Title: Royal
Betrayal: The Great Baccarat Scandal of 1890
Author:
Michael Scott
Publisher:
Endeavour Press
Year:
2017
E-Book
Pages: 190
Endeavour
Press is a publishing house specializing in digital or e-publishing. It makes
for a very efficient way to access and enjoy their works. Royal Betrayal is a
narrative relating to a scandal that, by modern standards, would appear to be
of the utmost triviality but, when placed in the context of the 1890’s,
threatened to undermine the very foundation of English society.
The
book entails an allegation of cheating at a popular upper class parlour game
called baccarat at a time where personal honour counted for everything within
the closed ranks of London society. Present at the game when the assertion was
suggested was the Prince of Wales, himself the subject of a series of
questionable activities and public scandal in the media. The book traces the machinations
of the participants through attempted cover-up, media intrigue, public trial
(where the Prince of Wales himself was forced to testify) and finally the fall
out.
In
order to fully appreciate the magnitude of the indignity and public humiliation
of this event and its potential ramifications for the Royal Household, one must
understand the degree to which the public was becoming fatigued with the
hypocrisy and double standards of the period between the privileged and not;
also the role of the media in spreading salacious gossip about the Royals.
Scott has done a commendable job at highlighting the vast gulf that existed
between the classes in Victorian England.
The
story is a fascinating and engaging one as much for the intrigue as for the potential
consequences of the event. The narrative is somewhat awkward at points and the
author has a distracting habit of injecting questions into the storyline that
serve to break the flow of the tale. Nevertheless, it is gripping account that
might be mistaken for a good fictional yarn if it was not credited as fact. A
keen example of the shallowness, crass and petty politics of the Victorian age.
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