Prince Eddy

Product Description

Prince Albert Victor King Edward Vll's (r. 1901-10) first son & heir to the throne & popularly known as Eddy has virtually been airbrushed out of history. Eddy was as popular & charismatic a figure in his own time as Princess Diana a century later. As in her case his sudden death in 1892 resulted in public demonstrations of grief on a scale rarely seen at the time & it was even rumoured (as in the case of Diana) that he was murdered to save him besmirching the monarchy. Had he lived he would have been crowned king in 1911 ushering in a profoundly different style of monarchy from that of his younger brother who ultimately succeeded as the stodgy George V. Eddy's life was virtually ignored by historians until the 1970s when myths began to accumulate & his character somehow grew horns & a tail. As a result he is remembered today primarily as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 & for his alleged involvement in the Cleveland Street homosexual scandal of 1889. But history has found Eddy guilty of crimes he did not commit. Now for the first time using modern forensic evidence combined with Eddy's previously unseen records personal correspondence & photographs Andrew Cook proves his innocence. Prince Eddy" reveals the truth about a key royal figure a man who would have made a fine king & changed the face of the British monarchy. This is the book of the hugely successful Channel 4 documentary that received one of the channel's highest viewing figures for a one-off historical show (3 million). It is a radically new interpretation of a much maligned prince. It reviews in the paperback review sections of national daily & Sunday newspapers to include " The Daily Mail" & " The Sunday Telegraph". Hardback was serialised in " History Today"."