Inside the miserable wedding of the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson trends now
Held in a French chateau that was more used to wealth than royalty, it was a low-key ceremony that was boycotted by the Royal Family and all respectable priests.
With eyes that were described by royal photographer Cecil Beaton as 'essentially sad', the former King Edward VIII, 42, tied the knot with Wallis Simpson, 40, on June 3, 1937.
Soon afterwards, Wallis - the woman whom the Duke had given up the Crown for in December 1936 - would embark on her first post-marital affair and did not even love her husband, according to royal biographers.
This fact was hinted at by Beaton, who guessed after talking to her the day before her wedding that whilst she had 'tremendous admiration' for the Duke and was 'determined' to love him, she was not 'in love' with him.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor pose for a portrait after their wedding at the Chateau de Cande, in Monts, France, on June 3, 1937
Just a month before her wedding, when her second divorce was finalised the Duchess changed her name to Wallis Warfield - the name she was born with
This was in contrast to the Duke's devotion to her, a fact demonstrated in his abdication speech, when he said he had found it 'impossible' to discharge his duties 'without the help and support of the woman I love'.
Among the guests at the Chateau de Cande at Monts were Edward's best man, Major Edward 'Fruity' Metcalfe, along with his chauffeur and equerry, but none of his family were present.
Also there was businessman Hermann Rogers, whom Wallis fell in love with and had hoped to marry.
The understated wedding was a spectacular fall from grace for a man who, just months before, 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, it was his brother Prince Albert - King George VI - who was crowned in his place and won the adulation of the British people.
In the weeks leading up to his wedding, the Duke had been left furious by King George's refusal to grant Wallis the status of Her Royal Highness.
Edward bitterly joked that it was a 'nice wedding present'.
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 as a gift 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.
Edward and Wallis's choice of wedding venue was owned by millionaire Charles Bedaux, who was later frowned upon by the British and French intelligence services.
The Duke and Duchess are seen on their wedding day alongside Edward's best man, Edward 'Fruity' Metcalfe (right) and businessman Hermann Rogers, whom Wallis later had an affair with
The couple looked less than jolly in the official photos that were taken to mark their wedding
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor gaze from a balcony at the Chateau de Cande, in Monts, on their wedding day
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor walk down steps at the Chateau de Cande on their wedding day
Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor pose in a window at the Chateau de Cande on their wedding day
The chateau boasted modern comforts that included a pipe organ costing $40,000 and a $15,000 telephone system.
On the day itself, 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 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.
Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang - who had been instrumental in sealing Edward's abdication - described Jardine as a 'seeker of notoriety'.
He questioned how Edward - who had been King of England just months before - could have 'lost his dignity' to the extent that he asked 'a man of this sort to celebrate his marriage'.
Whilst Edward believed that in Jardine he had chosen well, this idea was somewhat punctured by the priest's subsequent tour of the United States, where he revealed all about the ceremony.
The altar was what Ziegler described as a 'bogus renaissance chest adorned with plum caryatids'.
Beaton took official photographs of the couple after they tied the knot.
In his diary he described Edward's
