Alice Keppel
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Alice Edmonstone Keppel (October 14, 1869 - November 22, 1947) was the famous mistress of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom during his declining years.
She was born at Duntreath Castle, Loch Lomond. Her grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel John Whittle Parsons, while British Governor of the Ionian Islands, married a Greek girl whom he took back to Scotland. Their daughter, Mary Elizabeth Parsons, married Sir William Edmonstone, 4th Baronet, who as a youth had entered the Royal Navy. When only sixteen he was wounded by pirates. Sir William was thirty-one when he married Mary Elizabeth and they became the parents of one son and eight daughters, of whom Alice was the youngest. Alice grew up at Duntreath Castle, the family home since the 15th century. Her only brother, Archibald, was nearest in age to her and they had a close relationship. "She not only had a gift of happiness but she excelled in making others happy," said a contemporary.
On June 1, 1891, she married the Hon. George Keppel, a son of William Coutts Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle. He was twenty-six and she twenty-two. Quickly tiring of their financial restrictions, she is said to have taken a wealthy lover. Her first daughter was born in 1894, and the father was rumoured to be Ernest William Beckett, the future Lord Grimthorpe.
It was in in 1898 that she met the Prince of Wales and, within a matter of weeks, became his mistress. The Prince was fifty-six and Alice twenty-nine. She was an accomplished bridge-player, which appealed to him. The relationship caused the Keppels to move house, from Wilton Crescent in London to 30 Portman Square where her second daughter, Sonia, was born in 1900. Alexandra of Denmark, the Princess of Wales, is said to have preferred the discreet Mrs Keppel to the Prince's previous mistress, Daisy, Countess of Warwick. George Keppel remained devoted to his wife, despite her relationship with the King. Once, while at Baden, a Grand Duke is said to have asked him: "So you're a Keppel? Are you related to the king's mistress?" and he ignored the insult. According to their daughter, the marriage was "a companionship of love and laughter".
In 1910, when Edward VII was dying and asked for Alice's presence, Queen Alexandra reluctantly allowed her to be present. After the king's death, the Keppels moved out of their home and travelled in the Far East, staying away for almost two years. During the First World War, Mrs Keppel helped her friend, Lady Sarah Wilson, run a hospital in Boulogne.
Towards the end of the war her daughter, Violet, became notorious for a love affair with Vita Sackville-West; to avoid scandal, it was arranged for her to marry Denys Trefusis. When Violet threatened to divorce, Alice cut her daughter's allowance and this was the beginning of the end of Violet's and Vita's affair.
In 1927 the Keppels moved to Italy. Near Florence they bought the Villa dell'Ombrellino where they lived, with the exception of the Second World War, for the rest of their lives. In 1940 they returned to England where they stayed in the country with their daughter Sonia. Mrs Keppel said that she preferred "bombs to boredom" and they moved to London to stay the rest of the war years in the Ritz. During this time, Mrs Keppel paid a visit to Queen Mary.
In 1946 they returned to their villa in Italy but soon it became obvious that Alice was seriously ill. She died aged seventy-eight and her husband died two months later.
The family rose to prominence again with the marriage of Alice's great grand daughter, Camilla Parker Bowles (nee Shand) to Charles, Prince of Wales in April 2005. It is the second marriage for both bride & groom who each have two children from their previous marriages.
