On the 14th January 1892 inside of Sandringham House, the eldest son of the latter King Edward
VII died from a deadly epidemic which had been sweeping across Britain.
As he lay inside of his chambers, he would take his final breath and across the nation
there was great shock and also upset/ Prince Albert Victor was considered by many to have
been a great hope for the British monarch, but he would not become King or the Prince
of Wales due to the fact his father remained in these posts due to the long reign of his
grandmother Queen Victoria.
Whilst Albert Victor lay inside of his deathbed, vigils took place around him with his close
family members praying that he would get better, however this would not happen and at just
the age of 28 the eldest son of the heir to the British throne would slip away.
Prince Albert Victor shockingly was born prematurely by two months at Frogmore House in Windsor,
and he was the first child of the future Edward VII and his wife Alexandra of Denmark.
He was named after Queen Victoria’s late husband as a tribute, and he was given the
best education across the land.
He was a boy who was being touted as a future King, and Albert Victor also was a boy though
that was not the healthiest, and he wasn’t too well.
It’s believed that his premature birth may have impacted his development, and some royal
secretaries believed that Albert Victor inherited his mother’s deafness.
Also he was never intellectually thriving, and some historians claim that his inattention
was due to absence seizures caused by his premature birth, which could be linked to
learning difficuties.
Despite being given the best education, it was by all standards of the time a poor one
as the Prince could not keep up.
This led to Albert Victor being separated from his brother Prince George, as he required
a different sort of education.
But the two were sent to a training ship with the Royal Navy later for their studies, but
Prince Albert Victor around this time contracted the deadly typhoid fever.
He was treated by a royal doctor, however it had long been believed that typhoid fever
was what killed his grandfather, the very man he was named after Prince Albert.
His teachers continuined to be not very impressed with him, and one referred to him as ‘an
inveterate and incurable dawdler,’ but he did not live a life free from scandal either.
In July 1889, the Metropolitan police discovered a male brothel which had opened up on Cleveland
Street in London.
Under the interrogations, those men who worked there revealed their clients, and at the time
homosexuality was illegal, and the clients and men who worked there faced prosecution
and years of hard labor.
The Cleveland Street scandal as it was known implicated many high ranking people in society.
It was said the workers had not named Prince Albert Victor as a man who regularly attended
the organisation, but there were many rumours circling around British society about him
going to this place, and being involved in this activity.
There were threats at the time to implicate him in the scandal, and his father received
bribing letters saying his son had been there.
There was allegedly a cover up, but the newspapers around the world picked up on the rumours,
and the New York Times even referred to Albert Victor as ‘a dullard and a stupid perverse
boy,’ and claimed that he should never be allowed to ascend onto the British Throne.
Many people did defend him in this, but Lord Arthur Somerset who was implicated in this
claimed he did not know anything about Albert’s attendance at the brothel saying, ‘I can
quite understand the Prince of Wales being much annoyed at his son's name being coupled
with the thing but that was the case before I left it ... we were both accused of going
to this place but not together ... they will end by having out in open court exactly what
they are all trying to keep quiet.
I wonder if it is really a fact or only an invention.’
But the rumours continued at the time about Albert Victor even for decades after.
But following this he was sent on a tour of India, and there were talks of who the prince
would marry.
In 1889 his grandmother Queen Victoria wished for him to marry his cousin Princess Alex
of Hesse and By Rhine, another one of her granddaughters.
Albert Victor proposed by he was rejected, and he did finally give up, but she would
then marry Nicholas II the Tsar of Russia.
Victoria then suggested another cousin, Princess Margaret of Prussia, but nothing came of this.
Albert Victor was falling in love with Princess Helene of Orleans, but Victoria was against
this because she was a Catholic, but then further issues came when her father did not
consent.
Helene was considered his true love, and following his death a coin she gave him was placed around
his neck and he was buried with this.
But he would then marry Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, the daughter of Victoria’s
first cousin, and the couple did marry.
But more scandal would besmirch Albert Victory as he was said to have been involved with
a woman who died by drinking carbolic acid.
Newspapers said that he had tried to get her to give up her career in the theatre around
this, but further rumours would emerge about him paying off other women that he had slept
with.
However the Princes’ health was not always in the best of check.
As mentioned it was believed that his significantly premature birth may have caused him problems
later in life, and in the mid 1980s he was attended on by a number of the royal doctors.
In his letters, his illness is referred to as a fever or as gout, but many who have studied
his life claim that the Prince was suffering from a mild form of venereal disease or gonorrhoea,
which it’s believed he may have suffered from before.
The medical notes regarding his treatment are not available, but this would not have
been the easiest to treat, and he was known to have taken a medicine for this.
But around the time that the plans for the marriage to Mary were being drafted, he was
also being lined up to be made the Viceroy of Ireland.
But a deadly pandemic was sweeping across Britain, with what was known as Russia flu
hitting Europe’s population.
It’s believed that this outbreak killed 1 million people, but that there were between
300 million to 900 million cases reported.
It was said it emerged from the Russian Empire, but at the time there was no standard treatment
for flu, and many different treatments were used.
Some sufferers were even given small doses of strychnine, or poison as doctors were at
a loss as to what caused it.
Doctors also believed that miasma or bad air caused disease and helped to spread it, but
Prince Albert Victor would catch the flu which was going around.
He had attended a shooting party at Sandringham and during this complained that he was chilly,
and it was clear he had contracted a slight cold at this point, but continued on with
the days proceedings.
He would walk home after this and tried to get warm, but he then ate dinner with his
family before retiring early to bed not very well.
But the next day he continued with the shooting party, but he was clearly not well, and he
went bed that night at half past eight.
On the Friday he was in good spirits but ws bed bound and was rather jealous of wanting
to attend a dinner party, but he stayed in his room.
But then things took a turn for the worst and the best doctors in London were summoned
to Norfolk.
As the days continued he
He could not shake off the illness and inside of Sandringham House in Norfolk he took to
his bed.
At the time he was just 27, but to many in the royal family this would be an illness
that they believed he could shake off but it wasn’t to be.
The Prince then developed pneumonia and with this his parents the Prince and Princess of
Wales along with his sisters Princess Mad and Victoria and his brother George were summoned
to his bedside.
Also there was his fiancee Mary and her parents along with three of the best royal doctors
and three nurses.
They were all praying that Albert Victor would get better, and the Princes of Wales’ priest
was there reciting prayers.
But it was obvious that Albert Victor was dying, and he would number recover.
It was found that only one lung was severely affected, and this days before rallied the
doctors thinking he may recover, but Albert Victor was not that strong.
He died on the 14th January 1892 a week before his 28th birthday, and the whole nation was
shocked.
His father told Queen Victoria that ‘gladly I would have given my life for this,’ and
Princess Mary told the Queen ‘the despairing look on his mother’s face was the most heart
rending thing I have ever seen.’
His brother George also said ‘how deeply I did love him and I remember with pain nearly
every hard work and little quarrel I ever had with him and I love to ask his forgiveness
but it its too late now.’
People across England were shocked as they believed the royal family were above dying
from the disease which was rife, and one newspaper wrote, ‘“The startling news of the death
of the Duke of Clarence was received in London between nine and ten o’clock yesterday (Thursday)
morning, and occasioned a great shock of sorrow throughout the length and breadth of the land.
It had been believed all along that there was a ray of hope that the Duke would recover,
but this was ruthlessly dashed to the ground, and the most profound sympathy is expressed
for the Royal Family, and especially for Princess May, for whom none but the tenderest condolences
are expressed.
A special correspondent at Sandringham states that on enquiry at Sandringham House at eight
o’clock yesterday (Thursday) morning, he was informed that there was no unfavourable
change in the Duke’s condition.
A later telegram, however, stated that the Duke of Clarence breathed his last between
nine and ten o’clock in the morning.
Nothing was posted at the gates, but the porter was directed to inform enquirers that “all
was over.”
The news of his death was broken gently to Queen Victoria as it was worried that the
great shock could have caused her significant distress and her health at the time was fragile.
His brother George took his place in the line of succession and he would later become king
as George V, showing that if he had survived and lived Albert Victor would have become
King.
His mother was deeply affected by his death, and she left his room exactly the way it was
when he died as a shrine.
But a funeral then took place, and he was laid to rest in the Albert Memorial Chapel
within the grounds of Windsor Castle.
He was a man who throughout his life attracted a significant amount of speculation, and some
even consider him a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case.
But at just the age of 28 Prince Albert Victor’s early death shocked the nation, and he would
have been King if he had lived.
Thanks for watching
To support please subscribe