Letters from a Prince- The Finale

Relationship woes, a royal tour and inside glimpses of the royal family.

5 Glimpses The Royal Family in the 1919-1920

1. Sandringham did not belong to the crown: While Sandringham is always associated with the British Royal Family, it actually was privately purchased by Queen Victoria for her son, Edward VII (when he was Prince of Wales) so that he might have a private family home as he was preparing to marry Alexandra of Denmark. As a result of this, the George V and his immediate family lived at York Cottage while at Sandringham Estate because his mother Queen Alexandra was still alive and quite simply, Sandringham was her house!

   

   The Royal Family (excluding Prince Edward) in 1918

2. Christmas 1919 was very similar for the royal family as it is today: The family was all gathered at Sandringham for Christmas, and aside from the monarch, George V staying in York Cottage rather than Sandringham House, it was much the same. Edward even writes about the famous walk to church and how people lined up to watch them, just as they do today! It is amazing to think that royal watchers 100 years ago were just as excited for the Christmas Walk as royal watchers today are!

3. The Royal Aunts: In a letter from December 31st, he mentions that he had gone to visit one of his aunts. “That old bitch of an aunt of mine, Princess Victoria….She was divine; she’s laid up with the flu or something though I was on my guard as she’s vewy (how he spelled very in his letters to Freda) dangerous & the divineness is mostly camouflage!!” He then writes that he must be off to dinner as the Queen of Norway was to dine with them. (Princess Victoria was the sister with whom George V was closest to. She did not marry and remained very close to her parents and family throughout her life. Maud was the youngest sister of George V and she became Queen of Norway as her husband Prince Christian of Denmark was asked to ascend the throne of Norway becoming Haakon II. She spent most winters at Sandringham. “…The Queen of Norway’s party was naturally a frost though she’s a nice, kind little woman & I’m fond of her as an aunt and she’s always been vewy nice to me & I stayed with her in Norway for about 3 weeks in April 1914.”

4. His “Hot” Brothers: “It’s my 3 brothers who have kept me up so late tonight sweetheart ..” While the general feeling of his time spent over the 1919 holidays with his brothers was that they had a lot of fun together, he does offer some descriptions of them in his letters to Freda. As he has alluded to throughout this collection, he again describes Bertie as simple by saying how much he trusted him, followed by “…only Bertie is such a d—d simple little boy!” His constant references to Prince Albert being ‘simple” actually makes me wonder if Albert’s agreeability is part of what made him a good king, and his brother a poor one. Shortly after his mention of Bertie, he shares that he was telling his three younger brothers about his early “experiences” in Paris. He then says, “ I think it’s rather a good thing to talk to Harry & George about all that, don’t you, darling, as of course they’re both going to get far more chances of getting themselves into trouble than I ever did & they are both very hot by nature!!” This is a very interesting mention of his younger brothers as of course, Prince George in particular was a rather wayward person with both drug addiction and the company he kept. It was actually Prince Edward who helped his brother George overcome his drug addiction.

I hope you enjoyed this small glimpse into the Royal Family from 100 years ago… When reading these parts of Prince Edward’s letters, what dawned on me what that they Royal Family then was not much different from the Royal Family today! Now, we dive into our final look at into the letters written by Edward VIII to his first mistress, Freda Dudley Ward…a seven month royal tour and a potential break-up…

The Prince of Wales in Sydney

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