Wedding Present

The King has been pleased by letters patent under the great seal of the realm, bearing the date of the 27th of May, 1937, to declare that the Duke of Windsor shall, notwithstanding his instrument of abdication executed on the 10th day of December, 1936, and His Majesty's Declaration of the Abdication Act of 1936, whereby effect was given to the said instrument, be entitled to hold and enjoy for himself only the title, style or attribute of Royal Highness, so however that his wife and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title, style or attribute.

Just six days before Mrs. Wallis Warfield was to become the merry wife of Windsor, this notice appeared in the official Court Circular. This meant that not only would the future Duchess of Windsor be definitely barred from the title of Royal Highness, a rank that even anti-Edwardian palace officials were walling to concede her three weeks ago, but that now she would be least in rank of all Britain's duchesses, as the most recently created.

This was the last in a series of parting blows delivered by the outgoing Baldwin Government. Four days earlier King George had personally telephoned his brother at the Chateau de Cande and explained apologetically that he had. been . forced not only to forbid any member of the Royal Family attending the wedding, but any British subject holding a Crown commission, which meant that such a harmless citizen as the former pilot of Edward's private plane. Wing Commander Edward ("Mouse") Fielden, was forced to refuse an invitation together with more potent officers and diplomats who were among the Duke of Windsor's friends.

Quick to sense the unpopularity of this move with the general public, at least two British subjects announced that they would defy the ban, go to the wedding anyway: Sir Walter T. Monckton, Attorney General for the Duchy of Cornwall, and Major Edward Dudley ("Fruity") Metcalfe, onetime equerry to Edward as Prince of Wales, who will serve as Best Man. The fact that Sir Walter is a rich man with an important private practice and that Fruity Metcalfe has retired from the Army did not spoil the popularity of the gesture. Later the Counselor of the British Embassy at Paris and the British Consul at Nantes were allowed to accept on the excuse that witnessing the wedding was part of their official duties.

It was not all sadness. Mrs. Warfield's Aunt Bessie, Mrs. D. Buchanan Merryman, bustled about the Chateau de Cande kitchens personally overseeing the wedding breakfast for the 16 invited guests who were to attend. Mail and wedding presents came in by the sackful, swamping the post office at nearby Tours. Explained the unofficial Press Minister, Herman Rogers:

"Whenever a boat arrives from the United States there is a special flood of letters."

It was hot. To calm his jumping rage at what he considered the gratuitous insults of the British Government, the Duke tried violently mowing hay on the chateau grounds, soon gave it up to sip tea under the shade trees of the terrace.

There was a wedding rehearsal. The little doctor-mayor of Monts, Charles Mercier, announced that he would give up "my usual muddy little buggy" for a handsome car, and that he was buying a new cutaway coat for the ceremony. Running through the brief service, he found the Duke of Windsor halting but adequate in French, Mrs. Warfield fluent. "You needn't worry," cracked twice-married Wallis Warfield. "I know the responses."

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