Customer Reviews

Prince Eddy: The King Britain Never Had

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This biography of Prince Albert Victor (Eddy) attempts to rehabilitate his image. There are three issues : (1) Was Prince Eddy Jack the Ripper? (2) Was he intellectually slow? (3) Was he involved in the Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889 and thus gay/bi?

Prince Eddy makes a bad candidate for Jack the Ripper and that is easily disposed of - it might make for interesting reading, but not very possible.

Having read a few books concerning this person, I would definately say that he was on the dumb side. Too many contemporaries paint him as being lazy and unconcentrated and not knowing the meaning of the word "to read." The author simply chooses not to believe this and to think that his seeming lack of intelligence came from having bad, uninspiring teachers and being immature (and some have also suggested it was because he was hard of hearing like his mother).

As to the last issue, I also do not agree with the author. All other sources I've read do involve the Prince in the Cleveland Street scandal and state that there was a royal cover up. I won't go into the details except to state that this author discounts Lord Arthur Sommerset by stating that he and Prince Eddy barely knew each other and that Sommerset wound up only repeating the rumours his lawyer started to deflect interest off himself. This is conjecture in my opinion.

One can agree or disagree with these issues - we will never know for sure - but I would suggest further reading on this subject if one is interested. Don't take this biography as your only source. Suggested reading: " The Cleveland Street Scandal " by Colin Simpson,Lewis Chester and David Leitch (there is another book on this subject called "The Cleveland Street Affair" by H. Montgomery Hyde), "Prince Eddy and the Homosexual Underworld" by Theo Aronson, "Clarence: Was He Jack the Ripper" by Michael Harrison, and a newer one "The Prince, His Tutor and the Ripper" by Deborah McDonald. Further background information can be gained from some of the biographies of Prince Eddy's parents, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, or of his brother, King George V. As far as the Jack the Ripper rumours about Prince Eddy, there are a number of other books on this subject.

All in all, from reading this book I got the sense that Prince Eddy was probably just a very nice but spoiled, immature, shallow and not-very-intelligent person. And may I add heartless to that list since he was an very avid hunter. Having read "Prince Eddy: the King Britain Never Had" I find him less sympathetic than I previously did.