Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Windsor
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(micro)
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Her Royal Highness is a golden micro in a beautiful little park in Arlington Heights. Not much else to say about it. However I always have a lot to say, so if you would like to “listen”, read on. If you don’t feel like it, don’t bother, just head out to the cache and bring your own pen.
With the next “Royal Wedding” only moments away here is a cache placed in honor of one of the more scandalous royal weddings to ever rock the British Empire.
Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Spencer, then Simpson; (June 19, 1896 – April 24, 1986) was an American socialite who married, as her third husband, Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII of the British Empire, Emperor of India.
Wallis's first marriage, to a U.S. naval officer, was punctuated with periods of separation and eventually ended in divorce. In 1934, during her second marriage, she allegedly became the mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales. Two years later, after Edward's accession as King, Wallis divorced her second husband and Edward proposed to her.
The King's desire to marry a woman with two living ex-husbands caused a constitutional crisis in the United Kingdom which ultimately led to the King's abdication in December 1936 to marry "the woman I love". (Did you see “The King’s Speech”? This affair is the precursor to that movie!) Edward married Wallis six months later.
After his abdication, the former king was named Duke of Windsor by his brother George VI. However, letters patent, passed by the new King and unanimously supported by the Dominion governments prevented Wallis, now the Duchess of Windsor, from using the title ”Her Royal Highness”. The new King's firm view, that the Duchess should not be given a royal title, was shared by Queen Mary and George's wife, Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother). So the Duchess would live out her life without the title of HRH added to her name. Do you think that’s fair??
Times have obviously changed for Britain and the Royals. And their willingness to bestow the title of “Her Royal Highness” has eased. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (Camilla Rosemary; née Shand, previously Parker Bowles; born 17 July 1947) is the second wife of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and is the current holder of the titles Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Chester, and “Her Royal Highness”. And her scandalous situation is not much different than that of Bessie.
What does all of this have to do with the cache?? Well, nothing except it’s located in a park a few blocks away from Windsor (the place I had originally planned to place it until that place was taken). And when trying to think of a name for this cache my brainstorming took me through all of the Windsor related items, and that brought me to this “injustice.” So I am using this cache as a rectification of sorts. It certainly won't change history, but somehow it makes me happy, and that's what caching ought to do! So, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Windsor!
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