To my regular readers!
After blogging for so many years, it's time to move MISTRESS MANIFESTO to a new theme and format. Although this, and some other adjustments, may happen quickly and easily, a day or so perhaps, I want you to know that I'm preparing for glitches or more time consuming actions. I will be trying to do technology updates bit by bit at first without disappearing from the Internet, but it's likely my tech will have more recommendations....
Missy
READING E-BOOKS for MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT
However, she had not only the patronage of the King and Queen and their connections for her life's work - the hospital had provided medical care for hundreds of officers in three wars - but the respect she deserved for her unselfish efforts.
In her old age, the never married and childless Agnes, enjoyed invitations and outings with the Royals.
Excerpt page 173: "The diaries of King George V and Queen Mary confirm that Agnes Keyser was invited to stay at Abergeldie and dine at Balmoral for a few days each year between 1921 and 1935. There she regularly joined the royal family on motor trips and picnics, cutting a rather eccentric figure striding over the heather in a bright mauve suit and an orange wig. Their Balmoral garden walks were a special delight for Agnes at the king described his plans for a new pansy garden and alpine feature that was to evolve as ' Queen Mary's Garden'. .... Sister Agnes could be relied upon to enliven the Balmoral conversation by repeating, not always with useful results, the talk of the town. Agnes' gossip was said to include tidbits about the current indiscretions of the Prince of Wales; in this Agnes was deemed a part of an 'intelligence network' said to include Princess Victoria (King George's unmarried sister.)
Agnes moved to the countryside due to the bombings and declining health and passed in May of 1941. She left a personal estate of only 68,272 pounds. Her will provided that her property that had been used as the hospital and 25,000 pounds to continue as the hospital. Small bequests such as personal items were distributed.
Excerpt pages 174-175 : ..."To Queen Mary she left two tables from her dining room at 16 Grosvenor Crescent, to Princess Mary (The Princess Royal) she left her "Elephant" cigarette lighter which King Edward VII had given her.... To Florence, Lady de la Rue, went the gold purse gifted to her by King George and Queen Mary and the gold cup given by Edward VII....
Note: Upon reading this I'm a bit surprised to learn that the King had gifted her some valuable treasures.
Excerpt page 144: "For Agnes Keyser the First World War was to bring a great increase in the work and expansion of her hospital. Now many of Agnes' and Alice's mutual friends were opening up their homes for the hospital's overflow of sick and wounded officers. Agnes had succeeded in negotiating the use of several houses in London's Belgravia which belonged to such as Mrs. Rupert Beckett, Sire Walpole Greenwell, Lady Maxwell, Mr. Pandelli Ralli and Mrs. Clarence Watney. An added cachet was given to all these owners by visits to their properties by King George and Queen Mary to see the patients. A fleet of special ambulances was also organized to meet hospital trains and ships to bring the wounded officers to the hospital.
The war effort was tremendous. Many owners of estates opened their homes for the same purpose. There was the British Red Cross and the order of St John of Jerusalem combined to form th Joint War Committee to carry out charity work. Many society women got involved. Alice Keppel did.
Agnes claimed she was "summoned" by the Queen to see the dying King Edward VII. Many, including courtiers, say otherwise.
Excerpt page 130: During the last days of the king's life, Alice was frantic. She knew that her lover was dying and asked to be with him. The queen had not sent for her, although, according to Sir Francis Laking, Alice had been a constant visitor to Buckingham Palace before the Queen came back from the Mediterranean. Alice played what she thought was her trump card - she sent the Queen the letter that the King had sent her at the time of his appendix operation in 1902 which had said that if he was dying he was certain that the Queen would allow Alice to come to him. The letter, and a further wish of the King's that Alice be invited, persuaded the Queen to allow Knollys (the King's private secretary) to contact Alice.
Alice did go to the King but she also lied that the King had asked the Queen to kiss Alice - to unite in his last hours. Alice also said that he had asked that the Royal Family look after her after his death, suggesting she expected ongoing money. Rather a witness said that the Queen shook hands with Alice and suggested that she had always been a good influence over him. Actually, she might have said that sarcastically, as reportedly Alice ran from the room and was in hysterics. In actuality the King barely recognized people at this point in his dying process.
Alice knew that she would be swamped with publicity, and so she fled to a friend's with her entourage. She was in deep grief. But she did the best thing she could to guard her position in society and went to sign a public book of condolences, as if she were just one of many people to give her regards. She found herself snubbed by the new King, Wilhelm II, who disapproved of her and would not receive her.
But Agnes Keyser and her family were acceptable.
Excerpt page 133 -134: Agnes Keyser's mourning was to be discreet, Alice Keppel's depressive and demonstrative. Leading up to the state ceremonial on 20 Ma6y there was a three-day-lying-in-state at Westminster Hall, before interment at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. Keppels were to play a prominent part in the funeral cortege. ..... From Marlborough House, the new King's private secretary Sir Arthur Bigge wrote to the Duke of Norfolk that it was the monarch's wish that Agnes and Fanny Keyser were to be allocated seats for the funeral service at Stl George;'s Chapel, Windsor.
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Yes the hospital was only for the elite of the military who had been wounded. Was Agnes a snob? She and her sister were unified in establishing a hospital.
... Funded by the two sisters the hospital was to nurse 275 officers during the period of the war and Agnes showed herself to be an able administrator, although she had no medical training The hospital was not to take the whole of Fanny Keysers efforts. She decided to go to South Africa. Before 1899 there were few female nurses in the British Medical Corps, and at first there was an official reluctance to send women as nurses to South Africa. Fanny Keyser joined a civilian hospital at Johannesburg from 5 November 1900 to 28 February 1901, whereupon she rejoined her sister. Meanwhile brother Charles Edward Founded a Home for the Convalescent Soldiers at Aldermaston.
While the Keyser sisters busied themselves with war work, Alice Keppel was establishing herself in royal circles and began to appear regularly at the Prince of Wales's main haunts....
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Edward Albert, Prince of Wales, finally became King in 1901 when his mother, Queen Victoria, died. There was much anticipation because the people wanted change. It was well known that he was involved with Alice Keppel, but well, it was always said that the King had "democratic tastes" in women. And he was involved with both Alice Keppel and Agnes Keyser
Excerpt page 75: "The Prince of Wales association with Agnes Keyser developed at a much slower pace than his with Alice Keppel, and was not to increase in intensity until after he became King and his health entered its steady decline. Alice would never lose her lace as maltress du roi (mistress of the King), but the monarch's need for Agnes evolved as a loving friendship. It is likely too, that Edward was a regular visitor to the London house of the Keyser sisters at 17 Grosvenor Crescent, which the family leased from the Duke of West minister.
Exactly when and where the Prince of Eales and Agnes Keyser met for the first time in 1898 is difficult to tell. The prince - with Alice Keppel - was to visit the former Keyser home of Warren House on a number of occasions and knew the Keysers well, but it is likely that they first met in London through mutual friends, within the network of Anglo-Jewry which vacillated at the edge of Edward's court. In particular the Bishcoffsheims and their relatives the Goldschmidts, the Sassoons, the Cassels, and the Wernhers, were all members of the princes' court circle. Many of their friends were to be further linked with Agnes and her new royal admirer through the advent of the South African War.
Agnes and her sister, Fanny, were volunteers in nursing service and relief organizations.
The magazine illustration above shows Agnes as a nurse, and called "Sister Agnes." However, she had no nurse training. She could be called nurturing but commanding. The King was ailing, obese, in pain.
On the book cover here, Agnes is the one depicted to the top left, and Alice Keppel the bottom left. Lamont-Brown's book is about the last two loves of this King, who had devoted most of his life to pleasure whenever possible, during the last few years of his life.
How to describe Agnes Keyser? One might suggest that she was so unlike the other mistresses of Edward Albert, the Prince of Wales who became King Edward VII, so unlikely to be a mistress, that she's remarkable in that way ... There is some speculation that he and Agnes had a love that was devoid of sexuality. Though that may or may not be true, once again we make our way through the mistress stereotype, that the relationship is about sex.
I want to start by posting what I learned about Agnes Keyser from reading the book I featured last month: Catherine Arnold's.
The King and his wife lived at Sandringham House which is today the preferred family home of King Charles III, but his wife felt herself to be a prisoner there because she was left home while the King was openly in a relationship with Alice Keppel. Everyone seemed to know their place in the scheme of things, for, according to author Raymond Lamont-Brown, that the King's entourage for his coronation included other mistresses such as Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick, Lillie Langtry, and Sarah Bernhardt.
There is also the question of just how many children the Prince of Wales, who became King Edward VII late in life, had begot outside of his marriage. Some of the people who attended the coronation may have been the "bratlings" he had fathered.
Agnes probably met the king in 1899. The Boar war broke out and she and her younger sister, Fanny, set up a nursing home for officers. Just officers. The King, called "Bertie." set up a trust to finance this nursing home. Several of the donors were also of some Jewish descent. It became King Edward's Hospital for Officers. She was thus called "Sister Agnes."
Now, from the Raymond Lamont-Brown book, we learn that both women likely got involved with the King around the same time in 1898. In the mid 1800's in the United Kingdom there was a man-shortage. Around 20 percent of the women who were born about the same time as she never married. Not only that but the age of first marriage for women of her class had risen to 26 years old. But this isn't offered as an explanation for her resistance to marriage, which had been expected of her. "She found the social ideal of women subjugating herself to a man in matrimony abhorrent." The Englishwoman's Review summed up her attitude perfectly when in its columns it averred that 'the higher a woman's nature is, the more likely it is that she will prefer to forgo marriage altogether, than surrender herself to a union that would sink her below her own ideal.' Because Agnes Keyser was wealthy she was never considered a social failure.
Furthermore, as a spinster, Agnes Keyser was far more independent than a married woman, being able to act as a trustee, an executrix, or an administratrix should she wish to, and to enjoy a franchise in parish matters. Agnes Keyser became a member of the Victorian group of women who slowly developed new lifestyles which in time would influence all women. And as a terrible snob, Agnes intended to be somebody. (Excerpts from page 45.)
The King had certainly no need of Agnes' money and she was not one to expect his financial support or generosity. But of course, what I do wonder, is if having two very different women in his life at the same time was necessary for the King to have all that he wanted and needed, if the two of them had qualities that balanced each other. For Agnes, if she thought of her as competition or not, the other woman was not the King's wife but Alice Keppel, a flamboyant personality who loved riches. Edward had been a Prince in waiting for the throne the majority of his life and his mother, Queen Victoria, was formidable. His wife, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, and he, had done their duty in bringing children into their world, but it was not a true love match. Divorce was impossible but who knows if Alexandra ever thought about it. She prevailed in the end having had the man in her life longer than any other woman.
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