A sensational High Court case set against the backdrop of a Royal Family in crisis, a strained father-son relationship and a history of disastrous publicity.
No, not HRH the Duke of Sussex v Mirror Group Newspapers, but an altogether more historic courtroom drama that played out 130 years ago.
The so-called Tranby Croft Affair saw another maverick son of a serving British monarch giving evidence in circumstances that were just as highly charged and fraught with reputational danger as they are today.
For Harry read Bertie.
That was the family name of Albert Edward, eldest son of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, Albert of Saxe-Coburg, and heir to the throne. Bertie, of course, would become Edward VII, great-great-great grandfather of William and Harry.
By the time things came to a head in the same place where Prince Harry gave his evidence yesterday, Bertie already had a reputation as a louche and self-indulgent playboy, who had engaged in numerous extra-marital affairs and been the subject of at least three blackmail attempts.
Bertie already had a reputation as a louche and self-indulgent playboy, who had engaged in numerous extra-marital affairs and been the subject of at least three blackmail attempts
But his biggest mistake was to fall in with a charming but unscrupulous Scots Guards officer called Sir William Gordon-Cumming, a relationship that resulted in his attendance at a house party that had disastrous consequences for all concerned, culminating in a trial for slander that transfixed London society.
At the heart of the scandal was Lieutenant Colonel Gordon-Cumming, a cad of the old school described by the Sporting Life newspaper as ‘possibly the most handsome man in London, and certainly the rudest’.
He was also an inveterate chaser — and catcher — of other men’s wives.
‘Bill’, as he was known to the Prince of Wales, allowed the Prince to use his London residence for assignations with Daisy ‘Babbling’ Brooke, his favourite mistress of the time who was married to Lord Brooke, a Conservative politician.
But on September 6, 1890, Bertie discovered that his friend’s reputation when it came to the ladies was richly deserved: he caught Bill and Daisy ‘in flagrante’. Given what was to happen just two days later, this episode was not without significance.
On September 8, the Prince and Gordon-Cumming were thrown together again, at a country house party in Yorkshire.
Duke of Sussex giving evidence at the Rolls Buildings in central London during the phone hacking trial against Mirror Group Newspapers
The attraction was St Leger week — a highlight of the flat racing season — at the nearby Doncaster racecourse, and Bertie led a party of blue bloods, including Bill, north on a special royal train to Tranby Croft, a mansion in the village of Anlaby near Hull, owned by a shipping tycoon.
At 11pm on their first evening, following dinner and cigars, Bertie suggested that the party play the then highly fashionable game of baccarat. Baccarat — which involves betting on the value of unseen cards — was considered a game of chance and thus technically illegal. Indeed, there had been a High Court ruling to that effect and a number of players or hosts in less vaunted venues than Tranby Croft were prosecuted. Nor did the Prince’s host approve of baccarat. But by then he had gone to bed and the way was clear for Bertie to pursue one of his many vices.
Bertie was the banker and everything was going smoothly until the host’s son came to believe he had seen Bill cheating by surreptitiously moving his betting counters in or out of his stake with a pencil, depending upon how the cards fell.
He confided what he had seen to his neighbour at the table, who later told others. Come the following evening’s baccarat game, several of the company had their eyes trained on Bill.
In the course of accumulating a massive £225 (£23,000 today) in total, some of his fellow players were convinced that they had seen him cheating again.
One of the party threatened to denounce Bill at Doncaster racecourse the next day. And this proved to be the catalyst for the situation spiralling out of control. The Prince was told about Bill’s alleged cheating and a document was drawn up for Bill to sign in an attempt to ensure that such an outrage could not occur again, while still preserving the reputations of all those involved.Â
The Palace tried to head off the Prince (pictured) being dragged into the court case, to no avail
It read: ‘In consideration of the promise made by the gentlemen whose names are subscribed, to preserve silence with reference to an accusation which has been made in regard to my conduct at baccarat on the nights of Monday and Tuesday 8th and 9th September 1890, at Tranby Croft, I will on my part solemnly undertake never to play cards again as long as I live.’
The party then confronted Bill who vehemently denied the accusation, only to be told by the Prince: ‘What can you do? There are five accusers against you.’
Cornered, Bill signed and left the following morning. Bertie was among the other signatories as a witness. But the secret did not stay under wraps for long. By January 1891 it was the talk of all the smartest salons in London and, conscious that his reputation was in the gutter, Bill responded by suing for slander the five who had accused him at Tranby Croft, demanding £5,000 (more than half a million pounds today) damages from each.
The Palace tried to head off the Prince being dragged into the court case, to no avail. The trial itself promised to fulfil their worst fears, with one newspaper suggesting that it would reveal ‘salacious titbits of murky goings-on in high places with thinly veiled suggestions of sex skulduggery’.Â
Bertie’s biggest mistake was to fall in with a charming but unscrupulous Scots Guards officer called Sir William Gordon-Cumming (pictured) a relationship that resulted in his attendance at a house party that had disastrous consequences for all concerned
Given the high-profile nature of the case, the Lord Chief Justice himself decided to wield the gavel. Lord Coleridge was eccentric to say the least, turning up with a pet ferret hidden in his ‘voluminous robes’ and prone to dozing off in the middle of proceedings.
In the circumstances, it was no surprise that it was a nervous Prince of Wales who took to the witness box, according to one report. ‘Though it only lasted 20 minutes, the examination of the Prince evidently wearied him exceedingly, and made him extremely nervous. He kept changing his position and did not seem able to keep his hands still.
‘When a question more pressing, more to the point than usual, was put to him, the Prince’s face was observed to flush considerably, and then pale again, showing the state of nervousness in which he found himself.’
He insisted that he had seen no cheating but ‘the charges appeared to be so unanimous that it was the proper course … to believe them’.
The jury took only 13 minutes to find for the defendants. It was a defeat for Gordon-Cumming but there was little joy at the Palace.
That afternoon, while attending the racing at Ascot, the Prince of Wales was roundly booed.
Post source: Daily mail
