by Susan Flantzer – compiled, revised, and edited from articles at Unofficial Royalty
© Unofficial Royalty 2018

• Unofficial Royalty: House of Windsor Index

George V, King of the United Kingdom (son of Edward VII) married (1893) Mary of Teck at the Chapel Royal at St. James’ Palace in London, England

• Mary, Princess Royal married (1922) Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood at Westminster Abbey in London, England
• George VI, King of the United Kingdom (son of George V) married (1923) Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey in London, England
• Henry, Duke of Gloucester married (1935) Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott at the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace in London, England (wedding was originally set to be held at Westminster Abbey, but when Lady Alice’s father died, the wedding venue was changed)
• George, Duke of Kent married (1934) Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark at Westminster Abbey in London, England followed by a Greek Orthodox service held in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace
• Edward VIII, King of the United Kingdom (son of George V, abdicated 1936), as Duke of Windsor married (1937) Wallis Simpson at the Château de Candé, near Tours, France

In 1917, during World War I, due to anti-German sentiment, King George V decided that to show the British people that the British Royal Family was indeed British and so a change of name was necessary. The British Royal Family’s dynastic name had gone from one German name to another, the House of Hanover to the decidedly more Germanic-sounding, House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. On July 18, 1917, the day after the Privy Council had given its final approval, the following proclamation from King George V appeared in newspapers: “WHEREAS We, having taken into consideration the Name and Title of Our Royal House and Family, have determined that henceforth Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor.”  See Unofficial Royalty: July 17, 1917: The Birth of the House of Windsor.

King George V, then Prince George, Duke of York, had married Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (also known as Princess May and later Queen Mary) in 1893 during the reign of his grandmother Queen Victoria. He had a typical royal wedding of the time at the Chapel Royal at St. James’ Palace in London. There was an opportunity for the public to see the royals as they left Buckingham Palace and proceeded the short distance to St. James’ Palace. Crowds gathered in the morning along the bridal procession route on Constitution Hill, Piccadilly, and St. James Street.

At 11:30 a.m., the first of the carriage processions left Buckingham Palace. Royalty from Britain and abroad rode in twelve open state landaus driven by cream-colored horses. The bridegroom and his father left the Palace at 11:45 a.m. followed by Queen Victoria in the Glass Coach. Accompanying the Queen was her first cousin, the beaming Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, the mother of the bride. The bride’s procession came last. Mary was accompanied by her brother Adolphus.

After the wedding service, the guests returned in state to Buckingham Palace. The royal guests feasted at round tables covered with food in a room separate from the other guests. The other guests enjoyed themselves in the Ballroom where large buffet tables were set up. Queen Victoria led George and Mary out onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace and presented them to the cheering crowds. The balcony appearance would later become a tradition of Windsor weddings.

• Unofficial Royalty: Wedding of King George V and Princess Victoria Mary of Teck

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Westminster Abbey Choir leading to the Altar

Another tradition of Windsor weddings would be the use of Westminster Abbey in London as a wedding venue. Westminster Abbey was completed around 1060 and was consecrated in 1065.  It was the wedding venue for six royal weddings during the reigns of the Plantagenet kings including that of King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia in 1382. That would be the last royal wedding at Westminster Abbey until the reign of King George V. Queen Victoria’s granddaughter and King George V’s first cousin Princess Patricia of Connaught married The Honorable Alexander Ramsay at Westminster Abbey in 1919. This was the first major royal event after World War I.

Five of the six children of King George V married and three of the five were married at Westminster Abbey. (George V’s youngest child Prince John died at the age of 14 following a severe epileptic seizure.) The large size of Westminster Abbey allowed more guests to be present at the wedding ceremony and the long drive from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey brought out immense crowds along the route. With each royal wedding, the anticipation and excitement grew.

It was George V’s children who really started the trend to marry non-royals. Only his son Prince George, Duke of Kent married a royal. Since that time, there has been only one member of the House of Windsor who married another royal – Queen Elizabeth II whose husband was born Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark.

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Weddings of King George V’s Children

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Wedding of Princess Mary and Henry, Viscount Lascelles

Princess Mary, the only daughter, was the first of her siblings to marry. On November 20, 1921, she became engaged to Henry, Viscount Lascelles, the eldest son of Henry Lascelles, 5th Earl of Harewood. Lord Lascelles was staying at York Cottage, the country home of Mary’s family, and it was there that the proposal took place. Queen Mary wrote in her diary for that day, “At 6.30 Mary came to my room to announce to me her engagement to Lord Lascelles! We then told G. (King George V) & then gave Harry L. our blessing. We had to keep it quiet owing to G. having to pass an order in council to give his consent. Of course, everybody guessed what had happened & we were very cheerful & almost uproarious at dinner. We are delighted.”

Princess Mary and Lord Lascelles (Henry) were married at Westminster Abbey on February 28, 1922. The wedding was the first time a child of a monarch had married at Westminster Abbey since 1290 when Margaret of England, daughter of King Edward I, married John II, Duke of Brabant. It also was the first royal occasion for Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later wife of Mary’s brother King George VI), a friend of Mary’s and one of her bridesmaids.

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On the Buckingham Palace balcony: King George V, Princess Mary, Viscount Lascelles, Queen Alexandra, and Queen Mary

Despite their fifteen-year age difference and despite rumors that the marriage was not happy, their elder son George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood said the marriage was a happy one. He wrote in his memoirs that they “got on well together and had a lot of friends and interests in common.” In 1929, Henry’s father died, he became the 6th Earl of Harewood, and the family moved to Harewood House near Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. On January 1, 1932, Mary was given the style Princess Royal by her father, a style for the eldest daughter of the sovereign. The previous Princess Royal, Mary’s aunt Louise, had died the previous year.

• Unofficial Royalty: Mary, Princess Royal, Countess of Harewood
• Unofficial Royalty: Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood

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In 1916, the second son of King George V, Prince Albert, known as Bertie, had been introduced to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the youngest daughter and the ninth child of the ten children of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th and 1st Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne at a tea party. The two had actually first met in 1905 at a children’s party but neither recalled that meeting. Bertie, who was created Duke of York in June 1920, and Elizabeth had their first significant meeting on July 8, 1920 at the Royal Air Force Ball at the Ritz in London. Bertie had come to the ball with his equerry The Honorable James Stuart (the future 1st Viscount Stuart of Findhorn), the youngest son of the 17th Earl of Moray. Elizabeth and James were old friends from Scotland and shared a dance. Bertie questioned James about his dance partner and asked to be introduced. Although the meeting did not make much of an impression upon Elizabeth, Bertie fell in love that evening and started courting Elizabeth.

Bertie first proposed to Elizabeth in 1921 but was rejected because Elizabeth feared the changes in her life being a member of the Royal Family would require. Elizabeth served as a bridesmaid in the wedding of Bertie’s sister Mary, Princess Royal in February 1922. The following month, Bertie again proposed to her and was turned down once more. On January 2, 1923, after taking Elizabeth to dinner at Claridge’s and the theater, Bertie proposed a third time. After talking to friends and relatives and expressing her feelings in her diary, Elizabeth decided on January 14, 1923 to accept Bertie’s proposal although she still has misgivings.

The wedding of HRH The Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was held on April 26, 1923 at Westminster Abbey in London. As Elizabeth was proceeding down the aisle, she passed the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, a casualty of World War I whose remains had been brought from France and buried in the Abbey floor three years earlier. Elizabeth laid her bouquet of white roses on it. No doubt she was thinking of her brother Fergus and all the other British soldiers who died in World War I. Placing bouquets on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior has become a Windsor royal wedding tradition.

In 1936, after the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII, Bertie acceded to the throne as King George VI and his wife became Queen Elizabeth, known as The Queen Mother during the reign of her daughter Queen Elizabeth II.

• Unofficial Royalty: Wedding of George VI and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

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Wedding of Prince George, Duke of Kent and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark

In August 1934, Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince George, Duke of Kent to Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. The two were second-cousins, through their mutual descent from King Christian IX of Denmark. They married on November 29, 1934 at Westminster Abbey followed by a Greek Orthodox ceremony in the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace. George’s eldest brother The Prince of Wales served as best man and his other two brothers were groomsmen. George and Marina’s wedding was the first royal wedding to be broadcast on the radio.

Princess Marina was considered to be the most glamorous of the early Windsor brides.  Her gown, designed by British designer Edward Molyneux, was made from silver and white brocade with a flower design and was lined with silver lamé. The court train was fifteen feet long and the sleeves were long and in a medieval style. The veil, made of handmade lace and white tulle, had been worn by Marina’s mother, born Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia, and by Marina’s sister Olga at their weddings. It was secured by the Kent City of London Fringe Tiara, a wedding gift to Marina from the City of London.  Princess Marina was the first British royal bride to wear the now de rigueur tiara.

Contrast Marina’s wedding outfit with that of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon who had married eleven years earlier and was a victim of the fashions of the early 1920s. (See photo of Elizabeth, The Duke of York and the bridesmaids above.) Elizabeth had worn a sack-like dress with her lace veil firmly set over her forehead. Her bridesmaids wore floral headgear resembling headphones.

George and Marina’s wedding would be the last marriage of a foreign princess into the British Royal Family. Sadly, just six weeks after the birth of their third and youngest child, Prince George was killed when his military plane crashed in Scotland on August 25, 1942.

• Unofficial Royalty: Prince George, Duke of Kent
• Unofficial Royalty: Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, Duchess of Kent

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The wedding of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott

In August 1935, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of King George V became engaged to Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, daughter of John Montagu Douglas Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch and 9th Duke of Queensberry. Sadly, Alice’s father died from cancer on October 19, 1935, less than a month before the wedding date, November 6, 1935. The wedding was originally set to be held at Westminster Abbey but the wedding venue was changed. It was deemed more appropriate to have the wedding at the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace. Among the bridesmaids were the groom’s nieces Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret Rose. Despite the wedding being held at Buckingham Palace, the public was still able to see the bride as she rode from her Mayfair home to Buckingham Palace in the Glass Coach and then made the traditional appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony with her new husband.

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The Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace

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Wedding of The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson

“After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months.” King George V’s prophecy about his eldest son The Prince of Wales, christened with a long string of names, Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, but known as David in the family, came true. King George V died on January 20, 1936 and on December 11, 1936, David, who reigned as King Edward VIII, abdicated due to the widespread unwillingness to accept the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson as his wife and David’s refusal to give her up.

On December 12, 1936, at the accession meeting of the Privy Council, the new King George VI announced he was going to give his brother the title Duke of Windsor with the style of Royal Highness. Letters Patent dated May 27, 1937 re-conferred the “title, style, or attribute of Royal Highness” upon the Duke of Windsor, but specifically stated that “his wife and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title or attribute”.

On June 3, 1937, David married Wallis Simpson at the Château de Candé, near Tours, France surrounded by a small group of faithful friends. David had wanted his brothers Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Prince George, Duke of Kent along with his close friend and second cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten (the future 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma) to attend the ceremony but his brother King George VI forbade members of the royal family from attending.

When the Church of England refused to sanction the wedding, Reverend Robert Anderson Jardine, the Vicar of St Paul’s Church in Darlington, County Durham, England, offered to perform the ceremony. When Reverend Jardine returned home to Darlington, he soon became aware that he had performed an act which the Church of England could not accept. He was forced to resign his position and under pressure, he left England and settled in California.

The legality of King George VI’s Letters Patent stating that David’s style Royal Highness could not be extended to his wife or any children is doubtful. As the son of a British monarch, David was entitled to that style which should have automatically reverted to him upon his abdication and automatically extended to his legal wife and any legitimate children. David considered the holding back of the style Her Royal Highness from his wife unjust but out of respect for his brother, he never made a public issue. In their household, the Duchess of Windsor was always addressed as Royal Highness.

• Unofficial Royalty: King Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor
• Unofficial Royalty: Wallis, Duchess of Windsor

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Works Cited

• Ashdown, D. (1981). Royal Weddings. London: Robert Hale Limited.
• Unofficial Royalty. (2018). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018]. (wedding and biography articles)
• Wikipedia. (2018). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/ [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018].  (biography articles)