"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.
A five page magazine article which saluted the heir of Britain's King George V, Edward VIII (1894 – 1972: following his 1936 abdication he was granted the title Duke of Windsor). The article was written by the venerable journalist and U.S. Civil War veteran, George Haven Putnam (1844 – 1930) in order to mark the first visit made to the United States by that crowned head.
"Ten days after a would-be assassin had leveled a gun at him in London, King Edward VIII was scheduled to return to the Western Front, where, as a gangling boyish staff captain, he narrowly missed death from a shell that wrecked his car and killed his chauffeur."
"Few in Britain knew, at the time, of his repeated pleas to be allowed to forget his rank, lead the men over the top and, if fate so willed it, die for king and country."
In 1935 Edward VIII, while still a prince, wished to launch a national "thank-you offering" to the younger generation:
"'The Prince', said The News Chronicle of London, 'has put his finger on the weakest point in our present social structure. The State shows at least some concern for infancy and childhood, for the blind and defective, for the widow and the aged. The task of helping youth at the most critical age has been abandoned almost entirely to voluntary agencies, and the Prince wisely does not seek to supersede, but to reinforce and extend them.'"
Written a year and a half prior to his abdication, it was written to serve as a profile of the royal and it lays out for the reader the man's personal preferences as well as his training.
"Often reluctant to accept conservative advice, the Prince is aggravated when would-be mentors say something he wants to do 'really shouldn't be done, you know'. Thus, long before the problem of kingship are his in fact, the Prince has turned serious."
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."
Attached is an article from the pages of a 1936 issue of THE LITERARY DIGEST that reported on the concerns of British Prime Minister Baldwin in regards to the scandalous love affair between King Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson:
"Tradition vs. Love, Tory vs. Commoner, Baldwin vs. Nature"
This is a very juicy, action-packed article written in the immediate aftermath of the abdication of Edward VIII.
The journalist detailed how the whole affair evolved at 10 Downing Street and in the parliament; the reaction across the empire. The writer also endeavored to introduce the readers to the two unknown heirs: George VI (1895 – 1952) and Elizabeth II (b. 1926).
"Thus the ruler of the world's greatest empire joined the shabby band of ex-kings - the wood-chopper of Doorn, Germany's forgotten All Highest; Alfonso of Spain, who roams the Continent looking for pleasure; Ferdinand of Bulgaria, an old man doddering over his stamps; Prajadhipok of Siam, Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Abdel Medjik of Turkey, and Amanullah of Afghanistan."
At the end of the day, history will remember him simply as one of the most henpecked husband.
With an odd sense of foreboding, the very young Edward VIII wrote these words at the age of nine:
"...And here he was, at the end of twenty months, a king out of a berth...sent away from his kingdom almost without a single protest from those who he had tried to aid."
"I find great pleasure in my talks with the woman who first aroused me to a sense of my kingly duties."
"She jokingly refers to herself as the instigator of my downfall."
The primary topic of the article pertains to some hot water that the Duke was stewing in at the time for having attended Catholic services; even as the 'Former Defender of the Faith', this was seen as very bad form.
With the news that he was now dependent on checks from his family,
the newly minted Duke of Windsor had to learn to cut coupons and bargain:
"In the Vienna hotel where he gets a private haircut, he protested that $1.26 seemed a little steep for the brief use of an empty hotel room. The manager sliced the fee in half."
Here are a few editorial opinions concerning the bygone activities of one "Dave Windsor" authored by the assorted ink-stained wretches dwelling in both England and the United States.
"Many felt with George Bernard Shaw that Edward quit, 'simply and solely because he hates his job and has had enough of it.'
'What's the good of being Prince if I can't do as I like?' he protested as a youngster after riding his bicycle across his fathers geranium bed. Innumerable incidents supported the popular impression that as Prince of Wales he had not looked forward to kingship with pleasure. Once in a Paris club, he was asked by an American:
'How shall I behave here?'
'Like a human-being.' The answer roused his quick smile, - but just then a Britisher came up, bowed from the waist.
'How can I?' Edward sighed."
At the end of the day, history will remember him simply as one of the most henpecked husband to ever walk the earth.
"Over the weekend Mrs Simpson received a letter that could not be dismissed with a shrug. It was from the Scotland Yard detail that guarded her at Cannes during the first weeks of exile, and it strongly advised her to heed the threats and stay out of England."
Eleven months after the abdication, mixed feelings prevailed as to which king was preferred, George VI or the exited brother, Edward VIII:
"King Edward was of my generation. I do not know how your parents feel about him, but I think I am right in saying that those of my generation feel that King Edward has let us down! Now let us stand and pray silently for two minutes for King George and Mr. Baldwin."
Perhaps, one day in that perfect world we seem to be rushing to, all cameras will automatically delete our blemishes, correct our tailoring flaws and add muscle tone as needed to each imperfect image; but until that time, we, like the Duke of Windsor and all manner of other celebrity, must rely on the charitable instincts of the "fourth estate". This article pertains to bad pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and the courtesy that was, for the most part, extended to them to make them appear just a little bit more "glam" than they otherwise appeared. The article is illustrated with one bad photograph and one "retouched" (Photoshopped) image of the couple, so that we might all know what the editors were up against:
"Immediately after their marriage Edward and Wally posed for the newsreels. When their pictures were flashed on American screens, Wally was seen to have a large mole on the left side of her face and the Duke stood revealed with a much-wrinkled and worried countenance..."
An interesting little excerpt from a much longer article revealed that the Windsors preferred gazing at their own newsreel footage for thirty minutes each night rather than gawk at the current movie offerings of the day:
"From their 16mm films of themselves, extra prints were made and rushed to England, where the Duke and Duchess of Kent and other friends and admirers of the exiled ex-king devoured them from time to time."
If you would like to read the longer article, click here.
"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."
During the years the Duke of Windsor has been slandered up hill and down dale by all sorts of cliques and all manner of men; he has been called a cad, a shirker, a traitor, a Nazi, a snob a half-wit. Yet all his detractors can agree on one well-deserved sobriquet: dandy. No matter how you slice it, the man was well-turned out; and while he was busy tending to those matters that would render him deserving of such insults, he always did it as a fop, a beau, a buck or a swell. For as deep as his flaws may have been, he well understood tailoring and fabrics, stripes and plaids, cuffs and collars. His fashion admirers are born anew with each generation and he, more than any other man in the past century, created the definition of the well-dressed man. The following article pertains to his "youthful air" and fashion innovations.
Click here to see the Summer suits other men wore during the Summer of 1932.
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.
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.
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:"
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.
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.
Iles Brody, author of Gone with the Windsors, was no fan of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but before he began to outline all their various faults in the attached essay, he first wanted to make one aspect of their history quite clear:
"The true story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor cannot be told without clarifying one point right at the beginning: there was only one man who forced Edward VIII off the throne: himself. Yet millions have been led to believe that Prime Minister and Primate got together with the peers and, with the help of the British press, compelled the King to abandon his hereditary trust."
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..."
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 '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."
"The Duke of Windsor is now 59. He has arrived at that age when a man begins to weigh his life and all that he has done with it...What can he remember? That having come to the throne the most beloved of all princes, the darling of a nation that would have followed him through hell-fire; he threw away the tiresome restraints of kingship, to gain what?"
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.
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.
