King Edward VII on the 6th May 1910 inside of Buckingham Palace experienced a horrific
and painful death.
He had been the King for over 9 years until his demise inside the building at the heart
of the British Royal family but he did not lead the healthiest lifestyle.
He was a King who inherited the throne from Queen Victoria following her length reign
and death, and he was the Prince of Wales for around 60 years.
He was a man who mixed in the circles of the nobility throughout his life, regularly visiting
country estates at the weekend for wild parties, and Edward VII became known as a playboy prince
who would have a number of mistresses.
But his lifestyle would catch up with him, and at the age of 68 the King and Emperor
of India died a very hard death.
But what killed the King, and what also caused his demise?
When Queen Victoria died Edward became the King of the United Kingdom and the Emperor
of India, and King of the British dominions.
He chose to rule under the named Edward VII, and he had been named Albert Edward, but he
did not want to shame his father’s name out of respect.
His coronation was scheduled for the 26th June 1902, however at the time the King was
not very well.
He was a man in his late 50s and two days before the coronation and the biggest day
of his life, he was diagnosed with something that could have attributed to his death and
also could have killed him.
Two days before the coronation he was diagnosed with appendicitis, which at the time was very
dangerous as surgery was not as good as it is today, and it was certainly not aseptic
and infection free.
The operation to remove the appendix at the time was not 100% safe, and it left a possibility
that the King would not make it.
He was of course the King, but he had yet to have been crowned.
The developments in anaesthetics and antiseptics did increase the chances of surgery being
successful, but there was a possibility that Edward VII could have died.
At the time Sir Frederick Treves an expert surgeon along with the antiseptic pioneer
Lord Lister managed to perform a life saving surgery on the King, and they drained a pint
of pus from the infected absess on the king’s appendix, through a small incision around
4 and a half inches through the King’s belly fat and abdomen wall.
One positive for this was that the surgeons knew it was not cancer, but the next day following
the surgery the King was sat up, and he was in bed smoking a cigar.
Two weeks later he was considered out of the woods, and his surgeons were greatly rewarded.
Edward VII would then be crowned around 5 weeks later on the 9th August 1902.
As a King, Edward VII was a man who enjoyed his role in British society and world politics,
and he relished the costumes and ceremonies he would be involved in regularly.
He was seen as a trend-setter, and he would make tweeds, dinner jackets and a certain
type of hat popular at the time, but he was a man who also lived on the wild side sometimes.
He was known to have huge breakfasts made up of many different foods that he could afford
and his daily breakfast routine was like a banquet.
But he also had a number of mistresses throughout his life, and it was believed that he greatly
liked the company of women.
He said about his wife, ‘She is my brood mare, the others are my hacks,’ and in a
pun of a former King’s name he became known as ‘Edward the Caresser.’
He often fell out with his mother whilst she was Queen, and she was not happy with his
behaviour and his regularly mistresess, and he was very different to the loyal father
he had in Prince Albert.
Victoria also blamed Edward for the death of her husband, as Albert had been travelling
to see him and he was going to lambast him for his mistresses and womanizing and it was
on the journey that he got a cold, of which he would never recover.
But at his coronation, there were even medical staff on hand for Edward VII to carry out
his duties and he was not able to carry out some of the traditional rituals of the ceremony
which had been performed for centuries as he was still recovering from surgery.
Edward VII also smoked very heavily throughout his life, smoking 20 cigarettes and 12 cigars
a day.
He had a rodeo ulcer, which was a type of cancer next to his nose treated in 1907 with
radium, and as he approached the final years of his life, he was suffering quite clearly
from bronchitis which was made much worse by his smoking.
But then in February 1909 Edward whilst he was on a state visit to Germany had a funny
turn, and he momentarily lost consciousness and this led to a huge amount of panic.
He continued on, but the following year in March 1910, he also collapsed whilst he was
at Biarritz in France.
It was clear to many, that Edward VII was sick and that he would probably not live much
longer.
He stayed in Biarritz for some time to recover, but the King’s health remained a secret,
and some in England even criticized him for staying in France as at the time there was
a political crisis in England.
But then he would 6 weeks later head back to England, making the journey back to Buckingham
Palace where he was still suffering with very bad bronchitis.
His wife and Consort Alexandra of Denmark had at the time been visiting her brother
the Greek King in Corfu, and a day after she returned on the 6th May 1910 Edward VII whilst
in the palace recovering had a number of serious heart attacks.
The royal doctors urged him to recover, but the King was bullish in his response and he
was told ‘No I shall not give in, I shall go on, I shall work to the end.’
He must have known his death was coming, and at the time he was drifting in and out of
consciousness.
His son the Prince of Wales at the time visited him, and told him that that the King’s horse
named the Witch of the Air had won a horse race at Kempton that afternoon.
The King then replied, ‘Yes I have heard of it, I am very glad,’ and this is considered
his final words.
At 11:30pm he lost consciousness for a final time, and he was put to bed, but then 15 minutes
later the royal doctors declared that at the age of 68 inside of Buckingham Palace, the
very place he was born that King Edward VII had died.
Alexandra the King’s wife would be in great mourning and she refused to allow her husband’s
body to be moved, but she did allow small groups of visitors to see the King’s body.
On the 11th May, the King was dressed in his uniform and he was placed inside a huge oak
coffin and he was then 8 days after his death moved into the throne room, where his coffin
was then sealed and it was left to lay in state.
In each corner of the coffin a guardsman stood and watched over the body, and in the meantime
King George V had been proclaimed King.
But the organising of the funeral was already underway, and Alexandra when seeing her husbands
body said that his remains had been ‘wonderfully preserved,’ and it was noted that the King
looked like he was falling asleep.
On the morning of the 17th may, the coffin containing the body of Edward VII was placed
onto a gun carriage and he was drawn by black horses to Westminster Hall.
The new King and the royal family along with Edward’s favourite dog, a terrier named
Caesar walked behind the coffin.
There was a short service and the royal family left, and Westminster Hall was opened and
400,000 people then filed past the coffin.
His funeral took place on the 20th May 1910 and it was referred to as, ‘The greatest
assemblage of royal and rank ever gathered in one place and of its kind, the last.’
A royal train then took the King’s coffin from London to Windsor Castle, and he was
buried inside of St George’s Chapel along with many other Kings and Queens.
Despite ruling for less than a decade, King Edward VII is referred to as a peacemaker,
and as a man who feared that his nephew the German Emperor would plunge Europe into a
huge war.
Four years after Edward’s death, World War 1 broke out, and some of the work the King
did in reorganising the armed forces and the navy greatly helped during the conflict.
As a King he was considered much more successful as people had expected, but he was past the
average life expectancy when he came onto the throne and it’s believed he had little
time to properly establish himself on the throne.
He made sure that his heir George V was better prepared to do this.
But the King was a very ill man, and he suffered greatly with issues regarding his lungs and
also his appendix.
His official cause of death was attributed to pneumonia, but it was clear that his lifestyle
did have a negative impact on his health.
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