The Duke of Windsor Dies at 77 The Duke of Windsor Dies at 77 By Reuters LONDON, Sunday, May 28--The Duke of Windsor, who gave up the British throne in 1936 to marry an American divorcee, died in his home near Paris early today, a Buckingham Palace spokesman announced here. The Duke was 77 years old. A statement from Buckingham Place, the official residence of Queen Elizabeth, the Duke's niece said: "It is announced with deep regret that his Royal Highness, the Duke of Windsor, has died at his home in Paris at 2:25 A.M., Sunday, May 28, 1972. "A further announcement from the Palace will be made later about the funeral arrangements." The death announcement reached New York shortly after 1:10 A.M. Eastern daylight time. The Duke, who reigned for 10 months as King Edward VIII before abdicating, had been ill for some time. The Duke defied the British Establishment to marry Mrs. Bessie Wallis Warfield Simpson, a twice-divorced American. The couple lived in virtual self-exile from Britain since the abdication.

Queen Elizabeth visited her ailing uncle at his Paris home during her state visit to France earlier this month. The Duke, who would have been 78 on June 23, was too ill to leave the first-floor sitting room of the house overlooking the Bois de Boulogne. The Duke underwent a hernia operation earlier this year. One of his personal physicians, Dr. Arthur Antenucci, of the Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, flew to Paris to see him two days ago. In Paris, a spokesman for the Duke said: "He died peacefully." Asked what had been the cause of death, the spokesman--the Duke's longtime secretary, John Utter--said: "Just natural causes." Two weeks before the Queen, Prince Phillip and the Prince of Wales made their teatime call on the Duke and Duchess at their home near Longchamp Racecourse during the royal visit to France this month, the Duke was reported to be "in need of a long rest." After the 40-minute royal visit, the Duke was said to be in good spirits. Later the Duke's secretary said he was being treated at home for an illness, but its nature and his treatment were not disclosed.

Abdicated in 1936 "But you must believe me when I tell you that 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." With these words, delivered with sadness over the radio on Dec. 11, 1936, to his subjects in Britain, Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor, became the first monarch in British history to voluntarily abdicate his throne, which he did 11 months after assuming it. A popular king, Edward VIII touched off a sensation at home and abroad with the announcement that he intended to leave the throne to marry Mrs. Bessie Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American who had been twice divorced. 'I Lay Down My Burden' Edward had been determined to marry Mrs. Simpson, although Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin had tried to dissuade him, on the ground that the King, as head of the Church of England, would be violating the church's doctrines against divorce. In the absence of legislation that would permit the marriage, King Edward chose to abdicate.

He was succeeded by his brother, the Duke of York, who became King George VI. The new King made his predecessor the Duke of Windsor. "I now quit altogether public affairs, and I lay down my burden," Edward said in his broadcast the day after the act of abdication had been signed. Then, on Dec. 12, at 2 A.M., he left England. He married Mrs. Simpson six months later in France. He remained in virtual exile from Britain ever since, estranged from the royal family until recently. It was not until 1965 that Queen Elizabeth II met the Duchess of Windsor at the bedside of the Duke while he was in London for eye operations. Two years later, the Duke and Duchess were formally received by the Queen at a memorial ceremony for Edward's mother, Queen Mary. Last May 18, Queen Elizabeth visited her ailing uncle at his Paris home. After the abdication, the Duke and Duchess attracted wide publicity as they traveled about. They often attended charity balls and other events in New York, where they stayed at the Waldorf- Astoria. The Duke performed some official duties in World War II, when he was appointed governor and commander in chief of the Bahamas.

Called David at Home Much of the time in recent years was spent at their home in the Bois du Boulogne on the edge of Paris, where the Duke enjoyed gardening and occasionally received visitors, including Emperor Hirohito of Japan on his world tour last year. Edward was born on June 23, 1894, in the 57th year of the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His mother was the former Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, later to be Queen Mary, and his father was the Duke of York, later to become King George V. He was christened Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David of the House of Saxe- Coburg-Gotha. In 1917, George V renounced the German name and proclaimed it the House of Windsor. Edward--whom the royal family referred to by his last given name, David--spent much of his childhood at Sandringham in Norfolk, in a household where his father insisted on stern discipline.

"I have often thought," the Duke later wrote, "that my father liked children only in the abstract." Served in France In 1907, Edward entered the Royal Naval College at Osborne on the Isle of Wight, where the discipline was rigorous. With the death of his grandfather, Edward VII, in 1910, and the ascension of George V, Edward became heir apparent and was sent to Magdalen College at Oxford for a broader education. Edward did not excel in academics, but he enjoyed college life, engaging in such extracurricular pursuits as dancing and playing the banjo. When World War I began, he was transferred to the Grenadier Guards. As a result of his own persistence he was eventually sent to France, where he served on the staff of the commander of the British Expeditionary Force. He was never permitted on the front lines for long, but was under fire several times. After the war, the Prince of Wales took a series of royal tours around the world that attracted great attention. He was accorded a particularly thunderous welcome in New York in 1919, and newspapers carried headlines stressing his eligibility as a bachelor.

The Prince's genuine friendliness, which allowed him to mingle with people, combined with a somewhat shy, almost wistful manner, convinced those who saw him that he would be a popular king. In 1930 the Prince met Mrs. Ernest Simpson, wife of an American maritime broker. Mrs. Simpson's first marriage, to E. Winfield Spencer, had ended in divorce. "In character," the Duke later wrote in his memoirs, "Wallis was, and still remains, complex and elusive, and from the first I looked upon her as the most independent woman I had ever met. This refreshing trait I was inclined to put down as one of the happier outcomes of the events of 1776." About the time that the Prince of Wales decided that he wanted to marry Mrs. Simpson, his father, George V, died, on Jan. 20, 1936. Two days later, Edward VIII was proclaimed King. In his 11 months on the throne, Edward made it clear through his personal style that his would be an unorthodox approach to the monarchy. But as it became clear that a marriage to Mrs.

Simpson, who had received a preliminary divorce decree that October, could not be accommodated with his own position, Edward VIII decided to abdicate before his coronation. The marriage took place June 3, 1937, at the Chateau de Cande at Monts, near Tours, France. "I did not value the crown so lightly that I gave it away hastily," he later explained. "I valued it so deeply that I surrendered it, rather than risk any impairment of its prestige." 1000+ images about King Edward VIII & Wallis Simpson after abdication Duke and Duchess of Windsor on Pinterest | Wallis simpson, Edward viii and Windsor Forward On this day 11th December 1935 Edward VIII after ruling for less than a year he became the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. Edward planned to marry, divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson and before he left for France, he made a final radio broadcast to the nation.

He was succeeded by his brother George who became George VI See More BBC NEWS | UK | Profile: Edward VIII Wednesday, 29 January, 2003, 18:53 GMT Profile: Edward VIII By Andrew Walker BBC News Profiles Unit As the Public Record Office releases more documents concerning the abdication of King Edward VIII, BBC News Online looks at his life. King Edward VIII, who became the Duke of Windsor, found himself at the centre of a personal and political storm which shook the foundations of the monarchy. More than 30 years after his death, his life continues to intrigue and tantalise historians. Some commentators see him as a pampered playboy, whose louche lifestyle and numerous relationships with married women, most notably Mrs Simpson, made him unfit to be King. Others believe this outward appearance masked something much darker - a fascination with Nazism, possibly even a brooding determination to overthrow his brother George VI. The young Edward enjoyed a busy social life Edward was born on 23 June 1894. His father, who became George V in 1910, was a fierce disciplinarian.

Besides Edward - always called David by his family - there were four other royal princes: Bertie - later George VI, Henry, George, and John. Edward, good-looking, raffish and easy going, was the pick of the crop. Dilemma After becoming Prince of Wales in 1911 and serving in the Grenadier Guards during World War I, he became the darling of 1920s society. Life was a seemingly endless round of balls, cocktail parties and country house weekends. His penchant for married women was already well-known in aristocratic circles. Edward was captivated by Wallis Simpson During the early 1930s, Mrs Wallis Warfield Simpson, a divorcee from Baltimore, Maryland, was constantly with him. But there was another, more serious, side to Edward's character. During the Depression which followed the Wall Street Crash of 1929, he visited poverty-stricken areas of the UK and encouraged 200,000 unemployed men and women to join his back-to-work scheme. His popularity far outstripped that of his distant father. Following George V's death in January 1936, the new King faced two huge problems.

The first was his love for Wallis Simpson: as King, and Supreme Governor of the Church of England, he could not marry a divorcee. He would have to choose between his country and his lover. Concentration camp The second was that some felt that the new King was too sympathetic to Nazi Germany. Following Edward's accession, the German embassy in London sent a cable for the personal attention of Hitler himself. The Windsors met Hitler in 1937 In part, it read: "An alliance between Germany and Britain is for him (the King) an urgent necessity." Alan Lascelles, Edward's private secretary, gave his own harsh judgment of the situation. "The best thing that could happen to him would be for him to break his neck." Within the year Edward, pressurised by the Church of England, the government and royal courtiers, decided to abdicate. In October 1937, Edward and his wife - by now the Duke and Duchess of Windsor - visited Nazi Germany. They met Hitler, dined with his deputy, Rudolf Hess, and even visited a concentration camp. The camp's guard towers were explained away as meat stores for the inmates.

Bahamas At the outbreak of war, the duke served as a military liaison officer in Paris before eventually ending up in Lisbon after the French capitulation. Hitler, wishing to bring the duke into his camp, made an abortive attempt to coax Edward and his wife to Spain, which was then sympathetic to the Nazi cause. But the duke soon moved on to become Governor of the Bahamas from 1940-45. It was while he was there that he is said to have made his views explicit. He reputedly told a journalist that "it would be a tragic thing for the world if Hitler was overthrown". To an acquaintance on the island, the Duke reportedly said: "After the war is over and Hitler will crush the Americans...We'll take over...They (the British) don't want me as their King, but I'll be back as their leader." After the war, the duke and duchess returned to France. He died there in 1972, while the Duchess lived on until 1986.

Though the official Whitehall view was that "His Royal Highness never wavered in his loyalty to the British cause", the reputation of "the King who never was" seems destined to remain cloaked in ambiguity. Key stories Duke of Windsor - Biography - IMDb Duke of Windsor Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trivia (27) | Personal Quotes (1) Overview (5) Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Wettin Nickname 5' 7" (1.7 m) Mini Bio (1) Prince Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David was born on June 23, 1894. He was the son of the future King George V and Queen Mary . He was in the army and was an uncrowned King for a little under a year after the death of his father in 1936. In the early 30s he met an American divorcee, Wallis Warfield Simpson, who was married to her second husband. She and the Prince fell in love and she got divorced in 1936.

The Establishment reacted against the idea of a twice married American divorcée as Queen, and Edward decided to abdicate in favour of his younger brother Albert who became King George VI . He and Wallis married in 1937, and became Duke and Duchess of Windsor, though she was not made a Royal Highness. He met Hitler before the war started and Hitler said that Wallis would have made a good Queen. During the war Edward was named Governor of the Bahamas. After the war he lived mainly in Paris where he died in May of 1972. - IMDb Mini Biography By: CR edited by garryq Spouse (1) ( 3 June 1937 - 28 May 1972) (his death) Trivia (27) Changed his name seven times in his life: was born Prince Edward of York, then Prince Edward of Cornwall and York, then Prince Edward of Wales, then Duke of Cornwall, then Prince of Wales, the King Edward VIII, and finally Duke of Windsor. Elder brother of King George VI . As the first son of King George V , he had been invested as the Prince of Wales in 1911.

He abdicated before his coronation. The coronation that had been planned for him went on as scheduled, but for his brother HM King George VI . He was the last monarch to serve his entire reign as Emperor of India. His close friend Winston Churchill (then a backbencher) suggested setting up a "King's Party" as a group to try to sway public opinion and the establishment in favor of Edward remaining on the throne after marrying Wallis Simpson (the Duchess of Windsor ). He had to give his Royal Assent to the Act of Parliament confirming his abdication. By a quirk in their constitution he remained King of Ireland for an extra day. For approximately nine hours after his abdication he bore no official title, he was simply "His Royal Highness The Prince Edward." He was not created "His Royal Highness The Duke of Windsor" until the morning after he left England. He was the only British king and emperor to voluntarily abdicate the throne. Married Wallis Simpson (the Duchess of Windsor ) in France in 1937.

He only returned to England a few times - briefly after the end of the World War II in 1945, for the funeral of his brother, King George VI , in 1952, for the funeral of his mother, Queen Mary , in 1953 and for the unveiling of a statue of his mother in 1967. Brother of Mary the Princess Royal (aka Victoria, 1897-1965), Prince Henry ( Duke of Gloucester ), Prince George ( Duke of Kent ), and Prince John (1905-1919). Son of King George V and Queen Mary Along with Lady Jane Grey and Edward V, he is one of only three British or English monarchs never to be crowned. He was the first monarch since King James II of England in 1689 whose reign did not end with his death. After Lady Jane Grey and Edward V, he is the third shortest reigning monarch in British history. First British or English monarch to die outside of Britain since King James II in 1701. First monarch of England to be a qualified pilot.

He was unable to attend the state funeral of his former friend and ally Sir Winston Churchill in January 1965 because he was recovering from a serious eye operation at King Edward VII hospital in London. In the final year of his life, he underwent a hernia operation. He outlived his younger brother King George VI by twenty years. The only other English or British monarch to outlive their successor is James II who died in 1701, almost seven years after the death of his daughter Mary II. As he visited Germany and met Adolf Hitler in 1937, he was accused to be pro-Nazi and finally moved to the Bahamas as Govenor and Commander-in-Chief during World War II. Lived at 4 rue du Champ d'Entraînement in Paris, where the City of Paris provided him a house. Is buried in the Royal Burial Grounds at Frogmore. The song "Edward VIII" by Lord Caresser was the most popular calypso record in 1937.

BBC - Archive - Edward VIII - The king who gave up the throne for the woman he loved Edward VIII | The king who gave up the throne for the woman he loved About this collection In January 1936, King George V died and his son Edward, Prince of Wales, became King. Just 11 months later, before his Coronation had even taken place, Edward renounced the throne due to his relationship with Wallis Simpson. In this collection, we hear broadcasts that Edward made as Prince of Wales and during his brief reign. Friends of the prince join historians to share their insights into the uncrowned King and discuss how the abdication changed the course of the British monarchy. We also hear from the Duke and Duchess of Windsor themselves as they reflect on their lives and that momentous decision. Features Abdication of King Edward VIII Farewell Speech from Windsor Castle How Britian covered up the friendship between Hitler & Edward VIII | New York Post How Britian covered up the friendship between Hitler & Edward VIII Modal Trigger History has romanticized Edward VIII as the king of hearts, the man who gave up the throne for the love of an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson.

But the truth is far darker, says author Andrew Morton, Princess Diana’s official biographer. In his new book, “17 Carnations: The Royals, the Nazis and the Biggest Cover-Up in History,” Morton unveils how Edward VIII openly sympathized with the Nazis — a fact the British leadership desperately attempted to hide. Here, adapted from his book, Morton reveals the shocking story the royals tried to ban. In the final days of World War II, US Army Capt. David Silverberg was fighting the stubborn remnants of the Nazi army near the town of Meisdorf in what was to become Communist East Germany. He spotted an abandoned truck, sprinkled with a confetti of wet and burnt paper. When he examined it more closely, he saw that they were government documents, some signed by Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man, Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Soon he and his men came across fortified buildings stuffed to the rafters with secret Nazi papers. Days later, a battered metal canister buried on a remote German estate was uncovered. Inside was a microfilm revealing the evil beating heart of the Nazi government machine.

The Allied “documents men” realized this find was dynamite and planned to release the damning papers, which revealed in writing the twisted megalomania of Hitler and other top Nazi leaders. They wanted to show the world that the sacrifice had been necessary to overthrow these bloodthirsty tyrants. Then they came across a file that stopped them in their tracks. It concerned the ex-king of England, now the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated his throne in 1936 so that he could marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. That decision rocked the monarchy. Now it was feared that these latest revelations, documents revealing his relationship with Hitler, the secret plot to make him a puppet king after the Nazis had invaded England and his defeatist comments about the necessity for the Germans to bomb Britain into submission, could blow the monarchy sky high. The 17 carnations The Duke of Windsor, fourth from left, and the Duchess of Windsor, third from left, visit German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, fifth from left, at his home in Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, Germany.AP What most people did not realize is that Hitler had spent years courting Edward.

His wooing began soon after he became German chancellor in 1933. He encouraged Princess Friederike, the teenage daughter of German nobility, to romance the bachelor prince. Hitler hoped for a return to the days of Queen Victoria, when English royalty only married German royalty. Unfortunately for Hitler, Friederike’s aristocratic parents, both ardent Nazis, claimed later that she was too young to marry the future king of England. Instead, Hitler sent a slew of German aristocrats, many blood relatives of the Windsors, to London to collect intelligence on the prince and the rest of the royal family. Foreign minister, Joachim Von Ribbentrop (left) and Adolf Hitler in 1939.AP They soon discovered that the prince looked west to America when it came to love affairs. Two of his lovers, Thelma Furness and Freda Dudley Ward, had American family connections. They were married, as was his current flame, Wallis Simpson. The German leader sent his trusted emissary von Ribbentrop to court the couple. Wallis SimpsonEPA He was more successful than Hitler could ever imagined.

Within weeks telegrams were flying between Berlin, Washington and London as diplomats gossiped about how Ribbentrop had charmed Mrs. Simpson into bed. He was said to send her 17 carnations, one for every time they had made love, to her apartment of Bryanston Court in central London. When he heard about the behavior of his right-hand man, even the humorless Herr Hitler joked with him about the saucy stories, according to a Ribbentrop biographer. While Mrs. Simpson always denied the rumors, her great friend Mary Raffray, who ended up becoming Ernest Simpson’s third wife, insisted the torrid tales were true. Though Ribbentrop courted and charmed Mrs. Simpson, he was focused on seducing the future king and making him a Nazi ally. For a time he was wildly successful. The prince agreed to promote reciprocal visits by German and British war veterans. When he was told off by his father, King George V, for dabbling in politics, he was later seen goose stepping around Mrs. Simpson’s apartment, a storm trooper’s hat on his head.

Like many of his class, Edward was instinctively sympathetic to Hitler’s far-right regime. During the 1920s he had seen the collapse of Weimar Germany, the mass unemployment, crippling inflation and virtual civil war between left and right and believed that a strong leader could restore stability and prosperity. When (Hitler) occupied the Rhineland in March 1936 — against all international agreements — he relied on the new king to support him. Moreover the duke loathed Bolshevik Russia and, until his dying day, never forgave or forgot how the Communists ordered the murder of his godfather Tsar Nicholas II and family in 1918. It shaped his political thinking, believing that a strong Germany would act as a bulwark against a resurgent Russia, hoping that one day the two countries would slug it out between themselves while Britain enjoyed the fruits of Empire. Such was the alarm about Edward’s behavior that Scotland Yard detectives were secretly ordered to follow him and the Simpsons. They discovered that Mrs. Simpson was enjoying another affair with Guy Trundle, a used-car salesman. At Buckingham Palace and inside Downing Street, the Simpsons were considered blackmailers and Wallis was suspected of spying for the Nazis.

The new king was so careless with his red boxes — the state papers that contain top-secret documents about government policy — that some advisors feared that Mrs. Simpson might pass important military secrets to Ribbentrop. Hitler, though, was delighted with the new king, seeing him as a Nazi ally. When he occupied the Rhineland in March 1936 — against all international agreements — he relied on the new king to support him. He was not disappointed, Edward Vlll urging the prime minister to take no action against Germany. ‘Operation Cleopatra whim’ Like almost everyone, Hitler was shocked when Edward Vlll gave up his throne in order to marry Mrs. Simpson. He couldn’t understand it. Hitler was a man who wanted to rule the world, Edward had given up an empire for a woman who, by his own admission, he had not even slept with. When they married in a French chateau, only a handful of their friends and none of their family attended, the couple now exiled from England.

King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson after their wedding in 1937.AP The duke and duchess, meanwhile, acted as if World War II was simply a minor inconvenience to their lifestyle. In 1940, when he and his wife were in Spain and Portugal, Edward had been in secret contact with the Nazis about looking after their luxury villas in Paris and the South of France. The duchess was most concerned that their bed linens be protected from damage. Even the diplomat brother of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was horrified by the duke’s behavior. “A prince does not ask favours of his country’s enemies. To request the handing over of things he could replace or dispense with is not correct.” Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII in 1953.ZumaPress The duchess had other pressing concerns. She had left her favorite Nile green swimsuit behind at their villa in the South of France. It was vital it be returned. To this end she enlisted the American Minister in Lisbon and the American consul in Nice to repatriate the garment. Even though their rented villa was locked and shuttered and that part of the coast occupied by the enemy, the diplomats duly did her bidding.

In the midst of war the swimsuit was found and despatched safely to the grateful duchess. The task was known privately as “Operation Cleopatra Whim.” Their self-indulgence knew no bounds. With the Nazis poised to invade England in the summer of 1940, Winston Churchill spent precious hours acting as the duke’s travel agent. To keep him out of mischief, Churchill had appointed him governor of the Bahamas. The duke demurred and the prime minister threatened him with court-martial if he did not obey orders. In the acrimonious back and forth between the two men, the Duke insisted that he could only serve as governor if two serving soldiers were taken out of the army to work as his manservants. Then the ducal couple wanted to sail to New York on a Madison Avenue shopping trip before he would take up his appointment. By contrast, with a Nazi invasion imminent, the new king and queen were learning how to shoot pistols. When they sailed for the Bahamas, they left not a moment too soon. For weeks Hitler and Ribbentrop had plotted to kidnap the ex-king and his wife.

Hitler had sent his top spymaster, Walter Schellenberg to coordinate a small army of German agents who were poised to snatch the couple from their temporary home in Lisbon. The scheme even had a code name, “Operation Willi.” The Fuhrer hoped to install Edward back on the throne once the Nazis conquered England. Hitler had ordered Spanish friends of the duke to try and convince him to stay in Europe, offering him a castle in southern Spain and more than $100 million dollars as sweeteners. But the duke and duchess were terrified by Nazi-inspired rumors that the British intended to murder them — a reasonable assumption given Churchill’s acrimonious relationship with the ex-king. Under enormous pressure, the couple to the Bahamas, and Hitler was left empty-handed. The Windsor file Wallis Simpson and Edward VIIIstand at the entrance of the Villa De La Croe in Cap Antibes, Cannes, in 1939 where they celebrated the New Year.AP Though Edward and Wallis were out of sight, the end of the war brought a new headache. After his abdication, Hitler invited the duke and duchess to visit Germany in October 1937.

It was the chance for the duke to show his new wife that though he was no longer king, nothing really had changed. They were met by marching bands and cheering crowds, the duke infamously exchanging Nazi salutes with his hosts. The duke even enjoyed a 50-minute private conversation with Hitler at his mountain retreat. The potentially incendiary contents of this tête-à-tête remained a mystery even to the “documents men” who pored over top secret Nazi files at the war’s end. King George VI, the duke’s stuttering younger brother who took over when he abdicated, was “deeply agitated” by the existence of the Windsor file. Even Churchill, who had fallen out with the duke over his wartime behavior, believed the contents of the Windsor dossier should be destroyed lest it damage the standing of the monarchy. They had an ally in Dwight Eisenhower, then Allied supreme commander. He agreed with Churchill and ordered the Windsor file destroyed. The world would have been no wiser about the antics of the Duke of Windsor but for a couple of American academics. When the order first went out to obliterate the incriminating royal file, Stanford University Prof.

David Harris, then working with the State Department, resisted the government Goliath, arguing that it was against the law for government officials to destroy documents. His argument prevailed, causing severe strain to the “special relationship.” It took the efforts of historian Dr. Paul Sweet to stop the British from delaying publication. In the end the wrangle over the Windsor file lasted longer than World War II itself; it was not until 1957 that the file was published. The duke escaped largely unscathed, perhaps because he was, by that point, so irrelevant. As for the British monarchy — it still survives in spite of Hitler and his royal allies. Adapted from “17 Carnations: The Royals, the Nazis and the Biggest Cover Up in History” by Andrew Morton, to be published by Grand Central on March 10. Share this: 1000+ images about Duke of Windsor on Pinterest | King george, Edward viii and Windsor Edward VIII, also known as the Prince of Wales in his early life, was a style icon of his era. His sartorial prowess and irreverence toward the stuffy ways of the British Monarchy, make him Darzi's Man of the Week.

See More BBC - History - Edward VIII z Edward VIII © The only British sovereign to abdicate voluntarily, Edward stepped down in 1936 to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. He was king for less than a year. Edward was born on 23 June 1894 in Richmond, Surrey, the eldest child of the duke of York. He was always known in his family as David, one of many middle names. In 1910, Edward's father became George V and Edward, prince of Wales. He joined the Grenadier Guards in World War One, although he was not allowed to see active service. Throughout the 1920s, Edward undertook extensive foreign tours particularly in the empire, representing his father. These tours, together with Edward's visits to areas of high unemployment and deprivation in Britain during the economic depression of the early 1930s, made Edward very popular. Edward had affairs with a number of married women in the 1920s, but then met and fell in love with Wallis Simpson, the wife of an American businessman. In January 1936, George V died and Edward became king.

In October, Wallis Simpson was granted a divorce from her husband, and it became clear that the new king wished to marry her, against the advice of many of his advisors who did not believe that Edward, as head of the Church of England, should marry a divorced woman. All attempts to find a solution failed and so, on 10 December, Edward signed an instrument of abdication. The following day, after broadcasting to the nation and the empire to explain his actions, he left for Europe. Edward's brother became George VI. In June 1937, Edward married Wallis Simpson and the couple were given the titles of duke and duchess of Windsor. For the next two years they lived mainly in France. On a visit to Germany in 1937, they had a controversial meeting with Adolf Hitler. After the outbreak of war, Edward was appointed governor of the Bahamas. He remained in this post until the end of the war, when he and the duchess returned to France. In the remaining years of his life, the duke paid only short visits to England to attend the funerals of family members, and there continued to be much bitterness between the duke and his family.

Edward died of throat cancer on 28 May 1972 in Paris, and was buried near Windsor. Documents reveal how Queen Elizabeth's uncle Edward VIII wanted to regain throne after his abdication | Daily Mail Online comments How very different it might all have been. Instead of celebrating the 60th anniversary of her coronation tomorrow, the Queen might be reviewing a very different life. For a sinister palace conspiracy was secretly hatched to try to stop her becoming sovereign in the years before the death of her father, George VI. At the heart of this sensational plot was her uncle - the former Edward VIII, who had abdicated in shame in 1936. Scroll down for video Secret plot: Elizabeth could have been usurped by her uncle if a plot for him to return as Regent had been carried out The plan was a simple one. The Duke of Windsor, as he was titled after giving up the throne, would return to Britain to become Regent - on the grounds that his niece (in her early 20s) was too young to reign. Once on the throne again, it would be difficult to dislodge him.

Looked at with the benefit of hindsight, such an idea now seems outrageous and implausible - yet it might have worked. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share For during the late-Forties, when the plot began to form, paranoia reigned at Buckingham Palace. The old guard who surrounded George VI were appalled at the thought that the apple of his eye, his elder daughter Princess Elizabeth, was in love with a penniless Greek princeling called Philip. Even more unsettling was the suspected powerful influence of Philip’s fiendishly ambitious uncle, Earl Mountbatten, and the threat that he could become the new power behind the Throne. The House of Windsor was at a low ebb. The King, battered by the years of war, had been negligent about his health and, according to Winston Churchill, was ‘walking with death’.

Monarch: The Queen is still carrying out public duties 60 years after her Coronation Figurehead: Yesterday she visited the Royal Horse Artillery in Woolwich Barracks Lord Moran, Churchill’s physician, agreed in 1949: ‘Even if the King recovers he can scarcely live more than a year.’ On his death, he would be succeeded by Elizabeth, a young woman who was considered vulnerable to Philip, and through him, Mountbatten. It was feared that after Philip married the princess and she became Queen, ‘Dickie’ Mountbatten planned for his nephew to be pronounced King, or King Consort. Certainly, the old sea-dog could barely conceal his glee at the prospect of the British Royal Family, known since 1917 as the House of Windsor, having to call themselves the House of Mountbatten after the couple’s marriage. Princess Marina, widow of the Duke of Kent, spoke for many in the royal circle when she warned that the Mountbattens were ‘dangerous people... determined to be the power behind the Throne when Elizabeth succeeds’. And so, as the King ailed, pandemonium reigned.

The most influential figure at court, Sir Alan ‘Tommy’ Lascelles, the King’s Private Secretary, joined forces with the Master of the Household, Joey Legh, in bitter objection to Philip as a future consort. They were joined by the King’s closest male friends - Lord Eldon, the Marquess of Salisbury, and Lord Stanley. Also voicing disdain of the young naval officer was the King’s brother-in-law, David Bowes-Lyon. Plot: The Queen could have been usurped by her uncle the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated as King Edward VIII after less than a year on the throne to be with his future wife Wallis Simpson (right, on their wedding day) ‘They were all bloody to him,’ recalls one of Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting. Mountbatten’s daughter Patricia, now Countess Mountbatten in her own right, confirmed: ‘The old brigade really thought he could be a dangerous influence [on Elizabeth].’ Indeed, even those closest to Elizabeth had caught the anti-Mountbatten fever.

Her Comptroller and devoted servant, the war hero ‘Boy’ Browning, warned: ‘Remember Dickie - he’d always rather do something under the table than above.’ And to a visitor to Elizabeth and Philip, briefly resident in Malta, Browning begged they ensured ‘Princess Elizabeth isn’t bossed about by Dickie’. If many courtiers feared for the Royal Family’s future, they also feared for their own. With the King at death’s door, they had to come up with something. Their solution was a compromise: to appoint a Regent, rather than allowing the throne to go direct to Elizabeth, the rightful heir. This risky idea had been discussed in 1936 in the terror-filled days and nights preceding the Abdication. With Edward VIII on the brink of stepping down from the throne, when his younger brother Bertie - then Duke of York - was told he would have to be King, he cried on his mother’s shoulder. Anniversary: The Queen celebrates 60 years since her Coronation tomorrow A rumour circulated that he was suffering falling-down fits brought on by anxiety; another that he was made to undergo psychological tests to assess his fitness to rule.

Weighing up Bertie’s suitability to be King, senior courtiers did not like what they saw. They judged that the combination of a headstrong king in Edward VIII, followed by a weak one, could risk putting an end to the monarchy in Britain. While researching an obscure file in Britain’s National Archives some years ago, I uncovered evidence that those self-same men, far from accepting Bertie as the only candidate - as official histories have it - had discussed putting Queen Mary, his mother, on the throne as Queen Regent. This fact lay hidden in a report composed by a senior civil servant, Sir Horace Wilson. The evidence is contained on a flimsy piece of paper bearing a single sentence written in an anonymous hand. It states coldly: ‘Suggested that Queen Mary should be appointed Queen Regent until the divorce and the Abdication should be over.’ But the Regency plan never took off and Bertie became King, as George VI. Now, at the end of his reign, the men in tailcoats and stiff white collars were back with the same idea.

Enter the sinister figure of Kenneth de Courcy, who during the Thirties had been a confidant of Cabinet ministers and a dining companion of the future Edward VIII. He was an inveterate plotter and full of intrigue. After the Abdication, he spent time in Paris with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, where he brought the latest gossip from Buckingham Palace: about the King’s health, concerns about Philip, the fear and loathing for Mountbatten. Fears: Members of the Royal court were worried the Mountbatten family would control Elizabeth through her husband Philip And gradually the plot evolved. For the next three years, de Courcy encouraged the rudderless Windsors to think about a future back in England - a future at the top of the tree. Already, the Duke had started to badger Ministers and the Palace for a high-profile job, highlighting his pre-Abdication popularity with the nation and his powerful international contacts. It was never going to happen. And maybe that reality was slowly beginning to dawn on him, to the extent that he could seriously entertain the idea of usurping his niece - and connive at a scheme so dastardly it was worthy of the Tudor court.

De Courcy’s plan was simple. The Palace was in turmoil, fearing the coming Mountbatten juggernaut, and all too ready to consider playing the Regent card. Yes, they could turn to Queen Mary as they had thought of doing back in 1936 - but by now the German-born former Princess May of Teck had passed her 80th birthday and was looking a remote and anachronistic figure, too haughty to be in tune with post-war Britain. The list of alternative candidates for Regent was very short. Nobody seriously entertained the idea of Windsor’s younger brother the Duke of Gloucester, a giggling toper who was something of a national joke. And there were no other close members of the family. So all the Duke of Windsor had to do was play his cards right — and the job could be his. Young Queen: The Duke of Windsor and his allies hoped to play on the fact Elizabeth was only in her 20s when she ascended the throne Windsor wrote to de Courcy in March 1946, ‘ ...the subject we discussed in Paris...

it certainly is a situation of great delicacy but, at the same time, one in which it would seem I hold fifty percent of the bargaining power. ‘For obvious reasons, I prefer to say no more to you in this letter but look forward to another talk with you when there is the opportunity. As you say, it needs very careful thought.’ Another letter followed - this time from the Duchess: ‘We are always turning things around and around in our heads,’ she wrote. ‘There’s no doubt something must be done - perhaps a good thunderstorm would clear the air. Anyway I can’t sit by and see the Duke wasted.’ In the spring of 1949, George VI lay in bed in Buckingham Palace following an operation to cut a nerve at the base of his spine. The procedure was designed to counteract the arteriosclerosis he suffered as a result of too much stress, and too many cigarettes. De Courcy had secured all the latest court gossip and was eager to impart it to the Duchess, telling her: ‘The King is gravely ill and out of circulation and he will not be in circulation again... he faces the fearful tragedy of losing first one leg and then the other.

The King will be able to do extremely little and moreover that those around him will gain greater and greater power. Mountbattens: Courtiers were worried about the influence of Philip's uncle Lord Mountbatten ‘I may tell you most confidentially that a Regency has already been discussed and it seems likely enough that presently [a Regent] will be appointed.’ De Courcy foresaw a lengthy period when the King would remain alive - but could not appear in public. ‘I do not think it too much to say that if the Regency should be one primarily influenced by the Mountbattens, the consequences for the [Windsor] dynasty might be fateful,’ he wrote to the Duke and Duchess, echoing the word spreading through the corridors of Buckingham Palace. ‘The Mountbattens, thoroughly well-informed of the situation, will do everything in their power to increase their influence.’ Now de Courcy outlined the details of his plot, advising the Windsors: ‘While in this case the Duke is of course not concerned with winning the Crown, he could be concerned in something even more important than that, namely, in laying entirely fresh foundation-stones in the place of those which are now endangered...

none of this can be done without extremely careful and painstaking work. ‘The King is suffering from a grievous malady which is incurable, it has spread over his whole body.’ His message to the Duke of Windsor was clear and unequivocal - NOW is the time to move if you want to become Regent. In a further letter to the Duchess, de Courcy urged: ‘The Duke could, in these difficult circumstances, be a decisive influence for good - making it absolutely impossible for the Mountbattens to become the decisive political and social influence upon the Regency and the future Monarch.’ This was surely treasonable talk - encouraging a failed monarch to wrest the crown from his young niece who, by rights, should be Queen. He did not say how long he thought the Duke, as regent, might be able to hang on to the throne should it come his way - Elizabeth, after all, was the rightful heir and one day Windsor would have to make way for her - but in the heady atmosphere of plot and counterplot, that detail was seemingly ignored as unimportant.

Crowning: The Queen's Coronation was on June 2, 1953 De Courcy then told the Windsors how to go about securing their prize by softening up public opinion: ‘I should like to see you and the Duke buy an agricultural property somewhere near London, and the Duke devote a good deal of his time to experimental farming on the most advanced modern lines. This would make a great appeal to the country.’ He also advised against any behaviour that might be interpreted as him being a ‘playboy’. He concluded: ‘I venture to say that if this advice were followed, the results would be remarkable.’ And, if the advice HAD been followed, who knows? The Palace establishment was wobbling, their hatred for the Windsors matched only by their loathing for the Mountbattens. In Downing Street, Prime Minister Clement Attlee was a man completely unversed in the Machiavellian ways of the royal court — so no advice or lead could be expected from that quarter. There was nobody, apparently, equipped to stop the Duke of Windsor should he make an appeal to the country, and find the country willing to take him back.

Diamond Jubilee: The Queen celebrated 60 years as the monarch last year It was the tipping-point. But true to his nature, the Duke prevaricated, then did nothing. And within weeks, the King was on the road to a recovery and would remain on the throne sufficiently long for the nay-sayers to finally get used to the idea of Prince Philip. What stopped the Duke making his play for the Throne? A loss of nerve? Or had he grown to love the fleshpots of New York, Palm Beach and the Cote d’Azur too much? Whatever the truth - and a brief visit to London didn’t help because it reminded the Duke how bloody awful the British weather could be - there was no coup, no usurpation. Had the Duke of Windsor successfully won the Regency, it’s fair to suppose Queen Elizabeth II would not be celebrating the 60th anniversary of her Coronation tomorrow. As it is, she, and the British people, had a lucky escape. For the alternative would inevitably have involved a titanic power-struggle for the Throne which could have risked the future of the monarchy in Britain.

No further correspondence between the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and their co-conspirator is yet available to the public - though, tantalisingly, one tranche of the de Courcy papers I uncovered in the Hoover Institution at California’s Stanford University remains under lock and key. Maybe there, in a dusty archive, is an explanation from the Duke as to why he never challenged history - and just let it slide by.

Question: Which English king abdicated and became Duke of Windsor?
Answer: Edward VIII