Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announced on January 8 that they would give up their prominent role in the British royal family, to settle for part of the year in North America. A decision that took Queen Elizabeth II by surprise, and offended much of the kingdom and the media. The newlyweds, exhausted by the press who do not have words hard enough to denounce this "Megxit", have been complaining for months about the pressure from the tabloids. A thunderclap that is reminiscent of other great events of the Windsor saga.
The speech of a king
Edward VIII has his hands clasped. Nested to have their phalanxes bleached. Half-closed eyelids, withdrawn into himself, he seems to whisper a prayer. As if he implored the British people to understand his irrevocable decision: the day before, in his private residence in Fort-Belvedere in the south-west of London, he signed his act of abdication in the presence of his three younger brothers. Unique in the almost millennial history of the English monarchy, he renounced the throne on which he had ascended eleven months earlier.
"His Royal Highness Prince Edward", presents him on the air John Reith, boss of the BBC. Or more simply David Windsor, 42 years old. Because it is in civilian clothes that he sits down, this Friday, December 11, 1936, in front of the imposing microphone… in the shape of a shell head. It is 10 pm at the Windsor Palace, the moment to justify yourself in front of hundreds of millions of people: his former British subjects, the Empire or distant Commonwealth dominions. White voice, he declares that his younger brother Albert, succeeds him and that he recognizes him as his king. He will leave England the next day, he adds, ensuring that he alone takes responsibility for abdicating.
Listeners already know this, as they know the name of their new king, George VI. So much for the courtyard side. But it is the heart that keeps listeners in suspense. "I found it impossible to continue to shoulder the heavy burden of responsibility and to carry out my kingly duties as I wanted, without the help and assistance of the woman I love."
Unrepentant Rider
This woman is the scandalous Wallis Simpson. An American twice divorced, who is more commoner, endowed with a free spirit and a sulphurous reputation: it is too much for the prude Albion, still frozen in her old Victorian clothes. The two lovers had met in January 1931. The Prince of Wales was then a hardened bachelor, the most beautiful party in the United Kingdom. He is also a model of elegance and a world celebrity, the equal of Hollywood stars. With Wallis, this compulsive rider gradually stops galloping. She is married, but more spicy than the women who usually fall into her nets. The Prince of Wales is in love… bewitched say the wicked tongues, when they finally get wind of this connection which little by little is no longer even hiding.
The king, already inconvenient, is furious. More and more sick, he despairs at the idea that David succeeds him. "I pray to God that my eldest son never marries, never has children, and that nothing comes between the throne and Bertie (note: his youngest son Albert, future Georges VI) and Lilibeth (note: the current Queen Elizabeth II, his granddaughter he was crazy about) ", he pours out one day.
He even ordered an investigation into the newcomer's past. The portrait drawn by the secret services has enough to nail the old sovereign on the cross of Saint George, who draws the flag of England: in the 1920s, when her first husband was on a mission to Hong Kong, Wallis would be addicted to drug trafficking, even to luxury prostitution ... An intriguing head of the kingdom, rather die, he thinks.
It will be Wallis or the throne
This is what happened on February 19, 1936. The king is dead, long live the king! David becomes Edward VIII, but his heart has not changed: Wallis will be his wife as soon as his divorce has been declared, he warns. "Here we are in fine sheets! "Alarms her mother, Queen Mary. The relationship became almost official - the couple left for the summer of 1936 on a cruise in the Mediterranean - but the British people were not informed of it: the media, perfectly aware, did not break the law of silence. At the beginning of December, the foreign press made a big splash. The crisis then broke out. It is no longer just conjugal: it is a state affair, which causes the crown to waver.
The English, upset, have a shared heart. His duty comes before his personal happiness, claim some. He has the right to marry the woman he loves, reason of state will accommodate it, protest the others. The king locks himself in Fort Belvedere, hangs on, even envisages that Wallis - party to shelter from the scandal in Cannes - become his wife but not the queen.
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But the maneuvers of the Prime Minister, the wheeled Stanley Baldwin, and of the Anglican Church, corner him in the ropes: it will be Wallis or the throne. On December 10, this king without a crown - the coronation ceremony was scheduled for May - threw in the towel after 325 days of reign. His father had badly prophesied: "After my death, the boy will do his own ruin in twelve months. "
The Queen Mother's Vengeance
A sister-in-law's revenge is a dish that can be eaten cold. After the abdication, Queen Elizabeth, mother of the current sovereign, opposed any reconciliation. And urges her husband, George VI, to refuse him all access to England. In his eyes, he committed the unforgivable crime of having forced her husband to reign, a charge that terrified him ... and that will kill him slowly.
The Duke of Windsor - the title which the king conceded to him, prohibiting Wallis from wearing that of Royal Highness - distanced himself a little more from the royal fold by being photographed with Hitler in 1937 at Berchtesgaden. These displayed pro-Hitler sympathies will even end up convincing Winston Churchill, that this short-lived king, of whom he had once been a supporter, and who will be guilty of currency trafficking during the war when he is "exiled" as governor of Bahamas, was no longer worth a shilling.