Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India from 1901 until 1910. Known as Bertie within the royal family, he spent almost sixty years as Prince of Wales and developed extensive social and diplomatic connections across Europe.
His brief reign brought a more public and cosmopolitan style to the monarchy after the long Victorian period. He took an active interest in foreign relations and court culture, though the conduct of government remained firmly in ministerial hands.
Richard Davenport-Hines’ Edward VII (Penguin Monarchs) follows the prince’s long wait for the throne, his scandals, European social connections and comparatively short but active kingship. Peter Ackroyd’s Innovation opens its modern history with Edward’s accession and the political world of the Edwardian monarchy. C. W. Gortner’s The American Adventuress brings Jennie Jerome into the future king’s fashionable circle, showing the social world in which Edward exercised influence before 1901. David Field’s The Belvedere Scandal uses the opening of his reign as the setting for an aristocratic mystery. Charles Todd’s The Black Ascot looks back at the elaborate mourning and racing culture surrounding Edward’s death, when a notorious murder becomes inseparable from the public rituals of the late Edwardian court.