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“In a fast traveling automobile, Edward, no longer a king but still wealthy with a reputed income of $5000,000 a year, sped to Portsmouth, England. Accompanying him into exile were only his loyal equerry, Col. Piers Legh; his private detective, David Storier; a valet and a pet Cairn terrier. Leaving the auto, the party went aboard the warship Fury which immediately steamed for Boulogne in France.”
On March 7, 1936, Hitler ordered his army to violate the Versailles Treaty, once more, and march into the Rhineland (the portions of Western Germany that border France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands). Hitler was knee-deep in such violations by this time – since 1919, Germany was forbidden to raise an army, manufacture armaments or draft conscripts, so he thought he’d test the waters once more. Western Europe was appalled, seeing this encroachment as the biggest crisis since 1914. Journalist Earl Reeves, insisted in this column that what happened next was entirely due to the acumen of King Edward VIII, but, alas, it really made no difference and the 22,000 German soldiers remained in the Rhineland.
The first indication for the Windsors that the life of an abdicator is a tough one came on their wedding day, when none of their friends or family stood in attendance. All the yes-men and royal hangers-on who they believed so loyal, were nowhere in sight. In this article, journalist Adela Rogers St. John (1894 – 1988) looks at the tasks before the newly minted Duchess of Windsor. Seeing that the former king had been snubbed at his own wedding, the most burdensome cross that the Duchess bore was seeing to it that this man never be placed in a position that made him appear as a fool.
An eyewitness account of the Windsors on their visit through Germany in 1937. The journalist reported that the two seemed nervous – reluctant to sign guest ledgers or photographed with Nazi leaders (except with Hitler, they seem very pleased in that photo).
Early next month the whole world will take time out from its atom bombs and cold wars and financial worries to re-live for a day all the jeweled delight of an old-fashioned fairy tale. This fairy tale will be all the more significant because it happens to be true… In short, a young queen will be crowned in London… But, amid all the glitter and pomp, the one man who would normally be expected to be the most important guest will not have a roll to play – The Duke of Windsor.
Perhaps one of the unmentioned reasons for America’s revolt against the crown in 1776 was our revulsion of their power to cancel publication of any book of their choosing (there have been exceptions) – primarily books they deem slanderous of The Firm. This certainly was the case in 1937 when the newly minted Duke of Windsor (previously Edward VIII) sought to block all further publication of Coronation Commentary (1937) by Geoffrey Dennis. He succeeded in doing so on grounds of libel – but not before hundreds of copies could be published.
This Click Magazine article concerns the diplomatic posting to Nassau, Bahamas that was the lot of the Duke of Windsor shortly after the outbreak of World War Two. The Duke and Duchess had gleefully met Adolf Hitler some two years earlier and, following that error, were overheard on a few occasions making defeatist statements concerning the British war effort. Wishing to keep him in a spot where he could do no damage yet still be monitored, the British Foreign Office granted him the title of Royal Governor and posted him to Nassau.
Illustrated by four seldom-seen color photographs that, no doubt, the two were simply delighted to pose for, the interview makes clear just how bored the Windsors were on that hot, sticky island paradise, where they remained until 1945.
An interesting article that reported on the the successful filing of Mrs. Simpson’s second divorce (a photo of the document is attached) with a few words mentioned regarding the stigma of divorce within court circles and how ruthlessly she was treated by the American press corps:
Nobody mentioned the King. For that matter, no British newspaper mentioned that Mrs. Simpson was his friend.
But minutes before the Baltimore belle slipped out of Ipswich Assizes with her second divorce in her pocket, a million conversations were being launched around the world with the phrase:
‘Now that she’s free-‘
Once the cat was out of the bag and the whole world had learned of the whirlwind romance between the King of England and the twice-divorced American social-climber Wallis Simpson (1896 – 1986), one of the favorite social pastimes soon involved musing aloud as to whether British laws would permit him to marry such a woman. Constitutionally, the King cannot marry a Roman Catholic, which she was (although this journalist erroneously stated that she wasn’t); recognizing he couldn’t get around this law, he abdicated.
This article can be printed.
Assorted snide stories concerning the Duke of Windsor – the world he made and the man he became:
It is both sad and amusing to see a former King of England reduced by the woman he loves to a ‘Little Man’, to the rank of a meek husband. What should one do, laugh or cry, when one looks at the ex-Caesar in the role of handbag-carrier, a sort of walking ornament…
The ‘real’ world into which the Duke has entered by his ‘own’ free will is international café society, that glittering, gilded bubble floating above the stormy seas of history…The Duke lives a rather different life. An hour or so with one of those American businessmen he admires, following tips on the market, looking over the quotations in stocks and bonds, and he has nothing to trouble about for the day, or the next month or so, until another empty hour obtrudes itself in the almost ceaseless round of pleasure like a hole in time waiting to be plugged by something, anything.
Available at Amazon: Gone with the Windsors
Attached is an unflattering essay by biographer Iles Brody, who beautifully captured the Duchess of Windsor and her unending pursuit of the chic. Obsessed with self-image, this column lists the fashion houses and boutiques that were most favored by Wallis Simpson.
Despite her wealth, the Duchess loved a good bargain.
The Prince of Wales, to quote a conservative peer of the realm, day by day is getting commoner and commoner. There are even those who consider him a dangerous radical. But that doesn’t bother the prince. Unperturbed, he continues to fraternize with his unennobled subjects and to defend their interests – hotly and sometimes profanely.
The Duke’s influence on men’s fashion throughout the Western hemisphere is undeniable and it is highly likely that there are a number of bucks in your life who loaf about town entirely ignorant that they are wearing the togs that he first introduced.
The attached is a 1950 article from an American fashion trade magazine that lists a number of fashion innovations first sported by the Duke of Windsor, illustrated by seven photos.
Attached is a 1936 article that addressed the issue of self-imposed censorship that the British press corps practiced during much of the Wallis Simpson scandal:
Innuendo about King Edward’s friend Mrs. Wallis Simpson, previously barred from London newspapers, crept in last week and even colored the august columns of the London Times.
This article can be divided into two parts: the first half addresses King Edward VIII and his concern for the impoverished souls of his realm who languished daily in squalor, while the second half was devoted to gossip and innuendo as to who Wallis Simpson was, what was her Baltimore life like and when did she first see the king.
(She first saw him in 1920).
George V’s son is a regular. He has the ‘bonhomie’of a Broadway John, smokes all the time, admires a pretty face with an open affection, is bored by Beethoven, is a disciple of American jazz, and he hates to get up early in the morning.
This torn page from VOGUE will let you in on Edward VIII (1894-1972), Prince of Wales, and his whirl wind tour in the dominion of Canada in 1919. All the swells of the snowy North stepped out in full regalia to meet him.
