Prince Edward

Dignity, like the Imperial mantle which is placed upon England's King at his Coronation, clothed Edward VIII and his every act last week after the decision of His Majesty to abdicate and become not "Mr. Windsor" but Prince Edward, newly created Duke of Windsor, and still Knight of the Most Ancient & Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Knight of the Most Illustrious Order of St. Patrick, Knight Grand Commander of the Most Exalted Star of India, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Grand Master of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael & St. George, Grand Master of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Knight of the Golden Fleece of Spain, Knight of the Order of the Annunziata of Italy.

Scarcely anyone failed to tune in on Edward VIII as he took leave of his country or to read within a few hours the simple words with which His Royal Highness said good-by to very nearly all except "the woman I love."

Prince Edward was scrupulous not to betray his class, and to do and say all he could to uphold the Kingdom and the Empire, giving no opportunity to irresponsible groups of the masses to harm Britain. Long after His Majesty's instrument of abdication was signed, sealed, published and in course of certain enactment by Parliament (see p. 17) one of the greatest mass gatherings in British history was still roaring outside of Buckingham Palace, "WE WANT EDWARD!" He was not there.

Neither as King Edward, nor later last week as Prince Edward, did the eldest son of the Royal House enter London. This idol of the British masses (for such His Majesty unquestionably was) vanished, and after a little space other idols (for such King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and crown princess Elizabeth will soon be) were substituted. The basic English truth which emerged is that the Kingdom long ago became and is today neither a democracy nor a monarchy but an efficient oligarchy, more or less benevolent. Its symbol is the Crown, but the really effective British crowns are the top hats worn by Stanley Baldwin and a few hundred others. They rule over millions of British soft hats, tens of millions of caps and hundreds of millions of Indian noddles. Members of the British Royal Family have long had this basic reality embedded in their natures, and last week in King Edward VIII's hour of sorest indecision it tipped the scales. He left England as the eldest son who has locked a rattling skeleton in the Empire's closet and thrown away the key. Not ungrateful to opportune Winston Churchill, who had offered and sought to form a party of "King's men" to fight the issue out in Parliament, His Majesty rewarded this active British son of a U. S. mother last week with a discreetly private lunch.

With Prince Edward supplying all necessary dignity, the British Broadcasting Corp. found it possible to send out a "children's hour" message to the moppets of the Empire, a description in words of one and two syllables of the relations between Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson. Only a few days prior these had been so "scandalous" (because undignified) that they were supposed to be something which only a few nasty-minded British adults would stoop to read in the "American press."*

In his historic broadcast, Prince Edward did not defend either himself or Mrs. Simpson. That would have been undignified. The skeleton must not be jangled. Unmentioned therefore by Prince Edward was the clash of wills between himself and the Church of England over whether the Archbishop of Canterbury would refuse or consent to officiate at the Coronation and consecration of a King who intended to marry a woman such as Mrs. Simpson (see p. 18). In the House of Lords, the Archbishop spoke volumes when he said in a broken voice, "Of the motive which compelled the renunciation we dare not speak."

The Archbishop's motive had to do with a feature of the Coronation service scarcely noticed by laymen who suppose that the whole point of a coronation must be that somebody is crowned. There have been British coronations for 1,000 years and until comparatively recent generations the whole emphasis was on the "anointing" of the King, as a newly created bishop is anointed--thus making him a persona mixta or "person of mixed nature," part layman, part priest. Queen Victoria was of the opinion that she was the head of the Church of England, virtually a female Pope. Although Prime Minister Gladstone gently dispelled this impetuous pretension (pointing out certain ambiguities in the Coronation ceremony), Her Majesty was far more right than she was wrong in the eyes of English churchgoers. The unspeakable dilemma in the case of Edward VIII in recent weeks has been: "Can there be consecrated, as a part-priest or part-Pope, one who we all know has done everything to face us with the fact that he is resolved to marry a lady with a past, even if we did our best to keep him from making this known to us?"

Such was the obstacle which proved insuperable last week, and there were several others, nearly insuperable and nearly unutterable. A minor and utterable obstacle was that Mrs. Simpson is not the daughter of either a king or a peer.

Dignified Prince Edward, after dining for a last time with his Queen Mother, new King George VI, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent, drove last week at great speed through night and fog to Portsmouth, intending to embark on the Admiralty Yacht. At the last moment this plan was changed; the name of the yacht is the Enchantress. It was dignified to sail instead on the British destroyer Fury, and "His Grace, the Duke of Windsor"--as Prince Edward was created this week by King George VI--debarked at Boulogne into a private car and a new life of wealth, ease and perhaps happiness. Rolling down to Austria, he established himself high on a crag 25 mi. from Vienna at the castle of Baron Eugene Rothschild, who was host to the King & Mrs. Simpson last summer. Said the Duke of Windsor: "I am remaining here at Castle Enzesfeld until after Christmas."

The Duke's hostess is beauteous onetime Miss Catharine Wolff of Philadelphia, rated "one of the 20 best-dressed women in the world." She was Protestant with her first husband (a Mr. Spotswood), Roman Catholic with her second (an Austrian count), and espoused the Jewish persuasion to marry her present Rothschild. Queen Victoria piously claimed that the British Royal Family are descended from Biblical David, "King of the Jews," and it was this which caused "David" to be made not only one of the names of Edward VIII but the name by which his family always called him.

Baron Rothschild closely accompanied his Baroness and the Duke when they played a round of golf on the castle's private links, and the Austrian caddy said that his Royal Highness continually sang snatches of popular tunes.

On the ex-King's first Sunday away from England, the Archbishop of Canterbury broadcast: "A new morning has dawned. . . . Yet let there be no boasting in our pride!" The proud Primate went on to describe the Duke of Windsor as "alien," called him as though already dead "our late King," denounced his "craving for private happiness" and referred to the present War Secretary of Great Britain, Captain Alfred Duff-Cooper and other close intimates of Edward VIII, thus: "Let those who belong in this circle know that today they stand rebuked!"

A steward on the Britannic: "In the pubs at Southampton they say 'he's a bloody fool. If he'd kept quiet, he could have had her on the side. But trying to put this over--it's too thick!' "

U. S. Senator Gore of Oklahoma: "If I had been King, I would have had the Coronation in due course, then married this woman, then said to the world, 'it's your move next.' "

Arthur Brisbane: "Magnificent, perhaps, but perhaps unnecessary. . . . The Throne and the life around it breeds weakness. . . . It is not necessary to tell ambitious young American women . . . how Mrs. Simpson will feel when she marries what is left of the 'king.' "

Masses, crowding Manhattan's No. 1 newsreel theatre, the Embassy in Times Square, behaved as follows at sight on the screen of: Prince Edward (cheers); Mrs. Simpson (cheers) ; her first husband Commander Spencer, U.S.N. (boos); her second and present husband Mr. Simpson (cheers & boos); the Archbishop of Canterbury (BOOS); new Crown Princess Elizabeth (boos); new King George & Queen Elizabeth (boos!); Prime Minister Baldwin (PROLONGED CATCALLS AND BOOS!); King Edward & Mrs. Simpson bathing in the Mediterranean (CHEERS!).

New York Roma Daily News: "His woman habits were, at least until the Simpson affair, promiscuous. He violated the homes of at least four of his subjects who up to that time had thought themselves his friends. He also had numerous fugitive amatory incidents with all sorts of people."

* Edward VIII came to the Throne in January, and TIME then omitted all mention of Mrs. Simpson until June. Reason: His Majesty had every right to benefit from an assumption that, once on the Throne, he would rapidly begin to conduct his private life in private, as did his grandfather King Edward VII. Had he done so, it would in all probability still be private, and he still on the Throne. In May, His Majesty with his own hand broke open the story of the King's Mrs. Simpson by inserting her name in his public Court Circular (TIME, June 8). He introduced her to the present King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, as well as to Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Baldwin, other Cabinet members and their wives, next took her on a Balkan yachting tour (TIME, Aug. 17 et seq.). Repeatedly the King intervened with Balkan police to let photographers snap him in informal scenes with Mrs. Simpson. Although these pictures were not printed in the United Kingdom, U. S. editors felt specifically free to print them. They were, in September, sure evidence that the crisis, which did not come until December, must come.

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