Alice Keppel

Alice Keppel
Portrait of The Honorable Mrs. George Keppel
Born	Alice Frederica Edmonstone (1868-04-29)29 April 1868 Duntreath Castle, Strathblane, Scotland
Died	11 September 1947(1947-09-11) (aged 79) Bellosguardo, Italy[1]
Resting place	Cimitero degli Allori, Florence[1]
Spouse	The Hon. George Keppel (m. 1891)
Children	Violet Trefusis Sonia Cubitt, Baroness Ashcombe
Parents	Sir William Edmonstone, 4th Baronet Mary Elizabeth Parsons

Alice Frederica Keppel, née Edmonstone^[2] (29 April 1868 – 11 September 1947) was a British society hostess and a long-time mistress of King Edward VII.

Both she and her husband, The Honourable George Keppel, came from aristocratic backgrounds, but were almost penniless, and they both agreed that she must cultivate rich lovers to maintain their upper-class lifestyle. Alice performed this role with a charm and discretion that much impressed London society and soon brought her to the attention of the future king, whose mistress she remained till his death, lightening the dark moods of his later years. The Queen even allowed her to visit him as he was dying. But his death instantly reduced her social status, and she thought it more dignified to live abroad.

Her daughter was the writer Violet Trefusis. Alice's great-granddaughter is Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, second wife of Charles, Prince of Wales.

Early life

Duntreath Castle

Alice Frederica Keppel (known to her family as "Freddie") was born at Strathblane, Scotland to Sir William Edmonstone, 4th Baronet, and Mary Elizabeth Edmonstone, née Parsons, of Woolwich Dockyard, the scion of a distinguished family. Her father was the 4th Baronet Edmonstone and a retired Admiral in the Royal Navy; her grandfather had been Governor of the Ionian Islands. Alice grew up in Scotland, at Duntreath Castle, Loch Lomond. Duntreath Castle was the family home since the 14th century. In aristocratic tradition, her forebears acquired the castle and its land as a royal gift. It was a wedding present, in the 14th century, of King Robert III of Scotland to his daughter Mary.^[3] Alice was the youngest of one brother and seven sisters. Uninterested in her sisters due to the huge age differences between her and them, she was inseparable from her brother, "beloved Archie."^[4]

Marriage

At the age of 22, Alice married The Honourable George Keppel, son of the 7th Earl of Albemarle and four years her senior, on 1 June 1891. The Keppel family had a history of service to the royal family household. The family are descendants of Arnold Joost van Keppel, a Dutch nobleman who accompanied William III of England to Britain in 1688. The King made him the Earl of Albemarle in 1696.^[5] The couple had two daughters: Violet (1894-1972) and Sonia (1900-1986), Sonia married Hon. Roland Cubitt , son of Henry Cubitt, 2nd Baron Ashcombe. Roland became 3rd Baron after his father's death which made her Baroness Ashcombe.^[6]

Alice with daughter Violet in 1899

George's lack of money led Alice to engage in affairs with prominent men in order for the family to keep up with the lifestyle of the London society in those times. Alice began her first affair with Ernest William Beckett, the future Lord Grimthorpe; members of the Keppel family believed Grimthorpe was the biological father of Violet. She also had an affair with Humphrey Napier Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington.^[7] George once said of Alice, "I do not mind what she does as long as she comes back to me in the end."^[8] They were conducted with his full knowledge, and despite his deep attachment to his wife, George also engaged in his own affairs.^[9] "Very fond of women himself, he raised no objection to the prince's friendship with his wife," wrote historian Christopher Hibbert.^[10] Despite affairs on both sides, one of her daughters described her parents' marriage as a "marriage of companionship of love and laughter."^[11]

Society hostess

Keppel became a key figure and one of the best known society hostesses of the Edwardian era. As a superb hostess, she treated even her enemies kindly, and invariably knew the choicest scandal, the price of stocks, and the latest political move. She had a sharp wit and grew up to become the typical aristocratic Scotswoman, but was also kind, without pettiness, prejudice or malice. She never spoke ill of anyone and almost never lost her temper. Her daughter Violet wrote, "she not only had a gift of happiness but she excelled in making others happy, she resembled a Christmas tree laden with presents for everyone."^[4]

Sir Harold Acton, a writer, aesthete, and bon vivant of the next generation, who was a child during the Edwardian era, described Alice: "None could compete with her glamour as a hostess. She could have impersonated Britannia in a tableau vivant and done that lady credit."^[12] Alice was the inspiration behind the character "Mrs. Romola Cheyne" in Vita Sackville-West's novel, The Edwardians.^[6]

Alice Keppel was considered one of the most beautiful women of her time. She was hailed as one of the beauties of the "naughty nineties." She had alabaster skin, big blue eyes, small waist, chestnut hair and a big bust.^[4]

Life as a royal mistress

Alice Keppel in 1885

In 1898, 29-year old Keppel met the future Edward VII, then the 56-year-old heir to the throne. It was not long before Keppel became one of Edward's many mistresses, despite a twenty-six year age difference. Edward instantly made her his "La Favorita" and semi-official mistress. Keppel lived at Pleasure House, East Sutton, Kent. Edward visited her house on a regular basis, George conveniently leaving during the visits. Their relationship would last until Edward's death in 1910 and was well-known. Keppel was one of the few people in his circle who was able to defuse Edward VII's cantankerous mood swings. She was able to turn the often bored, petulant, aggressive monarch into the genial, tolerant and witty sovereign that his people loved.^[13] In the documentary, The life story of Alice Keppel, biographer Diana Souhami described Alice as the "Perfect royal mistress."^[14] She combined the roles of wife, mother, friend, lover, and political advisor to create an entirely new type of royal mistress.^[15] Edward's wife was fond of her and tolerant of the liaison. She was kind enough to permit her to the king's death bed. Queen Alexandra preferred Alice over Edward's previous mistress, Daisy, Countess of Warwick, whom she disliked for being indiscreet when she flaunted her position.^[6] Millicent Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland, Daisy's half sister, remarked that the prince was "a much pleasanter child since he changed mistresses."^[16]

Through her royal associations, Alice became a rich woman; the King encouraged his friends like Sir Ernest Cassel to build funds that would keep her social position secure.^[13] Gone were the days of wide-open privy purses. Instead Bertie gave Alice a number of shares in a rubber company, which in time earned her £50,000 (Almost 7.5 million today), and he also engaged his own bankers and financial advisers to handle her investments.^[17] He also got her husband a well-paid job. Historian Christopher Hibbert wrote, "George cheerfully went to work for Sir Thomas Lipton, who obligingly found him employment at the prince's instigation."^[10] With her influence, her brother, "beloved Archie" too served the crown. She secured Archie a place in the royal household. He became Groom in Waiting for the last three years of Bertie's reign. When rich, Alice provided for him and his family.^[4]

Position at court

After Bertie became King in 1901, Alice Keppel's much-vaunted discretion made her an ideal conduit between the monarch and his ministers. Unlike Daisy Warwick, Alice never used her position to influence him politically, nor had she any interest in doing so. But she had a way of presenting a topic to him so that he was willing to listen and give it credence, even if his personal opinion differed. The Viceroy of India remarked that "there were one or two occasions when the King was in disagreement with Foreign Office, and I was able, through her to advise the King with view to the foreign policy of the government being accepted." The chic and articulate Mrs. Keppel, "La Favorita," was at the center of it all, a highly visible—and equally respected—member of his court.^[18]

Costume Ball, Bal Poudre at Warwick Castle in 1895

Keppel's influence was not highly visible; rather she employed her strengths—discretion, tact, and social savvy—behind the prestigious scenes her royal lover occupied. Her one obvious political contribution to the political arena is her role as a recognized Liberal hostess, acting as a go-between for Edward and noted Liberals. She put her skills as a gifted conversationalist and charming hostess to good use to advance Bertie's causes. What impact she had cannot be determined, but it is obvious that Bertie relied heavily on Keppel and her advice. Lamont-Brown claims: "He completely trusted Alice and through her...he could make his political opinion known. A message to Alice was enough to get a controversial subject casually dropped into conversation to gauge effect, which was reported back to the King. Her attempts at modesty were foiled by Prime minister Asquith and his wife." In a letter to her, Asquith once thanked her for her "wise counsel", obviously intimating that Keppel held private political discussion with the most prominent politicians of the day. Whatever her political role, she never alluded to it, and shied discreetly away from credit for any political victory. Most of all, Keppel disliked it when any mention of her political association to the king was made in public. Years later, when Margot Asquith's memoir was published in 1933, she was irritated by her mention of the king's dependence on her as a political advisor.^[19]

Although Keppel was renowned for her persuasive abilities, her attempts to separate the king from his smoking and massive meals were in vain. Her concerns are indicated in her letter to Portuguese Minister, Marquis de Soveral shortly after Edward suffered from a slip and fall: "I want you to try and get the King to see proper doctor about his knee....do what you can with your famous tact and of course don't tell anyone I wrote to you." Her direction for the king's health would be ignored until his death.^[20]

End of reign

Edward's death made Alice so hysterical, while at the King's deathbed she overreacted about it and had to be dragged out of his room by guards. She then lied by making up a different story of what happened. However she later denied the story and told the truth due to backlash in the royal circles.^[21][22] The Edwardian Age was over after the King's death, and with it Mrs. Keppel's reign as La Favorita. The new King and his Queen ushered in a more conservative age with a less glittering court at which Mrs. Keppel was not welcome.^[23]

When Edward VII died, Alice Keppel found that the considerable influence she had enjoyed for 12 years had ended with the beating of the king's heart. A woman seen by some as the power behind the throne was not even permitted to sign the book of condolence for her dead lover.^[24]

Later life

In November 1910, Keppel abandoned London, the city where she had unofficially reigned as a semi-consort, for the solitude of the continent. She claimed it was for her daughters' education, but in reality, it was to escape the sudden reversal of her life. She was simply the charming and beautiful Mrs. Keppel once more.^[25] The family spent two years travelling in the Far East and Ceylon. On their return they bought a new house at 16 Grosvenor Street. However the family soon moved out of England again. They bought Villa dell' Ombrellino mansion near Florence, Italy and lived there for the rest of their lives.^[26]

On 11 December 1936 Bertie's grandson, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorcée. Mrs. Keppel, dining at the Ritz, was heard to declare, 'Things were done much better in my day.'^[27]

Death

On 11 September 1947, two months after the birth of her great-granddaughter, Camilla Shand, Alice died of cirrhosis of the liver. George Keppel followed his wife to the grave within weeks; it was said he could not see the point of living without her. They had been married for 56 years.^[28]

Soon Italian guides would point to their villa and, ironically, tell tourists that there had lived "the last lover of Queen Victoria."^[29][30]

See also

• English royal mistress

Notes

References

Further reading

• Brown, Raymond Lamont (2005). Edward VII's Last Loves: Alice Keppel and Agnes Keyser. The History Press. ISBN 0-7509-4174-X
• Holroyd, Michael (2011). A Book of Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers. Farrar, Strauss, Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-11558-6. 
• Priestley, J. B. (1970). The Edwardians. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-60332-5. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alice Keppel

• "Historical Notes: A perfect and popular royal mistress". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/historical-notes-a-perfect-and-popular-royal-mistress-1076893.html. 
• "Mrs. Keppel and her daughter". Peers.org. http://www.peers.org/revkepp.html.