King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson (Duke and Duchess of Windsor)

[emeraldeyes1969]

Oy vey, what a can of worms that would have opened up! 

[Robert_Hall]

Sarah and Diana losy their hrh after divorcing. No married to one anymore, well goes with the marriage. They kept the titles but lost the style.

[Guinastasia]

Then why is Camilla not Princess of Wales?  I've heard that she won't be proclaimed Queen, either.

[Cunarder]

Does anyone know what any children they might have had would have been titled, with regard to HRH or Prince/Princess?

If I remember reading right, any descendents of David and Wallis would have no title of any kind.   This "errant branch" of the royal family tree was to be pruned off where it split.

There was that rumor that they briefly considered adopting a child, and possibly naming him "David Windsor."  My guess is the feeling behind the thought had little to do with the desire to nurture and raise a child, but probably for other reasons less sincere.   Probably a good thing nothing came of it.  The child would have been raised by nannies, and shipped off early to boarding school.  The dogs were their substitute children, and no doubt satisfied whatever, if any, parental leanings David and Wallis had.

[Leuchtenberg]

Then why is Camilla not Princess of Wales?  I've heard that she won't be proclaimed Queen, either.

It was a PR move in the hopes that as Duchess of Cornwall she would be more accepted rather than if she took the title of her very popular predecessor.

And she will definitely be Queen.  Don't believe what the spin doctors might say now.   

[grandduchessella]

Well, Bertie may have succeeded him had things played out differently. Didn't the Queen Mother always blame the stress of being King during WW2 for speeding up her husband's death? It all falls into 'what if'. Despite that, it would've gone from David to Bertie and through him to his children, in this case Elizabeth.

Tsaria's correct--there was tons of information (and photos) on David, Wallis, David & Wallis, the abdication, etc....it's a real shame that the pages are gone since some posters aren't here any longer.    I'm no fan of David (to say the least) but I never liked Wallis much until reading what some posters had to say about her, whereby my perceptions changed somewhat.

[grandduchessella]

This was from a US magazine when Wallis was still just one of his 'dancing pals'

[Guinastasia]

I have to say, I think it's for the best that he DID fall in love with someone unsuitable and abdicated.  He really didn't seem like he was up to the job.  I've even read that he never really wanted to be King even before he met Wallis.

Sadly, though, as good a King as he was, the strain on Bertie was just too much. 


Either way, I do think it was better of the Duke to abdicate and marry the woman he loved rather than stay on the throne, marry some trophy Queen and have Wallis as his mistress. 

[Guinastasia]

Yeah, but didn't Bertie die of lung cancer?  Stress may have weakened him, but I don't believe it gives you cancer!

Either way I don't think he would have been such a great King even without meeting Wallis.  I have to give him credit for marrying her rather than just staying on the throne and keeping her as his mistress. 

BTW, what WERE his feelings on Hitler?  I know he met with him, but you can't tell me he was a total Nazi, especially after the war and the revelation of the Holocaust and all.

[Cunarder]

BTW, what WERE his feelings on Hitler?  I know he met with him, but you can't tell me he was a total Nazi, especially after the war and the revelation of the Holocaust and all.

David was no Nazi...I don't think he gave thought much about Hitler either.   What pleased him most during the 1937 visit to Germany, and meeting the Fuerher, was the attention lavished upon Wallis.   The Nazi's showered attention on both of them, something England refused to do, and in this respect, I think David was grateful.    Both he and Wallis thought most of Hitler's men to be coarse and vulgar, with the exception perhaps of Herman Goering.  From a PR point of view, the trip was a disaster.  In David's mind...Wallis was feted and honored in the manner he thought she should have been.

Unrelated to all this was the sad truth that David was an Anti-Semite.  At a dinner party, he once remarked regarding a court case that a particular woman was being defended by "some k*ke lawyer" whereupon Wallis promptly kicked him under the table.

He had his faults, like all of us do, but the allegations of Nazi collaboration are fairly unfounded.

[ChristineM]

As Prince of Wales, David was adored by the British people who regarded him as a 'man of the people'.

Being a 'good' Prince of Wales, is one thing.   Being a good King is altogether another.   The one does not necessarily follow the other.   They are two very different roles.

tsaria   

[ChristineM]

King George VI had lung cancer because he smoked over 60 cigarettes a day.   In those days the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer had not yet been made.     

I agree with Grandduchessella - before the vast amount of detail and work put into the lives and style Duke and Duchess of Windsor, on threads here, I gave them little thought - apart from viewing him as pathetic and her as brash.   I certainly learned a great deal from those posts.   Now I still see the Duke as 'pathetic' and the Duchess as brash but with truly remarkable schutzpah and style.

Cunarder, I love your posts and the wonderful photographs, but I have to take issue with you re the Duke of Windsor and Hitler.   They went so far as to hatch a plot that, when Hitler successfully invaded Great Britain, Hitler would re-instal the Duke of Windsor on the throne, making Wallis Queen Consort and the Duke, his puppet.   I do not call that a man of integrity - the Duke of Windsor, I mean!

tsaria

[Grace]

What a sweet miniature, Cunarder!  It's a bit comical too, isn't it?      Did it belong to the Windsors? 

[TampaBay]

Now I still see the Duke as 'pathetic' and the Duchess as brash but with truly remarkable schutzpah and style.

tsaria

The Duchess of Windsor was nowhere near as smart and intelligent as she would need to be to do some of the things she has been accused of.

TampaBay

[Cunarder]

Cunarder, I love your posts and the wonderful photographs, but I have to take issue with you re the Duke of Windsor and Hitler.   They went so far as to hatch a plot that, when Hitler successfully invaded Great Britain, Hitler would re-instal the Duke of Windsor on the throne, making Wallis Queen Consort and the Duke, his puppet.   I do not call that a man of integrity - the Duke of Windsor, I mean!

tsaria

Tsaria, I know of the "plot" you mention, as something that was possibly dangled in front of the Duke and Duchess like a carrot, but I doubt either of them thought of it as an legitimate option.  They were unimpressed by the regime, and personally repulsed by most of Hitler's men as individuals.  There have been many men with greater integrity, but I would imagine even he realised that a puppet reign under Hitler was too great a price to pay to see Wallis as Queen.   I prefer to write the episode off as a fleeting thought he entertained for a moment.