History UsefulNotes / TheHouseOfWindsor

* Despite his large number of affairs he has no known illegitimate children (nor legitimate ones with Wallis, though she was almost 40 when they finally married) - indeed, he is popularly believed to have been infertile, perhaps as the result of a bout of mumps in his youth which essentially "locked" his physiological development in an early adolescent state (which explains a great many things, actually). He was also rumoured to completely lack body hair, which supports this theory, although of course this may have been a personal grooming decision.

* But he was also a complex, neurotic figure, distanced from his overly disciplinarian parents, especially the King, George V, who was extremely stern and almost unable to show affection towards his children. Edward had an addiction to exercise and a form of anorexia, often eating nothing but an orange all day. He was obsessed with the thinness of his legs, smoked and drank to excess, and loved all things then considered modern -- jazz, nightclubs, the telephone, planes, cocktails, Americans. He was extravagant and reckless, and spoke in an affected accent, mixing cockney and an American twang with the more modulated tones of the English upper classes.

* Technically the first Windsor - he changed the family name from the bulky "Wettin von Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" during the war to appease anti-German sentiment (particularly after the name "Gotha" became infamous due to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotha_G.IV German bombers of the same attacking London]]), despite ironically being as German as his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II. When H.G. Wells referred to Britain's "alien and uninspiring court" before the name shift, George is said to have responded "[[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien!]]". Supposedly, the Kaiser [[{{Troll}} retaliated]] to this by commissioning a performance of ''The Merry Wives of Wettin von Saxe-Coburg and Gotha''.

* In the end, though, all of that was, if not forgotten, then easily forgiven--more of a national joke than an embarrassment, especially given how the rest of the late Victorian upper classes carried on. It helped that his wife only minded to a certain extent; for all the cheating, he appears that he was actually a pretty caring and decent husband otherwise (by her lights, anyway) and he and Alix were fairly fond of and respectful of another, despite everything.

* Was famously stern and distant towards his children, including the future kings Edward VIII and George VI, reputedly because his own father Edward VII had been stern to him (others say the two acted closer to brothers than father and son, especially towards the end of Victoria's reign). He did, however, become much more affectionate towards his second son after Bertie/George was kept out of much of [=WW1=] by chronic illness, and had to spend a good deal of his time with his father. This is probably what led to George V's famous remark that he hoped Bertie would become king.

* Once hoped that his eldest son, Edward VIII, never married and had children because he absolutely adored his granddaughter and wanted her to be Queen.

* However, although he remained broadly popular throughout most of his reign, in court and political circles he was regarded as lazy, reckless and ignorant; he didn't bother to read his state papers and he behaved as though Parliament didn't matter.[[note]]His Assistant Private Secretary for many years, Alan "Tommy" Lascelles, familiar from his depiction in the TV series ''The Crown'', observed to prime minister Stanley Baldwin in 1927 that the best thing for the country would be if Edward were to break his neck in a horse-riding accident. Instead of reprimanding Lascelles for this quasi-regicidal remark, Baldwin actually ''agreed'' with him.[[/note]] The government also thought he overstepped his role as a constitutional monarch by making comments that could be interpreted as political, particularly when he called attention to unemployed coal miners in Wales. In addition, he was carrying on a love affair with divorced American commoner Wallis Simpson, whom he insisted on marrying, when as head of the Church of England he wasn't allowed to marry a divorcée since the Church didn't recognize divorce at the time. This led to a constitutional crisis, with prime minister UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin consulting the leaders of the Dominion governments and informing Edward that if he insisted on being still being king '''and''' marrying Mrs Simpson against the advice of the government, then the government would have to resign. The British press had loyally kept the news about his affair with Mrs Simpson out of the papers, but when the story finally broke in the UK, public opinion began to turn. He reluctantly [[AbdicateTheThrone abdicated]] after less than a year on the throne, the only British monarch since the Norman Conquest to ever voluntarily do so. His younger brother gave him the title of HRH Duke of Windsor.[[note]]The new king's advisers couldn't figure out what title Edward should have: the head of the BBC, Lord Reith, was planning to announce Edward's abdication speech as being from "Mr Edward Windsor", but the new King George VI pointed out that he would always be the son of a king and entitled to be addressed as such – so he ended up introduced as "The Prince Edward". Furthermore, if Edward were to be a commoner, he could have run for MP, which nobody wanted; but if they made him a regular duke, he would be in the House of Lords, which nobody wanted either, so letting him keep his HRH as a royal duke [[KickedUpstairs seemed like a generous solution but robbed him of any potential political power]].[[/note]] Because Parliament wouldn't allow him to marry Mrs Simpson whilst he sat on the throne, he's the most recent British monarch to be unmarried during his entire reign.

* Has a breed of potatoes named after him; a floury breed, they're still considered some of the best in Britain for chips and mash (alongside Maris Piper).

* He was a former member of the Greek royal family. Due to the tangled nature of European royal families, this means that he came from a junior branch of the Danish royal family while primarily being of German descent, but was baptised and raised in the [[UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity Greek Orthodox Church]]. He converted to Anglicanism shortly before his wedding, though he had been informally attending Church of England services for years before that.[[note]]The C of E has never been picky about who can attend, and Orthodox congregations were rather thin on the ground in mid-century Britain anyway, especially in the Navy.[[/note]] Because of this background, he liked to point out that he was ''not'' an Englishman by any measure.
** His family was kicked out of Greece after a disastrous defeat by Turkey when he was a child, with his father court-martialed and almost executed and with great fear of them meeting the same fate as the Romanovs; see below. Eighteen-month old Philip was famously carried onto a waiting British evacuation vessel in an orange crate, and he never properly learned the Greek language, which was known to be one of his great regrets in life. The press still sometimes gave him the nickname "Phil the Greek".

* He was a former member of the Greek royal family. Due to the tangled nature of European royal families, this means that he came from a junior branch of the Danish royal family while primarily being of German descent, but was baptised and raised in the [[UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity Greek Orthodox Church]]. (He converted to Anglicanism shortly before his wedding, though he had been informally attending Church of England services for years before that.[[note]]The C of E has never been picky about who can attend, and Orthodox congregations were rather thin on the ground in mid-century Britain anyway, especially in the Navy.[[/note]]) His family was kicked out of Greece after a disastrous defeat by Turkey when he was a child, with his father court-martialed and almost executed and with great fear of them meeting the same fate as the Romanovs; see below. Eighteen-month old Philip was famously carried onto a waiting British evacuation vessel in an orange crate, and he never properly learned the Greek language, which was known to be one of his great regrets in life. The press still sometimes gave him the nickname "Phil the Greek".

* ''Film/ARoyalNightOut'' features the two royal princesses having the time of their life during the V-Day celebrations, along with them George VI and the Queen Mum as two very concerned parents.
* ''Film/DarkestHour'' very obviously portraits George VI and his family during the crucial days of the Blitz, although the film portraits Churchill's perspective.

* Creator/{{ITV}} aired a twelve-part biographic miniseries on Edward VII in 1975, titled fittingly ''Series/EdwardTheSeventh''. Incidentally, the title role was played by Timothy West, whose son Samuel would later play George VI in ''Hyde Park on Hudson''.

* To elaborate on the above, she disliked over-familiarity, and whilst her friendship circle was broad and liberal, '''everyone''' bar her family still had to show deference and address her as "Ma'am" -- even life-long friends like Lady Anne Glenconner.[[note]]Herself a BlueBlood, daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester; the style "Lady" is one she holds by right although she is also entitled to one as the wife, and then widow, of a Baron.[[/note]] The princess’s party trick seems to have been to lull people into a false sense of security and camaraderie and then demolish them with regal, rank-pulling put-downs that were masterpieces of the art.

* The 1978 ITV seven-part series ''EdwardAndMrsSimpson'', obviously.

* In spite of his crippling shyness, had a famously short temper as well as a sharp sense of humour (which he may have bequeathed to his eldest daughter). On meeting General Alexander, George VI asked him what he thought about [[UsefulNotes/BernardLawMontgomery Montgomery]]. Alexander replied that he always had the impression that Montgomery was after his job. "You should worry," George replied, "whenever I meet him I always think he's after mine." [[note]]On another occasion, when he was a young RAF officer in 1919, he was in an officer's mess when another pilot, a distinguished air ace who was quite drunk, noticed that Prince Albert had a lot of medal ribbons but, mysteriously, no pilot's wings, meaning he couldn't possibly have earned them the way the air ace had. The air ace said "Captain, what are all those ribbons?" Albert stared at them for a moment and then smiled and said "I'm not quite sure. The tailor puts them there whenever I have a uniform made." This self-deprecation earned him the respect of the other fliers. In fact, in 1919 Albert had a number of legitimately earned ribbons, including the 1914-15 Star, the General Service Medal 1914-1918 and the Allied Victory Medal 1914-1918 with Oak Leaf, and some honorary ones including the King Edward VII Coronation Medal, the King George V Coronation Medal and the King George V Jubilee Medal.[[/note]]

* While unmarried himself at the time of his ascension to the throne in 1936, King Edward planned to take Wallis as his wife – although she was still very much committed to her second husband, Ernest Simpson. Even more so, as an American divorcee, she was subsequently seen an utterly unacceptable match for the British monarch and head of the Church of England.
* The affair between Wallis and the King led her to divorce her husband and Edward VIII to renounce his claim to the throne before he had even been crowned. His abdication -- long since dubbed the "Abdication Crisis" -- led to his brother, the Queen’s father King George VI, taking the throne. Most famously, Edward announced his resignation by explaining: “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.”

* Despite her marriage to a royal, she was famously furious at being denied the official style of 'Her Royal Highness', and was referred to by the lower form of address, 'Her Grace', except by her own staff.

* He was a former member of the Greek royal family. Due to the tangled nature of European royal families, this means that he came from a junior branch of the Danish royal family while primarily being of German descent, but was baptised and raised in the [[UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity Greek Orthodox Church]]. (He converted to Anglicanism shortly before his wedding, though he had been informally attending Church of England services for years before that.[[note]]The C of E has never been picky about who can attend, and Orthodox congregations were rather thin on the ground in mid-century Britain anyway, especially in the Navy.[[/note]]) His family was kicked out of Greece when he was a child -- he was famously carried away in an orange crate -- and he never properly learned the Greek language, which was known to be one of his great regrets in life. The press sometimes gave him the nickname "Phil the Greek".

* Despite being in exile, he had a relatively normal childhood in Paris with his family until the age of 9, at which point things took a RealityIsUnrealistic turn – his mother developed severe psychiatric symptoms and required involuntary hospitalisation for several years, during which Philip had very little contact with her; his father couldn't handle this additional trauma and drifted away to the Riviera and Monaco, leaving Philip's guardianship to his wife's relatives; his four older sisters all married German princes in a span of about a year[[note]] the first and youngest, Sophie, was only 16[[/note]], and Philip was sent to boarding school at Cheam in England, Salem in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany (briefly), and finally Gordonstoun in Scotland; when in the UK, he was looked after by his grandmother, Victoria, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven and his uncle the marquess, George Mountbatten. When he was 16, his sister Cecile died with her family in a plane crash, and the following year his uncle George died of bone cancer, after which his other uncle "Dickie" Mountbatten took a larger role in his life[[note]] Since his mother and her brothers have been noted, it's worth mentioning that the last sibling, their sister Louise, had married the widowed Crown Prince of Sweden in 1923 and eventually became that country's Queen consort; Philip may have been an impoverished exile with a scattered family, but he was ''very'' highly connected all over Britain and Europe[[/note]]. WWII separated him from his parents and sisters ''again'', with his father dying when Philip was away on naval service before the end. Small wonder he was so self-reliant.

* He was well-known as dashing and handsome in his youth (sometimes described as a [[GorgeousGreek "Greek]] [[SexyScandinavian god"]]).

* Despite being in exile, he had a relatively normal childhood in Paris with his family until the age of 9, at which point things took a RealityIsUnrealistic turn – his mother developed severe psychiatric symptoms and required involuntary hospitalisation for several years, during which Philip had very little contact with her; his father couldn't handle this additional trauma and drifted away to the Riviera and Monaco, leaving Philip's guardianship to his wife's relatives; his four older sisters all married German princes in a span of about a year[[note]] the first and youngest, Sophie, was only 16[[/note]], and Philip was sent to boarding school at Cheam in England, Salem in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany (briefly), and finally Gordonstoun in Scotland; when in the UK, he was looked after by his grandmother, Victoria, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven and his uncle the marquess, George Mountbatten. When he was 16, his sister Cecile died with her family in a plane crash, and the following year his uncle George died of bone cancer, after which his other uncle "Dickie" Mountbatten took a larger role in his life. WWII separated him from his parents and sisters ''again'', with his father dying when Philip was away on naval service before the end. Small wonder he was so self-reliant.

* In the end, though, all of that was, if not forgotten, then easily forgiven--more of a national joke than an embarrassment, especially given how the rest of the late Victorian upper classes carried on. It helped that his wife only minded to a certain extent; for all the cheating, he appears that he was actually a pretty caring and decent husband otherwise (by her lights, anyway) and he and Alix were fairly fond of and respectful of another, despite everything. He is the most recent British monarch to openly take mistresses during his reign; his grandson Edward VIII and his great-great-grandson Charles III both had their affairs ''before'' taking the throne.

* He is played by Creator/GuyPearce in ''Film/TheKingsSpeech''. It was the anomaly in the succession caused by his abdication that inspired the 1930s setting for Ian [=McKellen's=] film adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Richard III''. Other elements of the story appear in the film; Richard's regime is unmistakably fascist, while Edward IV's wife is given an American accent. In ''Series/TheCrown'', he's portrayed by Alex Jennings in series 1, 2, and 5, and Creator/DerekJacobi in series 3. Creator/EdwardFox gave a BAFTA-winning TheDanza portrayal in the 1978 series ''Series/EdwardAndMrsSimpson''.

* In the end, though, all of that was, if not forgotten, then easily forgiven--more of a national joke than an embarrassment, especially given how the rest of the late Victorian upper classes carried on. It helped that his wife only minded to a certain extent; for all the cheating, he appears that he was actually a pretty caring and decent husband otherwise (by her lights, anyway) and he and Alix were fairly fond of and respectful of another, despite everything. He was also a great lover of food--especially French food--and ended up with a [[AdiposeRex 50-plus-inch waist]]; again, fate spared him, and of the whole long line of fat British monarchs (i.e. every single one from George I until him), he carried it best. He was also (thus far) the ''last'' fat British monarch; his marriage to the slender Alexandra of Denmark seems to have had the lasting effect of ensuring reasonably svelte monarchs for the next five generations. Also, peculiarly for someone so thoroughly in love with fine French cuisine, he was the one who [[TropeCodifier cemented]] the English tradition of eating [[HollywoodCuisine roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and potatoes for the Sunday roast]].

* Was described by one politician as "magnificent, [...] worldly, in fact nearly sublime, but cold and hard", making it appropriate that she had an ocean liner named after her -- RMS ''Queen Mary'', a Cunard liner and, as noted above, running mate to RMS ''Queen Elizabeth'', named after then-Queen Consort Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

* Her illness also accelerated hereditary issues she had with her hearing, and she became almost totally deaf as she grew older; the strain of functioning in society led her to spend much of the time in the country with her children and animals, while Bertie remained at the center of fashionable life. However, when she did perform social functions, people still found her highly charming and were left with the impression she could understand them perfectly.

->'''Parents''': ''King'' Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark

->'''Parents''': ''King'' George V and Mary of Teck

* While unmarried himself at the time of his ascension to the throne in 1936, Edward planned to take Wallis as his wife – although she was still very much committed to her second husband, Ernest Simpson. Even more so, as an American divorcee, she was subsequently seen an utterly unacceptable match for the British monarch and head of the Church of England.
* The love between Wallis and Edward drove her to divorce her husband and the royal to renounce his claim to the throne before he had even been crowned. His abdication -- long since dubbed the "Abdication Crisis" -- led to his brother, the Queen’s father King George VI, taking the throne. Most famously, Edward announced his resignation by explaining: “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.”
* After the abdication in 1936, ''Magazine/TimeMagazine'' honoured Wallis Simpson's major coup of getting Edward to abdicate his throne by naming her "Woman of the Year," the first time the magazine had ever given its "Man of the Year" award to a woman. Their reasoning? That year, she became the most-talked-about, written-about, headlined and interest-compelling person in the world; in these respects no woman in history had thus far ever equaled her.
* Wallis and Edward ran afoul of the rest of the royals (and much of the British government) during World War II. They made a high-profile trip to Nazi Germany during 1937 to see how the German people lived under Hitler's regime; they even stayed with the Führer as his personal guests. When tensions flared during the early days of World War II, the couple was still said to entertain fascist friends in their French home -- which has also forever tarnished their reputation.
* Despite her marriage to a royal, she was famously furious at being denied the official royal title of 'Her Royal Highness', and was referred to by the lower form of address, 'Her Grace', except by her own staff.

->'''Parents''': ''King'' George V and Mary of Teck

->'''Spouse''': ''Queen'' Elizabeth II (1947--2021)

* He was a former member of the Greek royal family. Due to the tangled nature of European royal families, this means that he came from a junior branch of the Danish royal family while primarily being of German descent, but was baptised and raised in the [[UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity Greek Orthodox Church]]. (He converted to Anglicanism shortly before his wedding, though he had been informally attending Church of England services for years before that.[[note]]The C of E has never been picky about who can attend, and Orthodox congregations were rather thin on the ground in mid-century Britain anyway, especially in the Navy.[[/note]]) His family was kicked out of Greece when he was a child -- he was famously carried away in an orange crate -- and he never properly learned the Greek language, which was known to be one of his great regrets in life. The press sometimes gave him the nickname "Phil the Greek". He gave up his Greek titles and princely status to marry Elizabeth.

* He renounced his Greek and Danish titles voluntarily and became a naturalized British citizen before marrying Elizabeth in the slightly tense post-WWII climate. However, no one realized until years later that under the laws of the time, as a descendant of Electress Sophia of Hanover, he had had British citizenship to start with.

* He served with distinction as a naval officer in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII on the Allied side (''i.e.'' in spite of his German heritage), even being mentioned in dispatches for bravery in battle. His mother, Princess Alice, was similarly named a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem for her role in saving Greek Jews during the Holocaust. This may be why he was so hurt and annoyed when Mohammed al-Fayed, in one of the stranger moments of the very strange inquest into Diana's death, called him a Nazi.

* Years later, in 1960, she married the Welsh society photographer Antony "Tony" Armstrong-Jones, who was made the Earl of Snowdon on his marriage to her. Lord Snowdon had perhaps a classic artistic temperament and a bohemin disregard for convention; while this seems to have been the attraction for Margaret, it also caused tension. Ironically, though perhaps unsurprisingly, they themselves divorced in 1978 after years of bitter acrimony and mutual recriminations. Their son, David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, is a noted designer of extremely expensive bespoke neoclassical-style furniture through his atelier Linley (from his courtesy title Viscount Linley, which he bore until his father's death in 2017).

* In 1913 Marina’s grandfather, King George I of Greece, was assassinated. After several years of upheaval, the monarchy was overthrown in 1924, and her father Prince Nicholas and his family settled in Paris.

* Her AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents — her mother was kind, popular, [[BigFun very extroverted and known as "Fat Mary", not unpleasantly]]; her father was handsome, emotionally intemperate and the child of a morganatic marriage (otherwise he would have been King of Wurttemberg), meaning that neither he nor his children were considered "royal enough" for the strictest (non-British) standards of marriage. Neither of them were capable of living a life out of debt, and at one point the family had to go abroad to Italy because of it — were the reason for her famous [[StiffUpperLip emotional restraint]] and majestic grandeur.

* She was in great shape and [[OlderThanTheyLook looked a lot younger than she was]] for most of her life, it is said that the lissome queen once almost split her sides laughing when she saw her portly husband and his fat mistress Alice Keppel taking a walk in the garden through the window.

* However, although he remained broadly popular throughout most of his reign, in court and political circles he was regarded as lazy, reckless and ignorant; he didn't bother to read his state papers and he behaved as though Parliament didn't matter.[[note]]His Assistant Private Secretary for many years, Alan "Tommy" Lascelles, familiar from his depiction in the TV series ''The Crown'', observed to prime minister Stanley Baldwin in 1927 that the best thing for the country would be if Edward were to break his neck in a horse-riding accident. Instead of reprimanding Lascelles for this quasi-regicidal remark, Baldwin actually ''agreed'' with him.[[/note]] The government also thought he overstepped his role as a constitutional monarch by making comments that could be interpreted as political, particularly when he called attention to unemployed coal miners in Wales. In addition, he was carrying on a love affair with divorced American commoner Wallis Simpson, whom he insisted on marrying, when as head of the Church of England he wasn't allowed to marry a divorcée since the Church didn't recognize divorce at the time. This led to a constitutional crisis, with prime minister UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin consulting the leaders of the Dominion governments and informing Edward that if he insisted on being still being king '''and''' marrying Mrs Simpson against the advice of the government, then the government would have to resign. The British press had loyally kept the news about his affair with Mrs Simpson out of the papers, but when the story finally broke in the UK, public opinion began to turn. He reluctantly [[AbdicateTheThrone abdicated]] after less than a year on the throne, the only British monarch since the Norman Conquest to ever voluntarily do so. His younger brother gave him the title of HRH Duke of Windsor.[[note]]The new king's advisers couldn't figure out what title Edward should have: the head of the BBC, Lord Reith, was planning to announce Edward's abdication speech as being from "Mr Edward Windsor", but the new King George VI pointed out that he would always be the eldest son of a (royal) duke and entitled to be addressed as such; furthermore, if Edward were to be a commoner, he could run for MP, which nobody wanted; but if they made him a regular duke, he would be in the House of Lords, which nobody wanted either, so making him a royal duke [[KickedUpstairs seemed like a generous solution but robbed him of political power]].[[/note]] Because Parliament wouldn't allow him to marry Mrs Simpson whilst he sat on the throne, he's the most recent British monarch to be unmarried during his entire reign.

* [[RoyallyScrewedUp Royal bloodlines being what they are]], he was actually eligible to become King in his own right, as a descendant of Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria. (This made him 679th in line for the throne [[http://www.wargs.com/essays/succession/2011.html as of 2011]]-- or thereabout, as it was just so low that it wasn't worth keeping track.) He was in fact the longest-lived descendant of Queen Victoria when he passed at age 99.