He was a regular client of the brothel at 12 Rue Chabanais in Paris, and donated  a ‘love-chair’ to commemorate his many visits to the women who worked there.

He was serially unfaithful to his wife, with a string of mistresses including, most famously, Alice Keppel, whose great-granddaughter is the current Duchess of Cornwall and wife of the heir to the throne.

Edward was an inveterate gambler. He was involved in an illegal card game in which Sir William Alexander Gordon Gordon-Cumming was caught cheating. The gentlemen agreed to hush it all up, but Edward’s then-mistress ‘Babbling’ Brook spilled the beans, and the future king ended up as a witness in court.

Edward was a Conservative. He opposed votes for women. He wanted more dreadnought battleships. He loathed Campbell-Bannerman and Lloyd George. When the working-class MP Henry Broadhurst visited Edward in Sandringham, he was made to eat his meals in his bedroom because he didn’t have the right dinner suit.

Edward smoked a dozen cigars a day, drank gallons of champagne, slept with a string of women, grew enormously fat, and contributed little to the public realm except some natty fashions and the tradition of roast beef and Yorkshire puddings for Sunday lunch.

Until yesterday, Edward VII was the longest-serving heir apparent, waiting 59 years, two months and 13 days to succeed Queen Victoria. That record was broken on Wednesday by Prince Charles.

I have a complicated relationship with Prince Charles. As the heir to a throne which I increasingly view as outdated and in need of reform, Charles represents the forces of conservatism. It seems obvious that the monarchy, as an institution, should be subject to the same modernisation as any other – the church, City, universities, parliament, or whatever. In its current form, is sits uneasily alongside the idea of Britain as a modern democratic state.

The debate this week about primogeniture is a case in point. In 2005, the Labour government opposed a change to the rules that give a male sibling precedence over a female one in the line to the throne. Charlie Falconer was wheeled out to repel boarders, in this case the Fabian Society and Alf Dubs. This week, the issue again surfaced, with Nick Clegg suggesting a rule change was on the way. It is insulting, outdated, patronising, and just plain wrong to oppose equal rights for princesses and princes. Yet whenever the issue is raised, the establishment outcry is deafening.

On the other hand, Charles has achieved a great deal which is admirable. He has filled his 59 years of waiting with a bewildering array of projects and organisations, reflecting his own, views on the world. Good luck to him. Sure it’s better to establish the Prince’s Trust than spend your life at the races or in whorehouses? I don’t personally agree with the thrust of his architectural body, nor his crazy complementary medicine ‘college’. It was pretty disgraceful than the Labour government gave it taxpayers’ money, when so many of its treatments are unproven. I remain to be convinced that the Mutton Renaissance Campaign, designed to get us all to eat more sheep meat, is a worthwhile endeavour. But these various campaigns, institutions and bodies are the legacy of a life spent in more than the selfish pursuits of his ancestors.

Charles is the first Prince of Wales that can be described as an altruist. At least some of his passions – tackling youth unemployment or organic farming – are legitimately progressive. Best of all, he has shown absolutely none of the destructive sense of entitlement and frustration that some heirs apparent display. Just as well, as his mother, celebrating her 85th birthday today, keeps on going, and may well have another decade on the throne.

Photo: Ian Tester