It is truly tragic that despite their lamentations about their childhoods and their avowals to be be better parents than either of them had, and Albert's perceived need for a son to define his role in the Royal family, that both he and Victoria wound up despising their eldest son. In the end, whose fault was it, really, that Edward VII became a libertine and philanderer?
shareI wouldn't trust all those avowals about being better parents, which smack of a more modern sensibility. Victoria and Albert felt the pressures of rescuing a monarchy that was still trying to throw off the taint of the excesses of her uncles, especially George IV. They wanted to provide the necessary heirs, whom they expected to follow their lead of duty, sacrifice and moral arbiters. Bertie may well have inherited some of his great-uncles' libertine ways; he also fell in with some libertine friends. They all felt frustrated by his struggles with education and early awkwardness. Later, he developed a more easy-going personality and social graces that endeared him to other monarchs, as well as many in the US and Canada. I don't think the Queen and Prince Albert despised Bertie so much as they loved him, but felt incredibly frustrated by his failures in the classroom. They expected so much of him that it drove them all a bit mad.
The burden of being the heir weighed heavily upon Bertie; his disgrace, which unfortunately coincided with the Prince Consort's final illness, left him with an underlying sense of guilt. The Queen, utterly bereft without Albert, who had such a gift for statecraft, could never completely trust or forgive Bertie. The irony remains Bertie and his wife, Princess Alexandra, were actually well-suited and loved each other, no matter how many times he took lovers. Alexandra unfortunately suffered from hearing impairment after an illness; she also developed a slight limp after that same illness. Though she eventually could dance again, she always struggled to hear conversations. She also felt torn between her close-knit family in Denmark and the British/Germanic family into which she married. You have to remember royal and noble marriages had accommodated discreet affairs for centuries. Many of Bertie's lovers were part of the Marlborough set, as the circle of the Prince and Princess of Wales was known. Alexandra often socialized with her husband's lovers.
Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops!
***Bertie may well have inherited some of his great-uncles' libertine ways; he also fell in with some libertine friends.***
And his uncle Ernest seems to have been a hopeless womanizer as well. It is believed that he never got children of his own because he'd had a venereal disease. :/
***The irony remains Bertie and his wife, Princess Alexandra, were actually well-suited and loved each other, no matter how many times he took lovers.***
That sounds like a 19th century royal couple over here in Sweden, King Carl XV and Queen Louise. They were supposedly well-suited and fond of each other, but he was notoriously unfaithful.
Ouch! I have just come across a disturbing detail about Albert as a father: He caned Bertie for failing his lessons! And honestly, the blood in my veins froze when I first read that... Yeah yeah, I know that this would have normal and not shocking at all to his contemporaries. And it seems like Albert was a loving father otherwise. But looking at it from my 21rst century perspective, I can feel nothing but disgust about the caning. Poor kid! And it also felt weird to me to read that about a man, who seems to have been so progressive and liberal for his time in many other areas. But it seems like what you said is true: that Victoria and Albert had such high expectations of Bertie as a future king, that they couldn't stand it when he disappointed them. Which he obviously started to do already at a very young age. Albert must have felt a heap of pressure on himself too though. Many people in Britain had anti-German prejudices against him. And yet, it was up to him to produce and raise their next king. So it was important to him that he could show everybody, that he was up to his job and duty. And then, Bertie became the innocent victim of his frustrations. It was really typical too that Bertie's sister Victoria excelled at all her school work and thus became Albert's favorite, so she only made her brother look like a failure in comparison. It is no wonder though that Bertie rebelled against his demanding parents by becoming this hopeless scoundrel. It was like he said to himself "I will never be as perfect as they want me to be anyway, so I won't even bother trying to be". Being accused by his mother of causing his father's death must have been terrible as well.
Good points.
shareAlso, it is important to remember that Albert had a really bad relationship with his father.
So it was just terrible for him to realize, that Bertie was so much alike his grandfather and uncle.
The same thing happened two generations later, weirdly enough.
David (future king Edward VIII) had a better relationship with his libertine grandfather, Bertie a k a Edward VII, than he did with his more uptight father, George V.
Fortunately, Bertie is remembered now as a good king after all despite his infidelities to poor Alexandra.
David gets a lot of hate to this day though.