Robert Anderson Jardine
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The Reverend Robert Anderson Jardine (1878–1950), who published a memoir as R. Anderson Jardine, was an ordained priest of the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
and vicar of a parish in
Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...
in the north of England. He is best known for performing the religious marriage ceremony of the
Duke of Windsor Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937 for the former monarch Edward VIII, following his Abdication of Edward VIII, abdication on 11 December 1936. The Duchy, dukedom takes its name from ...
and his fiancée Wallis Simpson, who thus became the Duchess of Windsor, in June 1937, after the legal French civil marriage ceremony had been performed by the Mayor of Monts. This marriage of the former king to a twice-divorced woman with two living ex-husbands - contrary to the teachings of the Church of England - was seen as scandalous by conservative-minded Britons, though others in Britain and elsewhere saw it as the culmination of a great love story. Jardine's offer to carry out the wedding, as a
sacrament A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol ...
of the church which opposed it, cost him his career in England.


An unprecedented marriage

Following his
abdication Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the Order of succession, succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of ...
from the thrones of all his kingdoms and dominions in December 1936, the Duke of Windsor left England immediately to start the process of marrying Wallis Simpson, "the woman he loved". This process awaited the conclusion of a legally required six-month period to allow the completion of Simpson's divorce from her husband Ernest Simpson. Following the conclusion of this period, it was the former King's strong desire to be married to Wallis under the auspices of the Church of England, the church of which he had been
Supreme Governor The Supreme Governor of the Church of England is the titular head of the Church of England, a position which is vested in the British monarch.
. However, it was Church law at the time to forbid the re-marriage of divorced partners. The dilemma facing the Duke and his fiancée was heavily covered at the time in the British and European press. A hitherto obscure vicar from the North of England, the Rev. Robert Jardine, publicly volunteered to perform the ceremony. Press supporters of the wedding called Jardine, whose working-class parish was dominated by heavy industry, the "poor man's pastor". The marriage was set for 3 June 1937 in the Château de Candé, Wallis's French home in exile. The Reverend and Mrs Jardine, with their 19-year-old son, Donald, left Darlington on Monday 31 May, but Mrs Jardine and Donald stayed with relations in Letchworth, while Jardine crossed the Channel. The Bishop of Durham, Dr Herbert Hensley Henson, warned Jardine by telegram that he was “without episcopal licence or consent to unite the Duke of Windsor and Mrs. Simpson.” The bishop did not have jurisdiction over Jardine's celebration of the sacraments while on the
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, and under the immediate circumstances had no choice but to presume that the vicar had the permission of the Anglican bishop with jurisdiction.The Darlington vicar and a royal wedding
in '' Evening Gazette'' dated 29 April 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2018.


Widely varying reactions

J. A. Kensit, a leader of the Protestant Truth Society, to which Jardine belonged, commented “Mr Jardine is quite fearless in his advocacy of any cause which he judges right and would pursue his own line regardless of the consequences to himself." A contrary view as to Jardine's motivations is found in the diary of Alan Don, who served as secretary to the then
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
, Cosmo Gordon Lang, and as chaplain to Lang, to
George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...
, Edward himself, and
George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952 ...
, as well as to the Speaker of the House of Commons. Don's diary entry for 8 June 1937 records the contents of a letter from Hensley Henson, the
Bishop of Durham The bishop of Durham is head of the diocese of Durham in the province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Paul Butler was the most recent bishop of Durham u ...
to Lang, and Don's reactions to it: Hensley described Jardine as a man "of no education", "heavily in debt" and a "notoriety-seeker of an objectionable kind". Don reflects whether Jardine's motives in volunteering to conduct the service were "financial embarrassment rather than Christian charity". The wedding was boycotted by almost the entire British establishment; only a small number of guests and a single pool reporter witnessed the wedding, which was conducted by Jardine "in a strong voice". Following the brief ceremony, the couple departed for a honeymoon in Austria, and Jardine returned home to Darlington, unsuccessfully attempting to return to his duties in his parish. However, he was soon made aware that he had performed an act which the church could not accept. His vestry committee resigned, and he was encouraged to follow them. Under pressure, he left England and attempted to emigrate to
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. In 1943 Jardine published a memoir, ''At Long Last'', of the unusual event. The marriage ceremony of the Duke and Duchess was not deemed to be a royal wedding.
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, published just before the ceremony in the ''
London Gazette London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...
'' as the ''Depriving Act of 1937'', explicitly stated that the title of
Royal Highness Royal Highness is a style used to address or refer to some members of royal families, usually princes or princesses. Kings and their female consorts, as well as queens regnant, are usually styled ''Majesty''. When used as a direct form of a ...
, which conveyed precedence, would be enjoyed by the Duke but not by the Duchess.


Later life

Jardine's short-lived attempt to emigrate to California found him little work, while he tried unsuccessfully to capitalise on his fleeting fame. Some public statements which he made to American audiences — to the effect that he judged that there were circumstances in which the Duke of Windsor might have the Throne restored to him, and referring to Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang as "an ecclesiastical cad" — were seen as inflammatory. While the Nazi threat increased, he also went to the Duchess of Windsor's hometown of
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,
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and declared that the Duke of Windsor was a champion of peace in Europe. He ministered for a short while at a Downtown Hollywood church named the 'Windsor Cathedral' — which Jardine designated a 'shrine to love' — but because of visa problems was obliged to leave the United States. He and his wife Maud spent most of the war years in Mexico, penniless. Finally becoming bishop-designate of the South African Episcopal Church in Cape Town, they returned to the UK to settle their affairs there, but he died suddenly in Bedford in March 1950 before he could take up the new post. He is buried in an unmarked grave there, reportedly by the press unknown even to his family.


See also

*
Abdication of Edward VIII In early December 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was in the process of divorcing her second. ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jardine, Robert Anderson 1878 births 1950 deaths 20th-century English Anglican priests Abdication of Edward VIII People from Darlington