The First Royal Visits

Abstract

Edward’s trip to the German Empire in February 1901 to see his dying sister (the Dowager Empress) marked his first trip abroad as sovereign. It was followed by a subsequent trip in August to attend her funeral. Neither of these royal visits was the first made to Germany by Edward VII, but they were the first he made in his new role as monarch. This chapter explores the revival of British state visits, as opposed to the royal visits overseas by Victoria and her family on pleasure trips or to visit relatives on the continent. Germany had been a regular destination, but so had France, for the British royal family, as reports in both the British and continental media of the nineteenth century show. Equally, in the last forty years of the nineteenth century, European royals had regularly undertaken family visits to their British royal relatives and also enjoyed a share of leisure activities, taking part in events such as Cowes Week. Thus, interchanges between royal individuals across state boundaries were fairly commonplace for the British as well as other European royal families.¹