I do not mind what she does as long as she comes back to me in the end. – George Keppel
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII of the United Kingdom, had an interest in women which is notable even by the promiscuous standards of noblemen. Naturally, among his dalliances were a plethora of professionals, among them Skittles and La Belle Otero. His first semi-official mistress was Lillie Langtry, whom we discussed in May; today I’ll introduce you to the last (and longest-lasting) lady to hold that position, from three years before his coronation until the day he died. She had a number of things in common with Lillie: an ability to get along with their royal patron’s wife, Princess (later queen) Alexandra; a gift for discretion so highly-developed that many people to this day don’t realize (or else deny) that they were whores; and most importantly, a similar motive for taking up the profession.
Alice Frederica Edmonstone was born on April 29th, 1868, the daughter of Sir William, 4th Baronet Edmonstone, and his wife Mary. Sir William was a retired admiral, and Alice (the youngest of nine children, all but one girls) grew up in Duntreath Castle on Loch Lomond, the home of her family since the 14th century. Her childhood appears to have been wholly unremarkable; none of the short biographies I consulted have anything at all to say about her personal life before June 1st, 1891, when she married George Keppel, son of the 7th Earl of Albemarle. But while her husband was of a good family with a long history of service to the Crown, he had very little money; had the two of them been content to raise their daughters quietly in the country his income would have sufficed, but both of them loved city life. It was expensive to keep up with London society in those days, and since Alice was strikingly beautiful (with an hourglass figure, alabaster skin and thick chestnut hair) the two of them soon hit upon a simple plan: she would take on wealthy lovers whose income would finance their lifestyle and provide George with business connections. He wasn’t her pimp, not exactly; she found her patrons and charmed them with her own abilities. George’s contribution was to stay out of the way and provide her with the appearance of respectability.
The historian Victoria Glendinning wrote that Alice had the “sexual morals of an alley cat…sexual faithfulness to her husband wasn’t a value to her.” But this is merely the ignorant attitude of an prudish amateur. Cheating “alley cats” hide their affairs from their husbands; Alice planned hers with George. Nor was he a weak cuckold sitting alone at home while his wife wandered; he also had many affairs, with Alice’s full knowledge and approval. Her daughters later described their parents’ marriage as a “companionship of love and laughter”, and though this certainly could be taken as a biased view, it must be pointed out that the Keppels remained happily married for 56 years and died within two months of one another; though there is some speculation that Violet (born 1894) may have been the daughter of a lover, Sonia (born 1900) strongly resembled George, so there is little doubt that he was her father. Though their relationship may seem strange to those outside of the demimonde, I’m sure every sex worker reading this will recognize it; they loved and trusted each other, and sex with others had no effect on that.
Alice’s first arrangement, with Ernest Beckett (later the 2nd Baron Grimthorpe), began less than two years of her marriage; it is Beckett who is believed to be the biological father of Violet. Next was Humphrey Sturt, the 2nd Baron Alington. There were a few others in the second half of the ‘90s, but on February 27th, 1898 she met “Bertie”, and the rest is literally history; within weeks she had replaced his previous mistress (the indiscreet Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick), and she remained with him until his death in 1910. The arrangement was extremely lucrative for the Keppels: though Edward was notoriously stingy (by courtesan standards) with direct payments, he enriched them indirectly in several ways. First, he gave her part ownership of a rubber company, from which she made £50,000 (about £3 million today); he also had his own top-notch financial advisers manage her investments, and got a high-paying job for George.
Even before she met the (then) Prince, Alice had acquired the reputation of being one of the most talented hostesses of her era. She was intelligent, witty, well-informed and never unkind or intemperate, and she brought these characteristics and others into her role as royal mistress. She was so discreet she even hated people to mention her relationship with the King a quarter-century after his death, and she was the only person who could bring him out of the black moods he often fell into. These traits made Queen Alexandra actually fond of her, thus smoothing what could otherwise have been an extremely difficult relationship: His Majesty insisted on having Alice in his entourage practically everywhere he went. This was not only for her companionship; she was noted for her wisdom and political judgment, and the King depended on her advice. Furthermore, so great was her skill at conversation he often employed her to feel people out on delicate topics, or to let his opinion be known without making an official announcement. The reverse was also true; when ministers or other officials wanted to further explain opinions with which Edward disagreed, Alice could present them to him in such a way that he would at least listen without getting angry.
But despite her influence, she was unable to convince the King to cut back on his smoking and heavy eating, even after his health began to fail. When he was dying in May of 1910 he asked for her to come to his deathbed, but apparently that was too much for the Queen; as soon as he lost consciousness she ordered the doctors to get rid of Alice, who reacted with uncharacteristic loss of composure. She became so upset and hysterical, in fact, that she had to be removed by the guards; from that point on she was no longer welcome at court. Alice had developed genuine feelings for Edward over the past 12 years; furthermore, she was by this time 42 and had become a bit plump, so she was no longer able to function as a courtesan. She and George decided it would be best to leave London for a while, so they spent two years travelling in the Far East (ostensibly for their daughters’ education). Upon coming home they bought a new house and returned to society, albeit more quietly; Alice also helped run a hospital in Boulogne during the First World War. In 1927 they bought the Villa dell’ Ombrellino near Florence and lived there the rest of their lives except for 1940-1946, when the Second World War forced them to return to the UK; they stayed in the country for a time, but then moved into the Grosvenor Hotel in London in spite of the Blitz. By the time they returned to Italy Alice was terminally ill with cirrhosis; she died at the age of 79 on September 11th, 1947, and George followed her two months later.
Famous harlots do not usually have interesting descendants, but Alice Keppel is an exception. Her elder daughter, Violet, became involved in a torrid lesbian affair with the poetess Vita Sackville-West; apparently, Alice’s sexual liberality stopped short of That Sort of Thing, so Violet was induced to marry Denys Trefusis and break up with Vita. Violet became a novelist and her affair appears in fictionalized form in a number of works, notably Virginia Woolf’s Orlando; she subsequently had other lesbian affairs, but because she learned to be discreet about them after Vita her mother had no objection. The younger daughter, Sonia, married Roland Cubitt and had a daughter, Rosalind, who in turn married Bruce Shand and bore a daughter, Camilla, less than two months before Alice died. When Camilla grew into a young woman she met and became involved with a great-great grandson of her great-grandmother’s most famous patron, but because he needed to make a political marriage, she instead married a cavalry officer named Andrew Parker Bowles. The tendency to be a royal mistress, it seems, runs in families, though unlike her famous ancestress the Duchess of Cornwall eventually married her Prince of Wales.
Love it!
P.S. reblogged on a dog’s breakfast and shared here as well Maggie: https://www.facebook.com/AmazingWomenRock
These profiles are my favourites of your posts, thanks again 🙂
Reblogged this on a dog's breakfast and commented:
“The tendency to be a royal mistress, it seems, runs in families…”
Her resemblance to Alice’s husband aside, there is a story that Sonia, the mother of Camilla, is the illegitimate daughter of Edward. Which would make Camilla and Charles a bit more … “related”. 😀
I like this “come on” from Camilla … the first time she met Charles …
“My great-grandmother and your great-great grandfather were lovers, so how about it?”
Also … Edward supposedly had an affair with Lady Randolph Churchill (also known as “Lady Randy” because it’s rumored she had over 200 lovers) – Winston Churchill’s mother. There is likewise a speculation that Winston is the son of Edward – I don’t really think that’s true though although it is possible she was pregnant when she married Winston’s father – probably by him. When Edward was crowned – his mom sat in a special pew at Westminster Abbey with Alice Keppel and Lillie Langtry. The pew was joking called “the loose box”.
It’s speculated widely that Randolph Churchill died of syphilis – which, supposedly he carried for a long time. I have not found any allegations that Lady Randolph also had it though – she would have certainly spread it around quite a bit if she did. I think this is another line of reasoning that some use to allege that Edward was Winston’s father – they allege that the marriage between Winston’s mom and dad was sexless because Randolph was rendered impotent by the disease.
It’s pretty fascinating shit – I’ll say that.
Great article!
‘scuse me … but Sonia was actually Camilla’s grandmother – not her mother. So hard to keep track of the fast-moving royals! 😛
You beat me to that one about Camilla, krulac!
Charlie is said to have told Diana that he (Charles) wasn’t going down in history as the first Prince of Wales who didn’t have a mistress.
“The tendency to be a royal mistress, it seems, runs in families” :
In the weeks before Charles’ wedding to Diana Spencer in 1981, I bought at the Glyndebourne gift shop a classy, non- sensational commemorative publication pretty well researched and written by two authors specialized in the British royals. (I still have it but not where I am writing this.) It emphasized the enduring affection and trust between Charles and Camilla with the simple line that Charles had asked this very special friend’s advice when he was in the process of choosing Diana to become his wife. The authors offered the likelihood (and I must paraphrase from memory) that their unusually close relationship went all the way back to when he was 16 and she as an 18-year old was chosen by the staff responsible for the upbringing of the Heir Apparent to initiate him in the Art of Loving. This was well before they “officially” met at a polo game in 1972, when he was 23 and she 25, and “began dating.” Whether Camilla’s talents for what she was chosen (asked?) to accomplish as an 18-year old were genetic or not, at the end of the day the staff that picked her obviously knew their charge inside out but underestimated Camilla’s personality. She did more than a very good job. A professional or not, she touched his heart. How unfortunately that the rigid royal and political standards and family clan advisers declared her unfit to marry the future King. In the context of Maggie’s Alice Keppel story : If the 1981 story is true, I wonder if her early “duty” as Charles’ first sex partner had a specific, “mistress or courtesan related” stigmatizing impact and eliminated her automatically when it came to choosing the future king’s consort. He who laughs last laughs best, but it is sad, and in this time and age inhuman, also for royals, to have every minute of one’s young love life orchestrated and scrutinized into the smallest detail, lasting until one’s last breath, as Maggie describes.
Alternatively, it’s also said that when Charlie went to Cambridge, the Master of his college, Rab Butler introduced him to the daughter of the Argentinian ambassador, and she did the induction.
The other way around. Charlie WIndsor inducted her. Aren’t royal secrets as entertaining as Trivial Pursuit or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Colourful addition. Thank you.
There was a BBCTV documentary about Edward recently, a rather superficial and sanitized thing. It did mention the Curragh ‘Wren’, Nellie Clifden, and how she introduced Bertie to sex. He certainly liked the ladies a lot, but it was once actually useful.
In the early days of the 20th century, both Britain and France were alarmed at the Kaiser’s military build up, and were in discussions about this. Relationships were ‘correct’ rather than cordial between the two sides. In June 1903, Edward visited Paris, where he was booed by the public when he arived. Undaunted, the went to the theatre on the first night. During the interval, and quite against the advice of his minders, he went to the foyer. There he recognised Mlle Jeanne Granier, an actress he had ‘known’ when she was in London. He approached her, and after kissing her on the right hand said:
“Mademoiselle, je me souviens que vous applaudir à Londres où vous représentiez toute la grâce et l’esprit de la France.”
[Mademoiselle, I remember applauding you in London where you represented all the grace and spirit of France.]
News of this got out rapidly, and of course the Parisians knew exactly who Jeanne was. The next day the King was cheered as enthusiastically as he had been booed beforehand.
Curiously, the King had a far, far better command of French than any member of his Cabinet.
And Kaiser Wilhelm II was Edward’s nephew. Apparently not one he got along with very well.
After one of the Kaiser’s visits, Edward was heard to say: “Thank God he’s gone”.
As “charming” as this account is, it only serves to show the hypocrisy of the ruling class in how they criminalize pleasure for their “inferiors” which they freely indulge in themselves. This is the real reason why these accounts are sanitized by the MSM; because then the “inferiors” would start demanding decriminalized sex-work like their “betters” have.
I don’t think you could really say that the British press these days feels overly-compelled to “sanitize” stories about the royals. Prince Harry would certainly disagree with you … likely his mother too.
Indeed, probably the smartest thing the Queen has ever done was to insist on doing the job of divorce court judge (for Charles and Diana) herself — thus keeping their dirty laundry out of Britain’s tabloid press.
I believe that same sense of embarassment is the reason she has not retired even though she’s well into her ’80s. She would like to outlive Charles and crown Prince William — the one who has behaved (at least in public).
Reblogged this on Sable Aradia, Priestess & Witch and commented:
Maggie McNeil writes about the mistresses of history; this column is about Alice Keppel.
It’s funny how her mother accepted everything but her being with another woman.
Reblogged this on hocuspocus13 and commented:
jinxx xoxo
Excellent read! Thanks for sharing.
Reblogged this on The Official Blog of Jayla Moore and commented:
Duchess of Cornwall is one of my favorite people to research. The original whore to housewife!