A tale of two abdications
It’s not just that they both wed American divorcees. From their playboy past to rifts with their brothers, the parallels between Edward VIII and Prince Harry are uncanny...
AT FIRST glance, Prince Harry might bear little comparison with his greatgreat-uncle Edward VIII – the Duke of Windsor, as he became. Harry is known as a bearded warrior who wears his heart on his sleeve and campaigns for wounded servicemen.
Edward is mostly remembered as the petulant Windsor who threw away the Crown.
The two men were born almost a century apart and into very different worlds.
Yet it is not just their decision to marry American divorcees that the two men share. For as history – and these pictures – show, the Dukes of Sussex and Windsor have a good deal more in common than you might think.
DEDICATED PARTYGOERS
HARRY’S mischievous streak has been clear from the very start. Aged 16, he was caught smoking cannabis and drinking while under age at the Rattlebone Inn at Sherston, a village just a few miles from his father’s home at Highgrove in Gloucestershire.
Ten years later, the young Prince was memorably photographed at a drink-fuelled party in Las Vegas.
Between t hese episodes, he enjoyed years of rollicking London nightlife, running up bar bills for hundreds and, occasionally, thousands of pounds.
Edward, too, was a dedicated partygoer. The toast of the West End, the future king was a regular at the Embassy Club in Bond Street, Ciros, the Cafe de Paris and the Ritz. Aged 20 he once complained he’d had only had eight hours sleep in the previous 72 hours.
Edward chain-smoked in front of his mother, telling her he wanted to live as ‘a modern man’, while his outlandish dress sense – his top hat habitually tilted at a rakish angle – prompted his father George V to explode: ‘You dress like a cad. You act like a cad. Get out!’
DECORATED SOLDIERS
PRINCE HARRY relished life in the Army and said that his postings in Afghanistan gave him freedom from the restrictions of Royal life.
One of his greatest achievements was to found the Invictus Games for sick or injured men and women from the Forces.
Edward, too, was keen on military life and, like Harry, longed to spend more time on active service than the authorities allowed.
Edward had been 20 when the First World War started in August 1914. Desperate to join up, he was frustrated to be stationed at General HQ some 30 miles from the front line. There was only the occasional blast of heavy gunfire.
He particularly enjoyed his contact with soldiers from all classes and spent the next two decades lobbying for better conditions for ex-servicemen.
Prince Harry was twice deployed on active duty and received an Operational Service Medal from his aunt, Princess Anne.
Edward, somewhat generously, was awarded a Military Cross, and wrote: ‘ I can’t say I feel I have earned the MC at all!’
THE LURE OF AMERICA
HARRY fell in love with America on a 2013 tour, when he attended a White House reception with the Obamas and took part in a charity polo match. He also learned about the American Warrior Games on that visit – an experience that inspired the Invictus Games.
Now Harry and Meghan have decided to base themselves in North America for the majority of their time – many believe permanently.
Edward was equally smitten with America, if not more so, and welcomed the fun-loving attitude of the people he met.
‘I knew this was the place for me,’ he wrote after his first visit.
After the First World War, he spent three months there thanking Allied and Dominion troops for their help.
He shook hands so many times that his right hand became blackened and swollen. At one stage it was feared he might never be able to use it again.
In 1919, Edward bought the 4,000acre EP ranch in Calgary, in the Canadian state of Alberta. It was the only property he ever owned.
THRILL OF THE CHASE
HARRY is a keen sportsman, hunts alongside Prince Charles each winter and follows him to the polo field every summer.
At Eton, he played rugby and cricket, and even enjoyed the fearsome Wall Game, a difficultt o- explain muddy scrummage against a high red-brick wall.
Edward was much more of a sportsman than might be imagined. He loved golf, while riding, hunting and polo were regular pastimes.
His life in the saddle was curtailed in 1924 when he fell in a point-topoint race and was concussed. Questions were raised in Parliament and he closed his stables.
BANDS OF BROTHERS
THE apparent rift between Harry and William is one of the saddest aspects of t he current crisis, although few doubt the strength of their underlying bond.
When quizzed by ITV newsreader Tom Bradby in South Africa last autumn, Harry said: ‘Look, we’re brothers, we’ll always be brothers – and we’re certainly on different paths at the moment. But I’ll certainly always be there for him as I know he’ll always be there for me.’
Edward, too, was close to his family. One of five boys, he spent many happy hours in the company of his brother Bertie – later George VI – his sister-in-law Elizabeth and their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret. He was the present Queen’s favourite uncle.
But after Edward’s abdication, there was to be no forgiveness from his brother – only exile.
A MOTHER’S LOVE
HIS late mother plays a huge part in Prince Harry’s thinking.
Five years after the death of Diana, the then 18-year-old declared that ‘she had more guts than anybody else. I want to carry on the things that she didn’t quite finish.’
More recently, he has revealed how traumatic he found her loss.
Edward’s relationship with his mother was typical of the late Victorian years: the future Queen Mary was emotionally trussed up, just like her well-corsetted figure.
The Prince seems to have craved affection from his mother, however, and she proved to have a considerable influence on him.
Some suggest it might explain Edward’s predilection for the pursuit of married – and technically unavailable – women, including