Tranby Croft scandal
The Tranby Croft scandal (Tranby Croft Scandal), also known as the Royal Baccarat Scandal ( English Royal Baccarat Scandal ), was a social scandal in the United Kingdom in the year 1891st
The scandal is named after Sir Arthur Wilson's manor , Tranby Croft , which was the scene of the events that led to it. The central figure in the scandal was Sir William Gordon-Cumming, 4th Baronet , who was accused of cheating in a Baccarat game at Tranby Croft. William Gordon-Cumming was a friend of the then Prince of Wales , later Edward VII. The fact that Edward was present at the said events and had himself spent long nights playing what was then illegal gambling in Tranby Croft made the matter one public affair of national importance.
Course of the scandal
Tranby Croft's Baccarat game
On September 8, 1890, Prince Edward and Sir William Gordon-Cumming, 4th Baronet, an officer in the Royal Army , attended a weekend party at Tranby Croft, the estate of shipbuilder Sir Arthur Wilson. During the evening several guests sat down to play a few games of baccarat. Baccarat, one of the Prince's favorite games, was illegal in Britain at the time.
During the evening various players observed how Sir William apparently cheated: depending on how his luck was going, he secretly tried to increase or decrease his stakes. When they sat down for a game the next evening, the people concerned, who had secretly exchanged their suspicions, observed a similar behavior on the part of Sir William. In total, Sir William won £ 228 over the two evenings.
On the morning of September 10, eight guests - George Loms, Lycett Green and his wife, Berkeley Levett, Arthur Wilson Jr. and wife, George Coventry, the 9th Earl of Coventry , and Lord Somerset - conferred on Sir Williams Action should respond. They finally agreed to inform the prince of what had happened the previous evenings and to confront Sir William. He denied the allegations made against him, but finally agreed to sign a declaration in which he promised not to play cards in the future. In return, the other people promised to handle the matter discreetly.
The Tranby Croft Trial
In an unknown way, however, the knowledge of Sir Williams' wrongdoing penetrated the elite public of the British better society . There, Sir William was immediately considered an outlaw and was shunned by his peers. Today it is believed that the gossipy Lady Daisy Brook , a lover of Edward, had passed on the knowledge of the explosive Baccarat game and its consequences.
Sir William eventually proceeded to defend his reputation offensively by suing his original accusers in his turn. The Gordon-Cumming vs. Wilson and Others Trial turned the Baccarat incident into a public affair. William was represented by Sir Edward Clarke and the defendants by Sir Charles Russell. The trial, which began June 1, 1891, was chaired by Lord Chief Justice John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge .
Sir William referred to the service regulations of the British Army during the trial: Eduard, as an officer, should have reported if he had noticed anything contrary to the regulations of a fellow officer. In this way Sir William wanted to force the prince to appear as a witness in court and testify in his favor. The prince had to admit his own participation in the forbidden gambling round.
Although Eduard made a good figure in court on the whole, he could not refute the allegations against Sir William and in particular his signed confession. On June 9th, the trial ended in favor of the defendants, who were acquitted by the court after only ten minutes of deliberation.
consequences
Sir William was discharged from the British Army as a result of the scandal and was widely shunned by British high society as a socially outlawed. He therefore retired to his country estate in Scotland. The day after the trial was over, he married his American fiancée, Florence Garner, who had remained loyal to him throughout the public dispute.
The Tranby Croft scandal provided the Crown Prince's critics, who had been criticizing his dissolute lifestyle for decades, with new ammunition and cemented the reputation of “Bertie” as a pleasure-loving bon vivant and useless. According to a daily newspaper, Eduard was even denigrated by a fellow - who remained anonymous - as a "spendthrift and whore."
Eduard himself felt the didactic criticism of his role in the matter, formulated by various newspapers during and after the trial of Sir William, as unfair - the Times expressed the hope that Eduard would sign a declaration not to participate in any more gambling in the future. So he complained insulted about "the most bitter and unjust attacks" that had been launched against him in the press, and was sulky about abuse by the "low church and especially the nonconformists". However, the matter had an impact on Eduard in that he changed his behavior after the end of the scandal: he continued to play games of chance, but from then on did so in a more discreet way than before. He even gave up playing baccarat altogether. He also parted ways with the indiscreet Daisy Brook.
The affair met with a cautious response abroad, but the German Emperor Wilhelm II informed his uncle, morally indignant, that as heir to the throne it was not appropriate for him to play with subjects, especially since he was twice their age.
literature
- Non-fiction
- Michael Havers et al. a. The Royal Baccarat Scandal . 2nd edition Souvenir Books, London 1985, ISBN 0-285-62837-2
- Fiction
- Royce Ryton: The Royal Baccarat Scandal. A play . S. French, London 1990, ISBN 0-573-11374-2 (the basis of this play is the work of Michael Havers, see above).
- George MacDonald Fraser : The Subtleties of Baccarat , one of three stories in Flashman and the Tiger , see Flashman Papers .
- Ian Fleming mentions the Tranby Croft scandal in several James Bond novels, namely in Moonraker and On Her Majesty's Secret Service .