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 to which he had not been invited.

But perhaps the errant duke, who had briefly ruled as Edward VIII, reflected on what it might have been like standing topless, scythe in hand, in a garden that was not his own.

This extraordinary photograph, never before seen in public, was taken in the summer of 1937, less than a year after Edward gave up the throne to marry the divorced Wallis Simpson.

It is one of many previously private images to be revealed in a Channel 4 documentary to be broadcast on Saturday.

Also featured in the collection are Edward and Wallis on their sad wedding day on June 3, 1937, in a French chateau owned by pro-Nazi businessman Charles Bedaux.

Neither 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 photo of Wallis – without servants to carry out the task for her – pouring tea for her husband.

Wallis is said to have had more than one affair and, biographers believe, not even from her husband.

This contrasted with Edward’s devotion to her – a fact demonstrated in his abdication speech in December 1936, when he said he had found it ‘impossible’ to carry out his duties ‘without the help and support of the woman from whom I love’.

The couple’s wedding took place at the opulent Chateau de Cande in western France.

The newly revealed footage of the wedding and Edward and Wallis’s less formal moments was kept in the castle’s archives for years before being acquired by their current owner, collector Richard Lobel.

They are seen on TV for the first time in the two-part Edward v George: The Windsors at War.

The photos of Edward shirtless in a mysterious 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 to me was that these photos had never been seen in public before.

‘There was a real sense of discovery as I browsed the collection.

‘I thought I had seen everything there was to see.

‘Those photos of him without a shirt, it feels very intimate. It feels like you are looking into someone’s private life.

‘We’re so used to seeing the royal family in these formal poses, but it’s very informal, surprisingly.

“If those photos had been in the newspapers in the 1930s, it would have been an absolute scandal.”

Of the couple’s wedding day, he added: ‘I couldn’t take it very seriously.

‘It was vanity, vanity writ large. There’s a real sense of ‘This is what I’m going to have to deal with for the rest of my life’ with Wallis.’

The low-key wedding was a spectacular fall from grace for a man who had been king of the United Kingdom and emperor of India and was about to enjoy a spectacular coronation in Westminster Abbey.

Instead, his brother Prince Albert had to act in his place as George VI, despite not wanting to become king.

In the weeks leading up to his wedding, the Duke of Windsor – as he became after his abdication – had been infuriated by his brother’s refusal to grant Valais the status of Her Royal Highness.

Edward joked bitterly that it was a “nice wedding present.”

When his mother, Queen Mary, did not send him a real gift, he told her he was “bitterly hurt and disappointed that you virtually ignored the most important event in my life.”

A Faberge box sent by his younger brother Prince George, the Duke of Kent, was rejected by Edward, as his sibling had shown no desire to deviate from the family’s official position towards him.

The official photographs – not Richard Lobel’s – 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 “plain hands – like a mechanic’s – weathered and rather scaly and one thumbnail was deformed.”

And Beaton surmised, after speaking to Wallis the day before the ceremony, that while 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 dress which she paired 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 flaunted sapphire earrings and a glittering sapphire wristband.

Her second divorce – from shipbroker Ernest Aldrich Simpson – had only been finalized a month earlier.

The Duke had originally wanted a royal chaplain to attend his wedding, but this desire was quickly torpedoed by his brother the King.

His second choice had been the Reverend Martin Andrews, who headed a parish in the Duchy of Cornwall.

But the priest refused because “it would abandon the Church, and as long as I hold office in the Church, I must abide by the rules, no matter how cruel they may seem.”

Eventually the Reverend JA Jardine – a Darlington priest described as ‘turbulent’ by Edward’s biographer Philip Ziegler – intervened and offered his services.

This was in conflict with the Church of England, which ruled until 2002 that it would not solemnize the marriages of rulers to divorced spouses who had living former spouses.

Jardine would later be relieved of his duties when he returned to Britain. He went on to minister at a church called Windsor Cathedral in Hollywood before dying suddenly in 1950.

In addition to Charles’ best man, Major Edward ‘Fruity’ Metcalfe, the Duke’s hairdresser, Charles Topper, and Mrs Buchanan Merryman, Wallis’s aunt, were also present.

The service itself consisted of a French civil ceremony, with an Anglican counterpart led by Reverend Jardine ten minutes later.

In both versions, Wallis promised to obey her husband.

Incredibly, the Duke failed to kiss his bride during the civil or religious ceremony, although there were tears in his eyes as he placed Wallis’s ring on her finger.

George, the father of Queen Elizabeth II, would continue to reign until 1952, when he died of lung cancer.

The first episode of Edward Vs George: The Windsors at War airs on Channel 4 on Saturday at 9.15pm.