ABSTRACT
At six-thirty pm on Tuesday, January 22, 1901, at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, Victoria drew her last breath. She was nearly eighty-two years of age and had ruled for sixty-four years – longer than any other British sovereign. A year's mourning was proclaimed, and the coronation was scheduled for June 26 of the following year; however, it was unexpectedly delayed because of an attack of royal appendicitis. On Saturday June 14, 1902, less than two weeks before the coronation, the King did not feel well but travelled up to Aldershot, on a typical cold, rainy summer day, to attend a military tattoo. The King wished to be seen by the public, but to the public it was obvious that their monarch was not well. Again against the advice of his doctors, Edward insisted on going to a banquet that night attended by all the crown princes of Europe.
