Edward was born during the reign of his great-grandmotherQueen Victoria as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, laterKing George V andQueen Mary. He was createdPrince of Wales on his 16th birthday, seven weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, Edward served in theBritish Army during theFirst World War and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father. The Prince of Wales gained popularity due to his charm and charisma, and his fashion sense became a hallmark of the era. After the war, his conduct began to give cause for concern; he engaged in a series of sexual affairs that worried both his father and the British prime minister,Stanley Baldwin.
Uponhis father's death in 1936, Edward became the second monarch of theHouse of Windsor. The new king showed impatience with court protocol, and caused consternation among politicians by his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions. Only months into his reign, aconstitutional crisis was caused by his proposal to marryWallis Simpson, an American who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands was politically and socially unacceptable as a prospectivequeen consort. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward's status astitular head of theChurch of England, which, at the time, disapproved of remarriage after divorce if a former spouse was still alive. Edward knew the Baldwin government would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have forced a general election and would have ruined his status as a politically neutralconstitutional monarch. When it became apparent he could not marry Simpson and remain on the throne, heabdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother,George VI. With a reign of 326 days, Edward was one of theshortest-reigning British monarchs to date.
Edward was baptisedEdward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David in the Green Drawing Room of White Lodge on 16 July 1894 byEdward White Benson,Archbishop of Canterbury.[b] The name "Edward" was chosen in honour of Edward's late unclePrince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, who was known within the family as "Eddy" (Edward being among his given names); "Albert" was included at the behest of Queen Victoria for her late husbandAlbert, Prince Consort; "Christian" was in honour of his great-grandfather KingChristian IX of Denmark; and the last four names –George,Andrew,Patrick andDavid – came from, respectively, thepatron saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.[4] He was always known to his family and close friends by his last given name, David.[5]
As was common practice with upper-class children of the time, Edward and his younger siblings were brought up by nannies rather than directly by their parents. One of Edward's early nannies often abused him by pinching him before he was due to be presented to his parents. His subsequent crying and wailing would lead the Duke and Duchess to send him and the nanny away.[6] The nanny was discharged after her mistreatment of the children was discovered, and she was replaced byCharlotte Bill.[7]
Edward's father, though a harshdisciplinarian,[8] was demonstratively affectionate,[9] and his mother displayed a frolicsome side with her children that belied her austere public image. She was amused by the children makingtadpoles on toast for their Frenchmaster as a prank,[10] and encouraged them to confide in her.[11]
Initially, Edward was tutored at home by Hélène Bricka. When his parents travelled theBritish Empire for almost nine months following thedeath of Queen Victoria in 1901, young Edward and his siblings stayed in Britain with their grandparents, Queen Alexandra and King Edward VII, who showered their grandchildren with affection. Upon his parents' return, Edward was placed under the care of two men, Frederick Finch and Henry Hansell, who virtually brought up Edward and his siblings for their remaining nursery years.[12]
Edward was kept under the strict tutorship of Hansell until almost thirteen years old. Private tutors taught him German and French.[13] He took the examination to enter theRoyal Naval College, Osborne, and began there in 1907. Hansell had wanted Edward to enter school earlier, but the prince's father had disagreed.[14] Following two years at Osborne College, which he did not enjoy, Edward moved on to theRoyal Naval College atDartmouth. A course of two years, followed by entry into theRoyal Navy, was planned.[15]
Edward automatically becameDuke of Cornwall andDuke of Rothesay on 6 May 1910 when his father ascended the throne as George V on thedeath of Edward VII. He was created Prince of Wales andEarl of Chester a month later on 23 June 1910, his 16th birthday.[16] Preparations for his future as king began in earnest. He was withdrawn from his naval course before his formal graduation, served asmidshipman for three months aboard the battleshipHindustan, then immediately enteredMagdalen College, Oxford, for which, in the opinion of his biographers, he was underprepared intellectually.[15] A keen horseman, he learned how to play polo with theuniversity club.[17] He left Oxford after eight terms, without any academic qualifications.[15]
When theFirst World War broke out in 1914, Edward had reached the minimum age for active service and was keen to participate.[21] He had joined theGrenadier Guards in June 1914, and although Edward was willing to serve on the front lines,Secretary of State for WarLord Kitchener refused to allow it, citing the immense harm that would occur if the heir apparent to the throne were captured by the enemy.[22] Edward visited frontline trenches several times, for which he was given theMilitary Cross in 1916. His role in the war, although limited, made him popular among veterans of the conflict.[23] He undertook his first military flight in 1918, and later gained a pilot's licence.[24]
Edward's youngest brother,Prince John, died at the age of 13 on 18 January 1919 after a severeepileptic seizure.[25] Edward, who was 11 years older than John and had hardly known him, saw his death as "little more than a regrettable nuisance".[26] He wrote to his mistress of the time that "[he had] told [her] all about that little brother, and how he was an epileptic. [John]'s been practically shut up for the last two years anyhow, so no one has ever seen him except the family, and then only once or twice a year. This poor boy had become more of an animal than anything else." He also wrote an insensitive letter to his mother which has since been lost.[27] She did not reply, but he felt compelled to write her an apology, in which he stated: "I feel such a cold hearted and unsympathetic swine for writing all that I did ... No one can realize more than you how little poor Johnnie meant to me who hardly knew him ... I feel so much for you, darling Mama, who was his mother."[26]
In 1919, Edward agreed to be president of the organising committee for the proposedBritish Empire Exhibition atWembley Park,Middlesex. He wished the Exhibition to include "a great national sports ground", and so played a part in the creation ofWembley Stadium.[28]
Throughout the 1920s, Edward, as Prince of Wales, represented his father at home and abroad on many occasions. His rank, travels, good looks, and unmarried status gained him much public attention. At the height of his popularity, he was the most photographed celebrity of his time and he set men's fashion.[29] During his 1924 visit to the United States,Men's Wear magazine observed, "The average young man in America is more interested in the clothes of the Prince of Wales than in any other individual on earth."[30]
Though widely travelled, Edward shared a widely held racial prejudice against foreigners and many of the Empire's subjects,believing that whites were inherently superior.[39] In 1920, on his visit to Australia, he wrote ofIndigenous Australians: "they are the most revolting form of living creatures I've ever seen!! They are the lowest known form of human beings & are the nearest thing to monkeys."[40]
Before the First World War, a royal match with Edward's second cousin,Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, was suggested.[41] Nothing came of it, and Victoria Louise married Edward's first cousin once removed,Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, instead. In 1934,Adolf Hitler, in his ambition to link the British and German royal houses, asked Victoria Louise to arrange a marriage between the 40-year-old Edward and her 17-year-old daughter,Frederica of Hanover, who was at boarding school in England. Her parents refused, due to the age gap, and Frederica instead marriedPaul of Greece.[41][42]
By 1917, Edward liked to spend time partying in Paris while he was on leave from his regiment on the Western Front. He was introduced to Parisian courtesanMarguerite Alibert, with whom he became infatuated. He wrote her candid letters, which she kept. After about a year, Edward broke off the affair. In 1923, Alibert was acquitted in a spectacular murder trial after she shot her husband in theSavoy Hotel. Desperate efforts were made by the Royal Household to ensure that Edward's name was not mentioned in connection with the trial or Alibert.[43]
Edward's womanising and reckless behaviour during the 1920s and 1930s worried Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin, King George V, and those close to the prince. The King was disappointed by his son's failure to settle down in life, disgusted by his affairs with married women, and reluctant to see him inherit the Crown. "After I am dead," George said, "the boy will ruin himself in twelve months."[45]
George V favoured his second son Albert ("Bertie") and Albert's daughter Elizabeth ("Lilibet"), laterKing George VI andQueen Elizabeth II respectively. He told a courtier, "I pray to God that my eldest son will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne."[46] In 1929,Time magazine reported that Edward teased Albert's wife, also namedElizabeth (later theQueen Mother), by calling her "Queen Elizabeth". The magazine asked if "she did not sometimes wonder how much truth there is in the story that he once said he would renounce his rights upon the death of George V – which would make her nickname come true".[47]
In 1930, the King gave Edward the lease ofFort Belvedere in Windsor Great Park.[48] There, he continued his relationships with a series of married women, includingFreda Dudley Ward andLady Furness, the American wife of a British peer, who introduced Edward to her friend and fellow AmericanWallis Simpson. Simpson had divorced her first husband,U.S. Navy officerWin Spencer, in 1927. Her second husband,Ernest Simpson, was a British-American businessman. Wallis Simpson and the Prince of Wales, it is generally accepted, became lovers, while Lady Furness travelled abroad, although Edward adamantly insisted to his father that he was not having an affair with her and that it was not appropriate to describe her as his mistress.[49] Edward's relationship with Simpson, however, further weakened his poor relationship with his father. Although his parents met Simpson at Buckingham Palace in 1935,[50] they later refused to receive her.[51]
Edward's affair with an American divorcée led to such grave concern that the couple were followed by members of the Metropolitan PoliceSpecial Branch, who examined in secret the nature of their relationship. An undated report detailed a visit by the couple to an antique shop, where the proprietor later noted "that the lady seemed to have POW [Prince of Wales] completely under her thumb."[52] The prospect of having an American divorcée with a questionable past having such sway over theheir apparent led to anxiety among government and establishment figures.[53]
George V died on 20 January 1936, and Edward ascended the throne as Edward VIII. The next day, accompanied by Simpson, he broke with custom by watching the proclamation of his own accession from a window ofSt James's Palace.[54] He became the first monarch of the British Empire to fly in an aircraft when he flew fromSandringham to London for hisAccession Council.[13]
Edward caused unease in government circles with actions that were interpreted as interference in political matters. His comment during a tour of depressed villages inSouth Wales that "something must be done"[13] for the unemployed coal miners was seen as an attempt to guide government policy, though he had not proposed any remedy or change in policy. Government ministers were reluctant to send confidential documents and state papers to Fort Belvedere because it was clear that Edward was paying little attention to them, and it was feared that Simpson and other house guests might read them, improperly or inadvertently revealing government secrets.[55]
Left-facing coinage portrait of Edward VIII
Edward's unorthodox approach to his role also extended to thecoinage that bore his image. He broke with the tradition that the profile portrait of each successive monarch faced in the direction opposite to that of his or her predecessor. Edward insisted that he face left (as his father had done),[56] to show the parting in his hair.[57] Only a handful of test coins were struck before the abdication, and all are very rare.[58] When George VI succeeded to the throne he also faced left to maintain the tradition by suggesting that, had any further coins been minted featuring Edward's portrait, they would have shown him facing right.[59]
On 16 July 1936,George Andrew McMahon produced a loaded revolver as Edward rode on horseback atConstitution Hill, nearBuckingham Palace. Police spotted the gun and pounced on him; he was quickly arrested. McMahon alleged at his trial that "a foreign power" had approached him to kill Edward, that he had informedMI5 of the plan, and that he was merely seeing the plan through to help MI5 catch the real culprits. The court rejected the claims and sent him to jail for a year for "intent to alarm".[60] It is now thought that McMahon had indeed been in contact with MI5, but the veracity of the remainder of his claims remains debatable.[61]
In August and September, Edward and Simpson cruised theEastern Mediterranean on the steam yachtNahlin. By October it was becoming clear that the new king planned to marry Simpson, especially whendivorce proceedings between the Simpsons were brought atIpswichAssizes.[62] Although gossip about his affair was widespread in the United States, theBritish media kept silent voluntarily, and the general public knew nothing until early December.[63]
With Wallis Simpson on their Mediterranean holiday, 1936
On 16 November 1936, Edward invited Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to Buckingham Palace and expressed his desire to marry Simpson when she became free to remarry. Baldwin informed him that his subjects would deem the marriage morally unacceptable, largely becauseremarriage after divorce was opposed by the Church of England, and the people would not tolerate Simpson as queen.[64] As king, Edward was the titular head of the Church, and theclergy expected him to support the Church's teachings. The Archbishop of Canterbury,Cosmo Gordon Lang, was vocal in insisting that Edward must go.[65]
Edward proposed an alternative solution of amorganatic marriage, in which he would remain king but Simpson would not becomequeen consort. She would enjoy some lesser title instead, and any children they might have would not inherit the throne. This was supported by senior politicianWinston Churchill in principle, and some historians suggest that he conceived the plan.[65] In any event, it was ultimately rejected by theBritish Cabinet[66] as well as otherDominion governments.[67] The other governments' views were sought pursuant to theStatute of Westminster 1931, which provided in part that "any alteration in the law touching the Succession to the Throne or the Royal Style and Titles shall hereafter require the assent as well of the Parliaments of all the Dominions as of theParliament of the United Kingdom."[68] ThePrime Ministers of Australia (Joseph Lyons),Canada (Mackenzie King) andSouth Africa (J. B. M. Hertzog) made clear their opposition to the King marrying a divorcée;[69] theirIrish counterpart (Éamon de Valera) expressed indifference and detachment, while thePrime Minister of New Zealand (Michael Joseph Savage), having never heard of Simpson before, vacillated in disbelief.[70] Faced with this opposition, Edward at first responded that there were "not many people in Australia" and their opinion did not matter.[71]
Cypher on a postbox erected during his short reign
Edward informed Baldwin that he would abdicate if he could not marry Simpson. Baldwin then presented Edward with three options: give up the idea of marriage; marry against his ministers' wishes; or abdicate.[72] It was clear that Edward was not prepared to give up Simpson, and he knew that if he married against the advice of his ministers, he would cause the government to resign, prompting a constitutional crisis.[73] He chose to abdicate.[74]
Edward duly signed the instruments of abdication[c] at Fort Belvedere on 10 December 1936 in the presence of his younger brothers:Prince Albert, Duke of York, next in line for the throne;Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester; andPrince George, Duke of Kent.[75] The document included these words: "declare my irrevocable determination to renounce the throne for myself and for my descendants and my desire that effect should be given to this instrument of abdication immediately".[76] The next day, the last act of his reign was theroyal assent toHis Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936. As required by the Statute of Westminster, all the Dominions had already consented to the abdication.[1]
On the night of 11 December 1936, Edward, now reverted to the title and style of a prince, explained his decision to abdicate in a worldwideBBC radio broadcast. He said, "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love." He added that the "decision was mine and mine alone ... The other person most nearly concerned has tried up to the last to persuade me to take a different course".[77] Edward departed Britain forAustria the following day; he was unable to join Simpson until her divorce became absolute, several months later.[78] The Duke of York succeeded to the throne asGeorge VI. Accordingly, George VI's elder daughter,Princess Elizabeth, becameheir presumptive.[79]
On 12 December 1936, at the accession meeting of theBritish Privy Council, George VI announced his intention to make his brother the "Duke of Windsor" with the style ofRoyal Highness.[80] He wanted this to be the first act of his reign, although the formal documents were not signed until 8 March the following year. During the interim, Edward was known as theDuke of Windsor. George VI's decision to create Edward aroyal duke ensured that he could neither stand for election to theBritish House of Commons nor speak on political subjects in theHouse of Lords.[81]
Letters Patent dated 27 May 1937 re-conferred the "title, style, or attribute of Royal Highness" upon the Duke, but specifically stated that "his wife and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title or attribute". Some British ministers advised that the reconfirmation was unnecessary since Edward had retained the style automatically, and further that Simpson would automatically obtain the rank of wife of a prince with the styleHer Royal Highness; others maintained that he had lost all royal rank and should no longer carry any royal title or style as an abdicated king, and be referred to simply as "Mr Edward Windsor". On 14 April 1937,Attorney General SirDonald Somervell submitted toHome Secretary SirJohn Simon a memorandum summarising the views ofLord AdvocateT. M. Cooper, Parliamentary Counsel SirGranville Ram, and himself:
We incline to the view that on his abdication the Duke of Windsor could not have claimed the right to be described as a Royal Highness. In other words, no reasonable objection could have been taken if the King had decided that his exclusion from the lineal succession excluded him from the right to this title as conferred by the existing Letters Patent.
The question however has to be considered on the basis of the fact that, for reasons which are readily understandable, he with the express approval of His Majesty enjoys this title and has been referred to as a Royal Highness on a formal occasion and in formal documents. In the light of precedent it seems clear that the wife of a Royal Highness enjoys the same title unless some appropriate express step can be and is taken to deprive her of it.
We came to the conclusion that the wife could not claim this right on any legal basis. The right to use this style or title, in our view, is within the prerogative of His Majesty and he has the power to regulate it by Letters Patent generally or in particular circumstances.[82]
The Duke married Simpson, who had changed her name bydeed poll to Wallis Warfield (herbirth surname), in a private ceremony on 3 June 1937, atChâteau de Candé, nearTours, France. When theChurch of England refused to sanction the union, aCounty Durham clergyman,Robert Anderson Jardine (Vicar of St Paul's,Darlington), offered to perform the ceremony, and Edward accepted. George VI forbade members of the royal family to attend,[83] to the lasting resentment of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Edward had particularly wanted his brothers the Dukes of Gloucester and Kent and his second cousinLord Louis Mountbatten to attend the ceremony.[84] The French virtuoso organist and composerMarcel Dupré played at the wedding.[85]
The denial of the style Royal Highness to the Duchess of Windsor caused further conflict, as did the financial settlement. The Government declined to include the Duke or Duchess on theCivil List, and the Duke's allowance was paid personally by George VI. Edward compromised his position with his brother by concealing the extent of his financial worth when they informally agreed on the amount of the allowance. Edward's wealth had accumulated from the revenues of theDuchy of Cornwall paid to him as Prince of Wales and ordinarily at the disposal of an incoming king. George also paid Edward forSandringham House andBalmoral Castle, which were Edward's personal property, inherited from his father and thus did not automatically pass to George VI on his accession.[86] Edward received approximately £300,000 (equivalent to between £21 million and £140 million in 2021[87]) for both residences which was paid to him in yearly instalments. In the early days of George VI's reign Edward telephoned daily, importuning for money and urging that Wallis be granted the style of Royal Highness, until the harassed king ordered that the calls not be put through.[88]
Relations between the Duke of Windsor and the rest of the royal family were strained for decades. Edward had assumed that he would settle in Britain after a year or two of exile in France. King George VI (with the support of Queen Mary and his wife Queen Elizabeth) threatened to cut off Edward's allowance if he returned to Britain without an invitation.[86] Edward became embittered against his mother, Queen Mary, writing to her in 1939: "[your last letter][d] destroy[ed] the last vestige of feeling I had left for you ... [and has] made further normal correspondence between us impossible."[89]
Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Germany, October 1937
In October 1937,the Duke and Duchess visited Nazi Germany, against the advice of the British government, and metAdolf Hitler at hisBerghof retreat inBavaria. The visit was much publicised by the German media. During the visit, Edward gave fullNazi salutes.[90] In Germany, "they were treated like royalty ... members of the aristocracy would bow and curtsy towards her, and she was treated with all the dignity and status that the duke always wanted", according to royal biographerAndrew Morton in a 2016 BBC interview.[91]
The former Austrian ambassadorCount Albert von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein, who was also a second cousin once removed and friend of George V, believed that Edward favoured Germanfascism as a bulwark againstcommunism, and even that he initially favoured an alliance with Germany.[92] According to the Duke of Windsor, the experience of "the unending scenes of horror"[93] during the First World War led him to supportappeasement. Hitler considered Edward to be friendly towards Germany and thought thatAnglo-German relations could have been improved through Edward if it were not for the abdication.Albert Speer quoted Hitler directly: "I am certain through him permanent friendly relations could have been achieved. If he had stayed, everything would have been different. His abdication was a severe loss for us."[94] The Duke and Duchess settled in Paris, leasing a mansion inBoulevard Suchet [fr] from late 1938.[95]
In May 1939, Edward was commissioned byNBC to give a radio broadcast[96] (his first since abdicating) during a visit to the First World War battlefields ofVerdun. In it he appealed for peace, saying "I am deeply conscious of the presence of the great company of the dead, and I am convinced that could they make their voices heard they would be with me in what I am about to say. I speak simply as a soldier of the Last War whose most earnest prayer it is that such cruel and destructive madness shall never again overtake mankind. There is no land whose people want war." The broadcast was heard across the world by millions.[97][98] It was widely regarded as supporting appeasement,[99] and theBBC refused to broadcast it.[96] It was broadcast outside the United States onshortwave radio[100] and was reported in full by British broadsheet newspapers.[101]
On the outbreak of theSecond World War in September 1939, the Duke and Duchess were brought back to Britain by Louis Mountbatten on boardHMS Kelly, and Edward, although he held the rank offield marshal, was made amajor-general attached to the British Military Mission in France.[13] In February 1940, the German ambassador inThe Hague,Count Julius von Zech-Burkersroda, claimed that Edward had leaked the Alliedwar plans for the defence of Belgium,[102] which the Duke later denied.[103] When Germanyinvaded the north of France in May 1940, the Windsors fled south, first toBiarritz, then in June toFrancoist Spain. In July they moved toPortugal, where they lived at first in the home ofRicardo Espírito Santo, a Portuguese banker with both British and German contacts.[104] Under the code nameOperation Willi, Nazi agents, principallyWalter Schellenberg, plotted unsuccessfully to persuade the Duke to leave Portugal and return to Spain, kidnapping him if necessary.[105]Lord Caldecote wrote a warning to Winston Churchill, who by this point was prime minister, that "[the Duke] is well-known to be pro-Nazi and he may become a centre of intrigue."[106] Churchill threatened Edward with acourt-martial if he did not return to British soil.[107]
In July 1940, Edward was appointedgovernor of the Bahamas. The Duke and Duchess leftLisbon on 1 August aboard theAmerican Export Lines steamshipExcalibur, which was specially diverted from its usual direct course to New York City so that they could be dropped off at Bermuda on the 9th.[108] They left Bermuda forNassau on theCanadian National Steamship Company vesselLady Somers on 15 August, arriving two days later.[109] Edward did not enjoy being governor and privately referred to the islands as "a third-classBritish colony".[110] TheBritish Foreign Office strenuously objected when Edward and Wallis planned to cruise aboard a yacht belonging to Swedish magnateAxel Wenner-Gren, whom British and American intelligence wrongly believed to be a close friend ofLuftwaffe commanderHermann Göring.[111] Edward was praised for his efforts to combat poverty on the islands. He was "considerably more enlightened in his attitudes than the majority of Bahamian whites, or either of his predecessors", and had an "excellent relationship" with Black individuals such as jazz musician Bert Cambridge (who was eventually elected to theBahamian House of Assembly, to Edward's delight) and valetSydney Johnson, who Edward retained for 30 years and was said to have "loved as a son".[112] Edward maintained a long-standing dispute withÉtienne Dupuch, the editor of theNassau Daily Tribune, writing privately at one point that Dupuch was "more than halfNegro, and due to the peculiar mentality of this Race, they seem unable to rise to prominence without losing their equilibrium".[113] But even Dupuch praised Edward for his resolution of civil unrest over low wages in Nassau in 1942, though Edward blamed the trouble on "mischief makers – communists" and "men ofCentral European Jewish descent, who had secured jobs as a pretext for obtaining a deferment ofdraft".[114] He resigned from the post on 16 March 1945.[13]
Many historians have suggested that Adolf Hitler was prepared to reinstate Edward as king in the hope of establishing a fascistpuppet government in Britain afterOperation Sea Lion.[115] It is widely believed that the Duke and Duchess sympathised with fascism before and during the Second World War, and were moved to the Bahamas to minimise their opportunities to act on those feelings. In 1940 he said: "In the past 10 years Germany has totally reorganised the order of its society ... Countries which were unwilling to accept such a reorganisation of society and its concomitant sacrifices should direct their policies accordingly."[116] During theoccupation of France, the Duke asked the GermanWehrmacht forces to place guards at his Paris andRiviera homes; they did so.[117] In December 1940, Edward gaveFulton Oursler ofLiberty magazine an interview atGovernment House in Nassau. Oursler conveyed its content to PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt in a private meeting at theWhite House on 23 December 1940.[118] The interview was published on 22 March 1941 and in it Edward was reported to have said that "Hitler was the right and logical leader of the German people" and that the time was coming for President Roosevelt to mediate a peace settlement. Edward protested that he had been misquoted and misinterpreted.[119]
TheAllies became sufficiently disturbed by German plots revolving around Edward that President Roosevelt ordered covert surveillance of the Duke and Duchess when they visitedPalm Beach, Florida, in April 1941.Duke Carl Alexander of Württemberg (then a monk in an American monastery) had told theFederal Bureau of Investigation that Wallis had slept with the German ambassador in London,Joachim von Ribbentrop, in 1936; had remained in constant contact with him; and had continued to leak secrets.[120]
AuthorCharles Higham claimed thatAnthony Blunt, an MI5 agent andSoviet spy, acting on orders from theBritish royal family, made a successful secret trip toSchloss Friedrichshof inAllied-occupied Germany towards the end of the war to retrieve sensitive letters between the Duke of Windsor and Adolf Hitler and other leading Nazis.[121] What is certain is that George VI sent theRoyal Librarian,Owen Morshead, accompanied by Blunt, then working part-time in theRoyal Library as well as for British intelligence, to Friedrichshof in March 1945 to secure papers relating toVictoria, German Empress, the eldest child of Queen Victoria. Looters had stolen part of the castle's archive, including surviving letters between daughter and mother, as well as other valuables, some of which were recovered in Chicago after the war. The papers rescued by Morshead and Blunt, and those returned by the American authorities from Chicago, were deposited in theRoyal Archives.[122] In the late 1950s, documents recovered by US troops inMarburg, Germany, in May 1945, since titled theMarburg Files, were published following more than a decade of suppression, enhancing theories of Edward's sympathies forNazi ideologies.[123][124]
After the war, Edward admitted in his memoirs that he admired the Germans, but he denied being pro-Nazi. Of Hitler he wrote: "[the]Führer struck me as a somewhat ridiculous figure, with his theatrical posturings and his bombastic pretensions."[125] In the 1950s, journalistFrank Giles heard the Duke blame British foreign secretaryAnthony Eden for helping to "precipitate the war through his treatment ofMussolini ... that's what [Eden] did, he helped to bring on the war ... and of course Roosevelt and the Jews".[126] During the 1960s, in private, Edward reportedly said to a friend,Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross, "I never thought Hitler was such a bad chap."[127]
At the end of the war, the couple returned to France and spent the remainder of their lives essentially in retirement as Edward never held another official role. Letters written byKenneth de Courcy to the Duke, dated between 1946 and 1949, extracts of which were published in 2009, suggest a scheme where Edward would return to England and place himself in a position for a possibleregency. The health of George VI was failing and de Courcy was concerned about the influence of theMountbatten family over the young Princess Elizabeth. De Courcy suggested that Edward should buy a working agricultural estate within an easy drive of London in order to gain favour with the British public and make himself available should the King become incapacitated. The Duke, however, hesitated and the King recovered from his surgery.[128] De Courcy also mentioned the possibility of theBritish occupation zone in Germany becoming a kingdom with Edward becoming king. Nothing came of the suggestion.[129]
Edward's allowance was supplemented by government favours and illegal currency trading.[13][130][131] The City of Paris provided the Duke with a house at4 route du Champ d'Entraînement, on theNeuilly-sur-Seine side of theBois de Boulogne, for a nominal rent.[132] The French government also exempted him from payingincome tax,[130][133] and the couple were able to buy goodsduty-free through theBritish embassy and the militarycommissary.[133] In 1952, they bought and renovated a weekend country retreat,Le Moulin de la Tuilerie atGif-sur-Yvette, the only property the couple ever owned themselves.[134] In 1951, Edward produced a memoir,A King's Story ghost-written byCharles Murphy, in which he expressed disagreement with liberal politics.[19] The royalties from the book added to Edward and Wallis's income.[130]
Edward and Wallis effectively took on the role of celebrities and were regarded as part ofcafé society in the 1950s and 1960s. They hosted parties and shuttled between Paris and New York;Gore Vidal, who met the Windsors socially, reported on the vacuity of the Duke's conversation.[135] The couple doted on thepug dogs they kept.[136]
In June 1953, instead of attending thecoronation of Queen Elizabeth II, his niece, in London, Edward and Wallis watched the ceremony on television in Paris. Edward said that it was contrary to precedent for a sovereign or former sovereign to attend any coronation of another. He was paid to write articles on the ceremony for theSunday Express andWoman's Home Companion, as well as a short book,The Crown and the People, 1902–1953.[137]
The royal family never fully accepted the Duchess. Queen Mary refused to receive her formally. However, Edward sometimes met his mother and his brother, George VI; he attendedGeorge's funeral in 1952. Mary remained angry with Edward and indignant over his marriage to Wallis: "To give up all this for that", she said.[141] In 1965, the Duke and Duchess returned to London. They were visited by his niece Elizabeth II, his sister-in-lawPrincess Marina, Duchess of Kent, and his sisterMary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood. A week later, the Princess Royal died, and they attended her memorial service. In 1966 Edward gave the journalistGeorg Stefan Troller a TV interview in German;[142] he answered questions about his abdication.[143] In 1967, the Duke and Duchess joined the royal family for the centenary of Queen Mary's birth. The last royal ceremony Edward attended was the funeral of Princess Marina in 1968.[144] He declined an invitation from Elizabeth II to attend theinvestiture of Charles, Prince of Wales, in 1969, replying thatCharles would not want his "aged great-uncle" there.[145]
In the 1960s, Edward's health deteriorated.Michael E. DeBakey operated on him inHouston for ananeurysm of theabdominal aorta in December 1964, and SirStewart Duke-Elder treated adetached retina in his left eye in February 1965. In late 1971, Edward, who was a smoker from an early age, was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwentcobalt therapy. On 18 May 1972, Queen Elizabeth II visited the Duke and Duchess of Windsor while on a state visit to France; she spoke with Edward for 15 minutes, but only Wallis appeared with the royal party for a photocall as Edward was too ill.[146]
On 28 May 1972, ten days after Elizabeth's visit, Edward died at his home in Paris. His body was returned to Britain,lying in state atSt George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The funeral service took place in the chapel on 5 June in the presence of the Queen, the royal family, and the Duchess of Windsor, who stayed at Buckingham Palace during her visit. He was buried in theRoyal Burial Ground behind theRoyal Mausoleum of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert atFrogmore.[147] Until a 1965 agreement with the Queen, the Duke and Duchess had planned for a burial in a cemetery plot they had purchased atGreen Mount Cemetery inBaltimore, where Wallis's father was interred.[148] Frail, and suffering increasingly fromdementia,Wallis died in 1986 and was buried alongside her husband.[149]
In the view of historians such asPhilip Williamson writing in 2007, the popular perception in the 21st century that the abdication was driven by politics rather than religious morality is false and arises because divorce has become much more common and socially acceptable. To modern sensibilities, the religious restrictions that prevented Edward from continuing as king while planning to marry Wallis Simpson "seem, wrongly, to provide insufficient explanation" for his abdication.[150]
^There were fifteen separate copies – one for each Dominion, the Irish Free State, India, the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Prime Minister, among others.[75]
^She had askedAlec Hardinge to write to Edward explaining that he could not be invited to his father's memorial.[89]
^Berry, Ciara (12 January 2016),"Edward VIII (Jan–Dec 1936)",The Royal Family, Official website of the British monarchy,archived from the original on 7 May 2016, retrieved18 April 2016
^"Death of Youngest Son of King and Queen".Daily Mirror. 20 January 1919. p. 2.
^Godfrey, Rupert, ed. (1998), "11 July 1920",Letters From a Prince: Edward to Mrs. Freda Dudley Ward 1918–1921, Little, Brown & Co,ISBN978-0-7515-2590-8
^abViktoria Luise, HRH (1977),The Kaiser's daughter, W. H. Allen, pp. 188,ISBN9780491018081
^Petropoulos, Jonathan (2006),Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany, Oxford University Press, pp. 161–162,ISBN9780195161335
^Berry, Ciara (15 January 2016),"Coinage and bank notes",The Royal Family, Official website of the British monarchy,archived from the original on 7 May 2016, retrieved18 April 2016
^Williams, Susan (2003),"The historical significance of the Abdication files",Public Records Office – New Document Releases – Abdication Papers, London, Public Records Office of the United Kingdom,archived from the original on 9 October 2009, retrieved1 May 2010
^Papers of Count Albert von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein (1861–1945) in the State Archives, Vienna, quoted inRose, Kenneth (1983),King George V, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, p. 391,ISBN978-0-297-78245-2
^No. 621: Minister Zech to State SecretaryWeizsäcker, 19 February 1940, inDocuments on German Foreign Policy 1918–1945 (1954), Series D, Volume VIII, p. 785, quoted in Bradford, p. 434
^Bloch, pp. 154–159, 230–233;Luciak, Ilja (2012),"The Life of Axel Wenner-Gren–An Introduction"(PDF), in Luciak, Ilja; Daneholt, Bertil (eds.),Reality and Myth: A Symposium on Axel Wenner-Gren, Stockholm: Wenner-Gren Stiftelsirna, pp. 12–30,archived(PDF) from the original on 8 July 2016, retrieved6 November 2016
^Lord Kinross,Love conquers all inBooks and Bookmen, vol. 20 (1974), p. 50: "He indeed remarked to me, some twenty-five years later, 'I never thought Hitler was such a bad chap'."
^"Peep Show",Time, 8 October 1956,archived from the original on 26 February 2014, retrieved2 May 2010
^Robenalt, James D. (2015).January 1973: Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month that Changed America Forever. Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Review Press.ISBN978-1-61374-967-8.OCLC906705247.
^UPI. "Duke, Duchess Have Dinner With Nixons"The Times-News (Hendersonville, North Carolina) 6 April 1970; p. 13
^Williamson, Philip (2007), "The monarchy and public values 1910–1953", in Olechnowicz, Andrzej (ed.),The monarchy and the British nation, 1780 to the present, Cambridge University Press, p. 225,ISBN978-0-521-84461-1
^"Großherzogliche Orden und Ehrenzeichen".Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Großherzogtums Mecklenburg-Strelitz: 1912 (in German). Neustrelitz: Druck und Debit der Buchdruckerei von G. F. Spalding und Sohn. 1912. p. 15.
^"Goldener Löwen-orden",Großherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste (in German), Darmstadt: Staatsverlag, 1914, p. 3,archived from the original on 6 September 2021, retrieved17 September 2021 – via hathitrust.org
^M. & B. Wattel (2009),Les Grand'Croix de la Légion d'honneur de 1805 à nos jours. Titulaires français et étrangers, Paris: Archives & Culture, p. 461,ISBN978-2-35077-135-9
^Bille-Hansen, A. C.; Holck, Harald, eds. (1933) [1st pub.:1801],Statshaandbog for Kongeriget Danmark for Aaret 1933 [State Manual of the Kingdom of Denmark for the Year 1933](PDF), Kongelig Dansk Hof- og Statskalender (in Danish), Copenhagen: J.H. Schultz A.-S. Universitetsbogtrykkeri, p. 17,archived(PDF) from the original on 24 December 2019, retrieved16 September 2019 – viada:DIS Danmark
1 Not a British prince by birth, but createdPrince Consort.2 Not a British prince by birth, but created a Prince of the United Kingdom. Princes whose titles were removed and eligible people who do not use the title are shown in italics.
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