A Man of the Ages

Despite his love of the finer things in life, King Edward VII was a skilled and devoted ruler who modernised Britain's monarchy

- By Emma Slattery Williams

When 59-year-old Edward VII came to the throne in January 1901, he couldn't have been more different W to his late mother, Queen Victoria. The king and former Prince of Wales was the complete opposite of the Victorian ideal of propriety; he lived for life's excesses, and was renowned for his love of smoking, gambling and cavorting with his many mistresses.

Born on 9 November 1841, Albert Edward was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Much to his parents' dismay, the young Bertie - as he was known to his family - was a boisterous boy, and struggled to keep up with the strict educational regime imposed by his private tutors. Despite later flourishing in his studies at Oxford and Cambridge universities, he was at his happiest while partying in Parisian nightclubs and enjoying the company of his private court, which embodied the fashionable and high society elite.