Prince Eddy: The King Britain Never Had

By Andrew Cook

Prince Albert Victor, King Edward Vll's (r 1901-10) first son and heir to the throne, and popularly known as Eddy, has virtually been airbrushed out of history. In this book, Andrew Cook, the presenter and historical consultant of the Channel 4 documentary on the life of Prince Eddy, reveals the truth about a key royal figure, a man who would have made a fine king and changed the face of the British monarchy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Aug 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9780752469096

Andrew Cook

Andrew Cook is an author and TV consultant with a degree in History & Ancient History. He was a programme director of the Hansard Scholars Programme for the University of London. Andrew has written for The Times, Guardian, Independent, BBC History Magazine and History Today. His previous books include On His Majesty’s Secret Service (Tempus, 2002); Ace of Spies (Tempus, 2003); M: MI5’s First Spymaster (Tempus, 2006); The Great Train Robbery (THP, 2013); and 1963: That Was the Year That Was (THP, 2013).

Reviews for Prince Eddy

[jeffreymarks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The two most fascinating things about this otherwise forgettable prince were the rumors about him being Jack the Ripper and the Cleveland Street scandal. Granted, the Ripper story is a bit of a stretch and can be relatively easily disproved by the dates Eddy was out of town, but the author neglected to even cover the basic storyline, dismissing it out of hand.

The Cleveland Street scandal is a bit more problematic. There's no direct evidence, but Eddy did keep company with Stevens, Wilde and others. It's a more likely scenario. However, the author acts incredibly uncomfortable with the subject in general and positively cringes at the specifics. He barely mentions Stevens. His only mention of Bosie calls him a happily married man.

Overall, I got the impression that the author would have rather been writing about one of the other primaries in the book. Chapters about Eddy include large amounts of information on George, Bertie, and Alix, so much so that the reader sometimes forgets who is being profiled.

[ericcostello-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found this book interesting, in no small measure because I've read a number of books on Jack the Ripper theories, many of which implicated Prince Albert Victor (to one or more degrees of ludicrousness). This book tries, and I think succeeds, to be a sober analysis of the prince's life based on what is known. To that extent, I think the book comes off as credible.