Product Description

Prince Albert Victor, King Edward Vll's (r. 1901-10) first son and heir to the throne, and popularly known as Eddy, has virtually been airbrushed out of history.Eddy was as popular and charismatic a figure in his own time as Princess Diana a century later. As in her case, his sudden death in 1892 resulted in public demonstrations of grief on a scale rarely seen at the time, and it was even rumoured (as in the case of Diana) that he was murdered to save him besmirching the monarchy. Had he lived, he would have been crowned king in 1911, ushering in a profoundly different style of monarchy from that of his younger brother, who ultimately succeeded as the stodgy George V. Eddy's life was virtually ignored by historians until the 1970s, when myths began to accumulate and his character somehow grew horns and a tail. As a result, he is remembered today primarily as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 and for his alleged involvement in the Cleveland Street homosexual scandal of 1889.But history has found Eddy guilty of crimes he did not commit. Now, for the first time, using modern forensic evidence combined with Eddy's previously unseen records, personal correspondence and photographs, Andrew Cook proves his innocence. 'Prince Eddy' reveals the truth about a key royal figure, a man who would have made a fine king and changed the face of the British monarchy.This is the book of the hugely successful Channel 4 documentary that received one of the channel's highest viewing figures for a one-off historical show (3 million). It is a radically new interpretation of a much maligned prince.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #262450 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
"'Andrew Cook is a brilliant investigative historian' ANDREW ROBERTS."

About the Author
Andrew Cook was the presenter and historical consultant of the Channel 4 documentary about the life of Prince Eddy. He is the author of three critically acclaimed books all published by Tempus. Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly, M: M15's First Spymaster and To Kill Rasputin: The Life and Death of Grigori Rasputin . He is a regular contributor on espionage history to The Guardian, The Times and History Today.

Customer Reviews

a fresh look at Prince Eddy
Andrew Cook sets out to have a fresh look on HRH Prince Albert Victor of Wales or popular known as Prince Eddy.

The prince was the eldest son of Edward VII. and Queen Alexandra and the elder brother of King George V. He already died in 1892. So he never became Prince of Wales (1901) or King (1910) as it had meant to be.

The prince seems to be largely forgotten (except for some history buffs) and his meager historical reputation is a bad one - stupid, involved in a homosexual scandal and suspected to be Jack the Ripper.

Andrew Cook has a different view of the Prince: popular and charismatic like the late Diana Princess of Wales, not guilty of any crimes history seems to believe he committed, a key role figure who would have made a fine king and would have changed the face of the British monarchy.

Quite opposing views: did Andrew Cook prove his point with his biography?

The book offers indeed a very interesting fresh look on the Prince. It is the first proper full fleshed biography; the life to this prince is not just a footnote in the biographies of his parents or this brother and his wife, Queen Mary, who had been Prince Eddy's fiancée. I feel that this is very positive.

Tat Prince Eddy was indeed not Jack the Ripper had been proved. His involvement in the homosexual Cleveland Street Scandal is open to debate. Andrew Cook writes in-depth about it and one wonders why if the Prince was not involved. Not very convincing!

For the argument that the Prince was not the brightest of persons the authors seems to believe that the education he received was inadequate (that is to say it was not Eddy's fault) or that the reputation was not deserved: Page 109 states "he who so notoriously reacted with indolence and inattention could spend long evenings concentrating on the complexities of whist, furiously energetic afternoons playing hockey or lacrosse, because these things mattered to him.
In my view not at all a great or convincing argument.

That he was charismatic and popular as Princess Diana is not proved at all. The author seems to be taken the usual dues to royalty as a real prove of being popular and loved by the population. On the other hand he states that "other than the Queen and the Princes and Princess of Wales ....the faces of the royal family were not well known (pages 132). So does he want to say that a basically unknown prince was as popular as the late Princess Diana? Does that make sense? My answer is simply no. For the aspect of charisma I could not find any prove of that.

The author states that Prince Eddy had made no mark on history as he done nothing remarkable or even reprehensible (page 278). Yes, this is indeed true (quite different from Princess Diana I may add). Mr. Cook continues this statement by adding that the Prince was "spotless" and because goodness is dull, he was easily forgotten. I feel this carries the notion too far. I rather feel as there was indeed not much about this Prince he was forgotten. The whole book did not give one single aspect why this Prince should be remembered as somebody remarkable who would have made a great king.

However, I would grant Mr. Cook to have been proving that the historic reputation could have been better. Eddy was liked by his family and circle. He was properly a charming, but rather uninteresting person. Nice company but not much more.
That he had the stuff for a great king, I cannot see this.

It was interesting to read this book and see if Andrew Cook can prove his basic points. I believe he did not do this as he seems to be "obsessed" by the idea of Prince Eddy being something more and better than historic reputation had it. Nevertheless I enjoyed reading the book.

Prince Eddy
A very comprehensively researched book, but overall rather boring since it tended to focus too much on Prince Albert Victor's father, the Prince of Wales, rather than the subject of the book. Perhaps this is because there is insufficient records on him. Recent speculation about Prince Eddy's sex life and his involvement in the Jack the Ripper episode was given less space than his father's adventures and his involvement in several scandals which reached the courtroom.
There was a very long episode on the time that both Prince Eddy and his brother Prince George, who became king after his father, King Edward VII died, by which time Prince Eddy had died at 28, spent on naval training.
It was always supposed that Prince Eddy was less intelligent than his brother and less quick witted, but it is believed now that he had inherited a form of deafness from his mother, Queen Alexandra.

In all, an interesting view of royalty for those interested in the House of Windsor and their antecedents, but a slow and plodding read.

Prince Eddy.
The point of this book seems to want to prove that Prince Eddy 'would have made a fine king and changed the face of the British monarchy'.Unfortunately for me, the book seems to meander as much as Prince Eddy's mind did in his life.Far too much space is devoted to prove the obvious fact that he was not Jack the Ripper or maybe not involved in the Cleveland Street scandal and far too many other pages are devoted to subjects that really have no bearing on his life.A muddling and unsatisfactory book.