Figure 1.--.

Eddy was a rather peculiar child, hardly what was expected for a future king. We have noted few royal children described in such negative terms as Prince Eddy. He even looked not quite right, he had a long neck and languid eyes and as an adult adopted several preposterous moustaches. As a boy he appears to have been apathetic and backward. One report describes him as lacking in "manliness and self-reliance". This was probably why Prince Eddy was such a favorite to the Queen. As a child he appaers to have been a generally good natured, certainly gentle boy, but extremely lackidasical even slugish. Others have described him as dull-witted, perhaps even retarded, maybe even autistic. His personality may have been affected by his premature birth and Alexandra's difficult labor. Precisely how is difficult to assess. Sir Henry Ponsoby suggested that he may have been hearing impaired, which could have explained some of his learning difficulties. [Battiscombe, p. 162.]

His mother Princess Alexandra described Prince Eddy's personality in a letter to Queen Victoria after the Prince returnfrom a stay with her at Balmoral. The letter also alludes to a problem she faced as Prince Eddy began growing up, the rather bad example that his father was setting. Princess Alexandra wrote:

"I am delighted to see Eddy looking so well and having enjoyed his visit to you in Scotland so much. [Note: Here we are not sure just how much enjoyed the visits with the Queen. The other childre, especially his sisters considerded an orderal to spend time with their English grandmother. His mother may have have just been trying tgo please here mother-in-law here.] I am so glad you seem to have understood his disposition, which is really an excellent one, and he is a very good boy at heart though perhaps he is a little slow and dawdly which I always attribute to his having grown so fast. I am delighted you gave him such good advise and the very points you mention are those which I always try to impress upon him, and I am particularly glad you did not allude to any of the other subjects you intended speaking about, such as races, clubs, etc. as he really has no inclination that way and it might only have put them in his head beside placing his father in an awkward position." [Royal Archives/Z/162/7 in Battiscombe, pp. 163-164.]

Sources

Battiscombe, Georgina. Queen Alexandra (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1969).

Ibarra, Jesus. "Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (1864-1892)," internet page accessed June 24, 2002.

Created: July 2, 2002
Last updated: July 2, 2002