The Church of England had refused to sanction their union, but a clergyman from a small Yorkshire congregation traveled to France to perform the full church service. The duke tried to have her given the title of "Her Royal Highness," but was told on the eve of their wedding that she would be known only as "Her Grace." Though he persisted over the years, the duke was never able to persuade the royal family to promote his wife from Grace to Highness.

The newlyweds lived in France for the next three years, once visiting Germany as the personal guests of Adolf Hitler. The visit strengthened rumors that the duke, and especially the duchess, harbored pro-German sympathies. When World War II broke out in 1939, the duke was given a position as a liaison officer between the British and French armies. When the Nazis overran France, the Windsors fled to Portugal.

The duke was next named governor of the Bahamas. A British warship was dispatched to ensure safe passage for the Windsors across the Atlantic, where German U-Boats were operating.

When the war ended, the Windsors set up housekeeping in a showplace home in the fashionable section of Paris and another house in a suburb. It took 31 workers to run the two places — 18 in the households and 13 for the grounds. On their trips to the United States they were always accompanied by at least six staff members. Their expenses were estimated to be at least $500,000 a year.

In later years the duke's health problems necessitated the addition of his personal physician to the traveling staff. In 1964 the duke had heart surgery, and eye surgery a year later. He died of throat cancer on May 28, 1972, less than a month before his 78th birthday.

On the queen's invitation, the duchess stayed at Buckingham Palace when she came to England for his funeral and burial in the Royal Cemetery at Frogmore, a few miles from Windsor Castle.

After the duke's death, the duchess stayed in their mansion and kept most of their servants. Her physical health worsened to the point that she told the few friends permitted to visit her that she wished she could die. The woman christened Bessie Wallis Warfield was almost 90 years old and senile when she did die on April 24, 1986. She was buried next to her husband in the Royal Cemetery at Frogmore.

Another chapter was added to the Windsor story just three years ago when the private papers of Walter Turner Monckton, who had been Edward's legal adviser, were unsealed by Oxford's Bodleian Library. According to scholars, the papers do nothing to enhance the reputation of Bessie Wallis Warfield, also known as the Duchess of Windsor.