Brendon Piers - Edward VIII: the uncrowned king

Piers Brendon

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EDWARD VIII

The Uncrowned King

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First published 2016

Copyright Piers Brendon, 2016

Cover design by Pentagram
Jacket art by Mads Berg

The moral right of the author has been asserted

ISBN: 978-0-241-19642-7

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THE HOUSES OF WESSEX AND DENMARK

THE HOUSES OF NORMANDY, BLOIS AND ANJOU

THE HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET

THE HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK

THE HOUSE OF TUDOR

THE HOUSE OF STUART

THE HOUSE OF HANOVER

THE HOUSES OF SAXE-COBURG & GOTHA AND WINDSOR

Edward VIII reigned for less than a year and was never crowned king. Far from fulfilling the splendid destiny proclaimed as his birthright, he shook the Windsor dynasty, newly established in 1917, by abdicating to marry the divorced woman he loved. The event had been foretold in two memorable prophecies. The first was by the pioneer socialist Keir Hardie. It was provoked by Parliaments refusal to add to its congratulatory address on the birth of Prince Edward, which took place on 23 June 1894, an expression of sympathy for more than 250 Welsh miners killed in a colliery explosion on the same day. Hardie declared, amid cries of Oh! Oh! and Order!, that from childhood

this boy will be surrounded by sycophants and flatterers by the score and will be taught to believe himself as of a superior creation In due course he will be sent on a tour round the world, and probably rumours of a morganatic alliance will follow, and the end of it all will be the country will be called upon to pay the bill.

Edwards father, plagued in his final years by worries about his sons infatuation, was equally prescient. Where others Certainly Edwards renunciation of the throne damaged the monarchy. It led to a schism between the Duke of Windsor, as Edward then became, and the new sovereign, his brother George VI. It made divorce such a royal taboo that Princess Margaret was unable to wed the man of her choice in 1955 and a generation later it cast a long shadow over Prince Charless marital affairs. It also put a premium on sovereign responsibility and propriety, as embodied by Queen Elizabeth II. Her reign, like that of her father, can be seen as an attempt to exorcize the ghost of the abdication. Only a lifetime dedicated to duty could efface memories of Edward VIIIs short, unhappy kingship. It was the louring meridian in a career whose morning was golden and whose afternoon was leaden.

The pit disaster aside, the auguries could hardly have been more favourable at Edwards nativity. He was the great-grandson of Queen Victoria and, as the eldest son of the Duke of York, the heir to Edward (VII) Prince of Wales, he stood in direct line of succession to the throne. The queen herself was not only the grandmother of Europe, her descendants dominating the courts of the continent, but the Empress of India, presiding over a Greater Britain on which the sun never set. As the first industrial nation and a commercial colossus with a pre-eminent navy, her tiny offshore island was the greatest power on earth. At home she basked in the quasi-religious loyalty of her people. And when the queens might and majesty were celebrated at her Golden and Diamond Between these two patriotic festivals Edward was born at White Lodge, Richmond Park, the home of his mothers parents, the Duke and Duchess of Teck. A month later, in the presence of the queen and many notabilities, he was baptized by the Archbishop of Canterbury from a golden bowl of Jordan water, and christened Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David. The first three names identified him with royal relations while the last four were those of the patron saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The princes arrival was greeted with expressions of joy and devotion in all corners of the United Kingdom, echoed throughout the empire. Clergymen attributed the glorious summer to the advent of this son of York.