The Duke and Duchess of Windsor Discussion

[sandy]

There was this "uniform" outfit with a white gown and plumed headdress. Mrs Rose  Kennedy and her daughters wore this to their presenation at court in the late thirties.

http://www.google.com/search?pq=presentation+at+court+rose+kennedy+and+daughters&hl=en&sugexp=kjrmc&cp=12&gs_id=11&xhr=t&q=rosemary+kennedy&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1024&bih=583&wrapid=tljp1319035398634014&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

Top row of images show Rosemary Kennedy in "court" dress.

Here is Wallis Simpson. I guess they carried a feathered plume with them

http://www.allstarpics.net/0012987/014204524/portrait-of-wallis-simpson-when-being-presented-to-society-in-the-1920s-pic.html

[sandy]

Back to Edward. I think Edward himself who was so besotted with wallis thought he did the right thing. He adored her until the day  he died.

[Trudie]

George Harewood the late Earl and first cousin of the Queen was treated in the same manner as the Duke of Windsor upon his divorce and remarriage and he was not even close to inheriting the throne in the late '60's early 70's. As I have said and I repeat each country and monarchy has their own rules regarding who is or not acceptable for marriage into the family.

[cinrit]

I want to know about the outfit he's PE is wearing.
Was he trying to make a fashion statement for that era?

It's his coronation outfit.  Though the coronation never took place, the pictures and portraits were already taken.  It's really an odd outfit, isn't it?  I don't know that it was a fashion statement, but I've read that he disliked heartily the "ridiculous" outfits that he was required to wear for certain ceremonies:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OC7vC7zcycc/SFme6tJvoWI/AAAAAAAAAT4/woTVXJgtgY4/s400/Edward+VIII.jpg
http://www.heritage-print.com/image/edward_prince_of_wales_wearing_robes_of_the_order_of_the_garter_1911_1287967.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsfujita/2689838158/in/set-72157608625502301/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsfujita/2934588622/in/set-72157608625502301
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3029/2749319756_ee7cda8f79.jpg

And though his coronation never took place, the coronation portrait had been painted:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsfujita/2415713119/

I don't know if this will show up:
http://tinyurl.com/43qxoly

Cindy

[Lindelle]

yes i knew it was his coronation outfit and I agree, very odd Cinrit.

[wannable]

The DM is serializing The Duke and Duchess of Windsor.  I read the first one, which had a lot of unknown information about the Duke.

Here's the first.

Andrew Lownie pieces together tumultuous exile of King Edward VIII and American wife Wallis Simpson | Daily Mail Online

Here's the second.

Wallis Simpson dominated the Duke of Windsor... and he actually liked it, new book claims | Daily Mail Online

[Curryong]

?Unknown information? my foot! There?s nothing printed here by the Fail?s hack reporter that hasn?t been known for decades. And the Duke and Duchess of Windsor did not make ?a fortune in Hollywood from films, endorsements? etc. In fact David was terrified in the last decade of his life that his money wasn?t going to last for his and Wallis?s lifetime. So where was the fortune?

The dig at the Sussexes in the headlines and the attempt to make Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson situation anything like theirs is quite frankly pathetic. However it?s typical of this rag.

Edward VIII was an eldest son and heir who had been POW since his teens. He became King and almost the entire year of 1936 was spent in unravelling the constitutional crisis that arose when it became known that he wished to marry Wallis Simpson.

Wallis Simpson was a twice divorced woman who was having an affair with Edward while still married and divorced her second husband for spurious reasons simply because of a slight chance that she and Edward could marry and he retain the Crown.

She and he were both right wing and had several shady and fascist-leaning friends. Edward, while Governor of the Bahamas, engaged in illegal currency activities in nearby Miami and other places. Wallis later in the marriage had a serious flirtation with a bisexual playboy.

Their situation throughout their lives had nothing whatsoever to do with how Harry and Meghan live their lives and it?s ridiculous of this tabloid to suggest that it is.

[wannable]

Serialization "extracts" from a new book, which states documents that have been uncovered or new to the author.

The DM has the money to purchase for serialization.

[Curryong]

Serialization "extracts" from a new book, which states documents that have been uncovered or new to the author.

The DM has the money to purchase for serialization.

The documents might have been new to the author but nothing written in these serialisations was new to me, nor I would suggest, to anyone who has read widely on Edward VIII.

The Fail certainly has money. Whether it has the least credibility is debatable to say the least. And how nice of the editors to slip in a photo of Harry and Meghan into an article which not only didn?t refer to them except in the headlines over the article but was otherwise irrelevant. Typical of this crappy rag however.

[wannable]

Quoting parts of a new book in a serialization purchased by a tabloid with 10M viewers daily. The author must be happy

[Curryong]

He probably is very happy with the money received from the rag for serialisation rights. However, money isn?t everything. And just because something supposedly is ?read? by millions (and I use the word loosely in connection with Fail ?readers?)  doesn?t mean that it  follows that this book will be a bestseller. There have been many many books published in the last forty years on the Duke of Windsor and his doings and few of them have sold anything like a million copies.

The Duke is receding into history now, as are his father and brother. They?re of interest to history buffs but relatively few Britons would even know who Edward VIII was.

[wannable]

For those people who don't know much of the Duke and Wallis, like history or royalty, they will probably find this serialization interesting. The author is not boring, he writes to engross.

[Curryong]

Really? Well sorry, I read many bios on historical figures and what I read in the serialisations didn?t engross me in the slightest.

Do you intend to buy it? If so you must tell us here all the exciting new things about the Duke?s life this author has uncovered. Then I can look them up in the books I have.

[wannable]

You're a history buff, hence no serialization is of your interest. Obviously you're not the 10M who aren't history or royalty bookworms.

[LouisFerdinand]

At the time of the portrait, do you think Edward was considering to abdicate?

[Curryong]

At the time of the portrait, do you think Edward was considering to abdicate?

Depends when he posed for the original portrait, which is believed to have been lost during the war. However, Edward had hopes, almost to the last moment, that a solution would be found that would enable him to marry Wallis in some form and still retain the throne. In some moods however, throughout the summer/autumn of 1936 he was ready to chuck it all and go to the Continent to be near his beloved, who had fled Britain to await her final divorce decree.

[LouisFerdinand]

Mrs. Simpson offered to withdraw   
Front page story from The Daily Express of December 8th, 1936 issuing a statement from Mrs. Simpson offering to " withdraw from a situation that has

[LouisFerdinand]

Edward and Wallis visited Miami, Florida in 1940     
Duke And Duchess Of Windsor In Miami (1940) - YouTube

[LouisFerdinand]

In Royal Romance, edited by Lynn Picknett, it is mentioned:     
King Edward VIII thought nothing of telephoning his staff at any time of the day or night.

[LouisFerdinand]

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor at the Chateau de Cande, near Tours, France in 1937   
Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, with Mrs. Wallis Simpson, Chateau de Cande, near Tours, France, 1937 Stock Photo - Alamy

[LouisFerdinand]

Richard Nixcon with Edward and Wallis   
Richard Nixon escorts the Duchess of Windsor while the Duke stands... News Photo - Getty Images

[LouisFerdinand]

Wallis at a London dinner party in 1936   
Mary Evans WALLIS SIMPSON 10224093   

:sandradee: :sandradee: :sandradee: :sandradee: :sandradee: :sandradee: :sandradee: :sandradee: :sandradee: :sandradee:

[LouisFerdinand]

Which foreign princesses were marriage prospects for Edward, Prince of Wales?

[Curryong]

Which foreign princesses were marriage prospects for Edward, Prince of Wales?

Before WW1 the Kaiser?s daughter Prss Victoria Luise was mentioned by a few magazines but both were very young and who knows if it would have occurred anyway. Also the Tsar?s eldest daughter Olga was supposedly in consideration but that was Press talk and seems extremely unlikely to me. The Tsar?s family were extremely devout adherents of the Russian Orthodox Church.

After the war, that whole niche of German Princesses who had provided brides for centuries from the different German royal states were off limits. In addition Edward seems to have been born at a time when most of the other foreign Protestant princesses (the Scandinavian ones for example) were either too young, in love with someone else or neither participant was interested.

I have a vague recollection of the younger Romanian Princesses being mentioned in the Press as future prospects in the 1920s and a Bulgarian one as well, but they would have had to convert to Protestantism. In the early 1930s the youngish and sophisticated Prss Marina of Greece apparently caused a spark of interest but a spark was all it was. After WW1 Edward was far more likely to marry a British nobleman?s daughter (and was in their social circles)  than foreign royalty and none of them captured his heart or interest, so a foreign prospect was hardly likely to do so.

[LouisFerdinand]

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were in Washington, D. C. in 1941.   
DUKE AND DUCHESS OF WINDSOR - SOUND - YouTube