The Edwardian Era Dawns as the Victorian Era Closes: A Summons to the Coronation of Victoria’s Son, Edward VII, Signed by Him as King

The Edwardian Era lasted from the Queen Victoria’s death on January 22, 1901, to King Edward’s VII’s death in 1910. It has often been described as a golden sunlit afternoon -personified by its genial and self-indulgent King, with the cares of world war still not visible on the horizon. The appeal of the Edwardian Era is wide, and the subject of such tributes as Downton Abbey. Wealth was abundant and nearly income tax-free; society was no longer a small, exclusive circle confined to those of aristocratic birth, but open to more and more people; the arts (theater, opera, ballet, painting, literature, music, etc) produced genius and modern movements; travel was cheap and easy; and the technological advances were thrilling and amazing. Einstein was an Edwardian and promulgated his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905. So were the Wright Brothers, who invented the airplane in 1903. The overall image of the Edwardian age is that of an era of opulence, but it was also an era of change, where the rumble of automobiles and planes, champagne and lavish ocean liners, the frenetic syncopation of ragtime, and the pomp of the aristocracy and royalty, coexisted with civil rights and independence movements, Socialism, immigration, and technological advances .

Edward was born at 10:48 in the morning on November 9, 1841 in Buckingham Palace. He was the eldest son and second child of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was heir apparent during the long reign of his mother, Victoria, who presided over an era that now carries her name from 1837 to 1901, an extraordinary length of time. All in all, Victoria ruled during the reign of 17 American presidents.

In 1860, Edward undertook the first tour of North America by a Prince of Wales. Vast crowds greeted him everywhere. He met Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Prayers for the royal family were said in Trinity Church, New York, for the first time since 1776.

Document signed, June 2, 1902, King Edward VII, addressed to John Savile, Lord Savile, summoning him to the King’s coronation to be held on the 26th day of that month, countersigned by the Duke of Norfolk. Savile was a large landowner, diplomat, and noted sportsman.