A Royal History
Paul James on the controversial Edward VIII
IN school playgrounds across England at the end of 1936, schoolchildren parodied a familiar carol: Hark! the Herald Angels sing, Mrs Simpson’s pinched our King. Now she knocks on Edward’s door, She’s been married twice before.
At Madame Tussauds waxworks in London, the figure of Mrs Wallis Simpson, dressed in scarlet satin, had to be closely guarded for fear that it might be attacked. Edward VIII is still synonymous with having given up the throne for the woman he loved, and the subsequent repercussions.
When Prince Harry, Duke of
Sussex, announced this year that he and his American wife, divorcee Meghan Markle, were giving up their royal duties and planned to set up home outside the UK, the media drew parallels with the Duke of Windsor. At a charity dinner in January he said that it was not a decision he had made lightly, but he had “found the love and happiness I had hoped for all my life.” Echoes of Edward VIII’s abdication speech were clear.
Edward VIII was born at White Lodge, Richmond Park, on 23 June, 1894. The first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary, he was then third in line to the Throne. After visiting him in the nursery, his great-grandmother Queen Victoria remarked, “He has fine, powerful lungs!” The child was christened Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, which encompassed family names with those of the patron saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. To the public he was known as Prince Edward; to the Royal Family he was David.
The Prince’s early childhood was spent at York Cottage on the Sandringham estate, with occasional visits to Windsor, Balmoral, and Osborne House to see “Gangan” – Queen Victoria. Soon he was joined in the nursery by brothers Bertie (George VI), Henry (Duke of Gloucester) and their sister Mary (Princess Royal). Then, later, brothers George (Duke of Kent) and John (who died at the age of thirteen).
The children were reared by nurses and nannies, seeing their parents twice a day. This was a practice not confined to the Royal Family at this time.
Prince Edward had a nanny who he later described as “sadistic and incompetent”. She worshipped the young Prince, but would pinch him and make him cry whenever he was in the presence of his parents, as if to prove that he loved her more than them.
The children were quarantined with German measles when “Gangan” died. Their parents became Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, and soon departed for an eight-month tour of the British Empire. On their return, life changed for Prince Edward. The nanny disappeared and a footman, Frederick Finch, took charge of the boys. He was strong on discipline and if the princes ever misbehaved, Finch “applied a large hand to that part of the anatomy nature has conveniently provided for the chastisement of small boys.” Henry Hansell was employed as tutor and the two men ensured that their royal charges had a strict routine.
The Prince spent an hour with his mother each evening. She taught him how to crochet and do needlepoint, which he continued to do throughout his life for relaxation. The importance of good manners was impressed upon the boy, and his father made him memorise the lines: I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
In 1903 the family moved to Marlborough House in London. In those days, however, the Royal family had much more privacy and Henry
Hansell was able to take the young princes to the Tower of London or the British Museum unrecognised.
At the age of thirteen Prince Edward began training at the Royal Naval College at Osborne. He was frequently bullied, once having red ink poured into his hair. Academically he had poor results and found it hard to accept that “the Navy way was the right way and all other ways were wrong.” In May 1909 he transferred to Dartmouth, where he found a greater degree of comfort and freedom.
He was on leave at Marlborough House a year later when his grandfather was taken ill with bronchitis. A view from his bedroom window one morning of the Royal Standard flying at half-mast on the roof of Buckingham Palace told him that King Edward VII was dead. From that moment he became Heir Apparent, Duke of Cornwall and financially independent.
On his sixteenth birthday that year he was made Prince of Wales. In 1911 he attended the coronation of his father, King George V, and was invested with the Order of the Garter at Windsor, followed by his
Investiture as Prince of Wales at Caernarvon Castle in July 1911. Politician David Lloyd George taught him enough Welsh to be able to make a speech.
Uncomfortable with royal pageantry, Edward decided that he preferred the comradeship of the Navy and went to sea as a midshipman on the battleship HMS Hindustan for three months, before continuing his academic education. After studying in France, in October 1912 he became an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he hoped to be treated like an ordinary student, although he was the only undergraduate to have his own bathroom. However, naval training had left him ill-equipped for academic life.
After less than two years he left university and joined the 1st Life Guards. Within weeks World War I began. Prince Edward joined the Grenadier Guards and was further detailed to the King’s Company.
When his Battalion went overseas, the Prince was left behind amid fears that he could be taken prisoner. Eventually he was sent to France, but was 30 miles from the front line doing clerical work.
After bombarding his father with letters requesting permission to take on a more active role, the Prince served under Major-General (later Field-Marshal) Lord Cavan in the Guards Division and saw action in Egypt and Italy but was still protected.
“My education was widened in war,” he wrote afterwards, “not through book or theory, but through the experience of living under all kinds of conditions with all manner of men.”
As King George V’s health started to deteriorate, Edward began undertaking royal duties in earnest. He embarked on a series of tours of the British Empire to prepare for kingship. An old courtier gave him what he considered to be the best two pieces of advice: “Never miss an opportunity to relieve yourself; never miss a chance to sit down and rest your feet.”
Prince Edward set up his first home at York House, St James’s Palace in London before making tours of Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and India. Between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-one he visited 45 countries, travelling 1,500,000 miles, which was further than any Prince of Wales before him had ever been. During periods at home in England, the Prince’s life became a social whirl, with sometimes four parties an evening. He loved the theatre, dancing and music, he hunted, went steeplechasing and played polo, all as an escape from the stiff formality of official life.
Unemployment, especially in mining communities, became his greatest concern and he took a keen interest in the poor housing. He had long discussions with the Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, in an attempt to improve matters. The outcome was not always positive, as
some felt that if the Prince drew attention to unemployment or poor housing it could be seen as a criticism of the government.
Sir Frederick Ponsonby, Keeper of the Privy Purse, once complained that Edward was making himself too accessible, saying, “The Monarchy must always retain an element of mystery.” Edward did not agree.
When visiting poverty-stricken areas, he refused to travel by Rolls Royce, considering it to be inappropriate.
In April 1930 the Prince was given a grace-and-favour house as a retreat from official duties. Fort Belvedere near Sunningdale became his passion, and he spent every spare moment renovating the house and garden. The following year at a house-party in Melton Mowbray, he met Mrs Wallis Warfield Simpson – a meeting that would change his life.
Over the next few years their paths continued to cross at social events.
The forthright Mrs Simpson spoke her mind, even if it meant disagreeing with the Prince. Surrounded by people who generally kowtowed to him, Edward found this to be refreshing. As Mrs Simpson’s second marriage disintegrated, their friendship slowly blossomed into love and she became a regular visitor to Fort Belvedere.
On 20 January, 1936, George V passed away at Sandringham. Edward was now King. The next day he flew to London to present himself before an Accession Privy Council. It was the first time a king had ever flown. His father’s body was taken by train to London to lie in State in Westminster Hall. On top of the coffin had been placed the Imperial State Crown and as the gun-carriage bearing it crossed the tram lines where Theobalds Road meets Southampton Row, the jewelled cross on top of the Crown shook loose and fell on to the pavement.
“It seemed a strange thing to happen,” Edward wrote, “and, although not superstitious, I wondered if it was a bad omen.”
King Edward VIII did not adjust easily to his new position. When he walked to a meeting wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella, instead of travelling the short distance by car, there was a national chorus of disapproval. He aimed to be considered as Edward the Innovator, but in reality he said he was a King who “collided with the Establishment.” If he tried to change or modify royal traditions, he faced a wall of opposition.
Within days of his accession, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Lang, implied that Edward should end his friendship with Mrs Simpson. However, having discovered that the life of a monarch was a lonely one, Edward turned to her increasingly. They took a month-long cruise together in August 1936, causing speculation in the American press.
In October, Edward moved into Buckingham Palace; a building that he had never liked. That same month Mrs Simpson’s divorce petition was heard at Ipswich Assizes. The King told newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook that he wanted Wallis protected from publicity. Consequently, the British press had a “gentleman’s agreement” to report the case without sensation. The American papers, however, were predicting that she would marry the King as soon as she was divorced.
Within days the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, visited the King to express concern about the rumours appearing in foreign newspapers.
“I am beginning to wonder whether I really am the kind of king the people want,” Edward confided in his legal adviser Walter Monckton. He continued with his diary of public engagements, but two days after laying a wreath at the Cenotaph on Armistice Day, matters came to a head. He was warned that the British press could no longer maintain a discreet silence about his relationship and that Mrs Simpson should be sent abroad to avert a scandal.
Whoever the King married would be Queen. In 1936 it was felt that neither the government, church, nor the British people would tolerate a twice-divorced woman as consort.
The business of Kingship continued, and Edward VIII made an important visit to Wales. He was crowned Prince of Wales at Caernarvon and, fittingly, it was in Wales that his official duties in the UK drew to a close.
In London it was suggested that the King might consider a morganatic marriage, whereby Wallis would have no title or position and any children the couple had would not be heirs to the throne, but Parliament refused to pass the necessary legislation. The King had a choice: give up Wallis or relinquish the throne. Edward VIII made his decision.
Incognito as “Mrs Harris”, Wallis Simpson crossed the Channel from Newhaven to stay with friends in France, away from the impending furore. Whenever in contact by telephone, the King used the code name “Mr James” (after St James’s Palace). Despite pleading messages from Wallis that “Mr James should not step down”, the King was not
prepared to give her up. By December 1936, the matter was coming to a conclusion. Crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace, quietly singing the National Anthem and “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”.
Abdication documents were drawn up, passing the throne to Edward’s brother Bertie, the Duke of York. The first act of the new King George VI was to make his brother Duke of Windsor. Edward’s abdication speech was broadcast from Windsor Castle at ten o’clock in the evening on Friday, 11 December, written by Edward and polished by Winston Churchill. The Duke of Windsor then said farewell to his beloved Fort Belvedere, was driven to Portsmouth and at 2 am on HMS Fury he left England.
The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson finally married at the Château de Candé, Touraine, in a small civil ceremony on 3 June,
1937. No member of the Royal
Family was present. On the wedding day came the pronouncement that whilst the Duke of Windsor was entitled to style himself “Royal Highness”, the new Duchess of Windsor was not. The Duke considered this to be a hideous insult to his wife. Within their own household he insisted that his wife be addressed as “Ma’am” and referred to as “Her Royal Highness”.
They found a house in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, where they lived for the rest of their lives. Now no longer undertaking royal duties, the restless Duke needed a role. His interest in working conditions continued, and in the autumn of 1937 the Duke and Duchess visited Germany to tour factories and workers’ housing.
While in Germany, the couple met Göring, Himmler, Hess, Goebbels and Hitler. The Duke sent a telegram to Hitler in August 1939 appealing for peace. At the outbreak of war, the Duke was assigned to the British Military Mission in Vincennes, transferring to the French Armée des
Alpes in May 1940. After the fall of France, the Duke and Duchess went to Spain and Portugal before the Duke was appointed Governor of the Bahamas, then considered to be the least important of Britain’s 35 colonies. The Duke acquitted himself well. He encouraged an increase in agricultural production to prepare for food shortages and founded an infant welfare clinic, while the Duchess became President of the Red Cross and ran canteens for American servicemen.
Shortly before the end of the war, they returned to Paris. In October 1945, the Duke visited England and stayed with Queen Mary at Marlborough House. The Windsors visited London together on a number of occasions in the succeeding years and although the Duke saw members of his family, King George VI and Queen Mary were resolute in their determination not to meet Wallis.
The Windsors divided their remaining years between France and America, spending four months each year at the Waldorf Hotel in New York. They seldom travelled with fewer than thirty pieces of luggage, a retinue of staff and their beloved pugs.
At home they gave lavish dinners, with guests changing places for each course. Golf and gardening became Edward’s passions and he laid out an English style garden with a lawn and herbaceous borders. Their house in Paris was filled with royal mementos, echoes of a past life. Edward’s conversations were peppered with anecdotes beginning, “When I was King . . .”
When King George VI died in 1952, the Duke of Windsor flew to England, and was with his mother when she died a year later. On both occasions the Duchess remained in France. Not until 1967 was she invited to be with the Duke at Marlborough
House for the unveiling of a plaque to the memory of Queen Mary. There she met and spoke with the Queen and the Queen Mother. Thirty years after the abdication, it was seen as an act of reconciliation.
In his 78th year the Duke, a lifelong smoker, developed cancer of the throat. In May 1972, Elizabeth II visited her uncle. By then a very sick man attached to various tubes, he insisted on dressing smartly and stood and bowed as the Queen entered. He died nine days later on 28 May and was flown home to lie in state at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where some 60,000 people filed past his coffin, and was later laid to rest at Frogmore.
The Duchess stayed as a guest at Buckingham Palace. She was frail, grief-stricken and beginning to show signs of dementia that would blight the last 14 years of her life. Wallis died on 24 April, 1986, and was laid to rest beside her beloved David.
With a reign that lasted only 325 days, it is impossible to know exactly what kind of King he would have made, but in the end, Britain had much to thank the Duke of Windsor for. Edward’s sacrifice for love ultimately benefited the British people as the much-loved King George VI and Queen Elizabeth brought stability and dignity to the Monarchy that ensured its survival.
PAUL JAMES