What Would Happen If A Member of The British Royal Family Committed A Crime in 19th Century London?

by readwriteread

Hi, I'm curious as to whether or not there would be an investigation, how it would be handled, or if it would be swept under the rug entirely. This is for more severe crimes like assault and the like.

And what would the response of commoners likely be?

1RehnquistyBoi

Well there was quite a few scandals by the British Royal family during the 19th Century.

The son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Bertie (Edward the VII) was caught up in quite a few scandals. Most never made it to court like how he lost his virginity to a prostitute. It gained massive attention with the commoners. One did come dangerously close to court though when he was involved with the Baccarat Scandal of 1890. Bertie's friend Gordon Cumming was accused of not only cheating at the game of Baccarat but it was illegal to play said game. Bertie was present during the game.

Somehow the scandal broke out and Gordon was furious so he took it to the Chief Justice's Court of London to try and clear his name. The future successor to Victoria was called up on the second day as a witness. The lawyers treaded lightly with him. They didn't vigorously cross examine him on the witness stand. However, one juror was having none of it and personally questioned him. The prince answered that he did not see his friend cheat but when asked about his opinion on the charges against Cummings he consequentially stated, "I felt no other course was open to me but to believe what I was told." Gordon was presumed guilty and his social life was destroyed. Bertie caught some flak from the scandal about having poor taste in friends.

Bertie's son Eddie was caught up in a huge scandal the year prior but it was hushed up and swept under the rug because of the subject matter. It concerned Eddie being a possible Homosexual. This was known as the Cleveland Street Scandal. Some lord named Arthur Somerset was caught frequenting a male brothel on 19 Cleveland Street. The police were planning to prosecute him when they found out the Prince Albert was supposedly at the brothel.* Because of this allegation, the Government stepped in a swept it under the rug.

The British press kept it hidden but the foreign press put Eddie on blast of his supposed homosexuality.

According to the book Dark History of the Kings & Queens of England: 1066 to the Present Day, the book claims that Bertie conducted his own investigation and, "What he found out was so horrifying that it has never been revealed in public."

Eddie would tragically die three years later of influenza. He was twenty-eight years old.

It is true that no member of the British Royal Family was ever prosecuted but judging by how the British handled the two scandals. Depending on the severity, if it was playing an illegal card game or something else that was minor, they would have most likely just sweep it under the rug or have some inconsequential trial where the prosecutor went easy on him. If it was a serious charge like being gay**, they would have most likely would have swept it under the rug and kept it hidden maybe forever.

*This has been disputed. Male prostitutes at Cleveland never named Eddie as one of the visitors. There were letters that tried to implicate him in the scandal. However, scholars point out that it was only after Eddie was named, the case was thrown away. To this day its still debated on whether he was caught in the crossfire or he was actually Gay/Bisexual. We will most likely never know what happened or what the investigation shows.

**For the record, I am not saying that being gay is a crime. At the time of the Cleveland scandal, Homosexuality in the UK was punishable by DEATH. It was not decriminalized until 1967 and people convicted of said "crime" were eventually pardoned in the Policing and Crime Act of 2017, otherwise known as the Alan Turing Law. This is named after the famous mathematician who broke the German Enigma Code who turned out to be gay and was chemically castrated because of it. The point is today in the UK, being LGBTQ+ is not a crime.

I hope this answers your question.