Glass faced plaque for the coronation of Edward V11 1937

The rise of the middle class during the Victorian & Edwardian eras had a formative effect on its character; the historian Walter E. Houghton reflects that "once the middle class attained political as well as financial eminence, their social influence became decisive. The Victorian frame of mind is largely composed of their characteristic modes of thought and feeling". Middle class positive thoughts on Empire produced a jingoistic souvenir industry Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year. ‘Was the Duke of Windsor a traitor?’ History will, I think, remember Edward VIII unkindly: as a shallow, vain, bigoted, selfish and arrogant figure, in every way inferior to his brother as king. But traitor? One does not believe so. That said, one don’t think he really was a traitor. Certainly, he let his family down very badly, dropping his unwilling but dutiful brother into a life he never wanted, and the stress of which may well have contributed to his early death. And his political judgement in international affairs was appalling - though, it must be said, not uniquely so at the time. However, there is no real evidence that he conspired with the Nazis: German plans to install him as king after an invasion, if such plans really existed, were just that: German plans, and the allegation that he leaked defence plans is, equally, just an allegation.