Dirty Bertie: 1

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David Prothero (12 April 2007). "British Royal Flags, Reign of Edward VII: Proposal for a Personal Royal Standard of King Edward VII". Flags of the World . Retrieved 3 October 2022.

Bentley-Cranch, Dana (1992), Edward VII: Image of an Era 1841–1910, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, ISBN 978-0-11-290508-0 Norway (1908), "Den kongelige norske Sanct Olavs Orden", Norges Statskalender (in Norwegian), pp.869–870, archived from the original on 17 September 2021 , retrieved 17 September 2021As king, Edward's main interests lay in the fields of foreign affairs and naval and military matters. Fluent in French and German, he reinvented royal diplomacy by numerous state visits across Europe. [83] He took annual holidays in Biarritz and Marienbad. [56] One of his most important foreign trips was an official visit to France in May 1903 as the guest of President Émile Loubet. Following a visit to Pope Leo XIII in Rome, this trip helped create the atmosphere for the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale, an agreement delineating British and French colonies in North Africa, and ruling out any future war between the two countries. The Entente was negotiated in 1904 between the French foreign minister, Théophile Delcassé, and the British foreign secretary, Lord Lansdowne. It marked the end of centuries of Anglo-French rivalry and Britain's splendid isolation from Continental affairs, and attempted to counterbalance the growing dominance of the German Empire and its ally, Austria-Hungary. [84] Fittingly He received his greatest homage from France. The Archbishop of Paris cancelled Joan of Arc Day - an annual ceremony that reminds the French their traditional enemies have always been the English. Talk of removing the Lords' veto played a major role in the January 1910 election. Early in the election campaign Lloyd George talked of "guarantees" and Asquith of "safeguards" that would be necessary before forming another Liberal government, but such talk ceased after the King informed Asquith that he would not be willing to contemplate creating peers until after a second general election. [12] [113] Balfour refused to be drawn on whether or not he would be willing to form a Conservative government, but advised the King not to promise to create peers until he had seen the terms of any proposed constitutional change. [114] During the campaign the leading Conservative Walter Long had asked Knollys for permission to state that the King did not favour Irish Home Rule, but Knollys refused on the grounds that it was not appropriate for the monarch's views to be known in public. [115]

Eldest son of Queen Victoria, he had to wait 60 long years before succeeding his mother. Small in stature (1.52m) but big in power, Victoria ruled the world’s greatest empire with authority… and austerity. The time was for morality, good manners, and decency. A deadly boredom for Albert Edward, especially as his mother does not make room for him. So why, without a real official function, languish in prudishness when the neighboring capital offers all the pleasures of life? When the courtesan La Barucci (who called herself the “greatest whore in the world”) was introduced to Bertie, she promptly dropped her dress to the floor and exposed herself. While Prince of Wales, Edward had to be dissuaded from breaking with constitutional precedent by openly voting for W. E. Gladstone's Representation of the People Bill (1884) in the House of Lords. [12] [90] On other matters, he was more conservative; for example, he did not favour giving votes to women, [12] [91] although he did suggest that the social reformer Octavia Hill serve on the Commission for Working Class Housing. [92] He was also opposed to Irish Home Rule, instead preferring a form of dual monarchy. [12] In the late 1800s there were no paparazzi so it was possible to cross the Channel and enjoy an entirely new life filled with champagne, cigars and beautiful women - and free from the disapproval of one's authoritarian Victorian parents.Most biographers ignore Bertie's French escapades or dismiss them as failings, often depicting Edward VII as an ineffectual monarch overshad-owed by his mother. But Clarke insists it was his secret life in Paris that turned Bertie into the only man in Europe who could control the Kaiser.