Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 9, 2011



Edward VII (1841–1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1901 until his death. Before his accession to the throne, he held the title of Prince of Wales for longer than anyone else in British history. During the long reign of his mother, Queen Victoria, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including powered flight and the rise of socialism. Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet, the reform of the Army Medical Services, and the reorganisation of the British army after the Second Boer War. He fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries, but his relationship with his nephew, Wilhelm II of Germany, was poor. Edward presciently suspected that Wilhelm would precipitate a war, and four years after Edward's death, World War I brought an end to the Edwardian way of life. (more...)

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