Trudy Gold
Edward VII and his Jewish Circle, Part 1

Trudy Gold - Edward VII and his Jewish Circle, Part 1

- And there you see Prince Edward, better known as Bertie. Later, of course, Prince of Wales, the longest serving Prince of Wales, even longer, I believe, than Charles. And then, of course, Edward VII. And what was fascinating about Edward is that he had a very interesting cosmopolitan circle, many of whom were Jewish. So I need to take you back to the era in which he was born. So can we see the next slide, if you don’t mind, Karina? Okay. Victoria came to the throne in 1837. It was the end of rather a strange period for the Hanoverian Dynasty. If you recall, it had been George III, of course, who had lost America, and unfortunately, had porphyria. Therefore, his son, the prince regent, later, George IV, ran the country. And he was completely dissolute. The later Hanoverians had terrible, terrible reputations. When George IV came to the throne, his daughter, unfortunately, died in childbirth, so his brother, William, inherited the throne who was to succeed. And what happened was George III’s dissolute sons all got rid of their mistresses and found themselves German princesses. And it was the youngest, the Duke of Kent, the fourth son, who finally produced a daughter, Victoria, the wanted, loved heiress. But the problem was she wasn’t very loved. He died. Her father, the Duke of Kent, died before she was born. Her mother brought her up in a very strange household. And actually, as a child, the mother’s estate neighbored that of Sir Moses Montefiore in Ramsgate.

So she had a great affection for a man who’s going to dominate Jewish life. There wasn’t a very large Jewish population in England at that time. By the 1830s, it was about 30,000. But already, families, like the Montefiores and, of course, the Disraeli family, were taking their place. You’re also having an influx of poorer Jews from Europe, but it’s a tiny population as England is becoming master of the world. Now another thing to say about Victorian England, it was a centre not only of a great empire, but it was a centre of industrialization. One of the most important aspects of England that accounts for its great success was the fact that England industrialised first. So if you think of the boom towns of Manchester, Leeds, the cotton towns at the centre of a huge empire, and now it’s presided over by an 18-year-old girl who fell madly in love with her German cousin, Albert. And this, of course, is now going to be the reign of Victoria and Albert. They obviously had a great physical attraction for each other, which is going to produce nine children between 1840 and 1857. Prince Albert himself came from a very fractured background. His parents were unfaithful to each other. He was never completely at ease in a bohemian society. He was a highly intelligent man. And he realised with all the upheavals on the continent… Never forget, in 1848, there were 52 revolutions in Europe. The seeds of change were sweeping through, the rise of the middle class.

Albert was determined that he and Victoria would set an example of what a real family should be. So what he’s going to do is to set up a model family that would set a whole moral example to the English, and as it were, lay the foundations of the redefinition of royalty. There’s a wonderful line of Disraeli’s. He once said, “Whenever I want to know how the middle classes think, I ask Queen Victoria.” And they are going to become the epitome of respectability. And not only that, they’re going to lay the foundation for a European-wide dynasty. They married on the 10th of February 1840. And on the 21st of November that year, their first child was born, Vicky. When Victoria was told she had a princess, she answered, “The next time, it will be a prince.” However, Vicky grew up to be her parents’ delight. She was definitely her father’s favourite. She was incredibly bright. And later on, of course, she’s going to marry the Crown Prince of Prussia and give birth to Wilhelm II, and all the disasters that are going to flow from that. What’s going to happen to Victoria’s progeny? They are really going to be the majority of, related to the majority of the royal families of Europe. Now her second child, and heir to the throne, Albert Edward, the subject of this presentation, was born that same, he was born November the 9th, 1841. So can we please… So a year after Vicky, she produces another child. She might’ve enjoyed the delights of the marriage bed, but she certainly didn’t like childrearing or childbearing. And many of her letters are full of this. She was a great diarist as well.

So let’s have a look at the picture of the son and heir as a boy. Can we go back one to the son and heir, the picture? Yeah, that’s Prince Edward, a very famous portrait of him when he was a small boy. Now he was a bit of a disappointment. His father imposed on him the most incredible, demanding educational regime from an early age. He was not a good student. He didn’t have the kind of acumen that either his father or his brilliant sister had. He did go to both Oxford and Cambridge. And can we have a look at Trinity College, Cambridge, please? There, you see Albert. But there, you see Trinity College, Cambridge. He goes to Trinity College. And that’s where, actually, he’s going to make friends for the first time with the three Rothschild boys, the three sons of Lionel. More about them later. Because although Jews could not yet graduate, they could attend Cambridge. They couldn’t graduate because of the oath. But the Rothschilds would actually go to Cambridge University. And that’s where he first met the, he met the Rothschilds. He was a very, very… He was a bit of a pleasure seeker, even then. And when he was… After he finished Cambridge, he got involved with an actress, a woman called Nellie Clifden. Can we see her picture, please? Here, you see Edward.

Here, you see Nellie Clifden. Now Nellie Clifden was a very, very pretty actress. And when he was 19 years old, what happened was some officers in an Irish regiment, they introduced him to Nellie. It became his first big affair. He has an affair with her. And of course, it completely horrifies the queen and her husband, Prince Albert. So what happens is that Prince Albert, who already has an incredibly bad cold, he goes to reprimand his son. He reprimands his son, but as a result, he contracts typhus and he dies, age 42. And this is going to send Queen Victoria into a total spin. And she’s not really going to recover from it for years. She goes into mourning. She always blamed him, partly, for her husband’s, beloved Albert’s, death. She kept his room as a sort of mausoleum to him. His clothes were laid out every day. She was absolutely obsessed with him. And now he has died and she blames the son. And as a result of that, she is very much going to keep him, Bertie, at arm’s length from any real interference in the affairs of government. She goes into deep mourning. She doesn’t allow her son to represent her at any cabinet or government meetings. She does allow him to represent her at state occasions, but he really becomes a man without a real role. So what happens to him? He’s going to be become a leader of London society and he’s going to become the pleasure-seeker par excellence. Can we go on, please? Here, you see the death of Prince Albert, which was such a terrible, terrible blow to his mother. It’s beyond imagination what happened to her.

And in fact, it was Disraeli, more than anyone else, who pulled her out of mourning because he was terribly worried about what was going on in the continent. Albert dies, age 42. In 1848, you have the year of revolutions that I’ve already mentioned. There’s a huge amount of instability on the European mainland. Britain is already far more embarked on the road to parliamentary democracy. You’d already had the Great Reform Act of 1832. And also, the other point about England that I must bring out now is that trade was not the dirty word it was on the continent. And many of the lords and ladies that later on were going to be rather dismissive of the wealthy Jews, their fortunes themself had actually been made in trade. So it’s interesting to actually take on that, in England, trade was not as downgraded as it was in the continent. Never forget what Napoleon said. He said, “The English, after all, are a nation of shopkeepers.” So Albert was allowed to go on jaunts for the Queen. And you will see. Can we have a look at one of them, please? No, I think there’s a picture of Albert. Can we go back? Yes, there. Albert and his staff at Niagara Falls. She does send him on very interesting missions and he becomes very popular. He’s got a very easy manner. He is not an intellectual, like his father, but he had a gift for people, and he becomes very, very, very popular. But he’s very, very bored.

And so consequently, the smart thing to do, the queen marries him off. And who does she marry him off to? Can we go on to the picture of Alexandra? The marriage of Alexandra? Here, you have the marriage of Edward and Alexandra. On March the 10th, 1863, he marries Alexandra, the eldest daughter of the Danish Crown Prince, who later became Christian IX of Denmark. Now Alexandra’s family were relatively obscure. It’s very important to remember that the royal families of Europe didn’t have a huge marriage pool. Who did they have to turn to? They had to turn to the Protestant families of Europe. And Alexandra’s family, of course, were originally German. The majority of the families that the British royal family married into were in fact German. Victoria herself was mainly German. Albert was German. And now, her son is going to marry into a German family who had taken the throne. Her father, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gluckstein. Never forget that, up until 1815, Germany was divided into 376 separate states. And each one of those states had a ruler. And mainly the rulers of the north were Catholic. That is the marriage pool. What happened? The throne of Denmark was empty. The the king hadn’t got an heir. So with the consent of the European powers, he succeeds his second cousin as King as Denmark. And when she was 16 years old, this Danish princess was chosen as a bride for Bertie. They’d met twice before. And they married the year her father became King of Denmark.

• Also, her brother, William, was appointed king of Greece. And that leads to Prince Philip and that branch of the British royal family. And she is going to become the princess of Wales between 1863 and 1901, and queen, 1901 to 1910. Her sister, Dagmar, becomes Empress Marie of Russia. She marries Alexander III. So you have this fascinating situation where these two sisters who were very close to each other, one was the empress of Russia and one was going to be the queen of England. It’s going to cause a lot of problems on the European mainland in terms of conflicts because this is also going to be the period of the unification of Germany. And Bismarck, the brilliant Prussian chancellor, is going to finally unite Germany into one state through wars. And the first war is with Denmark, so the second with Austria, the third with France in 1871. And Alexandra, even though she is really of German blood, is going to have a horror for her German relatives, and as is her sister who is the empress of Russia. So it’s fascinating to understand how the royal families, their views played into politics. Queen Victoria, on the other hand, was very pro-German. When Alexandra becomes very popular, you can see that she’s very beautiful. And when she arrived, the poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, prepared a ditty for her, “Sea King’s daughter from over the sea, Alexandra. Saxon and Norman and Dane are we, but all of us Danes in our welcome thee, Alexandra.” So she marries him on the 10th of March, 1863. They have six children in total. Five of them are going to survive to adulthood. And Marlborough House is going to be the London base.

Her husband, even though they’re going to have a pretty equitable marriage and we’re going to find out that she’s not going to be, she’s going to turn a blind eye to his peccadillos, it’s going to be a relatively stable marriage. She is a very popular figure. She becomes very involved in charitable work. Later on, she becomes quite deaf. But she was a very devoted mother. Tragically, her eldest son, who was a bit of an, well, he was a complete no-goodnik, and I’ll be talking about him when I come back to this in another presentation. But she was a very devoted mother who puts up with her husband’s peccadillos, and there were many of them. Can we have a look at the next slide, please? Now these are some of the incredibly interesting mistresses of Edward, of the Prince of Wales. Now I’ve already mentioned Jennie Jerome to you in many other contexts because she, of course, is the mother of Winston Churchill. And she was born in Brooklyn. She was the second of the three surviving daughters of a speculator, a New York speculator, called Leonard Jerome, and his wife, Clara. he made an absolute fortune. And he sent his daughters and wife to Paris. And they move from Brooklyn to New York where they have a lovely home. But like many American heiresses, she comes to England in search of a title. Why? Because British estates are male-entailed, which means they go to the eldest son. And quite often, there isn’t much money for the second son.

And she marries the second son of the Duke of Marlborough, Lord Randolph Churchill. She’s an incredible beauty. And she was described by one of her admirers, a man called Lord d'Abernon, “She’s more of a panther than a woman in her look.” She was a very, very talented pianist. She’d actually met Randolph at a sailing regatta. She was introduced to him by the Prince of Wales. Because Bertie is going to be very much more… Queen Victoria had a very dour court, particularly after the mourning sets in. And he and Alexandra set up home in Marlborough House. And they concentrate on sailing. They concentrate on the races. Well, he does. And he likes beautiful women. So his set was much more open than that of the court. The marriage was actually delayed in whilst the families quarrelled over the settlement. She had, unfortunately, Lord Randolph Churchill. He was a brilliant politician. He was a brilliant man. He later on was quite very close to the Rothschilds, particularly Lord Nathaniel Rothschild. And his son, Winston Churchill, is also going to be very close to the Rothschilds, the Cassels, and the Baron de Hirsch, all of whom are going to be part of Edward II’s set.

Because what is so interesting about this particular prince is he’s going to surround himself by a fascinating coterie of very interesting Jewish individuals. We know that the marriage, they produced two children, including, of course, the extraordinary Winston, who was born in 1874. And who is, in any poll, is considered the greatest of ever Englishman. But his mother, who he absolutely adored, as he adored his father, Randolph died young as a result of the syphilis. But his mother had many dalliances. As I said, she was one of the mistresses of the Prince of Wales. She also had an affair with the King of Serbia, with Prince Karl Kinsky. She had an affair with Bismarck’s son, Herbert von Bismarck, who was German foreign secretary. She didn’t have a very big role in her son’s upbringing. He was given, really, into the care of nannies. But she was very influential in British society. She and Bertie had a very easy affair. I don’t think either were touched in terms of love. And they remained friends. And she was also a friend of Alexandra’s. Alexandra was very philosophical about her husband’s affairs. And it’s interesting. Why am I talking about this? Because you need to see this as a break with the past. And of course, it also feeds into what I was talking about last night, the naughty nineties of England, how England, in certainly in the last couple of decades of the 20th century, in aristocratic and upper middle class circles, there is a break with the confines of the middle classes. Life is much gayer, much easier. So that was one of his mistresses.

And shall we turn to the second of his mistresses? And that, of course, is Lillie Langtry. Now Lillie Langtry was also a fascinating character. She was known as The Jersey Lily. She’d been born in Jersey. Ironically, she was one of the daughters of a reverend who was a rector and dean of Jersey. There was six… There were seven children, six of whom… She was the only girl. So you can imagine, she was incredibly spoiled. One of her ancestors was Richard le Breton, who, ironically, was one of the assassins of Thomas Becket. Those of you who love English history, he had become the Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry II and was assassinated by friends of Henry II. Very interesting character. So she goes back. She has an interesting ancestry. She had a very good education. I should’ve mentioned so did Lady Randolph Churchill. Edward VII didn’t just want pretty women. He wanted women who could entertain him. And Lady Randolph was a very talented pianist and she also wrote a few plays. Lillie Langtry was also incredibly talented and she had a very, very good education. Her father, although he was a rector, was not exactly a pillar of respectability. He had a lot of illegitimate children from his congregation. And Lillie is married off to an Irish landowner, a man called Edward Langtry. They move to London, and he’s got money, and they quickly become part of society who are enthralled by her beauty. She sits for both Millais and Burne-Jones.

And one portrait of her was bought by Prince Leopold of the Belgians. Millais’ “Jersey Lily” was actually exhibited at the Royal Academy. And a friend of Millais, Rupert Potter, the father of Beatrix Potter, took photos of her. And Edward, who took a fancy to her, arranged to sit next to her at a dinner party. He became infatuated and he becomes completely besotted with her. She was even presented to Queen Victoria. Again, Princess Alexandra accepted her and acknowledged her. The relationship goes on for three years. She got pregnant, but not by him, and they remained friends. In 1879, she began affair with Lord Shrewsbury. And it was the talk of the town that Langtry would divorce her and cite the Prince of Wales. The prince instructed his solicitor to sue. The journalist who wrote the article was found guilty. One of the problems with Edward is he goes so near the mark that he’s quite often on the edge of court cases. In fact, she was… As I said, she was completely part of that sort of society. She becomes short of money. And it’s Oscar Wilde who suggests to her that she should go on the stage. And she goes to America where she becomes an absolutely resounding success. She even played Lady Macbeth on the New York stage. And she leased her own theatre in London and is in one silent film. She was a highly adventurous woman. She travelled Europe.

She had many men. And she finally died in Monaco in 1929. She was the first woman… This shows you the encroachment of the modern world. She was actually the first woman to endorse a product. She in fact endorsed Pears Soap. Now, who was the third in the trio? And there were many more, by the way. The third I’m going to talk about is Alice Keppel. Alice Keppel comes from real aristocracy. She was born in a castle in Scotland. She was the youngest child of Sir William Edmonstone, 4th Baronet. Her father was a retired admiral. She is the old Scottish aristocracy. When she’s 23, she marries Lieutenant George Keppel, son of the Earl of Albemarle. Huge history of service to the Crown. One of his ancestors had accompanied William III to England. England was a bit bereft of real old royalty because the majority of them had died off in the Wars of the Roses. She had two children by him, both of whom are going to make an interesting mark on the world. One daughter was Violet Trefusis, who was a socialite, an author, part of the Bloomsbury crowd, and had an affair with Vita Sackville-West. Her other daughter was Sonia. Her other daughter, Sonia, married Cubitt, whose grandfather was a Victorian builder, Thomas Cubitt. Now this is interesting because it also shows you England and trade. So those two children of Alice Keppel, one marries into the aristocracy, so does the second. But in the second case, the peerage had been granted because of trade.

And ironically, she was the grandmother of Camilla, who today is the wife of King Charles of England. And there’s a lovely story that, when they first met, because they’ve been in love with each other forever, when they first met, evidently, Camilla said to him, “You know my great-grandmother was your great-grandfather’s mistress.” So it’s a nice story for you. She was a great hostess. She was witty. She was kind. She was even-tempered. Her daughter, Violet Trefusis wrote, “She excelled at making people happy, resembled a Christmas tree laden with presents for everyone.” And Sir Harold Acton, “None could compete with her glamour as a hostess.” One of the beauties of the naughty nineties. She met Edward in 1898, when she was 29, and he, 56. And that relationship is going to last until his death. And she had a very good influence on him. Queen Alexandra became very close to her. And interestingly enough, one of Edward’s Jewish circle, Ernest Cassel, is going to create an endowment for her at Edward’s wish to keep her secure. So after his death, she left Britain, she travelled the Far East. She also, in the World War I, she worked with the wounded in Boulogne. She then moves to Italy. She was entertained by the royalty of Europe in her villa in Italy. Churchill visited many times. And in 1936, when Edward VIII abdicated, she said, “Things were done much better in my day.” She actually stayed with her husband and they both died in 1940.

Now, so that’s to give you a picture of his life and the mistresses. He also gets involved in a terrible scandal. Can we see the next slide, please? This is Sir Charles Mordaunt. He was a wealthy landowner. He was a Tory MP, a pillar of respectability, and High Sheriff of Warwickshire. In 1856, he marries a woman called Harriet Moncreiffe, the daughter of a Scottish baroness. She becomes bored with her older husband. They become part of Edward the, of Prince Edward’s set. And her husband is often away and she entertains his set at their home. Now, in 1869, she gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Violet, and confessed it to her husband who sued her for divorce. The prince was never named as correspondent in the divorce case, but Mordaunt threatened to do so. Now Lady Mordaunt’s father, who had several other daughters to marry off, she actually was one of 15, he announced that Harriet was mad. This would prevent a divorce trial and save the family reputation. And tragically, what happened to Harriet, all it needed was a doctor to pronounce her insane. Her estate had gone to her husband. She was actually incarcerated in various houses. The case did come to court, though. Bertie was called as a witness. And he admitted, he did admit visiting her. Tragically, she was kept in asylums for the rest of her life. Her daughter, though, her illegitimate daughter did marry the 5th Marquess of Bath. So she was part of the Marlborough House set.

And of course, this totally scandalised Queen Victoria. So you have a Prince of Wales who has a reputation that is quite something. Now let’s talk a bit about the Marlborough House set. Can we see the next slide, please, Karina? Here, you see Marlborough House. It was also known as the smart set. Edward moved there just after he married Alexandra in 1863. Those of you who know London, it’s between Pall Mall and The Mall. As I’ve already told you, Victoria’s court is in deep mourning. Edward had it ordered to provide a large ground floor. He needed loads and loads of rooms for entertaining. And he had a staff of 100 to support his functions. In effect, he creates a second court. And when smoking was banned at White’s Club, Edward also founded his own establishment, Marlborough Club, in Pall Mall. And Edward himself handpicked the 400 members. Although he had a lush private life, he was a stickler for the dress code. But the set becomes a backdrop for many scandals. And how did they spend their time? Race meetings. Remember, that is where… And sailing meetings, that’s where the Churchills have met. Royal Ascot, the Derby, St. Leger Stakes. So it’s shooting, hunting, fishing, and also, extravagant dinners and the concept of the country house weekend. This is very much developed by the smart set. Country house owners are going to spend a fortune to improve their buildings and furnishings ahead of these weekends where they will be graced by the Prince of Wales.

And the set includes members who are not necessarily part of the traditional upper classes. Admission is going to be based on personality for men, and also, wealth, and beauty for women. So many actresses are part of the set. Heiresses, a lot of American heiresses, quite a few Jewish heiresses, bankers, opera singers. And that set is going to later include the Rothschilds, the Sassoons, Ernest Cassel, Baron de Hirsch. Baron de Hirsch paid Edward’s debts off in 1890 and Cassel paid off his debts in 1896. A Jewish lawyer, George Henry Lewis, was the informal solicitor of the set, and he was the one who knew all the secrets. Now, this is Prince von Bulow, who was the German chancellor. The king had a marked predilection for very rich people. He was also refreshingly free from prejudice. This is a quote of Bertie’s when he was on a tour of India for his mother. Remember, Victoria did allow him to tour for her. She just didn’t allow him near state papers. “Because a man has a black face and a different religion from our own,” he remarked in India, “there’s no reason that he should be treated as a brute.” But his son, George V, who is going to be a very dour chap, he expressed dislike of, quote, “his fathered money associates.” Sir William Harcourt, who was former Chancellor of the Exchequer, confided to Sir Edward Hamilton, a treasury minister, not everything was shredded in those days, remember, he could not but feel that the Prince of Wales, with all his many other qualities, has much to answer for, has more to answer for than anyone else for giving money the tremendous social power that it now possesses.

Daisy Brooke, the Countess of Warwick, who was another one of Edward’s mistresses, she said, “We did resent the introduction of Jews into the social set of the Prince of Wales, not because we disliked them, but because they had brains and understood finance. As a class, we did not like brains. As for money, our understanding of it lay in the spending, not in the making of it.” And another point, Bertie was always short of money. His queen kept… The queen kept him relatively short of money ‘cause he had this incredible, lavish lifestyle. And some of the characters around the court, many of whom were Jewish, would pay off his debts. And don’t forget that Edward was first introduced into Rothschild circles in 1861 when he met Lionel’s three sons, Nathan, Nathaniel, Alfred, and Leopold. Ironically, Queen Victoria did approve of their grandfather because… Let me just put you back into understanding the Rothschilds of England. The great founder, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who came out of the ghetto of Frankfurt, his wife, Guttle, never left it. And in fact, she lived into her 90s. And whenever there was a family wedding, they had to go back to the ghetto for the blessing of the matriarch. His third… So Mayer Amschel’s third son, Nathan, who was probably the cleverest, he came to England. He came first to Manchester and then to London where he became close to the richest Jew in England, Levy Barent Cohen, also a banker.

You’ve got to remember that these Jewish bankers, they’re kind of their own court Jews, and they all knew each other and they all worked together. And Nathan marries Levy Barent Cohen’s daughter and becomes one of the richest men in the world. The story of the Rothschilds is extraordinary. I’ve told it to you before. I would suggest, if you really want to go deep, read Niall Ferguson’s brilliant book on the Rothschilds. Now Nathan, who was considered to be one of the rudest men in England, there’s a wonderful story that a peer came to see him for money, and Nathan didn’t even look up. And the peer said, “Do you know who I am?” Oh, Nathan, without looking up, said, “Take a chair.” And the peer said, “Do you know who I am?” And Nathan said, “Yes, so take two chairs.” Now his eldest son, Lionel, who I’ve already mentioned to you because he becomes the first MP who takes the oath as a Jew, he had five children by his Rothschild wife. They kept on intermarrying each other. It’s fascinating because whereas when you look at the Habsburgs who kept on intermarrying, gradually, the family descended into real problems, with the Rothschilds, it doesn’t seem to have dulled them at all. He marries a Rothschild. So Lionel has five children, including three sons, Nathaniel, who later becomes Lord Nathaniel, Alfred, and Leopold.

And they all meet Bertie at Cambridge. Remember, they go to Cambridge, but they don’t graduate. Now ironically, they were approved of by Victoria because their grandfather, Nathan, the first of the English Rothschilds, had been banker to her father, the Duke of Kent, and also the German Rothschilds looked after the Coburg affairs. So shortly after Bertie’s marriage… So know that there’s already a friendship. Shortly after Bertie’s marriage, an anxious Sir William Knollys, who was his equerry, had consulted a fellow courtier, Lord Spencer, on the wisdom of accepting an invitation from the Rothschilds, Spencer, “If the prince went to a ball there, a great outcry would arise in the world, for I think the prince ought not to accept any invitation. He ought only to visit those of undoubted position in society. I should be very sorry if the prince and princess accepted their hospitality.” The prince had his own ideas. And it was him, 25 years later, that he pressed the appointment of Nathaniel, later on, Lord Rothschild, as Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire. He said… He actually explained this to a mutual Cambridge friend and Nathaniel’s neighbour, Lord Carrington. He said, “It would’ve been strange 10 years ago, but times have changed. He’s a good fellow, a man of business. And after all, his family owned half the county.” Nathaniel was rated. He was rated by those whose pomposity he’s punctured as one of the rudest men in England.

His friend, Lord Randolph Churchill, was another. Nathaniel Rothschild was very, very smart. He was also as rude as his grandfather, but he was very close to Lord Randolph Churchill. And of course, he was also the executor of Disraeli. And there is a story that Disraeli on the deathbed said, on his deathbed said the Shema. We will never know the truth, but it’s a lovely story. But ironically, he was also close to Lord Balfour, who I’ve already discussed with you. When Natty died in 1915, this is what Lord Balfour said. And remember, Balfour was so coolly aloof. “To me, Natty’s death is a great blow. I was really fond of him. Really admired that self-contained and somewhat joyless character, utterly indifferent to worldly pomp and vanities.” In fact, Nathaniel is going to avoid the pomp by leaving the Prince of Wales mainly to his two brothers, Alfred and Leopold, and to his cousin, Ferdinand. The most… Also, because Nathaniel also had married a Rothschild, a Frankfurt Rothschild called Emma, who was very strait-laced, so she didn’t like the Marlborough set. So can we see the… Can we come on to the next slide, please?

It’s interesting because don’t forget that Nicholas II is the nephew of Bertie. Now this is very important because at that particular period, if you think about the 1890s, Alexander III, who is married to the sister of Alexandra, is one of the most antisemitic tsars of Russia. He dies in 1894 and the situation of the Jews of Russia is really, really going to get worse. His uncle, on a state visit, against the advice of his minister, of the Crown, because by this time, he is allowed by Queen Victoria, she’s become very old and ill, to conduct state affairs, he actually tries to intervene with Nicholas. It’s not successful, but the point is he does it because Lord Rothschild asked him to intervene. Because the Rothschilds were very much concerned. They saw themselves as the kings of the Jews. And whenever Jews were in trouble, they tried to do everything possible to alleviate their situation. So let’s have a look at Lord Nathaniel Rothschild, the first Jewish peer, the Son of Lionel, the first Jewish MP. Can we see? So Nathan Rothschild, 1840 to 1915. So he, as I’ve already mentioned, he was educated at Trinity College. He was friendly with the Prince of Wales, later, Edward II. But as I told you, he gives it to his pleasure-loving brothers. When his father dies… From an early age, he’s a partner in the bank. He has a wonderful aptitude for business. He’s a brilliant businessman. And after his father’s death, he becomes head of the bank.

He’s very close to Benjamin Disraeli. Amongst many of his other ventures, he part funds Cecil Rhodes. And in the development, this will interest our South African colleagues, and develops one of the British South Africa Company. And he’s also heavily involved in the De Beers diamond conglomerate. He later administered Rhodes’ estate and helped establish the Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford. So he had quite a lot of interests in South Africa. He was a huge philanthropist, both for Jewish and non-Jewish causes. He was behind the Four Per Cent Industrial Dellings Company, which was a model dwelling company to provide decent housing, primarily for Jews in Whitechapel and Spitalfields. He was a representative on the Aliens Commission. As I’ve already mentioned, he becomes Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire from 1899 to his death. After the death of Queen Victoria, he becomes one of Edward’s privy counsellors. He’s appointed to the Royal Victorian Order. Before he became a lord, he sat in the House of Commons for Aylesbury. His Uncle Anthony had been made a baronet. And as he had no heirs, as Anthony had no heirs, that had passed to Nathaniel. And it’s very important that he becomes the first Jewish member of the House of Lords, Baron Rothschild of Tring. In 1914, Lloyd George, who didn’t like him much, consulted him, how on earth is he going to raise the money for the war? And it was Nathaniel who said, “Tax the rich and tax them heavily.” So as I said, he was married to Emma von Rothschild. They were double first cousins. They shared both sets of… They shared both sets of grandparents. Nathaniel Rothschild’s elevation to the peerage had been hailed as the last milestone on the road to Jewish emancipation. Remember, England was different. It’s this long, slow process. It’s really… It’s fascinating because the riches to high society in Britain were much easy. It was easier to get into high society than it was into WASP America.

This is James Bryce, the later ambassador to America. “If his private character be bad, if he had been mean and openly immoral or personally vulgar or dishonest, the best society may have kept its doors closed against him. In England, great wealth skillfully employed will not readily force, will more readily force these doors open.” So by this time, even Americans are noticing that it’s easier to gain acceptance in England. And this was the lament of an English dowager. “Certainly, money is a vulgar thing and money is what rules us now. What right of such people to force themselves into our society?” Ironically, it’s materialism and cosmopolitanism that is what really was valued later on by the Marlborough House set. This is Prince von Bulow. “Edward has a marked predilection for the Jews.” Now let’s have a look at his brother, Alfred de Rothschild. By the way, it was Nathan, of course, when he was… He took on many, many Jewish causes. And of course, he was also head of the Jewish preschool. And you may remember that I read to you that letter he wrote to the parents where he said, “Don’t send your children to cheder. Let them go onto the football fields. Make them into Englishmen. Make them into English gentlemen.” He loved being an English gentleman. And this is his brother, Alfred de Rothschild, the second son of Lionel and Charlotte, who was very, very close to Edward. Also, he was at Trinity. And age 21, he goes into the banking business.

He travelled Europe. He visited all his relatives and other banking houses. And in 1868, he becomes a director of the Bank of England, and he was the first Jew to do so, and he held the post for 20 years. He also, in 1892, represented the British government at an International Monetary Fund Conference in Brussels. So the Rothschilds are really the Jewish kings of the world. After the death of Lionel, he inherited Halton House. Can we have a look at some more pictures, please? That’s his brother, Leopold, who I’m going to turn to in a minute. Can we go on, please? This is the Bank of England, the famous Bank of England. He’s the first Jewish director. Let’s have a look at Halton House. The Rothschilds are going to create the most incredible stately homes. And there’s a wonderful book on it by Abigail Green, by the way, on the Rothschild stately homes. His main residence was at Seamore Place in London. He becomes high sheriff of the County of London. When he inherits Halton, he actually sets about creating it in the style of a French chateau. It took three years to complete. He hardly ever went there. He only used it for social purposes. Before World War I, he was the consul-general for Austria in London, He became a commander of the Royal Victorian Order. He’s given it by Edward VII, his most close friend. He’s awarded honours by the French monarchy, by Prussia, by the Habsburg Empire. He is a huge patron of the arts. He donated huge amounts to the National Gallery. Let’s have a look at it.

And he also had an… He was a trustee and he had an… He was also a trustee of the Wallace Collection. He had an amazing art collection. He remains a bachelor. So he’s a dilettante, but he loves art. He’s a great collector. He is a gentle character, in many ways, with an acute mind. He probably had an illegitimate child via Mrs. Mina Boyer Wombwell. There was the story, though, that he was gay. Now, he certainly acted as the girl’s guardian. She was called Almina for Albert and Mina. Can we see a picture of her, please? Almina, Countess… Almina Herbert, Countess of Carnarvon. She makes a brilliant marriage with the dowry from her guardian/father. She marries the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. The Countess becomes the Countess of Carnarvon with a dowry of 500,000 pounds given by her guardian godfather. Today, that would be 62 million. And that allowed the Earl of Carnarvon. Let’s see the next stately home. You’re going to know it because that, of course, is the set of “Downton Abbey.” She becomes the chatelaine through her husband of Highclere Castle. And also, it was her money… Can you go on? Which she inherited from her father/godfather that allowed Carnarvon to lead to his excavations in Egypt, and, of course, the tomb of Tutankhamun, which led to the great phase of everything Egyptian. Art Deco, think about it. So ironically, the Rothschilds are also involved in that. And where is Alfred buried? This fascinating character, where is he buried? Let’s see. He’s buried in the Willesden Jewish Cemetery. He had a Jewish burial.

Now let’s have a look at the third of Lionel’s sons, Leopold. He’s the third and the youngest of the five children. And again, the great-grandson of the founder. In 1881, he marries Marie Perugia, the daughter of a very wealthy Italian Jewish banker from Trieste. Can we see the next slide, please? They live at Ascott House. Her sister marries Arthur Sassoon. And next week, we’re going to have a wonderful exhibition on the Sassoon family. Edward, the Prince of Wales, attended the wedding at the London Central Synagogue, as did, of course, Disraeli. He also, along with his brothers, become the commander of the Royal Victorian Order. He was very active in the Anglo-Jewish community. He was chairman of the Jewish Emigration Society. He actually gave a lot of money for Jews to go on to America. He was treasurer of the Board of Deputies. He becomes president of United Synagogue. And later on, he becomes president of JFS. He also was a great sportsman. Remember, that is the great passion of Edward’s. He established Southcourt Stud. Can we see it? He assembles some of the best thoroughbreds in Europe. His horses won the Derby, the St. Leger, and the 2,000 Guineas. He is very close to Edward. He pays a lot of his gambling debts. So you can see where the friendship comes from. Can we have a look at one of their… Let’s have a look at Marie Perugia. She was very, very beautiful woman. His family lived at Gunnersbury Park, another one of the Rothschild stately homes. Let’s have a look at it. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

They’re National Trust now, a huge art collection. He was also a horticulturalist. He was fascinated by gardens. They developed gardens at Gunnersbury, at Ascott, and also at Hamilton Palace. And let’s have a look at where he is buried. He is also buried at Willesden Jewish Cemetery. So the first part of the set. And next week, I’m going to go on to some of the other incredible characters that were part of his coterie. And I’m going to concentrate on Sir Ernest Cassel and the extraordinary Baron Maurice de Hirsch. So shall we have a look at questions now? Thank you. Let’s have a look at questions.

Q&A and Comments:

Myrna says, “I’ve just finished reading ‘The Making of Edward VII’ by Joan Ridley, a massive portrait of Victorian Edward. Detailed as could be.” Oh, this is interesting.

This is from Pamela. “The porphyria answer for the madness of George III is now disputed, right?”

Q: Shelly, “I’m reading ‘Tea with Hitler.’ The British upper class is not famed for their racial tolerance at the best of time, vilified wealthy Jews as flashy while they condemn poor Jews for spreading socialism. Would you say that is a succinct summary?”

A: It’s more complicated than that, Shelly. Winston Churchill actually liked Jews. So did Randolph Churchill. The cleverer ones, yes. It’s a mixed picture. You know, you’ve got to remember, antisemitism in Britain is of a different order, and I will deal with it.

Rita says, “‘The Heir Apparent: A life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince’ by Jane Ridley.” “How can contact with Edward have caused Albert to contract…” He didn’t. He had typhus. What happened was, Peter, he got a terrible, terrible, terrible cold, a flu. There’s no penicillin. He wasn’t a strong man. And on his sickbed, it becomes typhus and he dies. And Queen Victoria never got over it.

“Savile Row, Henry Poole tailors Edward customs, customer, the tuxedo was born. Tux in the US.” Oh, lovely. I love information.

Q: “Was Oscar Wilde an antisemite?”

A: No, no. His boyfriend was a terrible antisemite, as you know. But he wasn’t. He didn’t like Disraeli much. He thought he was too flashy and too showy. But Oscar Wilde was a subtle, clever man. Remember, he was also an outsider. To be gay in Britain, or to be gay anywhere at the time, remember, it was a criminal offence right up until the ‘60s.

Q: This is from James. “The Rothschilds seemed to have assimilated totally. How many of them are now totally Jewish?”

A: Depends how you’re defining it. Religiously, no. But many of them are still heavily involved in Jewish causes. I mean, Lord Rothschild, his foundation, Hanadiv, gives hugely to Jewish causes. And fascinating, I’ve had a strange career. I used to teach at Eton, Sixth Forms, and I taught Nathaniel Rothschild. I think I told you this yesterday. And Lord Rothschild’s son. And he said, “I’ve got to do this, because one day, I will give the address at the Balfour dinner.” They have a huge sense of what it means to be a Rothschild. That’s my experience. A huge sense of responsibility. And they are very… It depends how you define Jew. That’s the problem. The word, Jew, is so complicated. They’re not religiously Jewish. Many of them have intermarried. So define Jew for me. In fact, when I look at Israel Zangwill, who I’m also looking at next week 'cause I’m going a bit offline and I’m looking at a few Jewish intellectuals in England, he spends a lot of time looking at how complex it is to be a Jew. And I think the best book on the Rothschilds is Niall Ferguson.

This is from Michael. “My aunt’s brother, Philip Magnus, wrote the definitive biography of Edward VII and was given access by the Royal Family to many private.” Yes, yes, it’s a brilliant book, Michael. That’s interesting.

Margaret’s saying, “In this presentation, I can’t see the face of Trudy Gold. Please, can you keep Trudy’s image present?” Oh. Rita’s saying I can be seen. Adjust your computer.

“I recall that Queen Victoria was appalled when the Prince of Wales attended a Rothschild wedding.” Yes.

Q: Now, Queen Victoria, was she an antisemite?

A: Oh, no, not really. But she did have some of the prejudices of her class and she thought that was a step too far. She resisted making Lionel a peer. She did, in the end, assent to Lord Rothschild becoming a peer in 1885. So she was an unusual woman. She didn’t have many of the prejudices one would expect, and Prince Albert. And she adored Felix Mendelssohn. So she thought he had a very beautiful Jewish face. So again, it’s mixed. Don’t forget that, if you are a Christian, which Victoria was, you do have this baggage. It’s a terrible baggage. It’s 2,000 years old. And I sometimes wonder, and I’m going to stick my neck out here, I sometimes think it’s too deep to ever eradicate, even in the most benign person, because it’s in the culture. I think you have to do a lot of work to get rid of Jew hatred. And so many, inverted commas, decent people… Look, think about it, it’s in the culture. And I’m going to stick my neck even further. And I’m not making any political comments about the state of Israel. But I do believe it has more opprobrium poured on it than any other country in the world. And I ask myself why. And I’m not making a political comment. So don’t go that way 'cause I refuse to get involved in political situation in Israel.

But I go along with Howard Jacobson here when he said, “They can’t forgive us the Holocaust.” And also, with the former chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, when he said, “First, they hated our religion, then our race. Now, they hate our nation.” It’s so deep. That’s my view.

This is from Erica. “I shared a flat with the descendant of Lillie Langtry. Her sister was utterly beautiful with violet eyes.”

Barbara, “When I arrived at Middlebury College in 1986, the student living in the dorm next to mine was one Jennie Jerome, the great or double great-granddaughter of Winston’s mother. She was absolutely gorgeous and the spitting image of her ancestor.” How interesting.

Selena is giving us the definition. “Halachically considered…” Yes, the halachic Jewish definition is if you are the child of a Jewish mother. That’s the halachic definition. But it’s certainly not the antisemite’s definition of a Jew. And also, don’t forget it’s possible to be a Jewish atheist. I know when I have my Seder service, how many of my guests are Jewish atheists but they like to come to a Seder. And to the Israelis, they believe the definition is national. Look, Anglo-Jewry is going to face this at the time of the Balfour Declaration. The greatest critics of the Balfour Declaration were Anglo Jews who said, “We are citizens of Britain.”

Oh, this is… “I have just finished reading 'The Women of Rothschild’ by Natalie Livingstone, a very interesting book.” Yes, she’s a very interesting writer. In fact, I must try and ask her to come on Lockdown.

Q: Oh, this is from Dennis. “We were taught that the custom of leaving the lowest button of one’s waistcoat unfastened arose because the portly Bertie couldn’t button up. True?”

A: I don’t know, Dennis, but that’s a lovely aside. That’s one of the reasons I love Lockdown so much. We all learn so much.

Selena is saying, “The Catholic church is a problem.” Yes, of course it is, Selena. Now, that doesn’t mean that all Catholics hate Jews. Be very, very careful. But we were only forgiven for the crime of deicide four generations in the ‘60s. So it is a complicated story.

Q: “How many of the Rothschilds intermarry?”

A: Oh, that’s a complicated story. Would you please get hold of Ferguson’s book and look at the charts? In the first gen, the men didn’t for a few generations. The women did.

Q: “Were the Rothschilds involved in the controversies involved in Jews, such as the Dreyfus, the…”

A: Yeah, they did everything they could to help. Remember that. They did everything they could to help. Tux… Oh, wait a minute, this is all Israel, Isroff.

“Tuxedo, New York from Wikipedia. 'Tuxedo is a town in Orange County along the…” I wonder if that’s got anything to do with it. Thank you, Abigail.

Q: “Why do antisemites get to define Judaism?”

A: They shouldn’t. Of course they shouldn’t, Tamal. But unfortunately, an unbelievable number of our people died as a result of antisemites defining Judaism. Don’t forget. That doesn’t mean you should define yourself that way. Of course not. But what I’m saying is, in the end, something like 400,000 people who were not halachically Jewish were murdered by the Nazis. I agree. The rabbi is right, Selena. It is wrong for the antisemites to define Jews. All I’m saying is it’s a complicated definition. If I’m asking you to define Christian, it’s much easier. I’m sure you’d give me a religious definition. But with Jew, it can be religion. Race, I don’t like because there’s no such thing as a pure race, but it’s been used by antisemites. Peoplehood, cultural. A lot of people are culturally Jewish, you know? What about the Rothschilds? They’re not religious, but they stand up for the Jews. They feel their name gives them a responsibility to the Jewish people. And so many of them. I mean, when you look at how the Rothschilds and also Baron de Hirsh and Cassel, a lot of these very wealthy Jews are going to be very involved in helping the poor Jews of Eastern Europe. And I’m going to be talking about that next week when I look at Baron Maurice de Hirsch. But please don’t forget that Cassel, what happened? He converted. He married into the English aristocracy. And his granddaughter became the vicereine of India. She married Mountbatten. So what a story.

Anyway, thank you all very much, and I will see you all next week. And I believe tonight Dennis is talking about Breaker Morant, which will be very interesting. Take care. And thank you, Karina, very much.