Edward VIII of the United Kingdom

Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (born Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; London, June 23, 1894-Paris, May 28, 1972) later known as Edward, Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Dominions and Emperor of India from his accession to the throne on January 20, 1936, until his abdication on December 11 of the same year.

Before he ascended the throne, Edward had successively held the titles of Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay and Prince of Wales. In his youth he fought in the First World War and, once it ended, he represented his father on various official trips to other countries. Just months into his reign, Edward, who had already garnered something of a reputation for dating married women, triggered a sharp constitutional crisis by proposing to Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American celebrity. The Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing that her people would never accept her as her queen. Edward knew that the government, headed by British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, would resign if the marriage plans went ahead, forcing a new general election and potentially ruining his status as a politically neutral and constitutional monarch. Rather than give up his love for his partner, Eduardo decided to abdicate him.

Reigning just 325 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in UK history and was never crowned. He was succeeded by his younger brother, Albert, who chose to use the name George VI.

After his abdication, he was made Duke of Windsor and in 1937 toured Nazi Germany. During World War II he was initially posted to the British Military Mission in France, but, because he had shown pro-Nazi sympathies, he was sent to the Bahamas as Governor. After the war he received no official position and spent the rest of his life in exile.

Eduardo's abdication and his brother Alberto's ascension to the throne are partially recounted in the 2010 film The King's Speech.

Biography

Early Years

Prince Edward (below to the right), along with his father, the future Jorge V (left), his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria (center) and his grandfather, the future Edward VII (up to the right)

Edward VIII was born on 23 June 1894 in White Lodge, Richmond district of Surrey, England. He was the eldest son of the Dukes of York (later King George V of the United Kingdom and Mary). His father was the second son of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and Alexandra, Princess of Wales. His mother was the eldest daughter of Duke Francis of Teck and his wife, the Duchess of Teck (formerly Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge). As a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, in the male line, Edward received from his birth the address Her Highness of him and the title of Prince Edward of York.

He was christened in the Green Room of White Lodge on 16 July 1894 by Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury. The names were chosen in honor of his late uncle, who was known to his family as Eddy or Edward, and his great-grandfather King Christian IX of Denmark. Albert's name was included at the request of Queen Victoria, and his last four names: George, Andrew, Patrick and David came from the patron saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. His family and close friends always called him by his last name, David.

Edward's parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, were often withdrawn from raising their children, as were other upper-class English parents of the day. Eduardo and his younger siblings were raised by nannies. One of his first babysitters abused Eduardo with pinches before he was introduced to his parents. His crying and his moans led the duke and duchess to ask the nanny to take him in. When the parents found out what she was doing, they fired the nanny.

Eduardo's father, although he exercised a harsh discipline, used to show his affection, and his mother used to show a fun side to her children that contrasted with her austere public image and encouraged them to trust her.

Education

Eduardo's first studies were done at home and supervised by Helene Bricka, a governess who had already been a governess to María de Teck. When his parents toured the British Empire for nearly nine months after Queen Victoria's death in 1901, young Edward and his siblings stayed in Britain with their grandparents, Queen Alexandra and King Edward VII, who used to shower your grandchildren with affection. Upon his parents' return, Eduardo was placed under the care of two men, Frederick Finch and Henry Hansell, who practically raised Eduardo and his siblings for the rest of their childhood.

Eduardo was under Hansell's strict guardianship until he was about 13 years old; Hansell wanted Eduardo to start school at an earlier age, but his father didn't agree. Eduardo sat for the entrance exam at Osborne Naval College and began his studies there in 1907. After two years at Osborne Educational Institute, which he did not enjoy, Eduardo transferred to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. It was intended that he would take a two-year course there, to be followed by enlistment in the Royal Navy, but Edward automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay when his father, George V, ascended the throne on 6 May 1910, when Edward VII died. Edward was appointed Prince of Wales, one month after his sixteenth birthday, on June 23, 1910, and they began to seriously prepare him for his future role as King. He retired from the naval career before his formal graduation. He served as a midshipman for three months aboard the battleship HMS Hindustan; He then entered Magdalen College at the University of Oxford, for which, in the opinion of his biographers, he received a low intellectual preparation. He left Oxford after eight terms without receiving any academic credentials.

Prince of Wales

Eduardo during a state visit in Argentina, 1925

Edward was officially invested as Prince of Wales in a special ceremony at Caernarfon Castle on 13 July 1911. The investiture took place in Wales, at the behest of Welsh politician David Lloyd George, Constable of the Castle and Minister for Liberal government estate. Lloyd George devised a rather extravagant ceremony in the style of Welsh festivities and arranged for Edward to speak a few words of Welsh.

When World War I broke out, Edward had reached the minimum age for active service and was ready to go to war. He had enlisted in the Grenadier Guards in June 1914, and although he was willing to serve in the On the front lines, the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, refused to allow it, citing the immense damage that would be done if the heir to the throne were captured by the enemy. Despite this, Edward witnessed the war of first hand and tried to visit the front line as often as possible, for which he was awarded the Military Cross in 1916. His role in the war, though limited, made him popular with veterans of the conflict. Eduardo undertook his first military flight in 1918 and later obtained a pilot's license.

Throughout the 1920s Edward, as Prince of Wales, represented his father, King George V, at home and abroad on many occasions, making some sixteen voyages to various parts of the Empire between 1919 and 1935 (in this period he acquired the Bedingfield farm, near Pekisko, Canada). However, in all his trips he did not behave well, since there are records of his departure from protocol and his refusal to meet important personalities in India. Within Great Britain he was interested in the areas affected by the economic crisis. His rank, travel, his good looks and his bachelorhood made him an extremely popular figure, almost as much as a newly emerging movie star. Unlike his father, who was never seen smiling, he was jovial with respect to the rest of the royalty. At the height of his popularity, he became the most photographed celebrity of his time and set men's fashion.In 1924, he donated the Prince of Wales Trophy to the National Hockey League.

His attitudes towards many of the empire's subjects and various foreign peoples, both during his time as Prince of Wales and later as Duke of Windsor, were little commented on at the time, but subsequently tarnished his reputation. Australians said: "They are the most disgusting form of living things I have ever seen! They are the lowest known form of human beings and are the closest thing to apes!"

Romance

Eduardo, photographed next to his future wife, Wallis Simpson, by Vincenzo Laviosa, 1934.

Edward's compulsive womanizing and other reckless behaviors during the 1920s and 1930s concerned Prime Minister Baldwin, King George V, and those close to the prince. Alan Lascelles, Edward's private secretary for eight years, believed that, "for some hereditary or physiological reason, his normal mental development stopped dead when he reached adolescence." George V was disappointed by Edward's failure to succeed. in life and was perceived to be disgusted by his many affairs with married women. The King was reluctant to let Edward inherit the Crown and he appears to have said of Edward: "After my death, the boy will be ruined in 12 months."

In 1929, Time magazine reported that Edward was teasing his new sister-in-law, Isabel, his brother Albert's wife, by calling her "Queen Elizabeth." The magazine asked if "she would not question how much truth there was to the story that [Edward] once said that he would renounce his rights upon the death of George V—which would make his nickname come true." Years passed and Eduardo remained single, but his brother and sister-in-law had two daughters. The eldest of them was Princess Elizabeth. King George V said of his son Albert ("Bertie") and his granddaughter Elizabeth ("Lilibet"): "I pray to God that my eldest son [Eduardo] never marries or has children, and that nothing comes between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne".

In 1930, the King gave Edward a home, Fort Belvedere, near Sunningdale, England. Edward had relationships there with a number of married women, including the half-British, half-American textile heiress Freda Dudley Ward and Lady Furness, an American, who introduced the prince to her American friend Wallis Simpson. Mrs. Simpson had divorced her first husband in 1927 and later married Ernest Simpson, a British-American businessman. It is generally accepted that Mrs. Simpson and the Prince of Wales became lovers while Lady Furness was traveling abroad, although Edward was adamant to his father, the King, that he had not been intimate with her and that it was not appropriate to describe her as his lover. Eduardo's relationship with Mrs. Simpson further weakened the bad relationship he had with his father. Although the King and Queen met Mrs. Simpson at Buckingham Palace in 1935, they later refused to receive her from her.Edward, however, had fallen in love with Wallis and the relationship became increasingly close.

Eduardo's affair with the American divorcee caused such serious concern that the couple were followed by members of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch, who secretly examined the nature of their relationship. An undated report details the couple's visit to an antiques shop, where the owner would note: "That the lady seemed to completely dominate the PDG [Prince of Wales]." The possibility that an American divorcee with a questionable past might have such influence over the heir caused anxiety among government figures and the establishment.

Reign

Royal monogram of Eduardo VIII

King George V died on January 20, 1936, and Edward ascended the throne as King Edward VIII. The following day, he broke royal protocol by watching the proclamation of his accession from a window in St James's Palace, in the company of Wallis, who was still married at the time. Edward VIII became the first monarch of the Commonwealth realms to fly in a plane on its way from Sandringham to London for the Accession Council.

Eduardo caused anger in government circles with actions that were interpreted as interference in political affairs. When he visited coal-affected towns in South Wales, his remark "something must be done" for the unemployed miners was seen as directly criticizing the Government, although it was never clear whether Edward had anything to do with it. particularly in mind. Government ministers were reluctant to send confidential documents and State papers to Fort Belvedere, because it was clear that Eduardo was paying little attention to them and because they perceived the danger that Mrs. Simpson or other house guests might see them.

He also began to intervene in foreign relations, holding conversations with the German ambassador in London, Leopold von Hoesch, considered constitutionally improper. He even confessed to von Hoesch that he threatened Prime Minister Baldwin with abdication if England went to war with Germany. This convinced Hitler that the British would not intervene in the occupation of the Rhineland.

Eduardo's unorthodox approach to his role extended to the coin bearing his image as well. He broke with the tradition that, on successive coins of each monarch, the image faced the opposite direction from his predecessor. Edward insisted that the face face to the left (as his father had done), to show the parting he made in his coiffure. Only a handful of coins were struck before he abdicated, and when George VI succeeded, his The image also faced to the left in keeping with tradition, suggesting that there were some number of coins struck with Eduardo's portrait facing to the right.

Currency with the image of Eduardo VIII looking to the left

On July 16, 1936, there was an assassination attempt on Eduardo. A disgruntled Irishman, Jerome Brannigan (also known as George Andrew McMahon), drew a loaded revolver as the King rode a horse up Constitution Hill near Buckingham Palace. The police saw the gun, pounced on him and quickly detained him. At trial, Brannigan claimed that he had been approached by "a foreign power" to kill Eduardo and had informed MI5 of the plan, and that he was there merely as an observer and to assist MI5 in the capture of the real culprits. The court rejected the allegations and sent him to jail for one year. It is now believed that Brannigan had been in contact with MI5, but the veracity of the rest of his claims remains in doubt.

In August and September, Eduardo and Mrs. Simpson toured the eastern Mediterranean on the steam yacht Nahlin. In October it became clear that the new King intended to marry Mrs. Simpson, particularly when the divorce proceedings between Mr. and Mrs. Simpson were brought to Crown Court in Ipswich. Preparations were made for all contingencies, including the prospect of the coronation of King Edward and Queen Wallis. Due to the religious implications of any marriage, plans were made to hold a secular coronation ceremony outside the traditional religious location, Westminster Abbey, in the Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall.

Abdication

On November 16, 1936, Edward invited Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to Buckingham Palace and expressed his desire to marry Wallis Simpson, when she was fit to remarry. Baldwin informed the king that his subjects considered the marriage morally unacceptable, largely because remarriage after divorce was contrary to Church of England principles, and the people would not tolerate Wallis as queen. As king, Edward held the position of Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and was expected by the clergy to support the Church's teachings.

King Edward VIII with Kemal Atatürk in Turkey, September 4, 1936

Edward proposed the alternative solution of a morganatic marriage, whereby he could continue as king, but Wallis would not become queen. Wallis would be given a lesser title in her place, and any children she had would not inherit the throne. This was also rejected by the British Cabinet, as well as other Dominion governments, whose opinions were sought under the 1931 Westminster Charter, which provides, in part, that "any alteration in the law affecting the succession to the throne or royal titles or treatments thereafter will require the consent of the Parliaments of all Dominions, as well as the Parliament of the United Kingdom." The Prime Ministers of Australia, Canada and South Africa made clear their opposition to the King's marriage to a divorcee, the Irish Prime Minister expressed indifference and detachment, while the New Zealand Prime Minister, who had never heard of Mrs. Simpson before, wavered in disbelief. Faced with this opposition, Edward responded at first that "there weren't many people in Australia" and that his opinion did not matter to him.

The king informed Baldwin that he would resign if he could not marry Mrs. Simpson. Baldwin then presented Edward with three options: give up the idea of marriage, marry against the wishes of his ministers, or abdicate. Edward was clearly unwilling to give up Mrs. Simpson and knew that if he married against the advice of his ministers, would cause the resignation of the government, which would provoke a constitutional crisis. Eduardo chose to abdicate.

On December 10, 1936, Edward duly signed the instruments of abdication at Fort Belvedere, in the presence of his three surviving male brothers, the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester, and the Duke of Kent (younger brother, Prince John, had died in 1919). The next day, the last act of his reign was the royal assent to Her Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act of 1936. As provided by the Westminster Charter, all the Dominions they approved the king's abdication, although the Irish Free State did not pass, until December 12, the Foreign Relations Act, which included abdication on its list.

On the night of December 11, 1936, Edward, who now once again had the title of prince, gave a speech to the nation and the Empire to explain his decision to abdicate. It was then that he famously said: «[...] it has been impossible for me to bear the heavy burden of responsibility and perform my functions as king, in the way I would like to do, without the help and support of the woman I love. ». After the broadcast, Edward left the United Kingdom for Austria, although he was not able to join Mrs Simpson until their divorce became effective several months later. His brother, Prince Albert, Duke of York, agreed. to the throne as George VI. George's eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, took first place in the line of succession, becoming the heir to the throne.

Duke of Windsor

On 12 December 1936, at the accession meeting of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, George VI announced that he was making his brother "His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor". He wanted this to be the first act of his reign, although the formal documents were not signed until March 8 of the following year. Meanwhile, Edward was universally known as the Duke of Windsor. The King's decision to make Edward Duke Royal ensured that he could not stand for election to the House of Commons or speak on political issues in the House of Lords.

However, the letters patent of May 27, 1937, which confers on the Duke of Windsor "the title, address or attribute of royal highness", expressly declared that "his wife and her descendants, if any, do not could receive said title or attribute”. Some British ministers claimed that Edward did not need the title, because he had not lost it, and furthermore, that Mrs. Simpson automatically obtained the rank of wife of a prince with the title his royal highness; while others held that he had lost all royal rank and that he should no longer bear any royal title or address, as a king who had abdicated. On 14 April 1937, Solicitor General Sir Donald Somervell presented Home Secretary Sir John Simon with a memorandum summarizing the views of Lord Solicitor T. M. Cooper, Parliamentary Assessor Sir Granville Ram and himself:

1. We are inclined to think that, due to its abdication, the Duke of Windsor could not have claimed the right to be described as Royal Highness. In other words, no reasonable objection could have been claimed if the king had decided that his exclusion from the line of succession would exclude him from the right to this title conferred upon him by the prevailing patent.
2. The matter, however, has to be considered on the basis of the fact that, for reasons that are easily understandable, with the express approval of His Majesty enjoys this title and is mentioned as Royal Highness on a formal occasion and in official documents. In the light of the precedents, it seems clear that the wife of a Royal Highness has the same title unless an express step is taken to deprive her of it.
3. We have concluded that the wife could not claim this right on any legal basis. The right to use this treatment or title, under our view, resides in the prerogative of His Majesty and he has the power to regulate it in Patents, in general or in particular circumstances.

Château de Candé, the venue for your wedding

The Duke of Windsor married Mrs. Simpson, who had changed her name to Wallis Warfield, in a private ceremony on June 3, 1937 at the Chateau de Candé, near Tours, France. When the Church of England refused to authorize the match, a County Durham clergyman, the Reverend Robert Anderson Jardine (Vicar of St Paul's, Darlington), offered to perform the ceremony, and the Duke accepted. The new king, George VI, prohibited members of the royal family from attending the ceremony, Edward in particular wanted his brothers the Dukes of Gloucester and Kent and his second cousin Louis Mountbatten to be there; these attitudes continued for many years and embittered the lives of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The Duchess of Windsor was denied the Her Royal Highness treatment, causing conflict, just as the government refused, on financial matters, to include the Duke or Duchess on the Civil List, and the king personally paid the duke's subsidy. But the duke had soured his relationship with the king by concealing the value of his finances, when the amount the king would have to pay was informally agreed upon. Edward had amassed wealth from the rents paid to him by the Duchy of Cornwall as Prince of Wales and normally available to the future king. The new king and queen also paid him for Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle. These possessions were Edward's personal property, inherited from his father King George V, and therefore did not automatically pass to George VI on his accession Relations between the Duke of Windsor and the rest of the royal family were strained. during decades. Eduardo resented his mother and wrote to her in 1939: "[your last letter] destroyed the last vestige of feelings I had for you [...] [and has] made further normal correspondence between us impossible." In the early days of George VI's reign, the duke telephoned every day, pestering for money and insisting that the duchess be accorded the title of royal highness, until the beleaguered king ordered that the duchess not be passed on. calls.

The duke had assumed he was going to settle in Britain after a year or two of exile in France. However, King George VI (with the support of his mother Queen Mary and his wife Queen Elizabeth) threatened to cut off their financial support should they return to Britain uninvited.

World War II

Eduardo reviewing an SS squad with Robert Ley, 1937

In October 1937, the Duke and Duchess visited Nazi Germany against the advice of the British government and met Adolf Hitler at his Obersalzberg retreat. The visit was highly publicized by the German media. During the visit, the duke gave the Fascist salute. The former Austrian ambassador, Count Albert von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein, who was George V's second cousin and friend, believed that Edward favored German fascism as a bulwark against communism, and even that at first he was in favor of an alliance with Germany. Eduardo's experience with "the scenes of endless horror" that occurred in World War I, led him to support the policy of appeasement. Hitler viewed Edward as friendly to Nazi Germany and thought that Anglo-German relations might have improved through Edward had it not been for his abdication. Albert Speer, chief architect and member of Hitler's close circle, quotes him directly: “I am sure that permanent friendly relations could have been achieved through him. If he had stayed, everything would have been different. His abdication was a serious loss for us ».

The Duke and Duchess settled in France. After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Lord Mountbatten took them back to Britain aboard HMS Kelly, and the Duke, despite being an honorary field marshal, was made a major-general attached to the mission. British military in France. In February 1940, the German minister in The Hague, Count Julius von Zac-Burkersroda, claimed that the duke had leaked the Allied war plans for the defense of Belgium. When Germany invaded the northern France in May 1940, the Windsors fled south, first to Biarritz and then to Spain in June. In July the couple moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where they stayed at the home of Ricardo de Espírito Santo, a Portuguese banker with British and German contacts. During the occupation of France, the duke had asked German forces to post guards. in their homes in Paris and on the Côte d'Azur, and the Germans did. The duke gave a "defeatist" interview that was widely circulated and was the last straw for the British government. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, threatened to court-martial the Duke if he did not return to British soil. agents, with plans that included the possibility of kidnapping in case he did not voluntarily agree to their requirements.

In August, a British warship ferried the couple to the Bahamas, from where Churchill believed the duke could do less damage to the British war effort.

The Duke of Windsor was installed as Governor of the Bahamas, a position he disliked, referring to the islands as "a third-class British colony". The British Foreign Office strongly objected when the couple he planned a tour aboard a yacht belonging to Swedish tycoon Axel Wenner-Gren, who was mistakenly considered by US intelligence to be a close friend of Hermann Göring, commander of the Luftwaffe.

In an interview in Liberty magazine, he said that “if Hitler were to be overthrown, it would be truly tragic for the world. Hitler is the right and logical leader for the German people, he is a great man. Tell Mr. Roosevelt that if he makes an offer to intervene for peace, the Duke of Windsor will immediately issue a plea supporting it, and thereby start a Revolution in England which will compel the government to make peace." The article was heavily censored in Britain.

Nevertheless, the duke was praised for his efforts to combat poverty on the islands, despite the fact that he despised its inhabitants, as he did most of the non-white peoples of the Empire. Of Étienne Dupuch, the editor of the Nassau Daily Tribune newspaper, he said: "It must be remembered that Dupuch is more than half black and, due to the peculiar mentality of this race, [blacks] seem incapable of to stand out without losing his footing". He was praised, including by Dupuch, for resolving the civil strife caused by low wages in Nassau in 1942, though he blamed the difficulties on "communist troublemakers" and "men of Jewry of Central Europe". He resigned from the position on March 16, 1945.

The Duke of Windsor, photographed at the White House entrance, on the date of the announcement of Japanese surrender, 1945

Many historians have suggested that Hitler was willing to reinstate Edward as king in the hope of establishing a Fascist regime in Britain. It was widely believed that the Duke and Duchess were fascist sympathizers before and during World War II. World War and that they were transferred to the Bahamas to minimize their chances of acting in that regard. In 1940, Eduardo stated: "In the last 10 years Germany has totally reorganized the order of her society [...] Countries that were not prepared to accept such a reorganization of society and the attendant sacrifices must direct their policies accordingly.". Lord Caldecote wrote to Winston Churchill just before the couple were sent to the Bahamasː "[the duke] is well known to be pro-Nazi and may become the center of intrigue". This last part of the assessment, but not the first, was borne out by German operations designed to use the duke. The Allies became sufficiently concerned about the German plots that US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered discreet surveillance of the Duke and Duchess when they visited Palm Beach, Florida, in April 1941. Duke Charles Alexander of Württemberg (who was then a monk in an American monastery) had convinced the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that the Duchess, who had slept with the German ambassador in London, Joachim von Ribbentrop, had been in constant contact with him and had continued to leak secrets to him.

Some authors have claimed that Anthony Blunt, an MI5 agent acting on the orders of the British royal family, made a successful secret trip to the Schloss Friedrichshof in Germany towards the end of the war to retrieve letters of correspondence between the duke of Windsor and Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders. What is certain is that George VI sent to Friedrichshof, in March 1945, the royal librarian, Owen Morshead, accompanied by Blunt, then working part-time at the Royal Library, as well as for British intelligence, in order to secure documents related to the German Empress Victoria, daughter of Queen Victoria. Looters stole part of the castle archive, including surviving letters between daughter and mother, as well as other valuables, some of which were later recovered after the war in Chicago. The documents rescued by Morshead and Blunt were returned by the American authorities and deposited in the Royal Archives.

After the war, the duke admitted in his memoirs that he admired the Germans, but denied being pro-Nazi. Of Hitler he wrote: "[The] Führer struck me as a somewhat ridiculous figure, with his theatrical posturing and bombastic pretensions." However, during the 1960s, he privately told his friend Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross: "I never thought Hitler was a bad guy."

Later Life

The Dukes of Windsor with President Richard Nixon in 1970

After the war, the dukes returned to France and spent the rest of their lives in retirement, as Edward held no further official role after ruling the Bahamas. The duke's allowance was supplemented by government favors and illegal currency trading. The city of Paris granted the duke, for a token rent, the now-known Villa Windsor, a house at 4 rue du Champ d'Entraînement, in Neuilly-sur-Seine in the Bois de Boulogne. The French government exempted him from paying income tax and the couple could buy duty-free products through the British Embassy and the military commissary In 1951, the Duke published his ghostwritten autobiography, A King's Story, in which he disagreed with Liberal politics. Royalties from the book turned out to be another source of income. Nine years later, he wrote a relatively unknown book, A Family Album, which deals mainly with the fashion and customs of the royal family during the course of his entire life, from the time of Queen Victoria and through the reigns of her grandfather and father, as well as describing her own tastes.

The Duke and Duchess played the role of minor celebrities and were considered part of the café society of the 1950s and 1960s. They threw parties and shuttled back and forth between Paris and New York; many of those who met socially with the Windsors, including Gore Vidal, noted the vacancy of the duke's conversation. The couple were extremely fond of their pug dogs.

In June 1953, instead of attending Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in London, the Duke and Duchess watched the ceremony on television in Paris. The duke said it was against precedent for a sovereign or former sovereign to attend another's coronation. The duke was paid to write articles about the ceremony for the Sunday Express and the Women's Home Companion, as well as a short book, The Crown and the People, 1902–1953. In 1955, he visited President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the White House. In 1956, the couple appeared on Edward R. Murrow's television talk show Person to Person, and in a 50-minute interview for the BBC in 1970. That year, they were invited by the President Richard Nixon to a White House dinner as guests of honor.

The royal family never accepted the Duchess. Queen Mary refused to receive her formally. However, the duke occasionally met with his mother and his brother, King George VI, and also attended George's funeral. Queen Mary maintained her anger against Edward and her indignation at her marriage to Wallis; she said, “Give up all this for what.” In 1965, the Windsors returned to London and were visited by the Queen, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, and Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood. A week later, the princess royal died and the couple attended her funeral. In 1967, they joined the royal family for the centenary of Queen Mary's birth. The last royal ceremony the Duke attended was Princess Marina's funeral in 1968. He declined an invitation from the Queen to attend the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969, claiming that Prince Charles did not want his "wife" there. old great-uncle."

Last years

Beginning in the 1960s, the Duke's health began to decline. In December 1964, Dr. Michael DeBakey operated on him in Houston, Texas, for an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and in February 1965, Stewart Duke-Elder treated him for a detached retina in his left eye. The Duke smoked from a very early age and at the end of 1971 he was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent cobalt therapy. Queen Elizabeth II visited the Windsors in 1972, during a state visit to France; however, only the Duchess joined the royal entourage for a photo op. The Duke died at his home in Paris on May 28, 1972, at the age of seventy-seven. His body was transferred to Great Britain to be laid to rest in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. The funeral service was held in the chapel on June 5 in the presence of the Queen, the royal family and the Duchess of Windsor. He was laid to rest in the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore, behind the Royal Mausoleum of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. During the visit, the Duchess stayed at Buckingham Palace. Until they reached an agreement with Elizabeth II in 1965, the Duke and Duchess planned for his burial to take place in a plot of Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, where he was buried. Wallis's father. Frail and increasingly afflicted with senile dementia, the Duchess died fourteen years later and was buried next to her husband simply as "Wallis, Duchess of Windsor".

Titles, treatments, honors and weapons

Portrait of Eduardo with the tunic of the Order of the Jarretera. By Arthur Stockdale Cope (1912)

Titles and treatments

• 14 December 1895 – 28 May 1898: Your Highness Prince Edward of York.
• 28 May 1898 – 22 January 1901: Your Royal Highness Prince Edward of York.
• 22 January 1901 – 9 November 1901: Your Royal Highness Prince Edward of Cornwall and York
• 9 November 1901 – 6 May 1910: Your Royal Highness Prince Edward of Wales.
• 6 May 1910 – 20 January 1936: Your Royal Highness the Duke of Cornwall.
• 23 June 1910 – 20 January 1936: Your Royal Highness Prince of Wales.
  • in Scotland: 1910 - 1936: Your Royal Highness The Duke of Rothesay.
• 20 January 1936 – 11 December 1936: Your Majesty the king.
  • in India: Your Imperial Majesty King-emper.
• 11 December 1936 – 8 March 1937: Your Royal Highness Prince Edward.
• 8 March 1937 – 28 May 1972: Your Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor.

Honors

• Knight of the Order of the Golden Toy (Spain, 22 June 1912).
• Medal to the Merit of Chile, 1.a class (Chile, 1925).
• Collar of the Order to Merit of Chile (Chile, 1931).
• Order The Sun of Peru (Peru, 1931).

Weapons

As Prince of Wales, Edward's arms were the coat of arms of the United Kingdom, differentiated by a three-slope silver lambel and by an escutcheon bearing the royal arms of Wales surmounted by the heir's crown (identical to that used by Charles, Prince of Wales). As sovereign he used the royal coat of arms without any difference and after his abdication he used it again differentiated, but this time with a lambel bearing an imperial crown in the central pendant.

Eduardo's arms shield, Prince of Wales (1911–1936) The arms shield of Eduardo VIII of the United Kingdom UK's Eduardo VIII weapons shield (in Scotland) Eduardo's arms shield, Duke of Windsor

Ancestors