The other House of Windsor

[Music] at number four which dishon don't minimal whatever line in pallets you see the first glittering clue as to who once lived in this house [Music] it was here in this monumental yet modest late 19th century shuttle that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor lived I at the final chapter of their life together the Duke died in 1972 and the Duchess in 1986 a year later her jewels were auctioned in a blaze of publicity and the contents of the house were expected to go the same way when mr. Al Fayed chairman of Harrods and proprietor of the Paris Ritz Hope interview and arranged and paid for the meticulous restoration of every last lock stock and barrel inch of the place this house is now a private Museum so we have the most particularly rare chance to observe the endearing domestic minutia the life of a one-time king and the wife for whom he renounced all this is the sun'll where the Duchess reigned supreme she stares down its full length the portrait of her was painted by Gerald Brockhurst in 1939 a grandiy from Maryland Baltimore Belle Bessie Wallace Warfield she dropped the name Betsy because she said it sounded too like a cup first met the Prince of Wales she said in January 1931 at melton mowbray having had frantic cleansing lessons from a man on a swaying train at Gloucestershire I was certainly no Beauty wrote the Duchess years later and he had the pick of all the beautiful women in the world I was no longer young in fact in my country I would have been considered securely on the shelf as she was still married to her second husband Ernest Simpson the Constitution ruled her out as the consort of the king a fact to which he seemed oblivious she will be queen of England he told his brothers and Empress of India the whole bag of tricks his love for mrs. Simpson persisted despite the anguish of his mother Queen Mary's disapproval throughout his life in this house she gazed at him from these silver tousled walls the only other woman of real influence in his life she was never to acknowledge the Duchess to the day she I'm afraid said the Duke after her funeral the fluids in her veins have always been as icy as they are now in death throughout the years of exile a most constant companions were pugs Oh [Laughter] would that her two favorite cushions were still here one embroidered with you can never be too rich or too thin the other if you are tired of shopping you were going to the wrong shop they entertained on a spirited scale with colporteur once playing where on this piano he incidentally said that having a conversation with the Duchess was like playing a really good rally at tennis and that she always returned the ball after dinner this room would be cleared a band would be tuned up and whatever more colorful companies streaming through the door dancing would within cavorting away on this Prince of Wales feathered carpet with the Duke on the drums and the Duchess and her toes at the twist and the tango the night was rice to the way the Duke once danced both the Charleston and the sailor's hornpipe with no coward both of them egging one another on to ever more friends and variations a Maurice Chevalier was always ready with a song here on the piano there were bridge parties - I would have thought that you of all people could play the king the Duchess had quipped one even to the Duke when he'd fluffed his hand a little oil of Windsor Castle and glimpse of his past and a teeny trifle of modern art signed on the back to the Duchess Andy Warhol 1967 these green stone Maori war clubs were presented to the Prince during his visit to New Zealand in 1920 his tours as Prince of Wales where a spectacular success I was like a man corner evolving door he wrote with cried so volatile and so vigorous as to constitute an almost terrifying phenomena there was a mass impulse to pod some part of the prince he wrote I can still hear the shrill and excited cry I touched him in Canada he shook so many thousands of hands that his own swelled up black and blue and extremely painful there you can see him having to use his left hand he seemed to offer the possibility of a miraculously modern monarchy but the glare of his youth was dulled by these overburdening experiences immaturity became irresponsibility and doubts as to his seriousness gathered apace these were magnified and multiplied with the advent of mrs. Simpson the king was a man crazed with love threatening to cut his throat if he didn't see her it was true and deep stuff wrote his friend Fruity Metcalf he became deranged in his duties knocking terrible nails of thoughtlessness into his kingly coffin one story alone will show his solid state of mind at the time he was being shown round the peach house at Windsor by the gardener who was bursting with pride at all the blossom promising an abundant crop of fruit the king said not a word but on leaving asked that very blossom to be cut down and sent to mrs. Simpson Caligula himself wrote a dismayed Kotler can never have done anything more wanton the Duke of Windsor was king out of the eighth for ten months and 22 days when my father died he wrote I had the uneasy sensation of being left alone on a vast stage a stage that was the British Empire to play a part not yet written this sketch records an instant early on in his reign when he broke with tradition and walked to work in a bowler hat the court found such informality deeply shocking adored by the public and yet despaired of by the politicians when it came to the monarchical crunch she collapsed all there in his words I married because I chose the path of love and I abdicated because I saw the path of duty Fleet Street conducts the conspiracy of silence the public were only to read about the abdication at the last moment for millions who had said little to see one who had so much giving it all away for love was ragingly romantic my opinion in a king he should marry you he loved you've been a good chap to working-class that's my opinion of the nation is behind him and we must not lose him with his brothers around him the deed was done at half past 10:00 in the morning on December the 10th 1936 Queen Mary's comment on the eve of the abdication was this is a nice kettle of fish this is the dining room the food was masterminded by the Duchess with a fanatical precision she always insisted that every trout Partridge grouse and even lettuce leaf was precisely the same size for perfect symmetry her inspiration was from one great source her Bible Fanny farmers cookbook incidentally the salt and pepper pot were a wedding present from her first marriage to Earl Winfield Spencer if either an ornament or a candlestick were obscuring the Dukes view of the Duchess he would remove it immediately to keep the small talk simmering as likely as not guests would have had to have changed places with every course the Duke always insisted on being served last believing that courtesy and good manners with a lubricating oils of life [Music] men are not books his library wrote the times of the pneumonic Edward the eighth and certainly many of the books here in this library suggest duty rather than pleasure he had a lamentable education at the age of thirteen he was dispatched to the Royal Naval Training College at Osborn on the Isle of Wight we're scarcely having met another child in his life he was subjected to the bullying regime of the place having his neck guillotine in a window to remind him of Charles the first and of the fate of royalty who displeased all in all it was a bad business for a boy at maudlin College Oxford the master thought he had a charming mind grave thoughtful restrained gentle and kindly although bookish she will never be he did at least mastermind his ghostwritten autobiography the King's story which was translated into a quantity of languages including hue blue and finish this was my favorite royal mentor [Music] [Applause] [Music] on the landing there are cushions which were almost certainly embroidered by the Duke needlepoint is my secret icy root or at any rate the only one the time it pains to conceal I find it more relaxing and more useful than detective stories but it would never do to have my hobby become widely known it might shock the country this is the Duke study on the first floor here and in his bedroom beyond he was embraced by no fewer than 25 photographs of the Duchess these are the first drums in the house to have a sense of cosmas albeit the most mournful sense of coziness these exotic photographs taken by Man Ray in 1936 show what the author James / Tennessee described as her flat angularity which could have been designed for a medieval playing card an American woman par excellence wear it not for the suspicion that she was not a woman at all her hair it says were beaten is brushed to say that a fly would slip off it these studio portraits were posed for astonishingly enough when she was still living with her second husband Ernest Simpson here she is with slipper there kantaria who saw them through the months of mayhem leading up to the abdication with his tale cheerfully wagging as he accompanied his master to broadcast the abdication speech slipper was bitten by a Viper only days before the wedding in France in June 1937 our principal guest at the wedding is no more it had actually said it to the duke and i cannot stop crying they were married at the Chateau de corn day in France here is a piece of the wedding cake which they kept the house was lent to them for the occasion by an American businessman charles baedal inventor of the time and motion study in the autumn of 1937 Beddoe organized a visit to Nazi Germany for the Duke and Duchess tatar worker housing their guide was an alarming figure called dr. lay no strangers of the bottle with whom they had to hurtle round the country at high speed with him sitting between them on the back seat Hitler whom they met about his garden was under the impression that there sympathized with his regime the Duke although admiring Nazi Germany would only discuss housing conditions nevertheless the trip and subsequent sympathetic talk about Germany where at the very least ill-advised not surprisingly there are almost no traces of this period of their lives in the house but tucked away in the bookcase here there is one clue in the 1950s both structural and Eisenhower tried to suppress these documents fearing they might cast the Duke in a treacherous light in the event they've proved being conclusive but the Duke of Windsor has never evaded lingering suspicion these are his pipes there are 22 in the room which filled with a packet of yacht-club tobacco a day finally killed the duke he relished the ritual of pipe smoking and he smoked quantities of specially blended cigarettes on one terrible occasion he quite forgot himself his brother George whose wedding and lit his cigarette off the priests candle the Duchess was appalled by his smoking why do you always have to have something hot in your mouth he has an intriguing item a miniature snakeskin hostess trolley this wastepaper basket with the Prince of Wales feathers and the coat of arms was presented to His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor by the boys of the Madison Square boys club New York he had loved New York ever since his visit there in 1919 when his ticker tape welcome had been thrilling beyond description in a frenzy of impatient enthusiasm hurled telephone books have been flung down on his head I find myself sitting up on the back of the motor he wrote bowing and waving like an actor who had been summoned by a tremendous curtain call together the Duke and Duchess would spend for up to four months a year in opulent luxury in a walled off tower in New York having arrived with anything from between thirty to a hundred and thirty pieces of luggage much of which is still in the house today on a trip to America in the 50s they appeared on person-to-person hosted by Edward our motto it's very pleasant seeing you again sir well a man to project over though what's important to both of you for the future well for me I want to make my husband happy that's my greatest desire with regard to our thoughts for the future it is difficult to make plans for the future I think if one leads a decent life and and and and enacts well the future takes care of itself there is so much to do in life and so little time to do it in for debonair - the Duke of Windsor clothes had and still have few equals I've seldom seen sir will dreamy original since is these on any man anytime anywhere just look for every jacket made in England he had two pairs of trousers made in America his pants across the seas the Duchess called them and often with a matching car and look suit after suit he always wore them in rotation was made of flamboyant stuff one critic snipe that he needed two pairs of trousers to get the pattern in news of them was cable to America and within months he proudly wrote tartan had become a popular material for every sort of masculine garment from dinner jackets to swimming trunks and Beach shorts these handsomely thick and exhausted heavy tweed garments had the most thrillingly white risers just like them Donna Cooper always called them his plus twenties from such like excesses made the Lord deliver us whale the tailor and cutter look at the vim look at the bath outlandish clothes had long been a passion a dashing escape from Royal restraint when he was only 18 years old he'd appeared one morning for breakfast at Buckingham Palace proudly showing off a brand new suit with brand new turnips is it raining in here his father King George drew fists and thundered with his eyes fixed and obvious repugnance on the offending fashion fed whiter up once tries isn't such an absurd manner except across puddles the Duke even wrote a book almost entirely devoted to his views on clothes deploying such evocative phrases as the glorious flourish from a bowler hat rim further proof of his passions socks of every conceivable stripe check and hue here are his shoes embroidered bowed buckled and correspondent these vivid trousers like so much else in the house were lovingly resuscitated by mr. alpha is teams of restorers what about these stalking beauties this is the bathroom of a modern man par excellence smooth streamlined and streaking off into the future his royal cypher that most symbolic of science is zigzagging Lee part of the age he always had a shower in this particular grim cubicle the bath he used to store his vast collection of photographs some 12,000 were find in there after his death they've been cataloged and bound in two volumes some fifty of which are devoted to his life during the First World War those are the colours of one of the guards regiments which he commanded [Music] his abit tree in The Times remark that in France and Flanders he proved that he possessed courage to a high degree so much so that his constant and often successful efforts to reach the front line we're an embarrassment his commanding officer his eagerness to share the hardship of the trenches is one reason why he was such an extraordinarily popular figure in the years after the Great War his handkerchiefs have all folded into these straws and in here there are several more of his ties with one particularly vivid example of his taste extraordinary colors but most poignant of all and something would try to tremble at the in delicacy of showing though but nevertheless find two touching to ignore are these his heavily domed but soft silken underwear the Duchess's bathroom was quite a different story a festive little striped tent with murals all painted by the stage designer Dmitry Bhushan this sketch by successful beaten was made in 1936 art deco or the modern movement got its tear in this door too on her tooth mark than on her dressing table set her w inter linked with his e formed we their favorite term of endearment the Duchess claimed only by a hundred dresses a year on one unfortunate evening she went to a ball in the same striped shibashi number as eight other women with great goodwill and wisecracking away in the voice it was likened to a corncrake she led them round the dance floor in a conga with her countless dresses that spiraled around her body and always dripping with jewels the Duchess of Windsor was the talk of cafe society the world over yet in spite of her fashionable fame the Duchess of Windsor SMO sputum clothes were those at the public never saw her here amid the swathe of satin silk and lace the Duchess's coral it is exquisitely resplendent embroidered over entwine double use for Wallace Windsor row upon row upon row of shoes each one made to match her countless or song the - asses accessories were spot-on superb [Music] mink garters [Music] I particularly relish this hat the size of an old half crown without two foot wingspan Bella and here is a picture of the Duchess beneath it this remarkable object belonged to the Duke it is a tartan mask with green eyelashes this more elegant skies belong to the Duchess this terrifying object must have been used to assemble exotic heads of hair whenever she crossed the Atlantic the Duchess never went up on deck for fear of dislodging a single strand [Music] sadly all examples of her hallmark the little black dress that she made smart by wearing have gone to the Metropolitan Museum in New York and only her sixties styles remain like this Ferb autumn skirt with such an English flash and flair she was compared to a polished era as against the croquet mallet of the English Rose it is no wonder that when Bessie Wallace blew in from Baltimore and stole their prints away The Dukes family and much of the nation were deeply aggrieved in the next room their boudoir you'll come upon the very core of the Windsors anguish the fact that the Duchess was never granted royal status it was a deep wound that was forever being ripped opened but there was a soothing South she was her royal highness within the private kingdom of these four warms Orsat Altaria in the internal telephone list her bedroom bathroom and their royal highnesses boudoir where curtseying tools duel eager an honor denied her outside this house it was in this room the duke received his niece queen elizabeth ii only days before he died they had already smooth over the stormy past and both knew that they would never meet again the duke by now very seriously ill insisted on sitting in here rather than in his bedroom and many hours were spent concealing the various tubes and drips were keeping him alive when the Queen came into the room suddenly without any warning the Duke slowly and painfully rose to his feet making his final homage to his sovereign [Music] his last years have been empty ones the Duke once said that he spent a day watching Wallace buy a hat after reading the English American and French papers then slowly dressing he would answer his letters then he would report his wife to be told the day's program and the rounds of golf shopping and socializing would begin the Duke as he was called by the Duchess seldom had more for lunch than an apple or prunes and water sad stories have been left of him chattering and chattering away pretending to be very happy and very busy but the reality was that of a man unoccupied and miserable this money he won betting with his chef on the outcome of televised rugby matches the little sweet doll which he took with him everywhere was given to him when he was a child by Queen Mary the Duke died here on May the 28th 1972 earlier that night black demand his pug usually on the bed and growling at intruders climbed down and lay silently on the floor [Music] in the Duchess's bedroom where the sheets were armed every day twice a day she was surrounded by pictures of the Duke to every stage of his life when he was born his future was predicted with uncanny accuracy by the socialist Keir Hardie in a speech to the Commons in 1894 from his childhood onwards this boy will be surrounded by sycophants and flatterers by the school and will be taught to believe himself as of a superior creation in due course he will be sent on a tour around the world and probably rumors of a morganatic marriage alliance will follow and the end of it all will be the country will be called upon to pay the bill the Duchess survived the Duke by 14 years for the last 11 of them she lay in this room surrounded by her pugs and unable to move eat or speak she died on April 24th 1986 it was a terrible end to the life she called Wallace in Wonderland there is a sadness about this house the sadness of blighted opportunity of an historic duty deserted as Edward the eighth he had wanted to throw open the windows on the monarchy and let some fresh air into the venerable institution he was set afire by the great democratic spirit of America and that surely is what mrs. Simpson personified for him but he seems to have had no notion of her deeply resistant church and state where to his brights modernity before their marriage he had written to her the drawbridges are going up behind me I have taken you into a void and so it proved to be

Channel: George Pollen

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Keywords: The other House of Windsor

Id: G9g4vb21JsU

Length: 28min 19sec (1699 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 06 2018