[84] These claims were denied by Queen Elizabeth's close friends, such as the Duke of Grafton, who wrote that she "never said anything nasty about the Duchess of Windsor, except to say she really hadn't got a clue what she was dealing with. [124] The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Prince and Princess of Wales attended both the funeral ceremony and the burial. Their affair and subsequent marriage had tongues wagging on both sides of the Atlantic and was the constitutional crisis of the twentieth century. In 1945, the duke resigned his post, and the couple moved back to France. Seriously, the title of Duke of Windsor was expressly created for Edward VIII in 1937 after he abdicated 11 Dec 1936 to marry the American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, who was henceforth known as the Duchess of Windsor. LONDON, Sunday, May 28--The Duke of Windsor, who gave up the British throne in 1936 to marry an American divorcee, died in his home near Paris early today, a Buckingham Palace spokesman announced here. 45–53; Vickers, p. 263; Duchess of Windsor, pp. 68–70; Sebba, pp. Edward denied this to his father despite staff seeing the two in bed together, as well as “evidence of a physical, sexual act.”. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Simpson would also later offer advice and clarification when his former wife was working on her memoirs. Lady Mosley wrote to her sister, the Duchess of Devonshire, after the death of the Duke of Windsor, "probably the theory of their [the Windsors'] contemporaries that Cake [a Mitford nickname for the Queen Mother, derived from her delighted exclamation at the party at which Deborah Devonshire first met her] was rather in love with him [the Duke] (as a girl) & took second best, may account for much. The Duchess (1896 - 1986) and Duke (1894 - 1972) of Windsor in 1955 at their home, Le Moulin de la Tuilerie, located just outside of Paris. The Duke and Duchess traveled internationally with their pugs, and as New York was the Duchess's favorite shopping city, the Windsor pooches often arrived in style at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. [49] His courtiers became increasingly alarmed as the affair began to interfere with his official duties. 20–21; Vickers, p. 257; Duchess of Windsor, pp. On 11 December 1936, Edward said in a radio broadcast, "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility, and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do, without the help and support of the woman I love. [6] Her mother was Alice Montague, a daughter of stockbroker William Latane Montague. [47] Edward showered Wallis with money and jewels,[48] and in February 1935, and again later in the year, he holidayed with her in Europe. 267–269; Duchess of Windsor, pp. Blue Ridge Summit referred to as "a fashionable summer resort ... then greatly patronized by Baltimoreans" in Francis F. Bierne (1984), Carroll, vol. [103] Another of their acquaintances, Charles Bedaux, who had hosted their wedding, was arrested on charges of treason in 1943 but committed suicide in jail in Miami before the case was brought to trial. [70] At her hideaway, Wallis was pressured by Lord Brownlow, the King's lord-in-waiting, to renounce the King. [34] He divorced his first wife, Dorothea (by whom he had a daughter, Audrey), to marry Wallis on 21 July 1928 at the Register Office in Chelsea, London. [95] The Duke and Duchess moved to Portugal in July. Duke Carl Alexander of Württemberg told the FBI that she and leading Nazi Joachim von Ribbentrop had been lovers in London. Providing you skip past the stories that have already been told many times over. In August of 1940, as German troops invaded France, the Duke and Duchess travelled to the Bahamas by commercial liner, where Edward became Governor. [104] The British establishment distrusted the Duchess; Sir Alexander Hardinge wrote that her suspected anti-British activities were motivated by a desire for revenge against a country that rejected her as its queen. [41], In January 1934, while Lady Furness was away in New York City, Wallis allegedly became the Prince's mistress. [37] In 1929, Wallis sailed back to the United States to visit her sick mother, who had married legal clerk Charles Gordon Allen after the death of Rasin. On 28 May 1972, Edward died from throat cancer, and his body was returned to Britain to lie in state at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. [79] The marriage produced no children. [17][100] She referred to the local population as "lazy, thriving niggers" in letters to her aunt, which reflected her upbringing in the Jim Crow South. On the death of the Duke in 1972 that title became extinct. In 1935 and 1936, the Prince (and later King) was seen on holiday with Wallis in Europe leading Edward’s courtiers to believe that Wallis was interfering with his royal duties. Prince Albert of Monaco’s car collection reopens to the public, Crown Prince Haakon opened Oslo’s new public library. [17] According to Wallis, it was during a cruise on Lord Moyne's private yacht Rosaura in August 1934 that she fell in love with Edward. The idyll went wrong when, ignoring her pleas, he threw up his position to spend the rest of his life with her. When the Duke had eye surgery in London in 1965, The Queen and the Duchess of Kent visited them. A highlight of my college career was getting the chance to study abroad in London and experiencing royal history firsthand. Ernest was beginning to encounter financial difficulties, as the Simpsons were living beyond their means, and they had to fire a succession of staff. [113], Upon the Duke's death from throat cancer in 1972, the Duchess travelled to the United Kingdom to attend his funeral,[114] staying at Buckingham Palace during her visit. With the death of his grandfather, King Edward VII in 1910, his father was crowned King George V. Edward sued one author, Geoffrey Dennis, who claimed that Wallis and Edward were lovers before their marriage, and won (King, p. 119). He describes the Duchess as "charismatic, electric and compulsively ambitious". Gay American playboy Jimmy Donahue, an heir to the Woolworth fortune, claimed to have had a liaison with her in the 1950s, but Donahue was notorious for his inventive pranks and rumour-mongering. Only Wallis knew the answer to this. She told United States ambassador to Spain Alexander W. Weddell that France had lost because it was "internally diseased". [58], The monarch of the United Kingdom is Supreme Governor of the Church of England—at the time of the proposed marriage, and until 2002, the Church of England disapproved of, and would not perform, the remarriage of divorced people if their former spouse was still alive. They soon separated again, and in 1922, when Spencer was posted to the Far East as commander of the Pampanga, Wallis remained behind, continuing an affair with an Argentine diplomat, Felipe de Espil. [21], In 1920, Edward, the Prince of Wales, visited San Diego, but he and Wallis did not meet. [25] According to the wife of one of Win's fellow officers, Mrs Milton E. Miles,[26] in Beijing Wallis met Count Galeazzo Ciano, later Mussolini's son-in-law and Foreign Minister, had an affair with him, and became pregnant, leading to a botched abortion that left her infertile. The stolen pieces were only a small portion of the Windsor jewels, which were either bought privately, inherited by the Duke, or given to the Duke when he was Prince of Wales. 62–64; Sebba, pp. The hospital, which later became Southwestern State Hospital, treated wounded World War II soldiers. According to Wallis, it was during a cruise on Lord Moyne’s private yacht in August of 1934 that Wallis fell in love with Edward. [117], After Edward's death, the Duchess's French lawyer, Suzanne Blum, assumed power of attorney. [60] Additionally, at the time both the Church and English law only recognised adultery as a legitimate ground for divorce. [133], Fictional depictions of the Duchess include the novel Famous Last Words (1981) by Canadian author Timothy Findley, which portrays her as a manipulative conspirator,[134] and Rose Tremain's short story "The Darkness of Wallis Simpson" (2006), which depicts her more sympathetically in her final years of ill health. The Duke's sister, the Princess Royal, also visited just 10 days before her death. 103–104; Ziegler, p. 238, Report from Superintendent A. Canning to Sir, King, p. 173; Sebba, pp. She decided to flee the country as the scandal broke, and was driven to the south of France in a dramatic race to outrun the press. [64], Wallis had already filed for divorce from her second husband on the grounds that he had committed adultery with her childhood friend Mary Kirk and the decree nisi was granted on 27 October 1936. During the trip, Wallis's investments were wiped out in the Wall Street Crash, and her mother died penniless on 2 November 1929. Wenner-Gren was also a Nazi sympathizer, however, who attracted the attention of the FBI. However, letters patent, passed by the new king and unanimously supported by the Dominion governments,[81] prevented Wallis, now the Duchess of Windsor, from sharing her husband's style of "Royal Highness". Ultimately, Edward would abdicate in December of 1936 to marry “the woman I love.”. Initially, they lived with him at the four-story row house, 34 East Preston Street, that he shared with his mother. [128], In a Sotheby's auction in Geneva, in April 1987, the Duchess's remarkable jewellery collection raised $45 million for the institute, approximately seven times its pre-sale estimate. [18] It was at this time that Wallis witnessed two airplane crashes about two weeks apart, resulting in a lifelong fear of flying. [19] The couple married on 8 November 1916 at Christ Episcopal Church in Baltimore, which had been Wallis's parish. [36], The Simpsons temporarily set up home in a furnished house with four servants in Mayfair. In the opinion of her biographers, "she experienced the ultimate fairy tale, becoming the adored favourite of the most glamorous bachelor of his time. Wallis grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. 255–269, Letter from Queen Mary to Queen Elizabeth, 21 May 1937, Royal Archives, QEQM/PRIV/RF, quoted in, Telegram from Weddell to Secretary of State, King, pp. The Queen invited the Duchess of Windsor to stay at Buckingham Palace while she was in the UK for the funeral on 5 June. The Duchess, who suffered from dementia, outlived him by over ten years and died on 24 April 1986 at her home in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris at the age of 89. [80], Edward was created Duke of Windsor by his brother King George VI prior to the marriage. Meanwhile, Edward became the Duke of Windsor, married Wallis (who became the Duchess of Windsor), and moved to France, as he and his wife … [4][5], Her father was Teackle Wallis Warfield, the fifth and youngest son of Henry Mactier Warfield, a flour merchant described as "one of the best known and personally one of the most popular citizens of Baltimore" who ran for mayor in 1875. He drank even before flying and once crashed into the sea, but escaped almost unharmed. [115] The Duchess became increasingly frail and eventually succumbed to dementia, living the final years of her life as a recluse, supported by both her husband's estate and an allowance from the Queen. [116] She suffered several falls and broke her hip twice. Wallis was named in honour of her father (who was known as Wallis) and her mother's elder sister, Bessie (Mrs D. Buchanan Merryman), and was called Bessie Wallis until at some time during her youth the name Bessie was dropped. 274–277; Vickers, pp. Wallis finally wed Edward on 3 June 1937 in France and became the Duchess … In 1931, during her second marriage, to Ernest Simpson, she met Edward, then Prince of Wales. However, in 1960, career criminal Richard Dunphie confessed to the crime. [11], In 1901, Wallis's aunt Bessie Merryman was widowed, and the following year Alice and Wallis moved into her four-bedroom house on West Chase Street, Baltimore, where they lived for at least a year until they settled in an apartment, and then a house, of their own. [28] The existence of an official "China dossier" (detailing the supposed sexual and criminal exploits of Wallis in China) is denied by historians and biographers. Their intention to marry and her status as a divorcée caused a constitutional crisis that led to Edward's abdication. Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor (1896-1986), is remembered for her stylishness. [12], On 17 April 1910, Wallis was confirmed at Christ Episcopal Church, Baltimore, and between 1912 and 1914 her uncle paid for her to attend Oldfields School, the most expensive girls' school in Maryland. [79] Guests included Randolph Churchill, Baron Eugène Daniel von Rothschild, and the best man, Major Fruity Metcalfe. [101][102] Prime Minister Winston Churchill strenuously objected in 1941 when she and her husband planned to tour the Caribbean aboard a yacht belonging to Swedish magnate Axel Wenner-Gren, whom Churchill said was "pro-German", and Churchill complained again when the Duke gave a "defeatist" interview. [126], In recognition of the help France gave to the Duke and Duchess in providing them with a home, and in lieu of death duties, the Duchess's collection of Louis XVI style furniture, some porcelain, and paintings were made over to the French state. [125], Wallis was plagued by rumours of other lovers. [67] For the next three months, she was under siege by the media at the Villa Lou Viei, near Cannes, the home of her close friends Herman and Katherine Rogers,[68] whom she later thanked effusively in her ghost-written memoirs. [13] There she became a friend of heiress Renée du Pont, a daughter of Senator T. Coleman du Pont of the du Pont family, and Mary Kirk, whose family founded Kirk Silverware. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor at their controversial meeting with Adolf Hitler in 1937. [87] The Duchess bitterly resented the denial of the royal title and the refusal of the Duke's relatives to accept her as part of the family. In November, Ernest Simpson married Mary Kirk. 79–85, King, pp. Between 1931 and 1934, he met the Simpsons at various house parties, and Wallis was presented at court. Michael S. Rosenwald. [99] She was heavily criticised in the British press for her extravagant shopping in the United States, undertaken when Britain was enduring privations such as rationing and blackout. Some biographers have suggested that Wallis's sister-in-law, Queen Elizabeth, remained bitter towards her for her role in bringing George VI to the throne (which she may have seen as a factor in his early death)[83] and for prematurely behaving as Edward's consort when she was his mistress. [10] For her first few years, she and her mother were dependent upon the charity of her father's wealthy bachelor brother Solomon Davies Warfield, postmaster of Baltimore and later president of the Continental Trust Company and the Seaboard Air Line Railway. An auction of his collection was announced in July 1997 for later that year in New York. However, she was not allowed to share her husband’s style of “Royal Highness,” and no member of the Royal Family attended. He was in the army and was an uncrowned King for a little under a year after the death of his father in 1936. 51–52; Sebba, p. 36; Vickers, p. 260; Duchess of Windsor, p. 85, King, p. 60; Duchess of Windsor, pp. [91] The visit tended to corroborate the strong suspicions of many in government and society that the Duchess was a German agent,[17] a claim that she ridiculed in her letters to the Duke. [16] A later biographer wrote of her, "Though Wallis's jaw was too heavy for her to be counted beautiful, her fine violet-blue eyes and petite figure, quick wits, vitality, and capacity for total concentration on her interlocutor ensured that she had many admirers. There were rumours that the theft had been masterminded by the royal family as an attempt to regain jewels taken from the Royal Collection by the Duke, or by the Windsors themselves as part of an insurance fraud—they made a large deposit of loose stones at Cartier the following year. 136, 141; Duchess of Windsor, pp. [106], In 1952 they were offered the use of a house by the Paris municipal authorities. [96], In August 1940, the Duke and Duchess travelled by commercial liner to the Bahamas where he was installed as governor. Wallis claimed that her parents were married in June 1895. On one occasion, according to a story from the hotel's archives, staff at the famous hotel were delighted when the couple arrived without their pugs, who by all accounts were not well house-trained. Wallis grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. The couple divorced on 3 May 1937. [132] Wallis's memoirs The Heart Has Its Reasons were published in 1956, and biographer Charles Higham said that "facts were remorselessly rearranged in what amounted to a self-performed face-lift". The Duke of Windsor Dies at 77 By Reuters. 344–345, When telling a story of how Wallis complained about blacks being allowed on, Sebba, pp. [105] The couple returned to France and retirement after the defeat of Nazi Germany. [73], Wallis and Edward married one month later on 3 June 1937 at the Château de Candé, lent to them by French millionaire Charles Bedaux. Her first marriage, to U.S. naval officer Win Spencer, was punctuated by periods of separation and eventually ended in divorce. The villa was leased to the Windsors by the city of Paris at a nominal rent from 1952 to 1986. A year later, it became particularly alarming as Edward showered Wallis with money and jewels. The Duke was buried in the Royal Burial Ground behind the Royal Mausoleum of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at the Frogmore Estate; until 1965, the Duke and Duchess had planned to be buried in Baltimore with the Duchess’s father before an agreement was reached with the Royal Family. [129] Blum later claimed that Egyptian entrepreneur Mohamed Al-Fayed tried to purchase the jewels for a "rock bottom price". [111] Later, in 1967, the Duke and Duchess joined the royal family in London for the unveiling of a plaque by Elizabeth II to commemorate the centenary of Queen Mary's birth. Five years later, after Edward's accession as King of the United Kingdom, Wallis divorced her second husband to marry Edward. Cartier Windsor 20 th Wedding Anniversary Brooch. [44], By the end of 1934, Edward was irretrievably besotted with Wallis, finding her domineering manner and abrasive irreverence toward his position appealing; in the words of his official biographer, he became "slavishly dependent" on her. Only on death did the Duchess return to England, when she was buried alongside her husband at Windsor … 237, 242, King, pp. [131] Delayed by his son's death in the car crash that also claimed the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, the sale raised more than £14 million for charity in 1998. Her private life has been a source of much speculation, and she remains a controversial figure in British history. The Cartier brooch was made to commemorate the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s twentieth wedding anniversary in 1957 and was a gift to Wallis. The Duchess was buried next to her husband. [32] Their divorce was finalised on 10 December 1927. The couple lived at 4 route du Champ d'Entraînement in the Bois de Boulogne, near Neuilly-sur-Seine, for most of the remainder of their lives, essentially living a life of easy retirement.

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