Edward VII - London, England, UK
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Metro2
N 51° 31.131 W 000° 07.573
30U E 699376 N 5711441
Edward VII was the first British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which was later renamed the House of Windsor.
Waymark Code: WMDFBE
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/08/2012
Views: 10
This sculpture is just inside one of the side entrances to the British Museum (which does not charge an entrance fee.) The work is a bronze bust depicting Edward in what is probably his coronation cape. See the photo on Wikipedia (
visit link) which may have been used as the model.
The British Museum's website (
visit link) describes the bust thusly:
"Gilt bronze portrait bust of King Edward VII (1841-1910) by Sir Thomas Brock RA (1847-1922), his head turned slightly to right, wearing the Garter robe and the cross and chain of the Royal Victorian Order, on a waisted bronze socle; on the rectangular marble support is a stamped brass badge of the royal coat-of-arms, enamelled translucent red for the cushion of the crown, translucent blue for the scroll and opaque- white for the ermine, and inset with paste stones."
Wikipedia (
visit link) also informs us:
"As king, Edward VII proved a greater success than anyone had expected, but he was already an old man and had little time left to fulfil the role. In his short reign, he ensured that his second son and heir, George V, was better prepared to take the throne. Contemporaries described their relationship as more like affectionate brothers than father and son,[88] and on Edward's death George wrote in his diary that he had lost his "best friend and the best of fathers ... I never had a [cross] word with him in my life. I am heart-broken and overwhelmed with grief".[89] Edward received criticism for his apparent pursuit of self-indulgent pleasure but he received great praise for his affable and kind good manners, and his diplomatic skill. As his grandson wrote, "his lighter side ... obscured the fact that he had both insight and influence."[90] "He had a tremendous zest for pleasure but he also had a real sense of duty", wrote J. B. Priestley.[91] Lord Esher wrote that Edward was "kind and debonair and not undignified – but too human".[92] Edward VII is buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. As Barbara Tuchman noted in The Guns of August, his funeral marked "the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last".
Edward had been afraid that his nephew, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, would tip Europe into war.[93] Four years after Edward's death, World War I broke out. The naval reforms and the Anglo-French alliance he had supported, as well as the relationships between his extended royal family, were put to the test."