The semi-naked ex-King: Unseen pictures reveal Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson on their sad 1937 wedding day and enjoying the summer weather... weeks after George VI's stunning coronation
Just weeks earlier, his brother George VI had been crowned in a stunning coronation that he was not invited to.
But, perhaps, the errant duke who had briefly reigned as Edward VIII reflected on what might have been as he stood topless with scythe in hand in a garden that was not his.
Never before seen in public, this extraordinary image was taken in the summer of 1937, less than a year after Edward gave up the throne to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson.
It is one of several previously private images that are set to be revealed in a Channel 4 documentary airing on Saturday.
Also seen in the collection are Edward and Wallis on their sad wedding day on June 3, 1937, at a French chateau owned by pro-Nazi businessman Charles Bedaux.
Neither of them looked happy as they tied the knot in front of just a handful of guests, with no members of the Royal Family present.
And the low-key nature of the day was summed up by one picture of Wallis - with no servants present to perform the task for her - pouring tea for her husband.
Wallis would go on to have more than one affair and, biographers believe, did not even love her husband.
The former King Edward VIII is seen with scythe in hand in a mystery garden in the summer of 1937, just weeks after his brother, the new King George VI, was crowned at Westminster Abbey. It is one of several photographs that are to be revealed for the first time in a new documentary
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor strike a bizarre, awkward pose as they hold each other's hands, summer 1937
This was in contrast to Edward's devotion to her - a fact demonstrated in his abdication speech in December 1936, when he said he had found it 'impossible' to discharge his duties 'without the help and support of the woman I love'.
The couple's nuptials took place in the opulent Chateau de Cande in western France.
The newly-revealed images of the wedding and Edward and Wallis's less formal moments were held in the chateau's archive for years, before being acquired by their current owner, collector Richard Lobel.
They are being shown on TV for the first time in the two-part Edward v George: The Windsors at War.
The pictures of Edward shirtless in a mystery garden are believed to have been taken in the days after the couple's wedding.
The new documentary is based on the book The Windsors at War: The Nazi Threat to the Crown, by Alexander Larman.
Mr Larman, who features in the documentary, told MailOnline: 'What was so amazing for me was that these photos had never been seen in public before.
'There was a real sense of discovery when I was going through the collection.
'I thought I had seen everything there was to see.
'Those pictures of him shirtless, it feels very intimate. It feels like you are looking into someone's private life.
An unseen image of the former King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson on their wedding day, June 3, 1937
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor stand on a balcony at the Chateau de Cande on their wedding day, June 3, 1937
Wallis pours tea for her husband as his best man, Major Edward 'Fruity' Metcalfe, looks on
'We are so used to seeing the Royal Family in these formal poses but that is very informal, startlingly so.
'If those photographs had been seen in the newspapers in the 1930s it would have been an absolute scandal.'
He added of the couple's wedding day: 'I couldn't take it very seriously.
'It was vanity, vanity writ large. With Wallis there is a real sense of, "this is what I've got to put with for the rest of my life".'
The understated wedding was a spectacular fall from grace for a man who had been the King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India and had been set to enjoy a spectacular coronation in Westminster Abbey.
Instead, his brother Prince Albert had to step up as George VI in his place, despite not wanting to be king.
In the weeks leading up to his wedding, the Duke of Windsor - as he became after his abdication - had been left furious by his brother's refusal to grant Wallis the status of Her Royal Highness.
Edward bitterly joked that it was a 'nice wedding present'.
Wallis Simpson seen on her wedding day with Walter Monckton, Edward's lawyer
Edward and Wallis seen walking out of a door at the chateau on their wedding day
When his mother, Queen Mary, did not send him an actual gift, he told her that he was 'bitterly hurt and disappointed that you virtually ignored the most important event in my life.'
A Faberge box that was sent by his younger brother Prince George, the Duke of Kent, was rejected by Edward, on the basis that his sibling had not showed any desire to deviate from the family's official stance towards him.
The official photographs - not those owned by Richard Lobel - were taken by royal photographer Cecil Beaton, who noted in his diary that Edward had an 'essentially sad' look in his eyes.
He added that the former King had 'common hands - like a mechanic - weather-beaten and rather scaly and one thumb-nail is disfigured.'
And Beaton guessed after talking to Wallis the day before the ceremony that whilst she had 'tremendous admiration' for the Duke and was 'determined' to love him, she was not 'in love' with him.
Wallis wore a blue wedding gown which she twinned with silk gloves made from the same material and a straw hat.
At her throat she wore an impressive diamond and sapphire brooch and also showed off sapphire earrings and a glittering sapphire wristband.
Her second divorce - from shipbroker Ernest Aldrich Simpson - had only been finalised the month before.
The small group of guests seen outside the chateau on Edward and Wallis's big day
Edward and Wallis walking outside after tying the knot in an understated ceremony
Another snap of Edward tending to a garden with a scythe, as he wears just a pair of shorts
The Duke had originally wanted a royal chaplain to officiate at his wedding, but this desire was rapidly torpedoed by his brother the King.
His second choice had been the Reverend Martin Andrews, who presided over a parish in the Duchy of Cornwall.
But the priest refused on the grounds that 'it would be letting the church down, and as long as I hold office in the church I must keep the rules, however cruel they may seem.'
In the end, the Reverend J.A. Jardine - a priest from Darlington who was described as 'turbulent' by Edward's biographer Philip Ziegler - stepped in and offered his services.
This was in defiance of the Church of England, which ruled until 2002 that it would not perform weddings of rulers to divorcees who had living former spouses.
Jardine would later be stripped of his duties when he returned to the UK. He went on to officiate at a church called the 'Windsor Cathedral' in Hollywood, before dying suddenly in 1950.
As well as Charles's best man, Major Edward 'Fruity' Metcalfe, guests also included the Duke's hairdresser Charles Topper and Mrs Buchanan Merryman, Wallis's aunt.
The service itself was composed of a French civil ceremony and then an Anglican counterpart conducted by Reverend Jardine was carried out ten minutes later.
In both versions, Wallis promised to obey her husband.
Incredibly, the Duke failed to kiss his bride in either the civil or religious ceremony, although there were tears in his eyes when he put his Wallis's ring on her finger.
George, the father of Queen Elizabeth II, would go on to reign until 1952, when he passed away after suffering from lung cancer.
The first episode of Edward Vs George: The Windsors at War airs on Saturday on Channel 4 at 9.15pm.
