Who was Prince Eddy

Q. Why dodgy

A. He was a dissolute idler, believed to be homosexual and was even suspected of being Jack the Ripper.

Q. Kindly explain.

A. Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward, eldest child of Bertie, the Prince of Wales and Alexandra of Denmark, was born two months prematurely at Frogmore House in Windsor, on 8 January, 1864. Alexandra was watching ice skaters on a pond at Frogmore when labour pains began. Eddy was not an academic. He was lazy, dull, apathetic, sleepy, irresponsible, backward and had an extremely short attention span. He was also partially deaf and suffered gout. Eddy and his younger brother George (later King George V) both went into the Navy as cadets. Their father hoped that the Navy would strengthen Eddy's character. It did not - although George was most successful in his seafaring career.

Q. What next

A. Eddy then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in the hope it might develop his intellectual side. That didn't work either. Then he tried the Army, joining the 10th Hussars in June, 1885. He liked playing polo (although he didn't practise enough to play it well) but that was the limit of his military prowess. He also liked the clubs, casinos and bars. It's also thought that he caught syphilis from a prostitute when he was 16.

Q. Poor chap wasn't very bright. Why did he have to do all these things

A. Because he was next in line to the throne. Eddy - created Knight of the Garter in 1883 and Duke of Clarence and Avondale in 1890 - couldn't be just left to drink and gamble his life away. As heir presumptive, he was two people away from being the most powerful ruler on earth.

Q. And what about the scandals

A. It is known that he visited a male brothel at Cleveland Street, London, where police discovered Lord Arthur Somerset, Eddy's friend, during a raid. There's a theory that Eddy was Jack The Ripper, who killed five prostitutes in Whitechapel, between August and November, 1888.

Q. Any truth

A. None. Eddy was in Scotland on the relevant dates. However, there is another Ripper connection ...

Q. Which is ...

A. That the women were murdered to cover up Eddy's alleged marriage to Annie Elizabeth Crook. Eddie is said to have wed Annie, who worked in a tobacconists' in Cleveland Street, in a secret ceremony in St Saviour's Chapel. It was witnessed by her friend Mary Kelly. Soon Eddy and Annie had a baby - Alice Margaret, who was born in April, 1885. The royal family and government got to hear about this, so the story goes, and Annie was taken away to an asylum (where she died in 1920); Mary Kelly was murdered horribly, as were four prostitute friends in whom she had confided. Alice is said to have died in 1950.

Q. True

A. Maybe.

Q. So what became of poor old Eddy

A. His father and gradnmother decided he needed to be married off. In 1890, he met Princess Helene of Orleans, daughter of the pretender to the French throne, and fell in love. This was not a runner to begin with, because she was a Catholic and such marriages were banned. However, Queen Victoria liked the girl and said she would permit such a union if Helene became a Protestant. That didn't work, though - Pope Leo XIII said he would excommunicate her if she married a 'heretic'. Eventually, Eddy's family lined him up to marry Prince May of Teck, but he didn't.

Q. What happened this time

A. The day before the wedding, Eddy died from pneumonia. He died in agony, starting the rumour that he had been poisoned.

Q. And what happened to Princess May

A. She married Eddy's kid brother George and became Queen Mary when he succeeded his father in 1910.

To ask a question about History & Myths, click here

By Steve Cunningham