Bertie A Life Of Edward Vii

Author : Jane Ridley
Publisher : Vintage Canada
ISBN 13 : 9780099575443
Total Pages : 624 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Bertie written by Jane Ridley and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2013 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exciting new approach to biography by an acclaimed historian and biographer: King Edward Vll (Bertie) seen through the eyes of the women in his life. Entertaining and different, this enjoyable study of a flawed yet characterful Prince of Wales wears its scholarship lightly. Edward Vll, who gave his name to the Edwardian Age and died in 1911, was King of England for the final 10 years of his life. He was 59 when at last he came to power. Known as Bertie, and the eldest son of Victoria and Albert, he was bullied by both his parents. His mother, Queen Victoria, the first and most powerful woman in his life, blamed Bertie's scandalous womanising for his father's early demise. Although Bertie was heir to the throne, she refused to give him any proper responsibilities, as a result of which he spent his time eating (his waist measurement was 48 inches and his nickname was 'Edward the Wide'), betting on race-horses and shooting grouse. He was married off to Alexandra of Denmark, who was beautiful but infantile, lavishing her affection on her doggies and pet bunnies. Bertie's numerous mistresses included the society hostess Daisy Brook ('Babbling Brook') and the gorgeous but fragile Lillie Langtry (with whom 'played house' in a specially built hide-away home). The last of the women in his life was the clever and manipulative Alice Keppel. He always placed her at dinner next to his most important guests, because of her grasp of politics, her brilliant conversation and her formidable skills at the Bridge table. When Bertie finally became king, he did a good job, especially in foreign policy. This colourful book gives him due credit, while painting a vivid portrait of the age in all its excess and eccentricity, hypocrisy and heartbreak.

Author : Jane Ridley
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0812994752
Total Pages : 691 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Heir Apparent written by Jane Ridley and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-12-03 with total page 691 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND THE BOSTON GLOBE This richly entertaining biography chronicles the eventful life of Queen Victoria’s firstborn son, the quintessential black sheep of Buckingham Palace, who matured into as wise and effective a monarch as Britain has ever seen. Granted unprecedented access to the royal archives, noted scholar Jane Ridley draws on numerous primary sources to paint a vivid portrait of the man and the age to which he gave his name. Born Prince Albert Edward, and known to familiars as “Bertie,” the future King Edward VII had a well-earned reputation for debauchery. A notorious gambler, glutton, and womanizer, he preferred the company of wastrels and courtesans to the dreary life of the Victorian court. His own mother considered him a lazy halfwit, temperamentally unfit to succeed her. When he ascended to the throne in 1901, at age fifty-nine, expectations were low. Yet by the time he died nine years later, he had proven himself a deft diplomat, hardworking head of state, and the architect of Britain’s modern constitutional monarchy. Jane Ridley’s colorful biography rescues the man once derided as “Edward the Caresser” from the clutches of his historical detractors. Excerpts from letters and diaries shed new light on Bertie’s long power struggle with Queen Victoria, illuminating one of the most emotionally fraught mother-son relationships in history. Considerable attention is paid to King Edward’s campaign of personal diplomacy abroad and his valiant efforts to reform the political system at home. Separating truth from legend, Ridley also explores Bertie’s relationships with the women in his life. Their ranks comprised his wife, the stunning Danish princess Alexandra, along with some of the great beauties of the era: the actress Lillie Langtry, longtime “royal mistress” Alice Keppel (the great-grandmother of Camilla Parker Bowles), and Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston. Edward VII waited nearly six decades for his chance to rule, then did so with considerable panache and aplomb. A magnificent life of an unexpectedly impressive king, The Heir Apparent documents the remarkable transformation of a man—and a monarchy—at the dawn of a new century. Praise for The Heir Apparent “If [The Heir Apparent] isn’t the definitive life story of this fascinating figure of British history, then nothing ever will be.”—The Christian Science Monitor “The Heir Apparent is smart, it’s fascinating, it’s sometimes funny, it’s well-documented and it reads like a novel, with Bertie so vivid he nearly leaps from the page, cigars and all.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune “I closed The Heir Apparent with admiration and a kind of wry exhilaration.”—The Wall Street Journal “Ridley is a serious scholar and historian, who keeps Bertie’s flaws and virtues in a fine balance.”—The Boston Globe “Brilliantly entertaining . . . a landmark royal biography.”—The Sunday Telegraph “Superb.”—The New York Times Book Review

Author : Jane Ridley
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1448161118
Total Pages : 628 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Bertie: A Life of Edward VII written by Jane Ridley and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE Edward VII, who gave his name to the Edwardian era but was always known as Bertie, was fifty-nine when he finally came to power and ushered out the Victorian age. The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Bertie was bullied by both his parents. Denied any proper responsibilities, the heir to the throne spent his time eating (which earned him the nickname ‘Tum Tum’), pursuing women (which Queen Victoria held to be the reason for Albert’s early demise), gambling, going to house parties and race meetings, and shooting pheasants. His arranged marriage to the stunning Danish princess Alexandra gave him access to the European dynastic network; but his name was linked with many beauties, including Lillie Langtry and Winston Churchill’s mother. This magnificent new biography provides new insight into the playboy prince while painting a vivid portrait of the age in all its excess and eccentricity.

Author : Stephen Clarke
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1448108284
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Dirty Bertie: An English King Made in France written by Stephen Clarke and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-05-22 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The entertaining biography of Edward VII and his playboy lifestyle, by Stephen Clarke, author of 1000 Years of Annoying the French and A Year in the Merde. Despite fierce opposition from his mother, Queen Victoria, Edward VII was always passionately in love with France. He had affairs with the most famous Parisian actresses, courtesans and can-can dancers. He spoke French more elegantly than English. He was the first ever guest to climb the Eiffel Tower with Gustave Eiffel, in defiance of an official English ban on his visit. He turned his French seduction skills into the diplomatic prowess that sealed the Entente Cordiale. A quintessentially English king? Pas du tout! Stephen Clarke argues that as 'Dirty Bertie', Edward learned all the essentials in life from the French.

Author : Stanley Weintraub
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 472 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Edward the Caresser written by Stanley Weintraub and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biography of Edward VII covering the years before he became king.

Author : Catharine Arnold
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1250069149
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Edward VII written by Catharine Arnold and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2017-07-25 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Victorian England: We know what that was supposed to mean — all priggish prudery and "we-are-not-amused" harrumphing. Except now we know it wasn't all that . . . [Catharine Arnold’s] new biography focuses — deliciously — on the women who shared the scandalously plentiful sex life of Queen Victoria's eldest son, the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.” —USA Today Edward Prince of Wales, better known as “Bertie,” was the eldest son of Queen Victoria. Charming and dissolute, he was a larger-than-life personality with king-size appetites. A lifelong womanizer, Bertie conducted his countless liaisons against the glittering backdrop of London society, Europe, and the stately homes of England in the second half of the 19th century. Bertie’s lovers were beautiful, spirited, society women who embraced a wide field of occupations. There was Lillie Langtry, the simple Jersey girl who would become an actress and producer; “Daisy” Brooke, Countess of Warwick, the extravagant socialite who embraced socialism and stood for Parliament as a Labour party candidate; bisexual French actress Sarah Bernhardt, celebrated for her decadent appeal and opium habit; and by total contrast the starchy Agnes Keyser, who founded a hospital for army officers. One of Bertie’s most intriguing liaisons was with American heiress Jennie Churchill, unhappy wife of Sir Randolph Churchill and mother of Sir Winston. While the scandals resulting from his affairs—from suicides to divorces—were a blight on the royal family, Bertie would become a surprisingly modern monarch. His major accomplishment was transforming the British monarchy into the modern institution that we know today and ensuring its survival in a period when every other European dynasty collapsed in the wake of WWI.

Author : Richard Hough
Publisher : General Publishing Company Limited
ISBN 13 : 9780340558256
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Edward and Alexandra written by Richard Hough and published by General Publishing Company Limited. This book was released on 1992 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : David Fromkin
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1440662290
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The King and the Cowboy written by David Fromkin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-09-11 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intimate look at two extraordinary figures and their secret collaboration?one that turned the alliance structure of the political world upside down In this character-driven study, acclaimed historian and bestselling author David Fromkin reveals how two colorful figures?Theodore Roosevelt and Edward the Seventh? assumed leadership of the English-speaking world at the beginning of the twentieth century. As human beings, the two men could hardly have been more different. Edward, a lover of fine food, drink, beautiful women, and the pleasure-seeking culture of Paris, had previously been regarded as nothing more than a playboy. Across the Atlantic, Theodore Roosevelt, the aristocrat from Manhattan and self-made cowboy, would rise above his critics to become one of the nation?s most beloved presidents. Together, they wrote the agenda for the North Atlantic democracies of the twentieth century.

Author : Marie Belloc Lowndes
Publisher : Good Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book His Most Gracious Majesty King Edward VII written by Marie Belloc Lowndes and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-10-28 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "His Most Gracious Majesty King Edward VII" by Marie Belloc Lowndes is a biographical account that offers a glimpse into the life and reign of King Edward VII. Lowndes paints a vivid portrait of this influential monarch, capturing his personality, achievements, and the significant events of his era. With meticulous research and engaging storytelling, this book provides historical context and sheds light on the impact of King Edward VII's reign on the British monarchy and society. It is a compelling read for history enthusiasts and anyone interested in the royal history of Britain.

Author : Jane Ridley
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062567519
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

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Download or read book George V written by Jane Ridley and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the most beloved and distinguished historians of the British monarchy, here is a lively, intimately detailed biography of a long-overlooked king who reimagined the Crown in the aftermath of World War I and whose marriage to the regal Queen Mary was an epic partnership The grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II, King George V reigned over the British Empire from 1910 to 1936, a period of unprecedented international turbulence. Yet no one could deny that as a young man, George seemed uninspired. As his biographer Harold Nicolson famously put it, "he did nothing at all but kill animals and stick in stamps.” The contrast between him and his flamboyant, hedonistic, playboy father Edward VII could hardly have been greater. However, though it lasted only a quarter-century, George’s reign was immensely consequential. He faced a constitutional crisis, the First World War, the fall of thirteen European monarchies and the rise of Bolshevism. The suffragette Emily Davison threw herself under his horse at the Derby, he refused asylum to his cousin the Tsar Nicholas II during the Russian Revolution, and he facilitated the first Labour government. And, as Jane Ridley shows, the modern British monarchy would not exist without George; he reinvented the institution, allowing it to survive and thrive when its very existence seemed doomed. The status of the British monarchy today, she argues, is due in large part to him. How this supposedly limited man managed to steer the crown through so many perils and adapt an essentially Victorian institution to the twentieth century is a great story in itself. But this book is also a riveting portrait of a royal marriage and family life. Queen Mary played a pivotal role in the reign as well as being an important figure in her own right. Under the couple's stewardship, the crown emerged stronger than ever. George V founded the modern monarchy, and yet his disastrous quarrel with his eldest son, the Duke of Windsor, culminated in the existential crisis of the Abdication only months after his death. Jane Ridley has had unprecedented access to the archives, and for the first time is able to reassess in full the many myths associated with this crucial and dramatic time. She brings us a royal family and world not long vanished, and not so far from our own.