A.I.

pp. 175–176 Cassel and G.C.B.: Asquith Papers, 18 December 1908.

p. 177 Marlborough House dinner for actors: Lincolnshire Papers.

p. 178 The Asquith, Sandars, Hardinge, Devonshire and Rosebery Papers all contain several requests from the Prince for favours and appointments for his friends. The requests on behalf of Ferdinand Rothschild and Canon Dalton are in the Salisbury Papers; that on behalf of Cassel in the Crewe Papers (C/58, 27 April 1901).

p. 179 Prince’s plea to Rosebery to accept Foreign Office: Rosebery Papers, 14 August 1892. ‘Let me therefore implore you to accept office (if Mr Gladstone will give you a free hand in Foreign Affairs and not wish you to agree with him in all his Home measures) for the Queen’s sake and for that of our great Empire!’

p. 179 Letter from Revd H.W. Bellairs: BM Add. MSS. 44468, ff. 149–51.

p. 181 The Duke of Fife in Paris: Lincolnshire Papers, Lord Carrington’s journal.

p. 182 Princess Victoria and Rosebery: Rosebery Papers. Knollys’s correspondence with Rosebery is full of references to Princess Victoria. Lord Carrington was once asked at the French Embassy in London if it were true that the Princess was to marry the Marquis de Soveral (Lincolnshire Papers, Lord Carrington’s journal).

p. 182 Dalton’s reports on Prince Eddy: Royal Archives, quoted by Philip Magnus, p. 169.

p. 184 Queen Victoria’s good opinion of Prince Eddy: Downe Papers (2DS/ W/68–71), pp. 91–104.

p. 185 Prince Eddy at Aldershot: Lady Geraldine Somerset’s diary, Royal Archives, quoted by Giles St Aubyn, p. 299.

p. 187 Prince Eddy’s treatment and last illness: Downe Papers (2DS/W/

68–71).

p. 187 Prince at son’s funeral: Lincolnshire Papers.

p. 192 Munshi’s letters from Queen Victoria: Minto MSS., 20 October 1909. p. 193 Carrington on Esher: Lincolnshire Papers, Lord Carrington’s journal. p. 193 Installation of Carrington as K.G.: Lincolnshire Papers, Lord Carrington’s journal.