Family Histories
Prince Edward (1970)
Prince Edward (1970)
Title: The Prince and His Lady: The Love Story of the Duke of Kent and Madame de St. Laurent
Author: Mollie Gillen
Publisher: Griffin House. Toronto: 1970
Description: Large octavo. 314 pp. Illustrated. Bound in black cloth with gilt titles on the spine. Illustrated dust jacket. In the introduction, the author describes her book as "the true story of a love affair that has been shrouded in mystery...and about which much has been written, mostly in error. It is a story of genuine affection, of a love that could be called ill-fated except that twenty-seven years of happiness together do not fall to the lot of many humans."
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767–1820) was the fourth son and fifth child of Britain's king George III, and the father of Queen Victoria. In 1799, he was appointed a General and commander-in-chief of British forces in the Maritime Provinces of North America. The Duke of Kent was appointed Field-Marshal of the Forces on September 3rd, 1805. He was the first member of the royal family to live in North America for more than a short visit (1791–1800) and, in 1794, the first prince to enter the United States after independence (traveling to Boston on foot from Lower Canada). Edward is credited with the first use of the term "Canadian" to mean both French and English settlers in Upper and Lower Canada. Edward is also the person after whom Prince Edward Island was named in 1799.