King Edward VII
1841 – 1910 · Generation XXXIV · King of the United Kingdom (r. 1901–1910) · House of Windsor
Edward VII Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1841–1910). King of the United Kingdom (r. 1901–1910). Married Alexandra of Denmark in 1863. Sixty years Prince of Wales, nine years king; the Edwardian age carries his name. Kept at arm's length from state business by his mother, “Bertie” became the very image of fashionable, pleasure-seeking aristocracy, though his tours of North America in 1860 and India in 1875 were genuine triumphs — and his playboy reputation strained relations with the queen. As king he proved an effective constitutional monarch: he backed the modernisation of the Home Fleet and the army's reorganisation after the Boer War, revived royal ceremony as public spectacle, and widened the circle in which royalty moved. Abroad he worked to warm Britain's friendships, above all with France, earning the name “Peacemaker,” though he and his nephew Kaiser Wilhelm II were never on good terms. He died amid the constitutional crisis over the Lords, settled after him by the Parliament Act 1911.
One of 48 people of House of Windsor (from 1917) in this archive. The present house — it renamed itself Windsor in 1917, setting aside the German title Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → Elizabeth Stuart → Sophia of Hanover → King George I → King George II → Frederick Prince of Wales → King George III → Edward Duke of Kent → Queen Victoria → King Edward VII.
Parents
- Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819 – 1861)
- Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901)
Siblings
- Victoria Princess Royal (1840 – 1901)
- Alice of the United Kingdom (1843 – 1878)
- Alfred Duke of Edinburgh (1844 – 1900)
- Helena of the United Kingdom (1846 – 1923)
- Louise Duchess of Argyll (1848 – 1939)
- Arthur Duke of Connaught (1850 – 1942)
- Leopold Duke of Albany (1853 – 1884)
- Beatrice of the United Kingdom (1857 – 1944)
Partners
- Married Alexandra of Denmark (1844 – 1925) in 1863 — 5 children together
Children
- Albert Victor Duke of Clarence (1864 – 1892)
- King George V (1865 – 1936)
- Louise Princess Royal (1867 – 1931)
- Victoria of the United Kingdom (1868 – 1935)
- Maud of Wales (1869 – 1938)
Life
- 1841 — Born
- 1863 — Married Alexandra of Denmark
- 1901 — Edward VII becomes King on the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
- 1902 — Edward VII institutes the Order of Merit.
- 1907 — Edward VII visits his cousin Tzar Nicholas II of Russia
- 1910 — Died
- 1910 — Edward dies of pneumonia at Buckingham Palace.