by Jane Ridley
111. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3206, Margot Asquith Diary, 1 April 1909.
112. The Times, 10 February 1909. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 256. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 236.
113. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3206, Margot Asquith Diary, 1 April 1909.
114. Daisy Fürstin von Pless, Daisy, Princess of Pless, by Herself (John Murray, 1928), pp. 176–77 (Diary: 10 February 1909).
115. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 676. Magnus, Edward VII, p. 512.
116. Reid, Ask Sir James, pp. 237–38.
117. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3206, Margot Asquith Diary, 1 April 1909.
118. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, pp. 256–58.
119. B to Charles Hardinge, 28 March 1909, in Magnus, Edward VII, p. 513.
CHAPTER 26: KING OF TRUMPS 1909–10
1. B’s comment on Asquith’s letter of 19 December 1908, 20 December 1908, in Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 678.
2. RA VIC/Add C07/2/K, Lord Knollys to B, 18 December 1908.
3. Winston Churchill, Great Contemporaries (Thornton Butterworth, 1937), p. 137.
4. Magnus, Edward VII, p. 421.
5. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3206, Margot Asquith Diary, 15 November 1909.
6. Cameron Hazlehurst, “Asquith as Prime Minister,” English Historical Review, vol. 85 (1970), p. 508.
7. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 678.
8. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, pp. 260–61.
9. Ibid., pp. 262–63.
10. RA VIC/R30/7, Frederick Ponsonby to H. H. Asquith, 1 May 1909.
11. RA VIC/X35/506, W. E. Grey to Frederick Ponsonby, 9 May 1909.
12. Daisy Pless to Kaiser William [June 1910], in Daisy, Princess of Pless, p. 185.
13. Stamper, What I Know, pp. 252–53.
14. Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, p. 387.
15. Stamper, What I Know, pp. 252–54, 263–64, 267, 278–79. Rose, George V, p. 319.
16. Fitzroy, Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 379.
17. Stamper, What I Know, pp. 256, 268. Rhodes James, Chips, p. 241.
18. Stamper, What I Know, pp. 272–73.
19. Bodleian Library, Lincolnshire Papers, MS Film 1121, Lord Knollys to Charles Carrington, 10 July 1909.
20. Fitzwilliam, Wilfrid Blunt Papers, MS 9–1975, Diary (5 March 1909).
21. Phillips, Last Edwardians, pp. 20–21.
22. RA VIC/W66/88, Lewis Harcourt to Lord Knollys, 25 July 1909. RA VIC/W66/89, Knollys to Harcourt, 26 July 1909. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, pp. 665–66.
23. Lord Knollys to Lord Crewe, 1 August 1909, in Magnus, Edward VII, pp. 430–31.
24. RA VIC/W55/50, Edward Grey to Lord Knollys, 25 July 1909.
25. H. H. Asquith to David Lloyd George, 3 August 1909, in John Grigg, LG: The People’s Champion (Methuen, 1991), pp. 208–9. The Times, 3 August 1909.
26. See Grigg, People’s Champion, pp. 209–11, for the exchange of letters between B and David Lloyd George.
27. Rhodes James, Chips, pp. 234–35.
28. Esher’s Journal, 8 September 1909, in Lees-Milne, Esher, p. 197.
29. Camp, Royal Mistresses, p. 377. Hibbert, Edward VII, pp. 244–45. McKinstry, Rosebery, pp. 487–88. Winston Churchill to his wife, 25 June 1911, in Randolph Churchill, Churchill: Young Statesman, pp. 356–57.
30. Muntz, Edward VII at Marienbad, pp. 238–40.
31. Esher’s Journal, 8 September 1909, in Lees-Milne, Esher, p. 197.
32. Randolph Churchill, Churchill: Young Statesman, pp. 326–27.
33. Esher’s Journal, 8 September 1909, in Lees-Milne, Esher, pp. 197–98.
34. Churchill Archives Centre, Esher Papers, 2/11, Journal, 24 July 1908.
35. RA VIC/X5/12a, Lord Esher to Lord Knollys, 11 February 1909.
36. RA VIC/Add C07/1/9, Lord Esher to Lord Knollys, 13 October 1909.
37. RA VIC/X5/12a, Lord Esher to Lord Knollys, 11 February 1909.
38. The Times, 11 September 1909.
39. Winston Churchill to his wife, 12 September 1909, in Randolph Churchill, Churchill, Young Statesman, p. 327.
40. B to Lord Esher, 10 September 1909, in Lees-Milne, Esher, p. 198.
41. RA VIC/Add C07/1/9, Lord Esher to Lord Knollys, 26 September 1909.
42. Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, p. 411 (4 October 1909).
43. Moscow: State Archive of the Russian Federation, Fond 1126—op 1—delo 152, Count Benckendorff to his wife, 16–29 September 1909. For this reference, I am indebted to Marina Vorobieva.
44. Moscow: State Archive of the Russian Federation, Fond 1126—op 1—delo 152, Count Benckendorff to his wife, 23 September–6 October 1909.
45. Asquith’s Memo of Conversation with King, 6 October 1909, in Spender and Asquith, Life, vol. 1, p. 257.
46. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3206, Margot Asquith Diary, H. H. Asquith to Margot Asquith, 30 September 1909.
47. H. H. Asquith to David Lloyd George, 7 October 1909, in Grigg, People’s Champion, p. 221.
48. RA GV/AA25/65, B to George, 13 October 1909.
49. Ibid. RA VIC/EVIID/1909: 12 October.
50. Bodleian Library, Lincolnshire Papers, MS Film 1121, Carrington Diary, 15 October 1909.
51. RA VIC/Add C07/1/9, Lord Esher to Lord Knollys, 13 October 1909.
52. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3206, Margot Asquith Diary, 15 November 1909.
53. Knutsford, In Black and White, p. 230.
54. Rose, George V, pp. 293–94.
55. Knutsford, In Black and White, pp. 234–37.
56. Magnus, Edward VII, pp. 437–38.
57. Fitzroy, Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 389.
58. Knutsford, In Black and White, p. 245.
59. Ibid., p. 246.
60. Daisy, Princess of Pless, pp. 187, 201.
61. See James Lees-Milne, Deep Romantic Chasm: Diaries 1979–81, ed. Michael Bloch (John Murray, 2000), p. 205.
62. Knutsford, In Black and White, pp. 250–51.
63. Watson, King Edward as Sportsman, p. 219.
64. Lord Esher to Lord Knollys, 1 December 1909, in Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, pp. 423–25.
65. Lord Knollys to Lord Esher, 2 December 1909, in Heffer, Power, p. 285.
66. Ibid.
67. Memo by Vaughan Nash, 15 December 1909 in Spender and Asquith, Life, vol. 1, pp. 261–62.
68. Magnus, Edward VII, p. 441. See Vernon Bogdanor, The Monarchy and the Constitution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp. 113–15; Hardie, Political Influence of the British Monarchy, p. 112.
69. Stamper, What I Know, p. 321.
70. Daisy, Princess of Pless, p. 202.
71. Ibid., pp. 203–4.
72. RA VIC/Add A5/475, B to Mrs. Keppel, 1 January 1910.
73. Elizabeth Countess of Fingall, Seventy Years Young (Collins, 1937), p. 296.
74. Ibid., pp. 298, 303. Rhodes James, Chips, pp. 21, 347.
75. Bodleian Library, Lincolnshire Papers, MS Film 1121, Carrington Diary, 3, 4 January 1910.
76. Fingall, Seventy Years Young, p. 298.
77. Ibid., pp. 298, 305–6.
78. Stamper, What I Know, pp. 300–301.
79. Vincent, Crawford Papers, p. 570.
80. Hibbert, Edward VII, p. 285.
81. RA VIC/EVIID/1910: 14 January.
82. Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, pp. 435–36 (Journal, 9 January 1910).
83. Lord Esher to his son, 23 January 1910, in Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, p. 439.
84. Lord Esher to his son, 25 January 1910, in Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, p. 442.
85. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3208, Margot Asquith Diary, 1 February 1910.
86. RA VIC/W66/112, Margot Asquith to Lord Knollys, 2 February 1910.
87. RA VIC/W66/113, Margot Asquith to Lord Knollys, n.d.
88. RA VIC/W66/114, Lord Knollys to Margot Asquith, 4 February 1910.
89. Warwick, Afterthoughts, p. 33.
90. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3208, Margot Asquith Diary, 17 February 1910.
91. RA V
IC/R30/84, B’s Note on Vaughan Nash to Lord Knollys, 12 January 1910.
92. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3208, Margot Asquith Diary, 15 February 1910.
93. Redesdale, King Edward VII: A Memory, p. 33. RA VIC/EDVIID/1910: 17 February.
94. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 702.
CHAPTER 27: THE PEOPLE’S KING: MARCH–MAY 1910
1. The Times, 7 March 1910.
2. RA GV/AA25/70, B to George, 16 March 1910.
3. Physicians’ Report, The Times, 12 May 1910.
4. BL, Sidney Lee Papers, Add MSS 56087A, fols. 1–3, George Saunders to Sidney Lee, 22 November 1911. The Times, 8 March 1910.
5. Leslie, Edwardians in Love, p. 337. RA VIC/EVIID/1910: 8 March.
6. RA VIC/EVIID/1910: 11 March.
7. Mrs. Keppel to the Marquis de Soveral, n.d., in Brook-Shepherd, Uncle of Europe, p. 350.
8. The Times, 15 March 1910.
9. RA VIC/EVIID/1910: 14–18 March.
10. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 239.
11. The Times, 12 May 1910.
12. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 239.
13. RA GV/AA25/71, B to George, 22 March 1910.
14. RA GV/GG9/33, Arthur Davidson to Dighton Probyn, 3 August 1912. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 239.
15. RA GV/CC42/79, Alix to Princess of Wales, 26 November 1910.
16. “I am afraid he must have been very bad, much worse than we in England had any idea of”: Reid Papers, Arthur Bigge to James Reid, 22 March 1910.
17. Stamper, What I Know, pp. 332, 334.
18. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 267.
19. RA GV/GG9/189, Arthur Davidson to Dighton Probyn, 5 December 1912.
20. RA VIC/EVIID/1910: 20 March, 4 April.
21. RA GV/GG9/189, Arthur Davidson to Dighton Probyn, 5 December 1912.
22. RA GV/AA25/72, B to George, 29 March 1910.
23. RA VIC/Add C07/2/H, B to Lord Knollys, 26 March 1910. Stamper, What I Know, pp. 335, 340–41.
24. RA VIC/Add C07/2/H, B to Lord Knollys, 9 April 1910. Stamper, What I Know, pp. 344–45.
25. Battiscombe, Queen Alexandra, p. 268.
26. RA VIC/Add C07/2/H, B to Lord Knollys, 9 April 1910.
27. Lord Esher to B, 10 April 1910, in Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, pp. 433–35.
28. RA VIC/Add C07/1/9, Lord Esher to Lord Knollys, 10 April 1910.
29. H. H. Asquith to B, 13 April 1910, in Magnus, Edward VII, pp. 451–52.
30. RA VIC/X11/29, B to H. H. Asquith (draft), 16 April 1910. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 706.
31. RA VIC/Add C07/2/H, B to Lord Knollys, 16 April 1912.
32. Hansard, 14 April 1910, vol. 16, cols. 1547–51.
33. RA VIC/Add C07/2/H, B to Lord Knollys, 16 April 1910.
34. Colin Matthew, “Herbert Henry Asquith,” ODNB. G. H. L. Le May, The Victorian Constitution (Duckworth, 1979), pp. 198–99.
35. Lord Knollys to Lord Esher, 17 April 1910, in Magnus, Edward VII, p. 453.
36. RA VIC/Add C07/2/H, B to Lord Knollys, 23 April 1910.
37. Stamper, What I Know, pp. 350–51.
38. Ibid., pp. 351. Kenny, Crown and Shamrock, pp. 107–8.
39. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 709.
40. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 267.
41. RA VIC Add C07/2/H, B to Lord Knollys, 23 April 1910. RA VIC/Add C07/2/H, Prince of Wales to Knollys, 24 April 1910. RA VIC/EVIID/1910: 27 April. The Times, 28 April 1910.
42. Esher’s memorandum of a Conference at Lambeth, 27 April 1910, in Brett, Journals and Letters, vol. 2, pp. 456–59.
43. Bogdanor, Monarchy and the Constitution, pp. 115–19.
44. RA VIC/Add C07/2/H, B to Lord Knollys, 23 April 1910. H. H. Asquith to Margot Asquith, 28 April 1910, in Asquith, Autobiography, vol. 2, p. 135.
45. The Times, 6 May 1910.
46. Redesdale, “King Edward VII: A Memory,” p. 34.
47. Churchill Archives Centre, Esher Papers, 2/12, Journal, 7 May 1910.
48. The Times, 6 May 1910.
49. RA VIC/EVIID/1910: 30 April. The Times, 12 May 1910. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 268.
50. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 268.
51. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 240.
52. Ibid.
53. Esher’s Memorandum, 3 May 1910, in Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 713. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 268.
54. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 268.
55. Fitzroy, Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 409.
56. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 409. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 715. Redesdale, “King Edward VII: A Memory,” p. 35.
57. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Schomberg McDonnell Papers, D/4091/A/6/1, “Schomberg McDonnell’s Journal of Death and Funeral of King Edward VII,” May 1910, p. 11.
58. George to Alix, 4 May 1910, in Battiscombe, Queen Alexandra, p. 270.
59. RA VIC/EVIID/1910: 4 May.
60. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 269.
61. Ibid. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 241.
62. Asquith, Autobiography, vol. 2, p. 137.
63. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 241.
64. Quoted in Longford, Louisa, p. 203.
65. The Times, 6 May 1910.
66. Fitzroy, Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 402.
67. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 241. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3208, Margot Asquith Diary, 6 May 1910.
68. Ernest Cassel to Mrs. Wilfrid Ashley, 6 May 1910, in Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, pp. 716–17.
69. Souhami, Mrs. Keppel, p. 91.
70. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3208, Margot Asquith Diary, 6 May 1910.
71. Leslie, Edwardians in Love, p. 338.
72. RA VIC/Add A5/471, B to Mrs. Keppel, May 1901 [sic]. Why Bertie should have written this letter in 1901, rather than 1902, when he was ill, is unclear. Royal Librarian Robin Mackworth-Young annotated: “He must have felt very out of sorts to feel it necessary to write it but there is no record of any grave illness at this time.”
73. Churchill Archives Centre, Esher Papers, 2/12, Journal, 12 June 1910. Sir Francis Laking, who was one of the doctors in attendance, told Skittles that the King said to the Queen, “You must kiss Alice,” and Alix obeyed. (Fitzwilliam, Wilfrid Blunt Papers, MS 11–1975, Diary, 14 December 1910.)
74. Rhodes James, Chips, p. 32.
75. See this page.
76. Churchill Archives Centre, Esher Papers, 2/12, Journal, 12 June 1910.
77. Fitzwilliam, Wilfrid Blunt Papers, MS 11–1975, Diary, 14 December 1910.
78. Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 717.
79. Vincent, Crawford Papers, p. 153 (9 May 1910). Holmes, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 599.
80. Churchill Archives Centre, Esher Papers, 2/12, Journal, 7 May 1910.
81. Charles Sebag-Montefiore Archive, Philip Magnus Papers, Shane Leslie to Magnus, 24 August 1961. Shane Leslie is a key source for this story, which has also been handed down in Father Forster’s family, and still lingers today. See Mary Kenny, The Irish Catholic, 24 September 2009.
82. Charles Sebag-Montefiore Archive, Philip Magnus Papers, Shane Leslie to Magnus, 19 July 1961.
83. Philip Magnus heard a story from Evelyn Waugh that King Edward underwent a deathbed conversion to Roman Catholicism. (Charles Sebag-Montefiore Archive, Philip Magnus Papers, Philip Magnus to Lady Magnus, 6 February 1962.) A search by Magnus in the archives of the Archbishop of Westminster yielded nothing, and Magnus does not mention the story in his biography. (Charles Sebag-Montefiore Archive, Philip Magnus Papers, David Norris, Private Secretary to Archbishop of Westminster, 14 July 1961.)
84. Bell, Davidson, p. 608. Churchill Archives Centre, Esher Papers, 2/12, Journal, 7 May 1910.
85. Holmes, Edward VII, vol. 2, p. 599.
86. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3208, Margot Asquith Diary, 6 May 1910.
87. Bodleian Library, MS Eng. d. 3208, Margot Asquith Diary, 7 May 1910.
88. The Times, 10 May 1910.
89. Fitzwilliam, Wilfrid Blunt Papers, MS 10–1975, Diary, 6 May, 13 May 1910.
90. Fitzwilliam, Wilfrid Blunt Papers, MS 10
–1975, Diary, 15 August 1910.
91. The Times, 12 May 1910. Before leaving for Biarritz, the King complained to Daisy Warwick about the effect of the injections against influenza he was being given. (Life’s Ebb and Flow, p. 158.)
92. Fitzwilliam, Wilfrid Blunt Papers, MS 11–1975, Diary, 13 May, 16 June 1910.
93. Vincent, Crawford Papers, p. 154 (10 May 1910).
94. Ibid., p. 153 (9 May 1910). See George Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England (New York: Perigree, 1980), pp. 5–6.
95. A Liberal Chronicle: Journals and Papers of J. A. Pease, ed. Cameron Hazlehurst and Christine Woodland (Historians’ Press, 1994), p. 176 (10 May 1910).
96. The Times, 10 May 1910 (British Medical Journal extract). The Times, 12 May 1910 (Physicians’ Report).
97. Felix Semon and Francis Laking to Lord Knollys, 23 February 1907, in Lee, Edward VII, vol. 2, pp. 685–86.
98. Felix Semon to Lord Knollys, 7 May 1910, in St. Aubyn, Edward VII, p. 475.
99. The Times, 13 May 1910.
100. Ponsonby, Three Reigns, p. 271.
101. Churchill Archives Centre, Esher Papers, 2/12, Journal, 10 May 1910.
102. McKinstry, Rosebery, p. 496.
103. Keppel, Edwardian Daughter, p. 53.
104. Allfrey, Jewish Court, p. 247. Souhami, Mrs. Keppel, p. 92.
105. Fitzwilliam, Wilfrid Blunt Papers, MS 10–1975, Diary, 13 May 1910.
106. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 243.
107. Mrs. Keppel to Lady Knollys, n.d., in Souhami, Mrs. Keppel, p. 96.
108. Churchill Archives Centre, Esher Papers, 2/12, Journal, 12 June 1910. For the house in Grosvenor Street, see Osbert Lancaster, Great Morning (Reprint Society, 1949), pp. 216–17.
109. McKinstry, Rosebery, p. 496.
110. Admiral John Fisher to Reginald McKenna, 14 May 1910, in Marder, Fear God and Dread Nought, vol. 2 p. 325.
111. Queen Alexandra’s Message, The Times, 23 May 1910. Battiscombe, Queen Alexandra, pp. 272–73.
112. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 242.
113. St. Aubyn, Edward VII, p. 475, quoting Alix’s remarks to Theodore Roosevelt.
114. Diary of George V, 11 May 1910, in Kuhn, Democratic Royalism, p. 101.
115. The Times, 14 May, 16 May 1910.
116. PRO Northern Ireland, D/4091/A/6/1, Schomberg McDonnell’s journal, “Edward VII,” May 1910, p. 13.
117. The Times, 17 May 1910.
