DEATH OF KING EDWARD VII
DEATH OF KING EDWARD VII
Edward VII was the eldest Son of Queen Victoria & Prince Albert, and was affectionately known as Bertie.
Edward was born at 10:48 a.m. on 9th November 1841 in Buckingham Palace.
He was Prince of Wales, and heir apparent for almost 60 years.
As heir to the throne, from an early age he was subjected to a strict regimen of academic and moral instruction.
A program against which he fiercely rebelled, throwing tantrums and refusing to study or work.
This behaviour would persist throughout his childhood and adolescence, ignoring his exasperated parents every effort at correction.
Edward lived a life of leisure, travelling the world, yachting, hunting, horse racing and attending endless parties and other social events.
Despite his parents’ efforts to tame him by marrying him off to Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863, Edward retained an insatiable sexual appetite that was to become legendary.
Edward frequented the most exclusive brothels in Paris, his favourite being La Chabanais.
There he kept a private room decorated with his coat of arms, where his favourite pastime was reportedly to entertain the ladies in a giant swan-neck bathtub, allegedly filled with champagne.
Such was Edward’s reputation as a womanizer that he soon acquired the nicknames ‘Dirty Bertie’ and ‘Edward the Caresser.”
By 1890 Edward’s enormous sexual appetite, had begun to run afoul of his other great love – food.
To say Edward was a big eater would be an understatement.
His standard dinner was a gargantuan 12-course affair. This included two kinds of soup, whole salmon, multiple saddles of mutton, sirloins of beef, and whole game birds, devilled herrings, cheese, and cakes.
Consequently, he quickly found himself overweight, out of shape, and increasingly unable to perform in the bedroom…..
Ordinarily, a man in Edward’s position would have had two choices – lose weight or try different positions.
Being the Prince of Wales, he decided to take a third option.
Edward commissioned famous Paris cabinetmaker Louis Soubrier, to create what he called a “Siege d’Amour”, or “Love Chair”
Installed in Edward’s private room at La Chabanais, the elaborate gilded device allowed Edward to continue having sex, without crushing his partners with his enormous girth.
It was also rumoured that the chair allowed Edward to have sex with two women at once!
While the chair does feature a second cushion on the lower level, it is unclear how this was supposed to function.
The thing about the sex sled though, is that no one really seems to know where the bodies went.
The prevailing theory holds that someone (Dirty Bertie) stood with their feet planted in the sturdy footbeds, with their hands wrapped around the two apparent thrusting grips.
Presumably, someone reclined on the elevated lounge portion, resting their legs on the intimidating metal stirrup bits.
The third-party lay … below the actual chair bit?
Because it’s padded down there, too, although it’s sort of unclear what kind of mischief you’d get up to with your partner.
Especially, when one of whom is wholly occupied with the person above……
In 1901 Queen Victoria finally died, and after 60 years of waiting, Edward was at last able to ascend to the throne.
Despite his parents’ fears, and a lifetime of questionable behaviour, during his short reign Edward proved a surprisingly popular and effective king.
Upon ascending to the British throne in 1901, Edward oversaw a period since referred to as the ‘Edwardian era’—corresponding to a new century and characterised by the modernisation of technology and society.
His gregariousness and social intelligence, made him an excellent diplomat and ambassador, for England.
Edward habitually smoked twenty cigarettes and twelve cigars a day.
Towards the end of his life he increasingly suffered from bronchitis.
On 6th May 1910, Edward suffered several heart attacks, but refused to go to bed, saying,
“No, I shall not give in; I shall go on.
I shall work to the end.”
At 11:30 p.m. he lost consciousness for the last time and was put to bed.
He died 15 minutes later, aged 68.
As for his infamous sex chair, it remained at La Chabanais until 1951, when the brothel went out of business and its contents were purchased by a private buyer.
Its whereabouts remained a mystery until 2011, when author Tony Perrottet interviewed the great-grandson of Louis Soubrier.
Louis Soubrier revealed that he had re-purchased the original chair.
Restored and re-upholstered, Edward VII’s sex chair remains in the Soubrier warehouse, a relic of a bygone age of decadence and a testament to Edward’s unconventional approach to life and the age-old adage….
~ it’s good to be the King