Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: Richard Nixon and Edward VIII
Edward VIII, the King of England, and President Richard Nixon have at least one thing in common. Both of them gave up their offices before the end of their terms. In the King's case, he abdicated the throne after less than a year in order to marry a woman who was an American socialite, who had been divorced twice, at a time when such a thing was unacceptable for a British monarch. In Nixon's case, he resigned the Presidency prior to the end of his second term, rather than face impeachment proceedings that almost certainly would have resulted in his removal from office.
Edward VIII, who was born as Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Winsor on June 23, 1894, and who 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 January 20, 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year. He was born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. He became Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday, seven weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, Edward served in the British Army during the First World War and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father. He was not a favorite of his father, and had a reputation as a womanizer who engaged in a series of sexual affairs, something that met with strong disapproval from his father from British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.
Upon his father's death in 1936, Edward became the second monarch of the House of Windsor. The new king showed a strong disregard for court protocol and constitutional conventions. A few months into his reign, he caused a constitutional crisis when he proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and other nations in the British Commonwealth opposed the marriage. It was strongly felt that a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands was politically and socially unacceptable as a prospective queen consort. The marriage was also opposed by officials in the Church of England. As King, Edward was the titular head of the Church of England, which, at the time, disapproved of remarriage after divorce if a former spouse was still alive. When it became apparent he could not marry Simpson and remain as King, Edward abdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI. Reigning only for 326 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning British monarchs.
After his abdication, Edward was created Duke of Windsor. He married Simpson in France on June 3, 1937, after her second divorce became final. Later that year, the couple toured Nazi Germany and met with Adolph Hitler, leading to rumors that he was a Nazi sympathizer. During the Second World War, Edward was at first stationed with the British Military Mission to France but after the fall of France was appointed Governor of the Bahamas. After the war, Edward spent most of the rest of his life in France, though he resided in New York City from time to time, relying on the generosity of wealthy friends for support. He and Wallis remained married until his death in 1972. They had no children.
On April 4, 1970, President Richard Nixon and First Lady Patricia Nixon hosted a white-tie dinner in honor of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. The Duke had visited the White House many times before. During the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, he visited five times . He also visited President Woodrow Wilson and President Harry S. Truman at the White House. The dinner marked the occasion of the appointment of Warren Burger as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
A number of famous guests attended the dinner, including the eldest daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, dancer and singer Fred Astaire, astronaut Frank Borman, future President George H. W. Bush and pilot Charles Lindbergh. During the dinner, President Nixon delivered a toast honoring the Duke. The Duke of Windsor delivered a toast in honor of his wife, Wallis Simpson, who had been born in nearby Baltimore. In his toast, the Duke said, “I have had the good fortune to have a wonderful American girl consent to marry me. I have had 30 years of loving care, devotion and companionship, something I have cherished above all else.”
The City of Paris provided the Duke with a house at 4 route du Champ d'Entraînement, on the Neuilly-sur-Seine side of the Bois de Boulogne. The French government also exempted him from paying income tax. In 1951, the Duke had produced a ghost-written memoir, A King's Story. The royalties from the book added to their income. The Duke and Duchess were regarded as part of high society in the 1950s and 1960s. They hosted parties and shuttled between Paris and New York.
In 1955, the Windsors visited President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the White House. The couple appeared on Edward R. Murrow's television-interview show Person to Person in 1956, and in a 50-minute BBC television interview in 1970. In the 1960s, the Duke's health deteriorated. Doctor Michael E. DeBakey operated on him in Houston for an aneurysm of the abdominal aorta in December 1964, and Sir Stewart Duke-Elder treated a detached retina in his left eye in February 1965. In late 1971, the Duke, who was a smoker from an early age, was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent cobalt therapy.
On May 28, 1972, the Duke died at his home in Paris, less than a month before his 78th birthday. His body was returned to Britain, lying in state at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The funeral service took place in the chapel on 5 June in the presence of the Queen, the royal family, and the Duchess of Windsor, who stayed at Buckingham Palace during her visit. He was buried in the Royal Burial Ground behind the Royal Mausoleum of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Frogmore. The Duke and Duchess had planned for a burial in a cemetery plot they had purchased at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, but these plans changed following an agreement reached with Queen Elizabeth II in 1965.
The Duchess suffered from dementia later in life and she died in 1986, and was buried alongside her husband.