Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, a relative of King Charles, was once a key suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders. The prince, known as 'Eddy' to his family, was the eldest child of the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. He died in 1892, so his younger brother became King George V after their father passed in 1910.
A controversial royal figure
The great-uncle of the late Queen was also involved in the Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889. Two theories supported the idea that Albert Victor was the Whitechapel killer. The first suggested the prince had contracted syphilis from a prostitute in the West Indies, which made him go on a vengeful rampage as the disease spread to his brain, turning him mad.
The second theory claimed that Albert fell in love, had a child with, and secretly married a Catholic girl in Whitechapel. According to this story, the killings in the East End were the work of agents of the Royal Family who murdered anyone who had knowledge of the prince's secret marriage or child.
Claims widely discredited
Despite these far-fetched scenarios, his link to the murders has been widely discredited. The prince was 500 miles from London with his grandmother, Queen Victoria, in Balmoral on the night of the double murder on September 30, 1888.
The Jack the Ripper investigation wasn't the only time rumours plagued the prince's life. His apparent involvement in the Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889 caused huge concern, as sexual acts between men were illegal in Britain at the time. When a male, homosexual brothel was discovered by police in Euston, it was eventually reported by the foreign press that Prince Albert Victor had visited.
Death and legacy
Other prominent patrons of the brothel reportedly included Lord Arthur Somerset and Henry FitzRoy, Earl of Euston. The scandal sparked widespread criticism of the government, as they were accused of covering up the controversy to protect high-ranking members of the aristocracy.
In 1891, the prince proposed to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, the future Queen Mary. However, between 1889 and 1892, an influenza pandemic struck the country, and the prince fell ill, eventually developing pneumonia. Less than a week after his 28th birthday, Prince Albert Victor died at Sandringham House in Norfolk, surrounded by his family and fiancée, who went on to marry his younger brother, who became King George V in 1910.
Prince Albert Victor's death sparked a national outpouring of grief and mourning. However, work published from the 1960s onwards shows that historians do not typically look upon his life favourably. In 1964, historian Sir Philip Magnus said the prince's death was a “merciful act of providence” and supported the idea that his death had removed an unsuitable heir to the throne and replaced him with the reliable and sensible George V.
