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Edward VIII of the United Kingdom

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History Post
1900; Monarchs of Great Britain

                                  Edward VIII
   King of the United Kingdom and her dominions
   beyond the Seas; King of Ireland; Emperor of India
   Photographic Portrait
   Photographic Portrait
      Reign     20 January 1936 - 11 December 1936
   Predecessor  George V
    Successor   George VI
      Spouse    Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (married after Edward's abdication)
                                   Full name
   Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor
                                     Titles
   HRH The Duke of Windsor
   HM The King
   HRH The Prince of Wales
   HRH The Duke of Cornwall
   HRH Prince Edward of Wales
   HRH Prince Edward of Cornwall
   HRH Prince Edward of York
   HH Prince Edward of York
   Royal House  House of Windsor
   Royal anthem God Save the King
      Father    George V
      Mother    Mary of Teck
       Born     4 April 1894
                White Lodge, Richmond
     Baptised   16 July 1894
                White Lodge, Richmond
       Died     28 May 1972
                Paris, France
      Burial    5 June 1972
                Frogmore Estate, Berkshire
    Occupation  Military

   Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David
   Windsor; later The Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor; 23 June 1894 – 28
   May 1972) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions
   beyond the Seas, King of Ireland, and Emperor of India from the death
   of his father, George V (1910–36), on 20 January 1936 until his
   abdication on 11 December 1936. He was the second British monarch of
   the House of Windsor, his father having changed the name of the Royal
   house from the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1917.

   Prior to his accession to the throne, Edward VIII held the titles of
   Prince Edward of York, Prince Edward of York and Cornwall, Duke of
   Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, and Prince of Wales (all with the style
   Royal Highness). After his abdication he reverted to the style of a son
   of the sovereign, The Prince Edward, and was created Duke of Windsor on
   8 March 1937. During World War II (1939–45) he was the Governor and
   Commander-in-Chief of the Bahamas.

   Edward VIII is the only British monarch to have voluntarily
   relinquished the throne. He signed the instrument of abdication on 10
   December 1936. The British Parliament passed His Majesty's Declaration
   of Abdication Act 1936 the next day and, on its receiving Royal Assent
   from Edward VIII, he legally ceased to be King in all but one of his
   realms. His abdication as King of Ireland occurred one day later. After
   Lady Jane Grey and Edward V, he is the third shortest-reigning monarch
   in British history, and like them, he too was never crowned.

Early life

   Edward of Wales Little David, photographed by his grandmother Queen
   Alexandra
   Enlarge
   Edward of Wales Little David, photographed by his grandmother Queen
   Alexandra

   Edward VIII was born on 23 June 1894 at White Lodge, Richmond, Surrey.

   He was the eldest son of The Duke of York (later King George V), who
   was the second son of The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII, who
   ruled 1901–10) and The Princess of Wales (formerly Princess Alexandra
   of Denmark). Edward VIII's mother, The Duchess of York (formerly
   Princess Victoria Mary of Teck), was the eldest daughter of The Duke of
   Teck and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge. As a great grandson of
   Queen Victoria in the male line, Edward VIII was styled His Highness
   Prince Edward of York at his birth. He was baptised in the Green
   Drawing Room of White Lodge on 16 July 1894 by Edward White Benson,
   Archbishop of Canterbury and his twelve godparents were Queen Victoria
   (1837–1901), the Prince and Princess of Wales, the King and Queen of
   Denmark, the King of Württemberg, the Queen of Greece, the Tsarevitch
   of Russia, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the Duke and Duchess of
   Teck and the Duke of Cambridge.

   Edward VIII was named after his deceased uncle, Prince Albert Victor,
   Duke of Clarence and Avondale, who had always been known as Eddy. His
   last four names – George, Andrew, Patrick and David – came from the
   Patron Saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The Prince was
   nevertheless, for the rest of his life, known to his family and close
   friends, by his last given name, David.

   His paternal grandfather, future King Edward VII, was still the Prince
   of Wales at the time of his birth. His father's elder brother, The Duke
   of Clarence and Avondale, was engaged to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck
   when he died, reportedly of pneumonia, on 14 January 1892. After a
   decent interval the Duke's younger brother married Princess Victoria
   Mary.

   Edward VIII's parents, The Duke and Duchess of York, were often removed
   from their children's upbringing, in common with other upper class
   English parents of the day. Edward VIII and his younger brother Albert
   received considerable abuse at the hands of the royal nanny. The nanny
   would pinch and scratch Edward before he was due to be presented to his
   parents. His subsequent crying and wailing would lead the Duke and
   Duchess to send Edward and the nanny away. On the other hand, the King,
   though a harsh disciplinarian, was demonstrably affectionate and Queen
   Mary displayed a frolicksome side when dealing with her children that
   belies her austere public image, having been greatly amused by the
   children making tadpole sandwiches for their French master (Ziegler:7,
   9; Bradford:22), and encouraged them to confide matters in her which it
   would have provoked the King to know (Ziegler:79).

   Four younger siblings of Edward VIII and Albert: Mary (1897–1965),
   Henry (1900–74), George (1902–42) and John (1905–19).

Prince of Wales

          British Royalty
         House of Windsor
             George V
      Edward VIII
      George VI
       Mary, Princess Royal
       Henry, Duke of Gloucester
       George, Duke of Kent
       Prince John
            Edward VIII

   He automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, Earl of
   Carrick, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward
   of Scotland when his father, George V, ascended the throne on 6 May
   1910. The new King created him Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 2
   June 1910 and officially invested him as such in a special ceremony at
   Caernarfon Castle in 1911. For the first time since the Middle Ages
   this investiture took place in Wales; it occurred at the instigation of
   the Welsh politician David Lloyd George, who at that time held the
   position of Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Liberal government.

Military career

   Edward during World War I
   Enlarge
   Edward during World War I

   When the First World War (1914–18) broke out Edward had reached the
   minimum age for active service and expressed keenness to participate.
   He was allowed to join the army, serving with the Grenadier Guards, and
   although Edward was willing to serve on the front lines, the British
   government refused to allow it, citing the immense harm that the
   capture of the heir to the throne would cause.

   Despite this, Edward witnessed trench warfare at firsthand and
   attempted to visit the front line as often as he could, leading to his
   award of the Military Cross in 1916. His role in the war, although
   limited, led to his great popularity among veterans of the conflict. As
   of 1911 he was also a Midshipman in the Royal Navy, making Lieutenant
   in 1913. He eventually became Admiral of the Fleet in the Navy, Field
   Marshal in the Army, and Marshal of the Royal Air Force in the Air
   Force.

Royal duties

   HRH The Prince of Wales canoeing in Canada, 1919
   Enlarge
   HRH The Prince of Wales canoeing in Canada, 1919

   Throughout the 1920s the Prince of Wales represented his father, King
   George V, at home and abroad on many occasions. He took a particular
   interest in visiting the poverty stricken areas of the country. After
   the Great Depression he visited many deprived areas of the UK and
   signed up 200,000 people to his back-to-work scheme. Abroad, the Prince
   of Wales toured the Empire, undertaking 13 tours between 1919 and 1935,
   and in the process acquiring a ranch in Alberta.

   His unedifying and often deeply racist comments on the Empire's
   subjects and various foreign peoples both during his career as Prince
   of Wales and later as Duke of Windsor, particularly in Africa and India
   but also in Canada, the West Indies, Mexico and Australia (see
   "Quotations," below) were little commented upon at the time but
   biographers severely taxed his reputation with them in later years.

   He soon became the 1920s version of a latter-day movie star, widely
   adored and emulated. An enduring, albeit trivial, legacy is the fashion
   item of the Windsor knot, named for him after his fondness for
   large-knotted ties. (The Prince of Wales's profound effect on his
   public — possibly easy to dismiss as trivial and transient frivolity
   many years later, particularly many years after the fiasco of the
   abdication crisis and the long years of idleness that followed — is
   given extensive literary treatment in Robertson Davies's Deptford
   Trilogy.)

Romances

   In 1928, King George V gave Edward a home, Fort Belvedere, near
   Sunningdale in Berkshire. There Edward conducted relationships with a
   series of married women including Anglo-American textile heiress Freda
   Dudley Ward, American film actress Mildred Harris and Lady Furness
   (born Thelma Morgan) an American woman of part-Chilean ancestry, who
   introduced the Prince to fellow American Wallis Simpson. Simpson had
   divorced her first husband in 1927 and subsequently married Ernest
   Simpson, an Anglo-American businessman. Mrs. Simpson and the Prince of
   Wales became lovers while his mistress Lady Furness travelled abroad.

   Edward's relationship with Wallis Simpson further weakened his poor
   relationship with his father, King George V. The King and Queen refused
   to receive Mrs Simpson at court, and his brother, Prince Albert, urged
   Edward to seek a more suitable wife. Edward, however, had now fallen in
   love with Wallis and the couple grew ever closer.

   Edward's affair with the American divorcée led to such grave concern
   that the couple were followed by members of MI5, to examine in secret
   the nature of their relationship. A MI5 report detailed a visit by the
   couple to an antique shop, where the proprietor later noted that: "the
   lady seemed to have POW [Prince of Wales] completely under her thumb."
   The prospect of having an American divorcée with a questionable past
   having such sway over the Heir Apparent caused some anxiety to
   government and establishment figures at the time.

Reign

            Monarchical Styles of
   King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
   Reference style:   His Majesty
   Spoken style:      Your Majesty
   Alternative style: Sir

   King George V died on 20 January 1936, and Edward ascended to the
   throne as King Edward VIII. The next day, he broke royal protocol by
   watching the proclamation of his own accession to the throne from a
   window of St. James's Palace, in the company of the still-married Mrs.
   Simpson. It was also at this time that Edward VIII became the first
   British monarch to fly in an aeroplane, when he flew from Sandringham
   to London for his Accession Council.
   Signature of King Edward VIIIThe 'R' and 'I' after his name indicate
   'king' and 'emperor' in Latin ('Rex' and 'Imperator').
   Signature of King Edward VIII
   The 'R' and 'I' after his name indicate 'king' and 'emperor' in Latin
   ('Rex' and 'Imperator').

   It was now becoming clear that the new King wished to marry Mrs
   Simpson, especially when divorce proceedings between Mr and Mrs Simpson
   were brought at Ipswich Crown Court. Powerful figures in the British
   government deemed the King's marriage to Mrs Simpson unacceptable,
   largely because he had become the Supreme Governor of the Church of
   England which prohibited remarriage after divorce. Edward's alternative
   proposed solution of a morganatic marriage was rejected by the Prime
   Minister, Stanley Baldwin and the Dominion governments.

   Edward caused unease in government circles with actions that were
   interpreted as interference in political matters. His visit to the
   depressed coal mining villages in South Wales saw the King observe that
   "something must be done" for the unemployed and deprived coal miners —
   though that was the extent of the interest he expressed in the issue
   and he did not follow up. On the other hand, government ministers were
   also reluctant to send confidential documents and state papers to Fort
   Belvedere because it was clear that Edward was paying little attention
   to them and because of the perceived danger that Mrs. Simpson might see
   them. The Prime Minister also sent detectives from Scotland Yard to
   follow both the King and Mrs. Simpson and report on their whereabouts.

   Edward's unorthodox approach to his role extended also to the currency
   which bore his image. He broke with tradition whereby on coinage each
   successive monarch faced in the opposite direction to his or her
   prececessor. Edward insisted his left side was superior to that of his
   right, and that he face left (as his father had done). Only a handful
   of coins were actually struck prior to the abdication, and when George
   VI succeeded he also faced left, in order to maintain the tradition by
   suggesting that had any coins been minted featuring Edward's portrait,
   they would have shown him facing right.

   On 16 July 1936, an attempt was made on the King's life. Jerome
   Brannigan produced a loaded revolver as the King rode on horseback at
   Constitution Hill, near Buckingham Palace. Police spotted the gun and
   pounced on him, and he was quickly arrested. At Brannigan's trial, he
   alleged that "a foreign power" had paid him £150 to kill Edward, a
   claim the court rejected. It is now known that MI5 had been shadowing
   Brannigan for some time and that Brannigan alleged that he was
   informing MI5 of a plot against Edward throughout his actions .

Abdication

   On 16 November 1936 Edward met with Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin at
   Fort Belvedere and expressed his desire to marry Wallis Simpson when
   she became free to re-marry. The Prime Minister responded by presenting
   the King with three choices: he could give up the idea of marriage;
   marry Mrs Simpson against his ministers' wishes; or abdicate. It was
   clear that Edward was not prepared to give up Mrs Simpson. By marrying
   against the advice of his ministers, it was likely that he would cause
   the government to resign, prompting a constitutional crisis. The Prime
   Ministers of the British dominions had also made clear their opposition
   to the King marrying a divorcée; only the Irish Free State was not
   opposed to the idea of the marriage. Faced with this opposition, Edward
   chose to abdicate.

   Edward duly signed an instrument of abdication at Fort Belvedere on 10
   December 1936 in the presence of his three brothers, The Duke of York,
   The Duke of Gloucester and The Duke of Kent. The next day, he performed
   his last act as King when he gave royal assent to His Majesty's
   Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 which applied to the United Kingdom
   and all the dominions except the Irish Free State. The Free State
   passed the equivalent External Relations Act, which included the
   abdication in its schedule, the next day.

   On the night of 11 December 1936, Edward, now reverted to the title of
   Prince Edward, made a broadcast to the nation and the Empire,
   explaining his decision to abdicate. He famously said, "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."

   After the broadcast, Edward departed the United Kingdom for Austria,
   though he was unable to join Mrs Simpson until her divorce became
   absolute, several months later. His brother, Prince Albert, Duke of
   York succeeded to the throne as King George VI, with his eldest
   daughter, Princess Elizabeth first in the line of succession, as the
   heir presumptive.

Duke of Windsor

   George VI announced he was to create his brother Duke of Windsor, and
   also re-admit him to the highest degree of the various British Orders
   of Knighthood, on 12 December 1936 at his Accession Privy Council
   because he wanted this to be the first act of his reign, although the
   formal documents were not signed until 8 March of the following year.
   During the interim, however, Edward was universally known as the Duke
   of Windsor. However, letters patent dated 27 May 1937, which
   re-conferred upon the Duke of Windsor the "title, style, or attribute
   of Royal Highness," specifically stated that "his wife and descendants,
   if any, shall not hold said title or attribute." Some British ministers
   advised that Edward had no need of it being conferred because he had
   not lost it, and further that Mrs Simpson would automatically obtain
   the rank of wife of a prince with the style HRH; others maintained that
   he had lost all royal rank and should no longer carry any royal title
   or style as an abdicated King. However, George VI insisted that Edward
   should specifically be re-conferred with the rank of prince so that its
   terms could be within his control and on the grounds that if Edward
   were to be a commoner there could be no objection to his standing for
   Parliament. The King's decision to create Edward a royal duke ipso
   facto put him in the House of Lords and further ensured that he could
   not stand for election to the House of Commons, or speak about
   political subjects in the House of Lords.

   The Duke of Windsor married Mrs. Simpson, who had changed her name by
   deed poll to Wallis Warfield, in a private ceremony on 3 June 1937 at
   Chateau de Candé, Monts, France. When the Church of England refused to
   sanction the union, a County Durham clergyman, the Reverend Robert
   Anderson Jardine (Vicar of St Paul's, Darlington), offered to perform
   the ceremony, and the Duke happily accepted his services. The new king,
   George VI, absolutely forbade members of the British royal family to
   attend — Edward had particularly wanted Princes Henry and George (the
   Dukes of Gloucester and Kent) and Lord Louis Mountbatten to be on hand
   — and this continued for many years to rankle with the now ducal
   couple, notwithstanding the obvious awkwardnesses involved should
   royalty have been on hand because of the King's role as Supreme
   Governor of the Church of England.

   The denial of the style "HRH" to the Duchess of Windsor caused
   conflict, as did the financial settlement - the government declined to
   include the Duke or the Duchess on the Civil List and the Duke's
   allowance was paid personally by the King; the Duke, however, had
   compromised his position with the King by concealing the extent of his
   financial worth (accumulated from the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall
   paid to him as Prince of Wales and ordinarily at the disposal of an
   incoming king) at the time they informally entered into an agreement as
   to the amount of the sinecure the King would pay. This led to strained
   relations between the Duke of Windsor and the rest of the royal family
   for decades: in the early days of George VI's reign the Duke telephoned
   daily, importuning for money and urging that the Duchess be granted the
   style of HRH, until the harassed King ordered that the calls not be put
   through. The Duke had assumed that he would settle in Britain after a
   year or two of exile in France. However, King George VI (with the
   support of his mother Queen Mary and his wife Queen Elizabeth)
   threatened to cut off his allowance if he returned to Britain without
   an invitation. The new King and Queen were also forced to pay Edward
   for Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle. These properties were
   Edward's personal property, inherited from his father, King George V on
   his death, and thus did not automatically pass to George VI on
   abdication.

World War II

   In 1937, the Duke and Duchess visited Germany as personal guests of the
   Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, a visit much publicised by the German media.
   The couple then settled in France. When the Germans invaded the north
   of France in May 1940, the Windsors fled south, first to Biarritz, then
   in June to Spain. In July the pair moved to Lisbon, where they lived at
   first in the home of a banker with close German Embassy contacts. The
   British Foreign Office strenuously objected when the pair planned to
   tour aboard a yacht belonging to a Swedish magnate, Axel Wenner-Gren,
   whom American intelligence considered to be a close friend of Nazi
   leader Hermann Göring. A "defeatist" interview with the Duke that
   received wide distribution may have served as the last straw for the
   British government: in August a British warship dispatched the pair to
   the Bahamas. The Duke of Windsor was installed as Governor, and became
   the first British monarch to ever hold a civilian political office. He
   enjoyed the position and was praised for his efforts to combat poverty
   on the island nation. He held the post until the end of World War II in
   1945. (See also Operation Willi.)

   The Duchess of Windsor recorded in her autobiography The Heart Has Its
   Reasons that the Duke remarked, when telling her that Britain had
   declared war on Germany, that he feared that this would now mean the
   triumph of communism. This authoritative and sympathetic source appears
   to confirm that he was opposed to the war and favoured German fascism
   as a bulwark against communism. Many historians have suggested that
   Hitler was prepared to reinstate Edward and Wallis as King and Queen of
   Britain, if he conquered the country, and is apparently to have said to
   Wallis, "you would make a good Queen."

   Some historians have suggested that the Duke (and especially the
   Duchess) sympathised with Fascism before and during World War II, and
   had to remain in the Bahamas to minimise their opportunities to act on
   those feelings. These assessments of his career were corroborated by
   some wartime information released in 1996, and on further secret files
   released by the UK government in 2003. The files had remained closed
   for decades, as Whitehall judged that they would cause the Queen Mother
   substantial distress if released during her lifetime. U.S. naval
   intelligence revealed a confidential report of a conference of German
   foreign officials in October 1941, that judged the Duke "no enemy to
   Germany" and the only English representative with whom Hitler would
   negotiate any peace terms, "the logical director of England's destiny
   after the war". President Roosevelt had ordered covert surveillance of
   the Duke and Duchess when they visited Palm Beach, Florida, in April
   1941. The former Duke of Wurttemberg (then a monk in an American
   monastery) convinced the FBI that the Duchess had been sleeping with
   the German ambassador in London, Joachim von Ribbentrop, had remained
   in constant contact with him, and had continued to leak secrets. This
   evidence supports a theory held by many of the top officers in the
   British Army, as well as more than a few members of the civilian
   population, that Edward had passed details of the movements of the
   British Expeditionary Force in France, leading to the disaster at the
   Battle of Dunkirk.

Later life

   After the war, the couple returned once again to France in Neuilly near
   Paris, where they spent much of the remainder of their lives
   essentially in retirement, as the Duke never occupied another
   professional role after his wartime governorship of the Bahamas.
   Effectively taking on the role of minor celebrities, the couple were
   for a time in the 1950s and 1960s regarded as part of café society and
   numerous of those who met the Windsors socially reported on the vacuity
   of the Duke's conversation (see "Quotations," below). They hosted
   parties and shuttled between Paris and New York; in 1951 the Duke
   produced a ghost-written memoir, A King's Story. Nine years later, he
   also penned a relatively unknown book, Windsor Revisited, chiefly about
   the fashion and habits of the Royal Family throughout his life, from
   the time of Queen Victoria through his grandfather and father, and his
   own tastes. The couple appeared on Edward R. Murrow's television
   interview show "Person to Person," visited President Eisenhower at the
   White House in 1955 and in 1970 appeared in a 50-minute BBC television
   interview; that year they were invited as guests of honour to a dinner
   at the White House by President Richard M. Nixon in repayment for their
   having entertained Nixon in Paris during the mid-1960s when his
   political fortunes were low.

   The Royal Family never accepted the Duchess and would not receive her
   formally, although the Duke sometimes met his mother and his brother
   the King after his abdication. Queen Mary in particular maintained her
   anger with Edward and her indignation as to Wallis ("To give up all
   this for that," she said) and Queen Elizabeth, Edward’s sister-in-law,
   remained dubious about Wallis for her role in bringing Elizabeth's
   husband to the throne, regarding Wallis's inappropriate and arrogant
   assumption of the role of consort to the king while still married to
   Ernest Simpson and for her well-known scorn for both King George VI and
   Queen Elizabeth. In 1965, the Duke and Duchess returned to London. They
   were visited by the Queen, Princess Marina and also the Princess Royal.
   They later attended a memorial service for the Princess Royal, who died
   in the week following their visit. In 1967 they joined the Royal Family
   for the centenary of Queen Mary's birth. The last occasion they were in
   the UK together was the funeral of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent in
   1968.

   The Duke died of throat cancer on 28 May 1972 in Paris, and his body
   was returned to Britain for burial at Frogmore Estate, near Windsor
   Castle. The increasingly senile and frail Duchess travelled to England
   to attend his funeral, staying at Buckingham Palace during her visit.
   The Duchess, on her death a decade and a half later, was buried
   alongside her husband in Frogmore simply as "Wallis, Duchess of
   Windsor".

   When the Duke and Duchess's correspondence was published after the
   Duchess's death the book failed to sell, with interest largely confined
   to the magnitude of the Duke's uxoriousness and his curious term of
   endearment for her: "Eanum Pig."

Titles and styles

Titles

     * 1894-1898: His Highness Prince Edward of York
     * 1898-1901: His Royal Highness Prince Edward of York
     * 1901: His Royal Highness Prince Edward of Cornwall
     * 1901-1910: His Royal Highness Prince Edward of Wales
     * 1910 His Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall
     * 1910-1936: His Royal Highness The Prince Edward, Duke of Rothesay
       (Scotland)
     * 1910-1936: His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
     * 1936: His Majesty The King (outside of the United Kingdom, and on
       account of India, the Sovereign was sometimes referred to by the
       style His Imperial Majesty the King-Emperor).
     * 1936-1937: His Royal Highness The Prince Edward
     * 1937-1972: His Royal Highness The Duke of Windsor (in use from
       1936)

Styles

   From his father's ascension to the throne on 6 May 1910 until his own
   accession on 20 January 1936, Prince Edward held the style "His Royal
   Highness, The Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl
   of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great
   Steward of Scotland." His full style as king was "Edward VIII, by the
   Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland, and of the British Dominions
   beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India"

Legacy

Fashion

     * House of Mainbocher
     * Duke of Windsor Evening Wear
     * Duchess of Windsor Wedding Ensemble

Quotations

     * "[The Indian princes’] ceremonies are so irritating and ridiculous"
       (Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 116)

     * On seeing the great archaeological finds at Taxila, in Punjab,
       "This place ought never to have been dug up." (Ziegler, King Edward
       VIII, 140)

     * Of Étienne Dupach, the editor of the Nassau Daily Tribune: "It must
       be remembered that Dupach is more than half Negro, and due to the
       peculiar mentality of this Race, they seem unable to rise to
       prominence without losing their equilibrium." (Ziegler, King Edward
       VIII, 448)

     * To John Kenneth Galbraith, who had been appointed American
       ambassador to India, "I hear you are going to In-jea. A most
       interesting country. I had a very good time there in my early
       youth. You must do the pig-sticking in Rajasthan. And you will find
       the people most agreeable in their own way. They have been most
       uncommonly decent to my niece." (Galbraith, Ambassador’s Journal,
       36)

     * To Gore Vidal (who described the Duke as having "always had
       something of...riveting stupidity to say on any subject"), "British
       Empire. First trip to India. Glorious. Never would have believed it
       would all be gone in my lifetime. Not possible, I’d’ve thought. I
       am the last king-emperor, you know. My brother was, for a time, but
       had to give it up. I didn’t" (Vidal, Palimpsest, 206)

     * In conversation with Mona Bismarck and Gore Vidal, "Mona said, 'Did
       you see Gore's new play The Best Man when you were in New York?'
       'Of course not.'...'Don't like plays, only shows.' He meant musical
       comedies." (Vidal, Palimpsest, 206)

     * Discussing coronation ceremonies with Vidal, "I quickly moved on
       to...the moment when two masons appear and ask the newly crowned
       king for instructions as to his tomb. 'Masons? Masons! Yes. You
       one? I'm one. But I've forgotten all the odds and ends. Dull,
       really." (Vidal, Palimpsest, 206)

Around the World with the Prince of Wales

   all quotations from Godfrey, Letters
     * Italy: "...they are indeed a repulsive nation these dagoes, both
       the men and the women & I'm just longing to quit them for good &
       all !!!" ( 18 September 1918)

     * Cologne, Germany: "Claud & I had a stroll in the centre of town
       afterwards & had great fun making the Hun men civilians get off the
       pavement [sidewalk to Americans] for us .... It does one worlds of
       good to know how humiliating it must be for the Huns" ( 9 January
       1919)

     * Quebec City, Canada: "A rotten priest-ridden community who are the
       completest passengers & who won't do their bit in anything & of
       course not during the war !!" ( 23 Aug 1919)

     * Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, Canadian Indians: "I've told you
       what a foul decadent lazy crowd they are & what I think of them !!
       But this camp is pitched right inside an Indian reserve ... & we
       have hundreds of the mouldy local tribe camped around us" ( 6
       October 1919)

     * Barbados: "A proper bum island this Barbados....It's a unique sort
       of scenery, very ugly, & I didn't take much to the coloured
       population, who are revolting." ( 26- 27 March 1920)

     * Panama: "...a deadly spot the end of the world almost....There are
       20,000 British coloured people working on the canal...; they are
       mostly from Jamaica & smell too revolting for words....the
       Panamanians are a very queer people, all dagoes of course, though
       very pompous and dirty" ( 31 March - 1 April 1920)

     * Honolulu, Hawaii: (At a luau) "...a unique native stunt though the
       Hawaiian food we were made to eat was too revolting for
       words....One got rather tired of the native songs & longed for some
       of our tunes" ( 14 April 1920)

     * Outside Adelaide, Australia: "...they showed us some of the native
       aborigines at a wayside station in the great plain yesterday
       afternoon though they are the most revolting form of living
       creatures I've ever seen !! They are the lowest known form of human
       beings & are the nearest thing to monkeys I've ever seen" ( 11 July
       1920)

     * Acapulco, Mexico: "...queer, dirty little dago town....The people
       are too revolting for words, super dagoes & some of them are quite
       black as a result of Spaniards inter-breeding with the Indians; &
       of course they only speak Spanish" ( 9 September 1920)

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