King Edward VII of Britain was the son of Queen Victoria whose longevity meant that he did not accede to the throne until 1901, when he was sixty. Initiated the Entente Cordiale which in 1904 marked new era of good relations with France. He died in 1910. As Prince of Wales he had been notorious for his love of good living and his reign, and the term Edwardian, is associated with the final phase of the long period of peace, prosperity and upper-class dominance and luxury that was brought to an end by the First World War. In France known as Belle Epoque. The great painter of the Edwardian rich was Sargent, followed by De Laszlo, but the life of more ordinary people was vividly depicted by e.g. Strang.