Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. When cultures clash, the results can
Speaker 1: be pretty alarming. A simple misunderstanding can result in a
Speaker 1: bitter feud between two people, or even two countries, or
Speaker 1: one culture's customs can become too much for another to bear.
Speaker 1: Wars may be sparked, lives may be lost, and nations
Speaker 1: may be overthrown. But for one king and queen, the
Speaker 1: outcome of their miscommunication was a bit more uh complicated.
Speaker 1: It started in the city of Calabar, Nigeria, during the
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. The Ethic people who lived there had been
Speaker 1: quite active in the Transatlantic slave trade of the seventeenth century.
Speaker 1: They often acted as facilitators, capturing people from other communities
Speaker 1: and selling them to the British. The Ethic also helped
Speaker 1: load their kidnap neighbors onto the ships and provided travelers
Speaker 1: with food if necessary. It wasn't uncommon for Ethic families
Speaker 1: to have European captains teach their children English or the
Speaker 1: ins and outs of the slave trade. For their efforts,
Speaker 1: the Ethic were given many items from Europe which they enjoyed.
Speaker 1: They began adopting various aspects of British culture, including their
Speaker 1: clothing and Western sounding names, often as a way to
Speaker 1: endear themselves to the foreigners. As missionaries moved throughout the
Speaker 1: towns and villages, Christianity became a dominant religion among the
Speaker 1: Ethic as well. In eighteen o eight, the trans Atlantic
Speaker 1: slave trade officially came to an end, at least on paper.
Speaker 1: A British law was enacted prohibiting the practice in many
Speaker 1: Bish territories, yet it persisted in others, oftentimes illegally. And
Speaker 1: sitting at the top of it all on the English
Speaker 1: side was none other than Her Majesty herself, Queen Victoria.
Speaker 1: She knew how important trade with Africa was, though she
Speaker 1: had no intention of continuing slavery. She did, however, need
Speaker 1: the other things Calabar could provide, such as palm oil, ivory,
Speaker 1: and rubber to keep the lines of commerce open. Victoria
Speaker 1: wrote directly to King Ayamba of Calabar, also known as
Speaker 1: Obong of Calabar. She promised him and his people more gifts,
Speaker 1: as well as protection in case someone found out about
Speaker 1: their deal. Victoria oversaw the British Empire of the time.
Speaker 1: It was an era of expansion and conquest, and so
Speaker 1: the title Queen of England was nothing to sneeze at.
Speaker 1: In factually signed all of her letters to King Ayamba
Speaker 1: that way, Queen Victoria the Queen of England. But when
Speaker 1: the King's interpreter read her letters aloud, he didn't quite
Speaker 1: get her title right. Rather than announced her as the
Speaker 1: Queen of England, he instead called her the Queen of
Speaker 1: all white Men. To say the King was surprised would
Speaker 1: have been an understatement. He believed that it wasn't right
Speaker 1: for him to accept such incentives from a woman he
Speaker 1: wasn't married too, so he told his scribe to write
Speaker 1: back to her with a marriage proposal. Together they would
Speaker 1: conquer the world. He signed it King Ayamba, the King
Speaker 1: of all Black Men. That was sure to get her
Speaker 1: attention well. She received his letter and wrote back, saying
Speaker 1: as much she was happy, the king was still interested
Speaker 1: in maintaining a business relationship with her. Along with her response,
Speaker 1: Victoria also sent over some gifts for him, including a sword,
Speaker 1: a royal cape, and a bible. Yet she never said
Speaker 1: she would join him on the throne as his queen.
Speaker 1: King Ayamba didn't care. He took the gifts as acceptance
Speaker 1: of his proposal and had another throne placed beside his,
Speaker 1: a seat fit for the Queen of England. Their correspondence
Speaker 1: didn't stop after that either. She continued to send more
Speaker 1: gifts while he made sure that her county tree got
Speaker 1: the palm oil it deserved. And though the queen never
Speaker 1: traveled to Calibar to become his wife, a tradition was
Speaker 1: started to honor their relationship, a tradition that has continued
Speaker 1: to this day today. When a new king is crowned there,
Speaker 1: a second throne is placed next to his own, upon
Speaker 1: which is placed a bible. The obong's wife, the one
Speaker 1: he is actually married to, occupies a seat behind him.
Speaker 1: A second coronation ceremony takes place in a Presbyterian church,
Speaker 1: where the obong dones the English cape and crown before
Speaker 1: sitting upon his throne, waiting for his queen to come
Speaker 1: and take her rightful place beside him. Do you ever
Speaker 1: feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to
Speaker 1: get everything done. Our to do lists get longer, but
Speaker 1: the days never seem to keep up. If anything, they're
Speaker 1: getting shorter. If only there was some way to add
Speaker 1: more time to the clock, to bend it to our wills. Well,
Speaker 1: one man figured out how to do just that, and
Speaker 1: it was easy to literally make time when you were
Speaker 1: the King. Edward, the seventh eldest son of Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: and Prince Albert, was born at Buckingham Palace on November
Speaker 1: nine of eighteen forty one. As a child, Edward was
Speaker 1: raised in a way that would prepare him for his
Speaker 1: assent to the throne later in life. There was a
Speaker 1: strong focus on his education, thanks to his father, who
Speaker 1: made sure Edward had the best tutors. Unfortunately, the young
Speaker 1: prince didn't have a mind for school work. He did, however,
Speaker 1: have a knack for socializing and schmoozing, which he did
Speaker 1: while studying abroad when he got older. From the age
Speaker 1: of eighteen, Edwards spent much of his time in Rome Edinburgh,
Speaker 1: and in eighteen sixty he became the first Prince of
Speaker 1: Wales to tour North America. His trip there was a
Speaker 1: great success. He visited Niagara Falls and spent several days
Speaker 1: at the White House with President James Buchanan. Buchanan then
Speaker 1: escorted Edward to Mount Vernon, where both men visited Washington's
Speaker 1: tomb to pay their respects. Two years later, after a
Speaker 1: lengthy trip to the Middle East, Edward returned to England
Speaker 1: and got engaged to Alexandra of Denmark. The couple was
Speaker 1: married one year later. They spent most of their time
Speaker 1: as newlyweds in London at a mansion known as the
Speaker 1: Marlborough House, but when they wanted to get away, they
Speaker 1: jettied off to Norfolk along the English coast, to a
Speaker 1: twenty thousand acre estate called Sandringham. Edward had purchased Sandringham
Speaker 1: for the princely sum of two hundred twenty thousand pounds.
Speaker 1: The house underwent so many changes it was practically rebuilt
Speaker 1: from the ground up. The main hall was torn down
Speaker 1: and a newer, much larger hall was built in its place. However,
Speaker 1: Edward often found the size lacking, and he had new
Speaker 1: rooms and wings added over the years. Yet, despite his
Speaker 1: displeasure with sandering Him's magnitude, it allowed him to indulge
Speaker 1: in one of his greatest passions hu teen on his
Speaker 1: travels to Nepal when he was younger. For example, he
Speaker 1: would mount an elephant and ride into the jungles to
Speaker 1: hunt tigers and rhinos. Back in Sandringham, the game was
Speaker 1: less intense. Edward hunted mostly birds. His head keeper, Jackson,
Speaker 1: was responsible for maintaining the grounds and knowing the hunting
Speaker 1: schedule in order to provide his employer with optimal hunting conditions.
Speaker 1: Jackson's job was to make sure that groundskeeping staff never
Speaker 1: worked the land in the days leading up to a hunt,
Speaker 1: so as to avoid upsetting the game. On the day
Speaker 1: of the event, Edward would mount a brown cob or
Speaker 1: strong short legged horse and traverse the terrain with red
Speaker 1: and blue flags in his hand. He instructed his men,
Speaker 1: called beaters, to corral the animals towards the route, directly
Speaker 1: in the path of his rifle. Edward often hunted at
Speaker 1: Sandringham during the late fall and winter months, but there
Speaker 1: was just one problem with that. The sun didn't stay
Speaker 1: out as long as he liked in the winter, which
Speaker 1: meant that there was less to him to shoot. Of course,
Speaker 1: he was Edward, the seventh King of the United Kingdom
Speaker 1: of Great Britain and Ireland and the British dominions. If
Speaker 1: he wanted the song to hang in the sky a
Speaker 1: little longer, he was going to get it. And he did.
Speaker 1: You see, Edward had all the clocks at sendering him
Speaker 1: moved half an hour ahead of Greenwich. Meantime. The result
Speaker 1: was an extra half hour of daylight with which to hunt.
Speaker 1: The rest of England measured their days one way, while
Speaker 1: at sendering him, the sun set whenever the king decided it.
Speaker 1: So the phenomenon even got its own name, sendering him time.
Speaker 1: And it was a tradition that carried on until Edward
Speaker 1: the Seventh death. In his successor, Edward the Eight hated
Speaker 1: the confusion that it caused, and so he refused to
Speaker 1: let it continue during his reign. Unusual, you bet, but
Speaker 1: that's just the sort of thing that makes this world curious.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more
Speaker 1: about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The
Speaker 1: show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works. I make another Award winning show called
Speaker 1: Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television show
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: world of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious, Yeah,