Wallis Simpson: Britain's royal drama

Duke and Duchess of Windsor, 
wedding day June 1937 
photograph by Cecil Beaton. 
Britannica

The familiar story was that handsome, popular Prince Edward was expected to marry an aristocratic virgin who’d become Queen when he took the throne. But when the prince was 37, he fell in love with divor­ced American, Wal­l­is Simp­son. No one thought the affair would last, especially after the coronation.

The 2019 book, Untitled: The Real Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor was the first to see Wal­lis as a warm, loyal, intelligent woman ad­or­ed by her friends; a woman written off by cunning, in­fl­uential es­tab­lishment men seeking to destroy her rep­utation. Author Anna Pasternak arg­ued that, far from being the villain of the British drama, Wallis was actually the vic­t­im. 

So in reviewing this book, I asked if there any legitimate, altern­ative views about Wallis Simpson, the woman whose relationship with Ed­ward VIII “precipitated” his abdication in Dec 1936. But was the real Wallis an opportunistic American social-climbing man­ipulator who nick­ed the British king? OR the true love of Edward’s life?

Or mere­­ly an unfortunate femme fatale who unwittingly laun­ched the greatest British royal crisis of the C20th? Edward’s dark nature was no sec­ret to the royal family, the church or the Parliament; everyone cl­ose to Edward knew that beyond his charming façade, he was imm­at­ure, self-centred and unfit to rule. Wallis begged Edward to stay on the throne and let her go.

"Untitled: The Real Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor"
by Anna Pasternak

From the reviews, some readers understood the auth­or's attempt to un-demonise Wallis, and make her more sympathetic to history. Wal­lis' difficult childhood and romantic past, before she met Edward, became clear in the book. She was orphaned as a neonate and felt shame in her adolescence about being the illegit­imate, poor relat­ion of an important Baltimore family. Read of her first disastrous, abusive marriage, followed by a tragic, un­req­uited love affair with a diplomat.

Wallis was flattered by Edward’s attention, but like everyone else, she never expected his jealous passion to last. Aristocratic aff­airs were always time-limited, and in any case she never planned to divorce her second husband.

Powerful men wanted King Edward, whom they considered weak and ill-disciplined, off the throne and they used Wallis as the reason. Here was a woman written off by a cun­n­ing, powerful British est­ab­lishment who sought to destroy and dim­inish her.  PM Stanley Baldwin and Cosmo Lang, Ar­chbishop of Canterbury, both had vested interests in dehumanising Wallis, as did the palace courtiers.

Wallis was accused of entrapping the prince in a sed­uctive web in order to achieve her impossible ambition to be queen. The royal court agreed, assuming that Wallis could only have had a “sexual” hold on the prince! Yet there was no evidence that their relation­ship ever became phys­ic­al. Or with any of her other husbands/lovers for that matt­er. Who knew that Edward was left ster­ile by mumps as a child, suffering from orchitis of the testes? or that Wallis had a medical condition that made conception impossible.

Nonetheless she ended up being manipul­at­ed into a tedious mar­riage (in June 1937) to a spoiled ex-King. During their marriage, Wallis undoubtedly worked hard to make Edward happy. But Pasternak argued that the abdication had made Wallis cruel and ab­us­ive towards Edward in their marriage; she was bitter about being trapped.

It was what Pasternak did not say that was neglectful. From his youth Edward had manifested a fondness for the German language and culture. In July 1933, he said it was “no business of ours to inter­fere in Germany’s internal affairs either re Jews or re anything else. Dictators are very popular these days. We might want one in England before long.”

Edward VIII abdicating on BBC radio,
December 11, 1936. 

Britannica

In Seventeen Carnations, Andrew Morton detailed Wallis’ close rel­at­ionship with members of Hitler’s cabinet, especially foreign min­ister Joachim von Ribbentrop. The extent of the couple’s in­vol­vement with the Germans was unproven, yet both royals were enth­us­iastic supporters of the Nazi regime. They had not simply befriended the Nazis to avoid another war. Morton called Wallis “nonchalantly rac­ist and anti-Semitic”, as a product of her era and cult­ure. Clearly both royals shared a racist, anti-Semitic worldview.

One of Morton’s sources claimed both Wallis and the Duke were mak­ing anti-Semitic remarks at a dinner party. "People were horrif­ied by their talk… where they made it perfectly clear that the world would have been a better place if Jews were extermin­at­ed."

Who was more pro-Hitler and who was the fol­l­ower? Hitler had been telephoned by Lord Halif­ax reg­ard­ing Germany's expan­sion­ist pol­ic­ies, in an att­empt to get their two govern­ments to negotiate.

Three days later the Wind­sor tour to Germany ended with a per­s­onal meeting with Adolf Hitler in Oct 1937 at Hitler’s Bav­arian retreat, The Berg­hof. There Edward and Hit­ler had a long discussion where the Duke en­couraged his “ally” to pursue Nazi policies in the East. Then the Windsors had an amicable tea with Hitler and left. A con­tem­porary observer des­cribed how the Duchess was vis­ib­ly impressed with the Führer’s personality, and ind­ic­ated that they had become fast friends.

Edward’s family banished the couple from the UK. They spent the rest of their days in exile, in quiet, devoted love for each other.

In conclusion, Wallis never intended to divorce her second hus­band, Ernest Simpson, with whom she had a comfortable marriage. But the King forced her into an untenable position, refusing to ever give her up. In the name of his needy love, Wallis paid the ultimate price: entrapment by a child­ish narcissist who insisted on the two things he wanted most – her and the throne. He chose Wallis.

Anna Pasternak showed that Wallis Simpson was actually an intel­l­igent wom­an, written off by cunning, powerful men and for­ced into a life she never wanted, in a tragic story of betrayal. Pasternak read Wallis and Edward’s published letters and was haunt­ed by their tragic love affair.

This book was a reworking of earlier Wallis books, although there were in­deed important facts I didn't know about before. But, apart from feeling sorry for her long and lonely life, noth­ing much about Wallis has changed in my mind … or about Edward for that matter.