When Prince Harry entered the witness box in his lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror, he became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in court since the late 19th century.
Queen Victoria’s eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, testified twice, in the divorce proceedings of a woman with whom he was accused of having an affair with (he denied it) and later in a slander case involving a man accused of cheating at cards.
He was known at the time as the Prince of Wales and went on to become King Edward VII. He was the great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II, Harry’s grandmother.
Here are excerpts of three Associated Press stories from the 1891 cheating case, which the press at the time referred to as the baccarat scandal.
Though the prince was not accused of wrongdoing, the counsel for Sir William Gordon Cumming, the plaintiff who sued for slander after he was accused of cheating, tried to make the case a referendum on the prince’s behavior. One story noted that the growing storm around him could threaten the very existence of the English monarchy.
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LONDON, June 2 — At this stage a juryman caused a sensation by rising in his place and asking in a loud voice: “Are the jury to understand that you were banking on these two occasions and saw nothing of the alleged malpractice?”
The Prince hesitated for a moment, as if undecided as to whether he ought or ought not to reply. Finally, he said, with half a smile, “It is very easy for bankers when dealing cards not to see anything especially when in the company of friends in a country house; you do not for a moment suppose anyone would play unfairly.”
The juror asked: “What was your opinion at the time the charges were made against the plaintiff?”
To this the Prince casually replied: “The charges made against him were so unanimous that I had not any other course open to me than to believe them.”
The last answer caused another flutter of excitement, followed by a whispered comment. The…
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