(2 of 2)
Nevertheless, the heir apparent also got his first uneasy sense of "unconscious rebellion against my position. That is what comes, I suppose, of sending an impressionable prince to school" (Royal Naval College and Oxford). He admitted to himself that he was happier amid the "contrast and commotion" of the bright magic world of the '20s than in the sheltered "order and perfection" of his father's court. With good grace the Prince performed the required round of royal ceremonials, but he had more fun flying in his own plane, riding in steeplechases, and cultivating a taste for bathtub gin, American slang and the Black Bottom. Young David, as he was and still is called by his intimates, further distressed George V (whose letters to the Prince were signed "yr. devoted Papa") by his determination "under no circumstances to contract a loveless marriage."
Backtalk & Business. His meeting with Wallis Warfield Simpson, at a house party, was hardly love at first sight. But later, visiting Mrs. Simpson's London salon, the Prince was impressed by her ease amid all the heady talk, and by her forthright backtalk ("One of the happier outcomes of the events of 1776").
Edward VIII had hardly been proclaimed King (with Wallis at his side at St. James's Palace as heralds boomed out the tidings) before he realized that "the King business" had its drawbacks. Item: he could not even take a walk in the rain because it brought criticism from those who thought a king should not get his feet wet. There were more important drawbacks. He had his first foreboding interviews about Mrs. Simpson with the Archbishop of Canterbury and with Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. Windsor lifts the curtain on the intrigue-packed scenes when Baldwin tells Edward that the Empire will not stand for a marriage to Mrs. Simpson. At the end comes the ringing abdication speech ("At long last . . ."), Contrary to reports once generally accepted (TIME, Jan. 2), the Duke insists that he wrote the speech himself, although he gives Winston Churchill full credit for turning several phrases.
After three years of phrase-turning, Windsor has no illusions about the difficulties of the job. To brother Bertie (George VI), he confided that writing was "the hardest thing I have ever tackled"—including the King business.
*A paraphrase, in part, of a remark by the first Duke of Wellington, who advised the son of another peer: "Never miss a chance to pass water; I never do."