Duke and Duchess of Windsor Part 2

[Selencia]

Wallis was only 5ft 6? She looks taller especially when next to her husband. I was watching a new documentary on Wallis about her secret letters to Ernest. It is quite sad because it appears that Wallis married Edward out of duty rather than love; and that if she had her way she would have remained married to husband #2. I believe this is the view that the new movie W.E., is taking. Also has anyone else heard that Wallis' first husband was abusive?

[Kalafrana]

5ft 6 isn't actually that short. The Duchess of Windsor looked tall alongside the Duke because he was very small. Also, she was probably wearing high heels.

Ann

[Alixz]

Yes, Winfield Spencer was an abusive husband.  I just finished reading Greg King's book about Wallis and he has documented it.

[Kalafrana]

It's in Greg King's book, but where did he get his evidence? If it's only in Wallis's own book then my lawyer's instincts come into play and I'd like to see some corroboration! OK, Winfield Spencer married and divorced four times but Ernest Simpson also married four times.

Just being cautious here.

Ann

[feodorovna]

I'm interested in what may have caused Winfield Spencer to be abusive. Did he really suffer from alcholism or was this just put about as an excuse for Wallis' leaving him. Might it possibly have anything to do with her famous statement that "Nobody ever touched me below the Mason Dixon line." Not, of course, that it would excuse any abuse on his part. I'm seeking to understand, not condone.

[Kalafrana]

I get the impression that Winfield Spencer was quite a capable man, on the basis of his naval career up to the time he and Wallis divorced. He was one of the US Navy's first tranche of pilots, became a flying instructor and was responsible for setting up and running a flying training school while still a Lieutenant and under 30. He was obviously thoroughly frustrated at being kept back from the First World War - maybe he felt guilty about that, especially after his favourite brother was killed.

If what Greg King reports is accurate (i.e. not simply based on what Wallis said in her self-seeking and ghost-written book) Winfield Spencer was far from being a good husband, but I feel a certain sympathy for him.

Ann

[LadyTudorRose]

Apparently at least one of Win's later wives cited abuse as a reason for divorce. So he may have had some issues. Given all of the crap Wallis went through for that divorce (her uncle basically cut her off for it) I don't think she would have done it if Win hadn't been really difficult. Especially considering she had no idea what would be in store for her when she left him.

[LadyCathy]

When he drank too much, which was often, he became abusive.  He once locked Wallis up and would not let her out.  He must have been some winner.  I do not think it was sex.  I truly believe he would have had the marriage annulled if there was anything wrong sexually.  He was just a nasty drunk.

[Alixz]

It does seem as though Greg took a lot from Wallis's book The Heart Has Its Reasons.

He ibids through a bunch of notations and they all stem from WW - which is his notation for her book.

To tell you the truth, I am surprised as Greg is usually very good about getting a lot of sources fro his works and does not usually use one so exclusively.

[LadyCathy]

Like "The King's Story" and other authorized biographies "The Heart Has Its Reasons" was a semi-fictional or at least very one sided rendering of the truth of the story of the abdication.  Naturally if someone authorizes a book to be written about them they want to appear in the best light possible.  I would take that book with a grain of salt as most of it is made up or at least slanted in their favor. 

[Kalafrana]

I suppose only Wallis and Winfield Spencer knew the truth about their marriage, and all the information about it comes from her. According to Greg King, Wallis got a divorce in Virginia on the grounds of three years' separation, which may mean she had no other grounds but may equally mean that she wanted to do things quietly.

Ann

[Alixz]

I was just disappointed to find out that Greg had only three main sources and two of them are the books authorized by Wallis and David.

That doesn't make for a very new or unbiased view of what happened.

[Kalafrana]

Alixz

It is a great pity. From Greg's other books (including those written with Penny Wilson) he is normally very thorough with his research.

Clearly, all he had to go on for considerable chunks of the Duchess's life was her own account, but he should have stated this in the text - 'For this period the only information we have comes from The Heart Has Its Reasons

I wonder whether it would ever be possible to get hold of the other divorce petitions against Winfield Spencer to see whether there is a common theme.

Ann

[Alixz]

There were so many "ibid"s in some of the source notes that I had to decipher just what book they were from.

In the chapter about Winfield Spencer, the first source note is WW and one has to look at the beginning of all the source notes to find out that that is how Greg refers to The Heart Has Its Reasons.  Then the rest of the notes for that entire chapter almost exclusively say "ibid".

[Kalafrana]

Alixz

I started to get annoyed with that as well.

Greg King and Penny Wilson managed to assemble an enormous amount of mostly obscure material about Anna Anderson, and used it in a judicious manner, but Greg seems to have taken the Duchess's version of events almost entirely at face value.

Ann