Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, was an American socialite and wife of former king Edward VIII. Their intention to marry and her status as a divorcée caused a constitutional crisis that led to Edward's abdication.
Mary of Teck was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 6 May 1910 until 20 January 1936 as the wife of King-Emperor George V.
In early December 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was in the process of divorcing her second.
Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937 for the former monarch Edward VIII, following his abdication on 11 December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a residence of English monarchs since the time of Henry I, following the Norman Conquest, is situated. Windsor has been the house name of the royal family since 1917.
Operation Willi was the German code name for the unsuccessful attempt by the SS to kidnap Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor in July 1940 and induce him to work with German dictator Adolf Hitler for either a peace settlement with Britain, or a restoration to the throne after the German conquest of the United Kingdom.
Winifred May Mones, Marquesa de Casa Maury, commonly known by her first married name as Freda Dudley Ward, was an English socialite. She was best known for being a married paramour of Edward, Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VIII.
John Theodore Goddard was an English solicitor and founder of the law firm Theodore Goddard (TG) based in London. The firm merged with Addleshaw Booth & Co on 1 May 2003 to become Addleshaw Goddard. Goddard was appointed by Wallis Simpson as an adviser to her during divorce proceedings and in relation to her involvement during the United Kingdom abdication Crisis of 1936.
Events from the year 1936 in the United Kingdom.
Peregrine Francis Adelbert Cust, 6th Baron Brownlow, known familiarly as Perry Brownlow, of Belton House, Grantham, Lincolnshire, was a British peer and courtier who was a close friend of King Edward VIII, whom he served as equerry whilst Prince of Wales and subsequently as a lord-in-waiting.
Edward Dudley Metcalfe MVO MC, known as Fruity Metcalfe, was an officer in the Indian Army and a close friend of and equerry to the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor.
Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson have been depicted in popular culture, both biographical and fictional, following his abdication in 1936 and their marriage the following year.
Edward VIII, later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year.
Wallis & Edward is a 2005 British television film, scripted by Sarah Williams, dramatising the events of the Edward VIII abdication crisis. It was billed as the first scripted account of the romance between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII to view events from Wallis Simpson's point of view. Joely Richardson played Wallis, and Steven Campbell Moore played Edward.
The Duchess of Windsor is a 1980 biography of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor by Diana Mosley. The book was commissioned by Lord Longford and published by Sidgwick & Jackson and again by Gibson Square in 2003. In Paris, Mosley and her husband Oswald Mosley were long-term neighbours and friends of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor and Edward VIII. On 26 June 1980, she was interviewed by Russell Harty on the BBC to discuss the project. The earlier edition sold 23, 000 copies according to Mosley's biographer, Jan Dalley.
W.E. is a 2011 historical romantic drama film written and directed by Madonna and starring Abbie Cornish, Andrea Riseborough, Oscar Isaac, Richard Coyle, and James D'Arcy. The screenplay was co-written by Alek Keshishian, who previously worked with Madonna on her 1991 documentary Truth or Dare and two of her music videos. Although the film was panned by critics and was a box office bomb, it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. This marked Isaac's and Cornish's second role together, the first being Sucker Punch.
The Reverend Robert Anderson Jardine (1878–1950), who published a memoir as R. Anderson Jardine, was an ordained priest of the Church of England and vicar of a parish in Darlington in the north of England. He is best known for performing the marriage ceremony of the Duke of Windsor and his fiancée Wallis Simpson, who thus became the Duchess of Windsor, in June 1937; this was a marriage that was seen as scandalous at the time. Jardine's offer to carry out the wedding, as a sacrament of a church which opposed it, cost him his career in England.
The coronation of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom was due to take place at Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937. Preparations had already begun and souvenirs were on sale when Edward VIII abdicated on 11 December 1936. He did this because of opposition from many quarters to his intention to marry Wallis Simpson, who had already divorced twice. His coronation was cancelled as a result of his abdication. The coronation date itself was not abandoned; Edward VIII's brother George VI and sister-in-law Elizabeth were crowned on that date instead.
Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, visited Nazi Germany in October 1937. Edward had abdicated the British throne in December 1936, and his brother George VI had become king. Edward had been given the title Duke of Windsor and married Wallis Simpson in June 1937. He appeared to have been sympathetic to Germany in this period and, that September, announced his intention to travel privately to Germany to tour factories. His interests, officially researching the social and economic conditions of the working classes, were against the backdrop of looming war in Europe. The Duke's supporters saw him as a potential peacemaker between Britain and Germany, but the British government refused to sanction such a role, opposed the tour and suspected that the Nazis would use the Duke's presence for propaganda. Prince Edward was keen for his wife, who had been rejected by the British establishment, to experience a state visit as his consort. He promised the government to keep a low profile, and the tour went ahead between 12 and 23 October 1937.
The funeral of Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, took place on 5 June 1972. Edward had been King of the United Kingdom from 20 January to 11 December 1936, reigning as Edward VIII before his abdication, and had lived in Paris at the time of his death. His funeral took place at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle after lying in state for three days and he was buried at the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore. His widow, Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, was buried alongside him in 1986.
The funeral of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, took place on April 29, 1986. Wallis was the widow of Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, who had been King of the United Kingdom from January 20 to December 11, 1936, reigning as Edward VIII before his abdication to marry Wallis, a divorcée. She was living in Paris at the time of her death. Her funeral took place at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle and she was buried next to her husband at the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore.
