Edward Mylius

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Edward Mylius was a French journalist jailed for criminal libel for publishing a report that King George V was a bigamist.

Mylius alleged in a Paris-based Republican paper Liberator in 1910 that George V had been already married to the daughter of a British Admiral, Sir Michael Culme-Seymour, while serving in Malta as a young man.

This would have been not only scandalous but also illegal, contravening bigamy laws and the Royal Marriages Act.

The king, with the advice of home secretary Winston Churchill, issued proceedings against Mylius for criminal libel and said he was prepared to go into the box to disprove the allegations.

Sir Rufus Isaacs, the attorney-general, advised the king that it would be unconstitutional for him to give evidence in his own court.

Sir Richard David Muir, prosecuting, showed that George had not been in Malta in 1890 when the supposed marriage took place; and that the woman in question met him only twice: once when she was eight years old and once when both he and she were happily married to other people.

Mylius was convicted and jailed for 12 months.