Duke of Windsor

Duke of Windsor [' dju: k ɘv ' winzɘ ] was a title of nobility, which was in 1937 awarded to Prince Edward, the former King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India, after his abdication.

Edward VIII had abdicated the previous year ( see main article abdication of Edward VIII ) in order to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. He was commonly known as " Duke of Windsor " since his abdication known, although those documents first on March 8, 1937 by King George VI. were signed. By Letters Patent of May 27 it was also the title and salutation of " Royal Highness " award, but not his wife and offspring.

As Edward abdicated, there were different opinions as to what title the former king was now wearing. As other possibilities, the duchies of Cambridge or Connaught were talking. Both, however, was unlikely because both names were already connected at this time with noble titles (Duke of Connaught at that time was Prince Arthur of Great Britain and Ireland, and Marquess of Cambridge at that time was George Cambridge ). One theory is that it was the idea of the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, award him the title of " Duke of Windsor", another that the new King George VI. immediately after execution of the declaration of abdication had the idea of a title, and suggested that " the family name " to be used ( as recounted in the memoirs of Edward, "A King's Story ").

The title of duke was named after the town of Windsor, in the famous Windsor Castle is that for over a thousand years was the seat of English monarchs and whose name was associated with stability and tradition, and was extinguished with the death of the childless Duke in 1972.