Last Rites: England

Abstract

The state funeral of Edward VII brought together the grandees of Europe for a final time before World War I swept away most of these human remnants of the old regime. Until the funeral was done, and with it his official capacity as special ambassador, TR stayed at Dorchester House, the cavernous Park Lane mansion that the U.S. ambassador Whitelaw Reid had taken on lease from Earl Morley.1 With him were Edith, Kermit, Ethel, and a new arrival, his oldest daughter “Princess Alice,” or Mrs. Nicholas Longworth as she was since her White House marriage four years before. Alice brought with her black mourning attire from a recent family funeral, while Edith and Ethel, who had been warned in Germany by Mrs. Reid that the London shops had been emptied, bought proper clothing in Berlin. Alice also brought the latest political gossip from Washington and stayed up very late sharing it with her father, who told her of his disappointment in their mutual friend Taft’s administration and that he thought it would be impossible for him to speak for it in the fall elections.