Edward VII, King of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, eldest son of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, was born at Buckingham Palace on 9th Nov., 1841, died 6th May, 1910. In Dec., 1841, he was created Prince of Wales. He was educated under private tutors and at Edinburgh, Oxford, and Cambridge; visited Canada and the United States in 1860; and underwent military training at the Curragh camp in 1861. Promoted to the rank of general in 1862, he visited Palestine and the East, and next year took his seat in the House of Lords. On 10th March, 1863, he was married in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, to Princess Alexandra, eldest daughter of Christian IX of Denmark, and from this time onwards he discharged many public ceremonial functions. Attacked by typhoid fever in the winter of 1871, his life was for a time despaired of, but he recovered early in 1872, his recovery being made the occasion of a thanksgiving service in St. Paul's Cathedral. During 1875 and 1876 he visited India. He was a member of the Poor Law Commission of 1893. He promoted the establishment of the Imperial Institute as a
memorial of Queen Victoria's jubilee (1887), and he commemorated her diamond jubilee (1897) by founding the Prince of Wales's (now King's) Hospital Fund for the better financial support of the London hospitals. On the death of Queen Victoria on 22nd Jan., 1901, he succeeded to the throne, and was crowned on 9th Aug., 1902. King Edward did much to promote friendly relations with foreign powers, especially with France and the United States. It was through his personal influence that the Entente Cordiale with France was brought about. To him and Queen Alexandra were born: Albert Victor Christian Edward, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, born 1864, died 1892; George Frederick Ernest Albert, who succeeded his father as George V, born 1865, married 1893, to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck; Princess Louise, now Princess Royal, born 1867, married 1889, to the Duke of Fife, who died 29th Jan., 1912; Princess Victoria, born 1868; and Princess Maud, born 1869, married 1896, to Prince Charles of Denmark, now King of Norway as Haakon VII.—Bibliography: Life of the King, by 'One of His Majesty's Servants'; Holt-White, The People's King; E. Legge, King Edward in his true Colours; J. P. Brodhurst, The Life and Times of Edward VII; W. H. Wilkins, Edward the Peacemaker.
Edward, Thomas, a Scottish naturalist, born 1814, died 1886. The son of poor parents, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker and worked at his trade till nearly the end of his life, but succeeded in acquiring much knowledge of natural history and some fame as a naturalist. An interesting biography of Edward (Life of a Scottish Naturalist), written by Samuel Smiles, appeared in 1876, and a pension of £50 a year was shortly afterwards conferred on him by Queen Victoria.
Edwards, Amelia Blandford, English novelist and Egyptologist, born in London in 1831, died in 1892. She gave early evidence of great literary ability by her contributions to periodicals, and attracted attention by her novel My Brother's Wife (1855). Among her best-known novels are: Hand and Glove (1859), Barbara's History (1864), Half a Million of Money (1865), Debenham's Vow (1870), and Lord Brackenbury (1880). Miss Edwards wrote also ballads and books of travel, and in 1882 founded the Egypt Exploration Fund and devoted herself to Egyptology, leaving funds to found a chair of Egyptology in University College, London.
Edwards, Bryan, English writer, born in Wiltshire in 1743, died in 1800. He inherited a large fortune from an uncle in Jamaica, where he long resided. His History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies appeared in 1793.
Edwards, John Passmore, British philanthropist and journalist, born at Blackwater, Cornwall, in March, 1823, died on 22nd April, 1911. Trained as a journalist, he became representative of the paper The Sentinel, and was opposed to the Corn Laws. In 1862 he bought The Building News, and in 1876 the London Echo, of which he was director for twenty years. Although somewhat unpopular on account of his opposition to the Boer War, he is remembered as a public benefactor, having founded numerous Passmore Edwards institutions, public libraries, and settlements, and contributed largely to hospitals. He was a delegate to the peace congresses at Brussels, Paris, and Frankfort (1848-50), and twice refused a knighthood.
Edwards, Jonathan, American theologian and metaphysician, born 5th Oct., 1703, died 22nd March, 1758. He entered Yale College in 1716, and studied till 1722, when he received a licence as preacher. In 1723 he was elected a tutor in Yale College, but resigned in 1726 to be ordained as minister at Northampton (Mass.). After more than twenty-three years of zealous service here, he was dismissed by the congregation owing to the severity with which he sought to exercise church discipline. He then went as a missionary among the Indians at Stockbridge, in Massachusetts. Here he composed his famous work on the Freedom of the Will, which appeared in 1754. In 1757 he was chosen president of the college at Princeton, New Jersey, but died shortly afterwards.
Edwy, King of England, son of Edmund I, succeeded his uncle Edred in 955. Taking part with the secular clergy against the monks, he incurred the confirmed enmity of the latter. The Papal party, headed by Dunstan, was strong enough to excite a rebellion, by which Edwy was driven from the throne to make way for his brother Edgar. He died in 959, being probably not more than eighteen or nineteen years old.
Eecloo (āk-lō´), a town, Belgium, province of East Flanders, 11 miles north-west of Ghent, the seat of textile manufactures. Pop. 13,536.
