Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale

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Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale bigraphy, stories - European royalty

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale : biography

8 January 1864 – 14 January 1892

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (Albert Victor Christian Edward; 8 January 1864 – 14 January 1892), was the eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and the grandson of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria. From the time of his birth, he was second in the line of succession to the British throne, but he did not become king because he died before his father and his grandmother, the Queen.

Albert Victor was known to his family, and many later biographers, as "Eddy". When young, he travelled the world extensively as a naval cadet. As an adult he joined the British Army, but did not undertake any active military duties. After two unsuccessful courtships, he was engaged to be married to Princess Mary of Teck in late 1891. Just a few weeks later, he died during an influenza pandemic. Mary later married his younger brother, George, who became King George V in 1910.

Albert Victor’s intellect, sexuality and sanity have been the subject of much speculation. Rumours linked him with the Cleveland Street scandal, which involved a homosexual brothel, but there is no conclusive evidence verifying or disproving the rumours or his sexual orientation. Some authors have argued that he was the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper; however, contemporary documents show that Albert Victor could not have been in London at the time of the murders, and the claim is widely dismissed.

Early life

Albert Victor was born two months prematurely on 8 January 1864 at Frogmore House, Windsor, Berkshire. He was the first child of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and Alexandra, Princess of Wales (formerly Alexandra of Denmark). Following his grandmother Queen Victoria’s wishes, he was named Albert Victor, after herself and her late husband Albert, but was known informally as "Eddy".Cook, pp. 28–29. As a grandchild of the reigning British monarch in the male line, and a son of the Prince of Wales, he was formally styled "His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor of Wales" from birth.

Albert Victor was christened in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 10 March 1864 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Thomas Longley. His godparents were Queen Victoria (his paternal grandmother), King Christian IX of Denmark (his maternal grandfather, represented by his brother Prince John of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg), King Leopold I of Belgium (his great great-uncle), the Dowager Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (his maternal great-grandmother, for whom the Duchess of Cambridge stood proxy), the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (his great-aunt by marriage, for whom the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz stood proxy), the Landgrave of Hesse (his maternal great-grandfather, for whom Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, stood proxy), the Crown Princess of Prussia (his paternal aunt, for whom The Princess Helena, her sister, stood proxy) and The Prince Alfred (his paternal uncle).Demoskoff, Yvonne (27 December 2005). . Accessed 1 May 2010.

Education

When Albert Victor was just short of seventeen months old, his brother, Prince George of Wales, was born on 3 June 1865. Given the closeness in age of the two royal brothers, they were educated together. In 1871, the Queen appointed John Neale Dalton as their tutor. The two princes were given a strict programme of study, which included games and military drills as well as academic subjects.Nicolson, pp. 7–9. Dalton complained that Albert Victor’s mind was "abnormally dormant".Letter from Dalton in the Royal Archives, 6 April 1879, quoted in Cook, p. 52. Though he learned to speak Danish, progress in other languages and subjects was slow.Cook, pp. 52, 56–57; Harrison, pp. 68–69. Sir Henry Ponsonby thought that Albert Victor might have inherited his mother’s deafness.Aronson, p. 54; Harrison, p. 34. Albert Victor never excelled intellectually. Lady Geraldine Somerset blamed Dalton for Albert Victor’s poor education,Quoted by Aronson, p. 74. but possible physical explanations for Albert Victor’s inattention or indolence in class include his premature birth, which can be associated with learning difficulties, or petit mal, a mild form of epilepsy manifested in childhood as periods of mental vacuity.Aronson, pp. 53–54; Harrison, p. 35.