Page:The life and times of King Edward VII by Whates, Harry Richard 1.djvu/19

Royal Arms in Designed Heading

THE LIFE
AND TIMES OF
King Edward The Seventh

CHAPTER I

BIRTH AND INFANCY

A Crown's Demise—Imperial Development—A Political Crisis—Looking Backward—An Eventful Morning—Buckingham Palace—Birth of Edward VII.—Rejoicings in London—Punch is Topical—A Royal Mother—Early Honours—The Christening at Windsor—The Popularity of Protestantism—Some Early Pictures Described—"Princey" at Five—The Home Circle in 1848—The Duke of Cornwall Visits the Duchy—The Early Environment of the Future King—The Power of Heredity

THE High and Mighty Prince Lord Edward the Seventh, by the Grace of God King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the Dominions Oversea, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India, passed from Life in the sixty-ninth year of his age and the tenth of his reign. He spent his last breath in Buckingham Palace shortly before midnight on the 6th of May, 1910, in an apartment quite close to that in which he first saw the light at eleven in the morning of the 9th of November, 1841. His reign was short but momentous. It opened a new era in international relations, in Imperial development, in Constitutional growth, in domestic policies. He was a man of remarkable personal qualities, beloved in life, deeply and universally mourned in death. Opportunity to display the full power of his gifts was denied him; for he was struck