EDWARD VII ( ALBERT EDWARD), King of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India : b. Buckingham Palace, 9 Nov. 1841; d. 6 May 1910. He was the eldest son and the sec ond child of Queen Victoria and the prince con sort, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. After re ceiving a careful education under private tutors he studied at the universities of Edinburgh, Oxford, and Cambridge. In the summer of 1860 he visited Canada, where he was enthusi astically received and by special invitation of President Buchanan extended his visit to the United States, where his reception was no less cordial. He was appointed a brevet-colonel in the army in 1858 and three years later was at tacked to the Curragh Camp in Ireland. In October 1861 he was made a bencher of the Middle Temple. In 1862 he was promoted to the rank of general and in the spring of that year he set out on a visit to Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Athens. After the Prince's return from the East he was introduced at the privy council, in 1863 he took his seat in the House of Lords and about the same time formally gave up his right to succeed to the Duchy of Saxe Coburg-Gotha. On 10 March 1863, at Saint George's Chapel, Windsor Castle,•he was mar ried to the Princess Alexandra, eldest daughter of the King of Denmark. Near the end of 1871 he was attacked by typhoid fever and for a time it•seemed as if his death were imminent. In 1875-76 he made a tour in India and was everywhere received with the utmost cordiality and respect. With the Princess he made an extended tour through Ireland in 1885. The establishment of the Imperial Institute as a me morial of the jubilee of Queen Victoria (1887) was mainly due to his suggestion and exertions. In 1893 he sat on the Poor Law Commission. In the diamond jubilee year (1897) he estab lished the Prince of Wales Hospital Fund for the better financial support of the London hos pitals. By the death of his mother on 22 Jan. 1901, he became King of Great Britain and Ire land and Emperor of .India and elected to be known as Edward VII.
Elaborate national and international prepara tions for the coronation ceremonies in West minster Abbey were made for 26 June 1902; but owing to sudden illness these had to be post poned and were carried through in a modified form on 9 August.
The new king thus came to the throne in his sixtieth year. He found foreign opinion alien ated by the Boer War and he set himself strenu ously to promote international amity. In some measure at least the growing friendliness be tween his country and France and Russia was due to his efforts to promote good will and in his last years he viewed with deep concern the coolness that was springing up with Germany.
Owing to his close family kinship with most of the crowned heads in the Old World, French wits styled him the ((uncle of Europe." Brought up on a very narrow system of education in which even the perusal of Sir Walter Scott's novels was banned, he never acquired a taste for reading, but possessed uncommon natural powers of observation. Denied intercourse with boys of his own age and disciplined with a Spartan severity, it was only natural that when manhood and freedom came he should travel far from the rigid traditions in which he had been reared. The breath of scandal did not leave him unscathed, but his charm of manner, his frankness of disposition and his punctilious discharge of the somewhat formal duties that fell to him as Prince of Wales endeared him to the British public. During the long years of Queen Victoria's widowhood, her growing isola tion from public life made of her throne a Cloudy splendor," and the state of tutelage in which she kept the heir-apparent, denying him access to confidential documents, prevented him from developing any aptitude for affairs of state. When he came to the throne he re vived in a very real sense the ceremonial splendors of the monarchy; he was fond of pagentry and the observances associated with the stately ordering of court functions, and dur ing his brief reign he completely won the hearts of his people and the respect of the civilized world. His last years were clouded by the feud between Lords and Commons over the rejection by the former of the Budget of 1909 and his unexpected death (6 May 1910), due to heart failure supervening on an attack of bronchitis, evoked a wave of sympathy that was world wide. He had an ideal consort in Queen Alex andra, who performed the duties of her high station with a grace, sympathy and tact that won her a special place in the hearts of the British public. Consult Sir Sidney Lee's con tribution to Vol. I of the second supplement to the of National Bidgraphy> (1912) •, also Legge's (King Edward in His True Colours' (1912). To King Edward and Queen Alexandra were born Albert Victor Christian Edward, Duke of Clarence and Avon dale, b. 8 Jan. 1864; d. 14 Jan. 1892; George Frederick Ernest Albert, who succeeded to the throne, b. 3 _Tune 1865, married 6 July 1893, to the Princess Victoria Mary of Teck; Princess Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar, b. 20 Feb. 1867, married 27 July 1889, to the Duke of Fife; Princess Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary, b. 6 July 1868; and Princess Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria, h. 26 Nov. 1869, married 22 July 1896, to Prince Charles of Denmark, now King Haakon VII of Norway.