January 14, 1892: Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Earl of Athlone, dies. He was only 28 years old. Had he lived another 19 years, he would have been King of England.
Albert Victor Christian Edward Saxe-Coburg und Gotha was born on January 8, 1864, at Frogmore House, on the grounds of Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, England. His father was Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. His mother was the former Princess Alexandra of Denmark. His grandmother was Queen Victoria of Great Britain. At his birth, he was 2nd in line for the throne, behind his father.
He was named Albert for his father, and Victor for his grandmother. The surname came from his grandfather, Victoria's late husband, Prince Albert of the German state of Saxe-Coburg und Gotha. But, like his first cousin who would be born 2 years later, Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, he was known to his family by the last of his names, becoming "Prince Eddy."
Albert Edward and Alexandra, or "Bertie" and "Alix," went on to have 6 children. Eddy was followed in 1865 by George; in 1867, by Louise; in 1868, by Victoria; in 1869, by Maud; and, in 1871, by Alexander who died a day after his birth.
As a young man, he travelled widely as a Royal Navy cadet. As an adult, he joined the British Army, though he undertook no active military duties. But in July 1889, London's Metropolitan Police uncovered a male brothel operated by Charles Hammond in Cleveland Street. Under interrogation, the male prostitutes and pimps revealed the names of their clients, who included Lord Arthur Somerset, an Extra Equerry (personal attendant) to the Prince of Wales. At the time, in Britain, all homosexual acts between men were illegal, and those identified risked social ostracism, prosecution, and, at worst, two years' imprisonment with hard labour -- as the writer Oscar Wilde would find out in 1895.
The resultant "Cleveland Street Scandal" implicated other high-ranking figures in British society, and rumors swept upper-class London that a member of the royal family was involved -- specifically, Albert Victor. The prostitutes had not named him, and it is suggested that Somerset's solicitor, Arthur Newton, fabricated and circulated the rumor, to deflect attention from his client. The Prince of Wales intervened in the investigation; no clients were ever prosecuted, and nothing against Albert Victor was proven.
Although there is no conclusive evidence for or against his involvement, or that he ever visited a homosexual club or brothel, the rumors and the cover-up have led some biographers to speculate that he did visit Cleveland Street, and that he was "possibly bisexual, probably homosexual." However, royal historians appear to be split on the issue, due to conflicting evidence.
While English newspapers suppressed mention of Albert Victor's name in connection with the case, Welsh-language, colonial, and American newspapers were less restrained. The New York Times ridiculed him as a "dullard" and "stupid perverse boy" who would "never be allowed to ascend the British throne."
The Prince's connection to the scandal, however tenuous, later inspired an even more tenuous connection to another awful story of 1880s London: The Whitechapel Murders, ascribed to an unknown serial killer who was nicknamed "Jack the Ripper."
A popular theory is that it was Dr. William Gull, a physician working for the royal family, who killed prostitutes known to have been visited by Prince Albert Victor. Gull, possibly acting on the Queen's orders, had to silence these women. An additional theory said that Eddy himself was the Ripper, leading to the title of a book: Frank Spiering's 1981 Prince Jack.
It wasn't Prince Eddy: Records show that he was at Windsor Castle, 25 miles away, at the time of every one of the Ripper's "canonical five murders." Given the transportation available at the time, there was no way he could have gotten to the murder sites and back without blowing his cover. It wasn't Gull, either: He was 71 years old, and had suffered a stroke, and was unlikely to have been able to overpower the women enough to kill them. If he ever killed anybody, it was through medical mistake, not willful murder.
In order to get him away from the scandal until it could fade away, in October 1889, Prince Eddy was sent on a tour of India. He returned in time for the Queen's "Birthday Honours" on May 24, 1890, her 71st birthday. She granted him the titles of Duke of Clarence and Avondale, and Earl of Athlone. Clarence, an English title; Avondale, a Scottish one; and Athlone, an Irish one.
But there were more girls, including actresses and showgirls. There were rumors of venereal disease. In order to shield Eddy from scandal, it was decided that he had to be married off. (Not that having a beautiful wife who enjoyed sex enough to produce 6 children kept his father from constantly straying.) Victoria's 1st choice was to have him marry his own 1st cousin, Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine. He did his duty, and proposed; she refused hers, and declined. In 1894, she married another cousin: Czar Nicholas II of Russia. This proved to be a horrible idea.
The Queen chose another 1st cousin: Princess Margaret of Prussia. But while Albert Edward, his father, approved, Alix, his mother, did not. Eddy fell in love with Princess Hélène of Orléans, granddaughter of the last King of France. Victoria refused, because she was a Catholic, and any heir to the British throne had to be, and marry, a Protestant. She was also pursued by Russian and Austrian royal heirs, Instead, she married an Italian Prince.
On December 3, 1891, Eddy proposed to Princess Mary of Teck, a German royal. Victoria approved, and the wedding was set for February 27, 1892. Victoria told the family that she was going to appoint Eddy to be Viceroy of Ireland.
But there was an influenza pandemic, and Eddy fell ill. He developed pneumonia, and was taken to the country, to Sandringham House in Norfolk. He died on January 14, 1892, just past his 28th birthday.
Mary and Eddy's brother, Prince George, Duke of York, apparently grew close in mourning. In May 1893, George proposed, Mary accepted, and Victoria approved. They were married on July 6, 1893. Victoria died on January 22, 1901, and Albert Edward, father of Eddy and George, became King Edward VII. He died on May 6, 1910, and, instead of Prince Eddy, the new king was his brother, who became King George V.
If Eddy had lived, and married Mary, they probably would have had children. We'll never know what they would have become, but it certainly wouldn't have been George's eldest son, who became the scandalous King Edward VIII, who then had no children; or George's 2nd son, who became King George VI, and then the father of Queen Elizabeth II.
No person so close in the line of succession to the British throne, other than the reigning monarch, has died since.
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January 14, 1892 was a Thursday. There were no scores on this day: Baseball and football were out of season, basketball was newly-invented, and while the hockey season was in progress, no games were scheduled.
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