Alice Keppel

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Alice Keppel, oil on canvas, around 1890/1900

Alice Keppel called La Favorita (actually Alice Frederica Edmonstone ; * 14. October 1869 on Duntreath Castle in Glasgow ; †  11. September 1947 in Florence ) was a Scottish courtesan and last and most famous mistress of the British King Edward VII. She is also the Great grandmother of Camilla Mountbatten-Windsor, Duchess of Cornwall .

Life

Alice was the youngest daughter of Admiral Sir William Edmonstone, 4th Baronet Edmonstone († 1888), and his wife Mary Elizabeth Parsons. She grew up with her brother and seven sisters alternately in Scotland and England .

On June 1, 1891 she married in Edinburgh to Lieutenant Colonel Sir George Keppel (1865-1947), youngest son of William Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle, and Sophia Mary Macnab. The marriage resulted in two daughters:

Violet caused her parents some grief when she began a passionate affair with the writer Vita Sackville-West (1892–1962), who in turn was married to the bisexual writer and diplomat Harold Nicolson (1886–1968) and later a liaison with Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) had. Alice and George, although not exactly conventional, ultimately went too far and they married the rebel to the cavalry officer and war hero Denys Trefusis.

Alice Keppel, around 1890

Mrs. George Keppel was King Edward VII's last and greatest love . She was more important to him than Lillie Langtry , Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick and all the other women in his life when he was Prince of Wales and later when he was King was. She was then 29 years old and intelligent enough to be both a lover and a companion. Physically, like Bertie, Alice was a bit small, but she was strikingly beautiful. In addition, she had the advantage that - unlike Lillie Langtry - she was extremely discreet and very lady. In addition to all these advantages of birth, character and appearance, what attracted the prince to Alice Keppel was her natural cheerfulness and her tremendous zest for life. She succeeded in cheering up the king during his depressive and choleric phases and in moderating his egocentric and easily irritable character. The fact that she was married and already the mother of her daughter Violet didn't matter. Her husband George, an officer and gentleman, accepted his wife's infidelity with stoic composure; for his services Edward awarded him the Victoria Order in 1908 , albeit only in the lowest level as a "member".

Alice Keppel quickly gained great influence over Prince Edward and also advised him on political issues. This also applies to the time after his accession to the throne in 1901. She was regularly his semi-official companion at official events or on his summer trips to Biarritz and Monte Carlo . She was also present on state visits, as shown by records of a state banquet on the occasion of a visit by Kaiser Wilhelm II in Great Britain and a subsequent correspondence between Alice Keppel and the German Kaiser.

When Edward VII died of an acute attack of chronic bronchitis in May 1910 at Buckingham Palace , she was called to the death camp to say goodbye on the express written request of the king. However, it is said that at the moment when the king finally lost consciousness, Queen Alexandra (1844–1925) immediately asked the doctors present to remove “that woman”. Alice was also refused entry in the official condolence book. She then went on a one-year trip to the Far East , Ceylon and China . This was certainly done in order to avoid further 'pinpricks' of this kind, especially since their influence at court was instantly extinguished with the death of the king.

Alice Keppel had no financial worries after the king's death. Edward VII had given them generous gifts in the twelve years they were allied. His connections enabled her and her husband to use them for business relationships and investments, making her a wealthy lady at the time of the king's death. In the 1920s, she acquired the stately country estate Villa dell'Ombrellino near Florence and led a generous and secure life there.

Trivia

  • When King Edward VIII renounced the throne in 1936 because of the divorced Wallis Simpson , Alice Keppel said in an interview: In my day these things were better regulated. Then you knew where your beloved belonged: in bed and not on the throne.
  • The English historian Victoria Glendinning said of Alice Keppel that her sexual morality was like that of a stray cat .

gallery

  • Alice Keppel at a costume ball, around 1898

  • Alice Keppel with Violet, around 1899

  • British postage stamp: Alice Keppel with her daughter Violet, circa 1899

literature

  • Sarah Bradford: King George VI. Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1989, ISBN 0-297-79667-4 .
  • Gordon Brook-Shepherd: Edward VII. A European ruler ("Edward VII."). Heyne Verlag, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-453-55075-7 .
  • Raymond Lamont-Brown: Edward VII's Last Loves. Alice Keppel and Agnes Keyser . Sutton Publ., Sutton 1998, ISBN 0-7509-1822-5 .
  • Marita A. Panzer: England's Queens. From the Tudors to the Windsors . Piper, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-492-25297-3 .
  • Diana Souhami: Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter . Flamingo Books, London 1998, ISBN 0-00-638714-4 .

Web links

Commons : Alice Keppel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Diana Souhami: Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter .
  2. ↑ a b c Gordon Brook-Sheperd: Edward VII. A European ruler .
  3. ↑ Marita A. Panzer: England's Queens .
personal data
SURNAME Keppel, Alice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Edmonstone, Alice Frederica (real name); La Favorita (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mistress of King Edward VII of Great Britain
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH near Glasgow
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1947
Place of death Florence