CHATEAU de CANDE (1) - EDWARD AND WALLIS

Trigger Warning : VBCW Historians should look away now. This post clearly comes from an alternative time line, one where Edward VIII did not raise his Royal Standard in the Mall, Mosley did not become his appointed "Prime Minister", and Britain did not descend into an uncertain Civil War. Instead, it appears, Edward VIII tamely abdicated, and was then taken into exile in France aboard a British destroyer.....good grief.....

It is 3rd June 1937, and the wedding day of the Duke of Windsor (formerly Edward VIII, King and Emperor) and the Duchess of Windsor (formerly Mrs Wallis Simpson, formerly Mrs Wallis Spencer, formerly Miss Wallis Warfield) at the Chateau de Cande in the Loire Valley, France. After the wedding ceremony, the happy couple emerged onto the front steps of the Chateau for formal pictures:

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Chateau de Cande, 3rd June 1937.
None of the Royal Family attended the wedding, and some days previously
(27th May 1937), King George VI had informed his brother that the 
Duchess of Windsor would not, upon her marriage, be accorded the title "HRH".

The Duke and Duchess in close up.

...and colourised....

The happy couple with the Duke's best man, "Fruity" Metcalfe.

another colourised photograph, reverse view.
The photographer is within the entranceway
of the Chateau, looking out upon the same steps and estate.

The couple with their wedding guests - a generally sorry lot of hangers on, perhaps
exemplified by the presence of Randolph Churchill, son of Winston (right). Between
the Duke and Randolph, Mrs Fern Bedaux, chatelaine of Cande. More helpful detail
and the full guest list HERE

A closer image. Randolph to the right of the photograph and to the left, Wallis'
redoubtable Aunt Bessie.

Looking down and......

....later, after the wedding lunch and changed for departure.
The Chateau de Cande, now owned by the French State following the deaths of
its previous owners, Mr and Mrs Bedaux, (in 1944 and 1972 respectively)
is open to the visitors of today...

87 years later, a helpful tourist practises a "royal wave" at the entrance

to the Chateau de Cande...

and "steps in to history" (or at least steps on history,
or on alt-history) at the Chateau de Cande.

HRH the Duke and (not HRH) the Duchess of Windsor, same spot,
87 years before.

Notes

(1). The formal photographs of the wedding were taken by Cecil Beaton; the informal photographs by (amongst others) "Baba" Metcalfe, wife of "Fruity", daughter of George Nathaniel Curzon, one time Viceroy of India, and very close friend of the very married Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, 1938 - 1941

(2). An amazing and colourised moving film of the Duke and Duchess on their wedding day is on YouTube HERE. Baba Metcalfe can be seen taking some of the above photographs, and there is a suitably 1930s musical accompaniment!