Duke and Duchess of Windsor Part 2

[LadyTudorRose]

Is anything known about the PoW/King/DoWs drinking habits? His personality strikes me as hovering around the melancholy/depressive spectrum and possibly the type that would use alcohol to drown his sorrows. He seemed to escape getting hooked on cocaine-hooked on Wallis instead.

I've actually come to believe he was probably bipolar. He had a lot of the symptoms that are common from periods of depression, to changes in sleeping habits, and some other stuff.

The Sebba book is apparently very trashy. I have no intention of reading it, but have had trouble avoiding the various articles she's written promoting it. Most of her conclusions are totally unproven and she dredges up theories that were disproven by previous biographers and presents them as being likely.

Honestly, from what I've read David was more interesting when he was young and I think he got boring as he got bored with his life post-Abdication. He was very reluctant to admit that boredom because he didn't want to suggest he was unhappy with Wallis.

[LadyCathy]

I think he was more obsessive compulsive than bipolar.  He did not have wild spending habits or outbursts of energy followed by depressive symptoms.  He did drink quite a bit as did she, but that was the way a lot of society people behaved and still do.  His obsession with Wallis was intense.  Even Queen Mary said that his love for Wallis was "unnatural." 

[Suzanne]

Here's my review of the Anne Sebba biography of Wallis Simpson. The early chapters are quite speculative but here discussion of the abdication crisis is very interesting:

http://www.royalhistorian.com/that-woman-by-anne-sebba-book-review-of-the-latest-biography-of-wallis-simpson-duchess-of-windsor/

[Clemence]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--goH-lhRNY

was it mentioned before?

[Vanya Ivanova]

My sister has just come back from spending a week at Le Moulin de la Tuilerie, the weekend retreat of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Its now owned and run by the Landmark Trust who restore historic and architecturally unusual buildings and then let them out as holiday homes so that they can 'earn their keep'. My sister and her husband had the main Mill house and slept in the Duke and Duchess's former bedroom whilst their children and friends stayed in the converted outbuildings in bedrooms once used by the likes of Elizabeth Tayler and Marlene Dietrich.

In the sitting room of the main mill house is a mural painted for the Duchess that states 'Im not the mill owners daughter but I have been through the mill!'. My sister and her family had a wonderful time and my niece is convinced she saw a ghost but not of the Duke or Duchess unfortunately. I believe it was the only property the Duke and Duchess ever actually owned.

The landmark Trust is a wonderful organisation, I have stayed in a few of their properties myself although not on the continent, they also have properties in Italy and the USA. For group bookings they are surprisingly good value. Have a look at the Le Moulin de la Tuilerie on their website landmarktrust.org.uk. Their are more pictures under the 'group' folder for the Landmark Trust on Flickr.com.

Prince Charles is the Trust's patron and so they also have a tower/hunting lodge that you can stay in on the Sandringham Estate, once used by Edward VIII and Queen Alexandra.

[Vanya Ivanova]

oops! I meant Edward VII.

[RoyalWatcher]

Awhile ago, there was discussion about the Madonna directed W.E. film. I had a chance to watch it and I was quite surprised. It was lovely, beautifully shot and well acted. I didn't think that it would be something that would resonate with me, but surprisingly it did. Was anyone else surprised with their reaction to the film?

[CHRISinUSA]

My sister has just come back from spending a week at Le Moulin de la Tuilerie, the weekend retreat of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. I believe it was the only property the Duke and Duchess ever actually owned.

Perhaps in terms of a home (where they actually resided much of the year); however, the Windsors also owned the E.P. Ranch in Alberta, Canada.  It was purchased by Edward, then Prince of Wales, in 1919 after his tour of Canada, and he bred lifestock, notably Shorthorn cattle, Dartmoor ponies, Shopshire sheep and Clydesdale horses.  In 1956 the Duke of Windsor and a group in Britain formed the EP Ranching Company to take over the ranch operations. It was restocked with purebred animals from Britain. In 1962 the ranch was sold to a neighboring rancher.

The Prince visited the ranch in 1923, 1924 and 1927, and after his abdication as King Edward VIII, visited the ranch with his wife in 1941 and 1950. 

[OctoberLily]

"Wallis Simpson, the Secret Letters" will air on PBS December 3, 2013.

[Horock]

From all I have read, seen and heard Edward was a sitting duck for a scheming gold-digger like Wallis Simpson.  Together they would have made an appalling King and consort.  Getting rid of Edward as King was best day’s work the government of the day ever did.  The accession of the Duke and Duchess of York gave the country far more suitable figureheads for ordeal to be endured a few years later. 

As for the film W.E., the costumes and the jewellery are quite nice. That is as good as it gets.

[bongo]

Has anyone seen that last paparazzi photo of Wallis in a hospital bed with white hair, a tube up her nose, and her mouth twisted in a grimace? I haven't seen it since it was published in a magazine in the 1970s and I've never seen in it in a book or online. Once seen never forgotten. I think Vickers or Caroline Blackwood mention it being taken in one of their books: the photographer apparently pushed open the door of the private ward for a moment and snapped the pic. And yes, I do think it's worthy of publication however discreditable the original situation of its taking: it acts as a sobering reminder for this story, and all our stories, that in the end all is dust and ashes.

[Clemence]

Does anyone remember if more details on the Nahlin cruise can be found somewhere in this forum? I'm particularly interested in a meeting (if I'm not in error) between the King and Wallis and the King of Greece and his lady friend, Mrs Joyce Britten-Jones.

[Maria Sisi]

A piggy back ride from his grand aunt Maria Feodorovna

scn.youngeasy.com

[Marie Valerie]

Andrew Morton (Author of "Diana") wrote a book about David & Wallis called: 17 Carnations



The story of the love affair between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, and his abdication in order to marry the divorcée, has provoked fascination and discussion for decades. However, the full story of the couple s links with the German aristocracy and Hitler has until now remained untold. Meticulously researched, 17 Carnations chronicles this entanglement, starting with Hitler s early attempts to matchmake between Edward and a German noblewoman. While the German foreign minister sent Simpson seventeen carnations daily, each one representing a night they had spent together, she and the Duke of Windsor corresponded regularly with the German elite. Known to be pro-German sympathizers, the couple became embroiled in a conspiracy to install Edward as a puppet king after the Allies were defeated. After the war, the Duke s letters were hidden in a German castle that had fallen to American soldiers. They were then suppressed for years, as the British establishment attempted to cover up this connection between the House of Windsor and Hitler. Drawing on FBI documents, material from the German and British Royal Archives, and the personal correspondence of Churchill, Truman, Eisenhower and the Windsors themselves, 17 Carnations reveals the whole fascinating story, throwing sharp new light on a dark chapter of history.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1782434569/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d8_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0AWVA5NTZ9A600X7A40G&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=455333147&pf_rd_i=468294

[Превед]

Andrew Morton (Author of "Diana") wrote a book about David & Wallis called: 17 Carnations

Apparantly, the "revelations" behind the book have been known for years (allegedly since 1957!). I'm sure having them spice up a well-known old story can be entertaining, like a good Hercule Poirot episode. But apart from that I think this book says more about modern Britain and its relationship with Germany, based on a very good lecture about modern Germany I attended yesterday. Whereas an innovative, expanding, stable and democratic modern Germany is prospering in a crisis-ridden Europe, Britain (just like France) is, bluntly put, going down the drain. In Germany, society is still coherent, the political system is working, the middle class still retains its position and there is no underclass without prospects, whereas in Britain society is returning to the caste society from the Windsors' heyday as the divide between rich and poor escalates and different election outcomes don't change anything. Germans can finally be proud to be German. Britons can finally no longer be proud to be British. Instead of actually humbly taking a look at what the Germans are doing right, Britons can too easily stuff themselves (force fed by chauvinistic media) with the comfort food mix of WW2 and royalty. The story of the Windsors contains a handy element of establishment critique, a fairytale of (no longer possible) social mobility and a Euro-sceptic view of Germany as a distant country populated by sinister "others" up to no good.