Prince Harry’s anticipated testimony on Tuesday in a phone-hacking case would be the first time in over 130 years {that a} outstanding member of Britain’s royal household is cross-examined in court docket.
The final time it occurred was in 1891, and it didn’t go properly for the royal household.
Prince Albert Edward — Queen Victoria’s eldest son, who went on to turn out to be King Edward VII in 1901 — testified as a witness in a slander case that centered on a sport of baccarat gone fallacious at which the prince had been current.
One of many gamers, Sir William Gordon-Cumming, had been accused of dishonest. The prince sided with the accusers, and Mr. Gordon-Cumming misplaced the case.
A neighborhood report from the time, as quoted in The Guardian, mentioned that Edward’s testimony lasted about 20 minutes and that it “wearied him exceedingly, and made him extraordinarily nervous.” The report additionally said that he couldn’t sit nonetheless. It was uncommon then, too, for such a outstanding member of the royal household — the long run king, no much less — to seem in court docket.
“When a query extra urgent, extra to the purpose than traditional, was put to him, the prince’s face was noticed to flush significantly, after which pale once more,” the report learn.
Richard Fitzwilliams, a royal commentator, mentioned: “You possibly can see from studying this why it was subsequently determined that this isn’t one thing the royal household need. It confirmed you couldn’t solely protect even the son of the queen from cross-examination.”
A ebook that was revealed in 1899 revealed a letter by Edward through which he denounced the scandal and expressed the “deep ache and annoyance” he suffered due to it.
“A current trial, which nobody deplores greater than I do, and which I used to be powerless to forestall, gave event for the press to make most bitter and unjust assaults upon me, realizing I used to be defenseless,” Edward wrote.
He continued, “The entire matter has now died out, and I feel, subsequently, that it will be inopportune for me in any public method to allude once more to the painful topic which has introduced such a torrent of abuse upon me.”
Edward’s testimony in 1891 was not the primary time that the long run king appeared in court docket. Twenty years earlier, he testified within the divorce case of Harriet Mordaunt, the spouse of an English member of Parliament, who had named Edward as considered one of her lovers. (Edward denied it in court docket.) Throughout that trial, Edward appeared to have been within the witness field for only some minutes, Mr. Fitzwilliams mentioned, and that look appeared to have had much less of an impression on his status.
Edward — generally known as “Bertie” to the folks near him — had loved a status of being a womanizer with a love for enjoying playing cards.
There are key variations between Harry’s deliberate court docket look on Tuesday and Edward’s appearances. Edward was referred to as as a witness each occasions he appeared in court docket, whereas Harry is likely one of the plaintiffs, that means he in all probability knew that cross-examination was in his future.
Moreover, whereas Harry is a high-profile member of the royal household, he’s now not a working royal. And he has by no means been first in line to the throne, not like Edward, who was the crown prince. Nonetheless, if the questions journey Harry up, it may very well be embarrassing, specialists mentioned.
“There gained’t be the protection web that he’s had with numerous interviews,” Mr. Fitzwilliams, the royal commentator, mentioned.
Not all press was unfriendly to Edward in 1891. In an article in regards to the final day of testimony within the baccarat slander case, The New York Instances wrote that he was “affable as ever” and “faultlessly dressed.”
Edward was king for less than 9 years. In 1910, he died of pneumonia, leaving the throne to his son George V.
