May 6, 1910: Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India, dies of a heart attack at Buckingham Palace, the official royal residence in London. He was 68 years old, and had reigned only 9 years.
Born on November 9, 1841, he was the 2nd child and 1st son of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. He was named Albert Edward, nicknamed Bertie, and created Prince of Wales, as is traditional for the eldest son of the English/British monarch.
At the age of 20, he was serving in the British Army in Ireland, when he fell into a sex scandal, which became known as "Bertie's Fall," as in "fall from grace." His father tried to straighten him out by taking him on a long walk through the rain on the grounds of the other major royal residence, Windsor Castle in Berkshire, reminding him of his duty. It didn't take, and Prince Albert soon got sick and died.
It's unclear whether this walk in the rain had anything to do with Prince Albert's death, but Victoria believed it did, and she blamed Bertie for it for the rest of her life. At any rate, she issued a royal edict that no King of England would ever take the regnal name Albert, to preserve her husband's memory.
Which lasted until January 22, 1901. Until he was 59, Bertie waited, and while he did, he married Princess Alexandra of Denmark, had 3 sons (but only one of which lived past age 28) and 3 daughters (one of which, Maud, married the future King Haakon VII of Norway), cheated on his wife constantly, and indulged in the typical royal passions of hunting and training racehorses. At one point, he said, "I don't mind praying to an Eternal Father, but I seem to have been afflicted with an eternal mother!"
And when Victoria did die, Albert Edward took the regnal name Edward VII, the 1st King Edward in England in 348 years. Most of his mother's employees didn't think, even at an advanced age, that he was mature enough to be King.
He surprised everyone, building the Triple Entente between Britain, France and Russia as a bulwark against Germany. With his siblings having married into most of the royal families of the Continent, he became known as "the Uncle of Europe." (Alexandra's father, King Christian IX of Denmark, became known as "the Father-in-Law of Europe.") He was also known as "Edward the Peacemaker" and "Good Old Teddy." (Previously, Englishmen named Edward had been nicknamed "Ned" rather than "Ted." Later Americans named Edward and nicknamed "Ted" have included Ted Kennedy and Ted Turner.)
But he was well overweight for much of his adult life, and a heavy smoker. This led to several heart attacks, and finally to his death. His surviving son became King George V. George's sons became King Edward VIII and King George VI. George's daughter became Queen Elizabeth II.
Edward had many mistresses. One of them was Jennie Jerome, wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Britain's equivalent to the Secretary of the Treasury), Lord Randolph Churchill -- meaning that a King of England had sex with Winston Churchill's mother. Another of Edward's mistresses, Alice Keppel, became the great-grandmother of Camilla Parker-Bowles, who became the mistress, and eventually the 2nd wife, of a later Prince of Wales, Edward's great-great-grandson, Prince Charles. Supposedly, when they met, Camilla informed Charles' of their ancestors' affair, and said, "So, how about it?"
(UPDATE: In 2022, he became King Charles III, having waited 73 years, much longer than even his great-great-grandfather Edward VII had to wait.)
When I was younger, especially when I had my hair cut short, and people saw how my ears stuck out, I looked a bit like Prince Charles. People told my grandmother that she looked like Princess Margaret, the Queen's sister. My grandmother always insisted that she was of English descent, and said that her father's name was Albert, and he was born in 1893, and that his father's name was also Albert.
Edward VII did have American mistresses. I began to wonder: Am I the rightful King of England? No: If this theory had been true, then, as a descendant of an illegitimate child of a King, I would be ineligible for the throne, barring a "King Ralph" situation. And, as it turned out when I found some census records, Grandma was wrong about one thing: Great-grandfather Albert's father was actually named Alfred, although that is also a very English name.
Edward VII has been played by Derek Francis in Fall of Eagles in 1974, Timothy West in Edward the Seventh in 1975, David Westhead in Mrs. Brown in 1997 and Eddie Izzard in its sequel Victoria & Abdul in 2017, and Michael Gambon in The Lost Prince in 2003.
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May 6, 1910 was a Friday. Professional football, basketball and hockey barely existed. But these games were played in what we would now call Major League Baseball:
* The New York Highlanders beat the Boston Red Sox, 11-0 at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. John Frill pitched a 2-hit shutout. He was supported by a home run and 5 RBIs by controversial 1st baseman Hal Chase. At this point, the Highlanders were already being nicknamed the Yankees. The name change was made official in 1913.
* The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2 at the Polo Grounds.
* The Boston Doves beat the Brooklyn Superbas, 8-5 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. The Boston team was named for owners George and John Dovey, brothers. William H. Russell bought them the next year, and changed their name to the Boston Rustlers, after himself. He died at the end of the season, and James Gaffney bought the team. He was an official in New York's Tammany Hall political "machine," with the rank of "Brave." So he renamed them the Boston Braves.
The Superbas were named for a circus troupe, Hanlon's Superbas, as they were then managed by Ned Hanlon. They became the Dodgers in 1911.
* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 4-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.
* The Cleveland Naps beat the St. Louis Browns, 4-3 at League Park in Cleveland. The Cleveland team was named for their manager and 2nd baseman, the hard-hitting Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie. His last season with them was 1914, after which they became the Cleveland Indians.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 at Bennett Park in Detroit. This ballpark was torn down after the 1911 season, and the ballpark that would eventually be named Tiger Stadium was built on the site.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-1 at West Side Park in Chicago. Despite this game, the Cubs went on to dethrone the Pirates as National League Champions, before losing the World Series to the A's, who succeeded the Pirates as World Champions.
* And the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals were not scheduled.
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