Royal Madam

Quietly knitting a dark blue sweater for his fiancee--who last week legally changed her name to Wallis Warfield -- the Duke of Windsor sat in the Chateau de Cande last week through the broadcast of his brother's Coronation (see p. 15). Acting as unofficial press representative, the Duke's faithful U. S. friend, Herman Rogers, issued to newshawks genteel snippets of information: legally changing Mrs. Simpson's name had cost $2.50. . . . Mrs. Warfield had put aside Ernest Simpson's engagement ring for a new emerald from the Duke. ... On Coronation night there was a dinner and card party at the chateau.

"We all had a swell time last night," said Mr. Rogers.

The happy couple posed easily for press photographers, one of whom snapped them going into action (see cut). But not forthcoming was the one announcement for which all correspondents were waiting: the date of the wedding. Not for several days was this vital declaration made; then the Duke revealed that he and Mrs. Warfield will be married on June 3. Reason announcement was delayed: a stiff three-cornered fight behind the scenes between the Duke, the British Government and the Royal Family. This time the trouble* was not money. Edward of Windsor was demanding, the Baldwin Government was doing everything in its power to prevent:

1) Public recognition of his wedding.

2) The Duke of Kent as best man.

3) Recognition of Mrs. Warfield as a royal duchess, entitled to be called Her Royal Highness and addressed as Madam or "Ma'am."

4) The Duke's return to Britain in the not too distant future, and a chance to "make himself useful" to the Empire.

The Duke's allies were limited to Queen Mary and the Duke & Duchess of Kent. Only one of the royal duchesses who was royal-born, as Princess Marina of Greece, the Duchess of Kent's pre-abdication backing of Mrs. Simpson was due almost entirely to her delight in annoying her Scottish sisters-in-law, but she has frequently let it be known that she would never spend a night under the same roof with "that woman" (Wallis Warfield). At week's end news of a compromise of a sort emerged.

Out at Windsor a tweed-capped workman climbed a stepladder in St. George's Chapel (lodge room of the Knights of the Garter), took down the armorial banner of the Duke of Windsor above his stall (first on the right) and moved it three places down the line. This meant that in the ritual of the Garter and in the British peerage, the Duke of Windsor would rank fourth, after the King and his brothers Gloucester and Kent, so that even should Wallis Warfield be accorded rank as a royal duchess there would be no chance of her taking precedence over her sisters-in-law.

After the marriage of Queen Elizabeth to the then Duke of York she was raised to the rank of royal duchess by a special order signed by George V. Trying to avoid such an embarrassing situation, London wiseacres first insisted that marriage to the Duke of Windsor would make Mrs. Warfield "automatically" a royal duchess, then veered, suggested that she might be elevated to that position some time after the wedding, when public interest had died down.

Said the monarch's communique to the Press: "Invitations to the wedding of the Duke of Windsor and Mrs. Warfield will be confined to those who have been with them in the past month. No member of the Royal Family will be present." This was conceded to be one more victory for Squire Baldwin's Government.

* Most accepted version of the marriage settlement gave the Duke and future Duchess of Windsor $500,000 outright from the private funds of the Royal Family, and an annual income of approximately $100,000 apiece.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.