The Emperor Has No Clothes: King Edward VIII and the Scandal of Bodily Exposure

Abstract

Historically positioned as the standard bearer of British civilization, the House of Windsor has long sought to vigilantly maintain control over the depiction of royal personages. Wrapped in its vestments and regalia, the royal body is the picture of grandeur and power. Yet for all the fastidiousness of the royal PR machine, photographs taken without consent have shown a different view of the royal body, if not entirely naked, then at least barely dressed. This essay explores the scandal surrounding King Edward VIII's relationship with Wallis Simpson, paying special attention to a photograph taken of the couple on an intimate excursion in 1936, the first photographic depiction of a royal figure in a state of partial nudity. The essay situates the coverage of Edward's affair with Simpson within the context of a burgeoning media culture focused on the public rituals and private lives of the social elite. The fate of the King - the preeminent figure of London's high society - offers the clearest example of the dramatic stakes of representation in a new era of photographic reporting. Through a close analysis of this image and the circumstances of its creation and dissemination, I argue that the depiction of unclothed royal figures upends many of the orthodoxies of power, privilege, and propriety that continue to undergird the image of royalty.