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Prince Albert Victor
Duke of Clarence and Avondale
Photographic Portrait by William and Daniel Downey
Full name
Albert Victor Christian Edward
Detail Titles
HRH The Duke of Clarence and Avondale HRH Prince Albert Victor of Wales
Royal house	House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
Father	Edward VII
Mother	Alexandra of Denmark
Born	8 January 1864(1864-01-08) Frogmore, Windsor
Baptised	10 March 1864 Buckingham Palace, London
Died	14 January 1892 (aged 28) Sandringham House, Norfolk
Burial	20 January 1892 St George's Chapel
Occupation	Military

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (Albert Victor Christian Edward; 8 January 1864 – 14 January 1892) was a member of the British Royal Family, as the eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and Alexandra of Denmark. At the time of his birth, he was second in the line of succession to the throne after his father. However, he predeceased his father, and the crown eventually passed to his younger brother, Prince George (George V), the grandfather of the current British monarch, Elizabeth II.

Many aspects of the Prince's life have been the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories, among them his intellect, sexuality, and sanity, the most notorious of which rendered him a suspect in the murders committed by Jack the Ripper.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Education 3 Reputation 4 Prospective royal brides 5 Royal Dukedom 6 Engagement 7 Cleveland Street scandal 8 Illegitimate birth claim 9 Blackmail 10 Jack the Ripper rumours 11 Later life 12 Titles, styles, honours and arms 12.1 Titles 12.2 Styles 12.3 Honours 12.3.1 Military 12.3.2 Honorary military appointments 12.4 Arms 13 Legacy 14 Ancestors 15 References 16 Further reading 17 External links

Prince Albert Victor was born on 8 January 1864 at Frogmore House, Windsor, Berkshire. His father was Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. His mother was The Princess of Wales, (née Princess Alexandra of Denmark). Following the Queen's request, he was named Albert Victor, but was known informally as "Eddy". As a grandchild of the monarch in the male line, he was styled His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor of Wales from birth.

The Prince was christened in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 10 March 1864 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Thomas Longley. His godparents were: Queen Victoria, Leopold I of Belgium, Christian IX of Denmark, the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the Crown Princess of Prussia, Prince Alfred, the Elector of Hesse and the Dowager Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.

The Prince's brother, Prince George of Wales (later George V), was born on 3 June 1865. Given the closeness in age of the two royal brothers, they were educated together. The Queen appointed John Neale Dalton as their tutor. James Kenneth Stephen was also appointed as a tutor and lived at Sandringham during his tutorship. Given the importance of his expected future role, the Prince was given a strict programme of study, although he never excelled intellectually.

Later the royal brothers served as Naval cadets on HMS Bacchante, accompanied by Dalton. They toured the British Empire, visiting the colonies in Australia and the Far East, and also acquiring tattoos in Japan. When they returned to the UK, the brothers were parted and Albert Victor attended Trinity College, Cambridge around 1883.^[1] However, the Prince showed little interest in the intellectual atmosphere, although he did become involved in the undergraduate life. Leaving in 1885 he was sent to join the Army, in the 10th Hussars.

The official biography of Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy euphemistically stated that the Prince's private life was "dissipated", and he was intellectually slow. However, at least one historian (Andrew Cook) has attempted to rehabilitate his reputation, arguing that the Prince's lack of academic progress was partly due to his tyrannical tutor, Dalton; that the Prince had liberal opinions, particularly on Irish Home Rule; that he was a warm and charming man; and that his reputation has been diminished by official circles eager to improve the image of his brother, Prince George, later George V.

British Royalty
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Edward VII
Albert, Duke of Clarence
George V
Louise, Princess Royal
Princess Victoria
Maud, Queen of Norway
Prince Alexander John
Maternal grandchildren
Alexandra, Duchess of Fife
Maud of Fife

Three women were lined up as possible brides for the Prince. The first, in 1889, was Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine (future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia) who did not return his affection. The second, in 1890, was Princess Hélène of Orléans, whom he also loved, but the engagement had to be cancelled when Hélène (a daughter of Philippe, Count of Paris and great-granddaughter of Louis-Philippe, the last King of the French) declined to give up her Roman Catholic faith as she had been forbidden to do so by her Father and also by the Pope. The third was Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (known as Princess May), who later married his younger brother George.

On 24 May 1890,^[2] Prince Albert Victor was created Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Earl of Athlone. He was now styled His Royal Highness The Duke of Clarence and Avondale.

The Duke of Clarence was engaged on 3 December 1891^[3] to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (known as Princess May), the daughter of Queen Victoria's first cousin Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck and her husband Prince Francis, Duke of Teck. Both Queen Victoria and the Duchess of Teck were granddaughters of George III.

Before the marriage could take place the Duke died of pneumonia at Sandringham House in Norfolk. His younger brother Prince George took his place in the line of succession, eventually succeeding to the throne as George V in 1910. Prince George later married Princess May himself, and she became Queen Mary on George's accession.

In July 1889, the Metropolitan Police uncovered a male brothel in London's Cleveland Street. The resulting Cleveland Street Scandal implicated high ranking figures in British society including Lord Arthur Somerset and the Earl of Euston. Rumours swept upper class London of the Prince's involvement. In 1975, the Public Record Office released police files on the case, which made coded reference to Somerset's threats to implicate Albert Victor. The Prince of Wales intervened in the investigation, and nothing against Albert Victor was proven.^[4]

It is now believed that Lord Arthur Somerset's solicitor, Arthur Newton, spread the rumours to take the heat off his client, and his claims were "a lie, fabricated...to take pressure off" the real culprits.^[5] However, surviving private letters from Somerset to his friend Lord Esher, published in the 1990s, have been taken to suggest the Prince's involvement. In them, Somerset states that it was he who originally told royal courtiers as "I thought they ought to know. Had they been wise, hearing what I knew and therefore what others knew, they ought to have hushed the matter up, instead of stirring it up as they did".^[6] Given his liberal sexual inclinations there is no positive contemporary evidence that the Prince was exclusively heterosexual.

What is clear is that there was a cover-up at the highest levels. The official biographer of King George V, Harold Nicolson, was told by the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard, that, with regard to the Prince's involvement in the case, "a solicitor had to commit perjury to clear him". (Lees Milne, Harold Nicolson.) However, he may have been referring to Somerset and his solicitor rather than to the Prince. Arthur Newton, Somerset's solicitor, was indeed convicted of 'obstruction of justice' and sentenced to six weeks in prison.

Possibly to avoid the gossip which swept upper class London society in the wake of the Cleveland Street scandal, the Prince was sent to British Raj India in 1889. Here he met Mrs. Margery Haddon, the wife of a civil engineer, Henry Haddon. The following year Mrs. Haddon gave birth to a son, Clarence Guy Gordon Haddon. After the Prince's death, and several failed marriages, Margery came to England and claimed the Prince was the father of her son. There was no evidence and her claims were dismissed. She had become an alcoholic and seemed deranged. The allegations were reported to Buckingham Palace and the head of the police Special Branch investigated. Papers in the National Archives show that neither courtiers nor Haddon had any proof of the allegation. In a statement to police the Prince's lawyers admitted that there had been "some relations" between him and Haddon, but denied the claim of fatherhood.^[7]

However, in the 1920s, the son, Clarence, came to England to repeat the story, and publish a book My Uncle George V. A trip to the United States was paid for him out of police funds but he returned to England to pursue his claims. In 1934 he was bound over for three years at a hearing at the Old Bailey, on the condition that he made no claim that he was the Prince's son. He breached the conditions and was jailed for a year. Dismissed as a crank, he died a broken man. Even if Haddon’s claim had been proved, as with other royal illegitimacies, it would have made no difference to the royal line of succession.^[7]

In 1891 the Prince was subject to blackmail by two prostitutes to whom he had he written incriminating letters. The case only became public knowledge in 2002 when the letters were sold at Bonham's auction house in London. The Prince wrote to his solicitor: "I am very pleased that you have been able to settle with Miss Richardson, although £200 is rather expensive for letters. I presume there is no other way of getting them back. I will also do all I can to get back the one or two letters written to the other lady." ^[8]

Main article: Jack the Ripper royal conspiracy theories

In the 1960s and 1970s it was alleged that Prince Albert Victor may have committed, or have been responsible for, the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888. It was further alleged that the Prince fathered a child with a woman in the Whitechapel district of London, and either the Prince or several high-ranking men committed the murders in an effort to cover up his indiscretion. Though repeated frequently, historians have dismissed the claims as classic urban legends without foundation, referring instead to indisputable proof of the Prince's innocence.

For example on 30 September 1888, date of the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, the Prince was at Balmoral, the royal retreat in Scotland, in the presence of Queen Victoria, other family members, visiting German royalty and large numbers of staff. He was also seen there by newspaper reporters. According to the Court Circular that publishes all royal engagements and whereabouts, he could not have been near to any of the murders (keeping in mind that fast travel between cities was not a possibility in 1888).

Styles of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale
Reference style	His Royal Highness
Spoken style	Your Royal Highness
Alternative style	Sir

Prince Albert Victor died of pneumonia as a complication of influenza on 14 January 1892 aged 28. However rumours and conspiracy theories have suggested unfounded and highly improbable alternatives due to the fact that there were many witnesses at his death. One alleges that he actually died of syphilis; another of a morphine overdose, deliberately administered to him; yet another clearly false rumour claims that he survived until the 1920s in an asylum on the Isle of Wight and that his death was faked to remove him from the line of succession. There is no evidence whatsoever to support any of these allegations.

The Prince's mother, Queen Alexandra, never fully recovered from her son's death and kept the room in which he died as a shrine. The Prince is buried in the Albert Memorial Chapel close to St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. His tomb, by Alfred Gilbert, is one of the most magnificent examples of Art Nouveau sculpture in Britain. A recumbent effigy of the Prince in hussar uniform lies above the tomb. Kneeling over him is an angel, holding a heavenly crown. The tomb is surrounded by an elaborate railing, with figures of saints.

• 8 January 1864–24 May 1890: His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor of Wales
• 24 May 1890–14 January 1892: His Royal Highness The Duke of Clarence and Avondale

At death, the Duke's full style was Major His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward of Wales, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Earl of Athlone, Royal Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Knight of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick, Personal Aide-de-Camp to the Queen

British Honours

• KG: Knight of the Garter, 3 September 1883^[9]
• KP: Knight of St Patrick, 28 June 1887^[1]
• ADC(P): Personal Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, 1877
• LL.D: Doctor of Laws, University of Dublin
• LL.D: Doctor of Laws, University of Cambridge, 1888

Foreign Honours^[1]

• Knight Grand Cross, Order of the Dutch Lion
• Grand Cross, Order of the Tower and Sword
• Grand Cross, Order of Charles III
• Grand Cross, Order of the Osmanli
• Grand Cross, Order of the Star
• Grand Cross, Order of the Annunziata
• Grand Cross, Order of the Southern Cross

• 1877-1879: Cadet aboard training ship Brittania, Dartmouth, Devon
• 1879-1880: Cadet, HMS Bacchante
• Mid, 1880-1883: Promoted to Midshipman, HMS Bacchante
• Lt, 1886-1887: Appointed Lieutenant, 10th (Prince of Wales' Own) Royal Hussars^[1]
• Capt, 1887: Promoted to Captain, 9th Queen's Royal Lancers^[1]
• Capt, 1887-1889: Captain, 3rd King's Royal Rifle Corps^[1]
• Maj, 1889-: Promoted to Major, 10th (Prince of Wales' Own) Royal Hussars^[1]

British

• Honorary Colonel, of 4th Bombay Cavalry
• Honorary Colonel, of 1st Punjab Cavalry
• Honorary Colonel, of 4th Regiment, Bengal Cavalry

With his dukedom, Albert Victor was granted a coat of arms, being that of the kingdom, differenced by a label argent, with three points, the centre bearing a cross gules^[10]

Through his connection to the above mentioned theories the Duke of Clarence has occasionally been portrayed in fiction. His appearances in film include:

• David Wickes' Jack the Ripper, first released on 21 October 1988. The actor portraying him was Marc Culwick.
• Janet Meyers' The Ripper, first released on 6 December 1997. The actor portraying him was Samuel West. Coincidentally, West played Prince Albert Victor as a child in the TV miniseries, Edward the King.
• The Hughes Brothers' From Hell, first released on 8 September 2001. The actor portraying him was Mark Dexter.

He is also referenced in the original print version of From Hell, by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.

The Duke of Clarence is also the basis of a pair of alternative history novels that imagine a world where Prince Eddy survives and reigns as Victor I.

• Dickinson, Peter. King and Joker, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1976 and Skeleton-in-Waiting, New York : Pantheon Books, 1989.

He also appears in the first of the Lord Francis Powerscourt crime novels as the murder victim; the influenza story is invented as a cover up for this scandal.

• Dickinson, David. Goodnight Sweet Prince, London: Constable, 2002.

• Aronson, Theo. Prince Eddy and the Homosexual Underworld. London : J. Murray, c1994.
• Hyde, H. Montgomery. The Cleveland Street Scandal. London : W. H. Allen, 1976.
• Knight, Stephen. Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. New York : McKay, 1976.
• Lees-Milne, James. The Enigmatic Edwardian: The Life of Reginald, 2nd Viscount Esher. London : Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986.
• Lees-Milne, James. Harold Nicolson (two vol.), Chatto & Windus 1980-81.
• Sams, Ed. Victoria's Dark Secrets. Ben Lomond, CA : Yellow Tulip, ?. Web link
• Simpson, Colin, Lewis Chester and David Leitch. The Cleveland Street Affair. Boston : Little, Brown, c1976.
• Cook, Andrew. Prince Eddy: The King Britain Never Had, Tempus Publishing Ltd, 2006. ISBN 0-7524-3410-1. Also a one-hour TV program on Channel 4 (UK), 21 November 2005.

• Profile with photographs
• Cleveland Street Scandal
• Channel 4 History- Prince Albert Victor (1864-1892)

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Cadet branch of the House of Wettin Born: 8 January 1864 Died: 14 January 1892
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New Creation	Duke of Clarence and Avondale 1890–1892	Succeeded by Extinct

v • d • e Dukes of Clarence
Lionel of Antwerp (1362–1368) · Thomas of Lancaster (1412–1421) · George Plantagenet (1461–1478) · William IV (1789–1830) · Prince Albert Victor (1890–1892)