EDWARD VII. 1901-1910
Edward VII., King of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, eldest son of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, was born at Buckingham Palace on Nov. 9,1841.
In December he was created Prince of Wales. He was educated under private tutors and at Edinburgh, Oxford, and Cambridge; visited Canada and the United States in 1860; and underwent military training at the Curragh camp in 1861. He was promoted to the rank of general in 1862, and in that year visited Palestine and the East. Next year he took his seat in the House of Lords. On March 10, 1863, he was married in St. Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle, to Princess Alexandra, eldest daughter of the King of Denmark, and from this time onwards he discharged many public ceremonial functions. Attacked by typhoid fever in the winter of 1871, his life was for a time despaired of, but he recovered early in 1872, his recovery being made the occasion of a thanksgiving service in St. Paul's Cathedral. He visited India in 1875 - 76. He was a member of the Poor Law Commission of 1893. He promoted the establishment of the Imperial Institute as a memorial of Queen Victoria's jubilee (1887), and he commemorated her diamond jubilee (1897) by founding the Prince of Wales's Hospital Fund for the better financial support of the London hospitals.
To him and Queen Alexandra have been born: Albert Victor Christian Edward, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, born 1864, died 1892; George Frederick Ernest Albert, Duke of Cornwall and York, born 1865, married 1893, to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck ; Prince. Louise, born 1867,married 1889, to the Duke of Fife ; Princess Victoria, born 1868; Princess Maud, born 1869, married 1896, to a son of the Crown Prince of Denmark.
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On the death of Queen Victoria on Jan.
22, 1901, he succeeded to the throne. The
reign is marked by some notable mechanical developments. The petrol-powered motor car began to come into general
use. In 1901 the first transatlantic wireless message was transmitted from Cornwall to Newfoundland. In 1909 the first epoch-making aeroplane flight across the English Channel. Was achieved by the Frenchman Bleriot In 1902 the Boers surrendered. Only five years later they were granted self-government. A Unionist (Conservative plus Liberal-Unionist) government was still in office in 1901 and one of its most useful measures was the Education Act of 1902. The School Boards were abolished , placing education in the hands of Town and County Councils and provided for additional technical and secondary instruction . In the same year the ardently Imperialistic Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, presided over a sort of empire family gathering or conference of colonies which had been granted self-government - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Cape Colony and Natal. Resolutions were passed favouring Imperial Preference - the fostering of trade within the empire by taxing foreign goods more highly than empire goods. |
The new government was distinguished by advanced Radical ideas of social reform. But the outstanding feature of
the Parliament was the first appearance of a strong Labour Party fifty-three members in all. The House of Commons
was no longer to be a preserve of the upper classes. The working class had arrived to stay. And amongst their luggage
were some disturbing and revolutionary notions. The most widespread was the doctrine of Socialism: which means,
among other things, a war on capitalists and private profits, and State ownership and control of land and industry
for the benefit of the community. Under the increased influence of the Labour movement the government, between
1906 and 1909, tackled a variety of social evils, and beginnings were made in providing school meals for the children
of the poor, old age pensions for their parents, better pay and conditions for "sweated labour " and
Labour Exchanges to help the unemployed to find work.
In 1909 the Chancellor of the Exchequer was David Lloyd George, a fiery Welsh Radical eloquent public speaker.
Lloyd George introduced a " People's
Budget " which was avowedly
intended, by means of new and increased taxation, to take from the rich in order to help the poor - like Robin
Hood. The House of Lords indignantly cast out the measure, though they were not supposed to interfere with "
money bills " The Liberals, even more indignant, thereupon, in January, 1910, went to the country. And the
country re-elected them, though with a reduced majority. After that the budget was duly swallowed by the chastened
Lords. But before this happened the government had begun to whet their knives preparatory to hamstringing the Upper
House; for they had determined to abolish once and for all the power of that body of hereditary peers (the majority
of them Conservatives) to override the House of Commons. The Prime Minister, Asquith, introduced a Parliament Bill
providing that any measure passed by the Commons in three successive sessions over a period of two years should
become law whether the Lords rejected it or not. That was, however as far as the hamstringing operation of the
Upper House progressed during the course of Edward VII.'s reign.
The nations were lining up Germany's aggressive attitude mutual distrust of the great powers was shaping towards
a world catastrophe. and in 1904 Britain concluded the Entente Cordiale with France and extended it to Russia in
1907. It was in this uneasy situation, at home and abroad, that, in May, 1910, suddenly King Edward died.
