King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson (Duke and Duchess of Windsor)

[Robert_Hall]

Maitre Blum died in 1994. Hugo Vickers wrote her obituary in the Independent.

[Alixz]

As I keep reading Greg King's book, I find that Buckingham Palace (the euphemism for George VI and Queen Elizabeth) kept putting road blocks in the Windor's way.  Even small things like no one in the Bahamas could curtsy to Wallis.

And David and Wallis could not go the the US (even though they did many times).  For everything that Greg says about Wallis, there is always something that Queen Elizabeth says that is nasty.

I don't think that the book which started out as a level look at Wallis is that at all, but an unfriendly look at Queen Elizabeth.

Queen Elizabeth was lauded for touring the bombed out East End of London while wearing her expensive clothes and gloves (which Greg says never came off) and hats.  But Wallis, who worked hard to help out the underprivileged in the Bahamas was criticized for wearing nice clothes.

No matter what Wallis did, there was always an opposing view from "Buckingham Palace".

[Alixz]

I found the reference as to why Wallis called the Queen Mum "Cookie"

After David resigned as governor of the Bahamas in 1945, he wanted to go back to England.  Many people (Churchill, de Gaulle, Princess Alice, countess of Athlone, and the Duchess of Beaufort) tried to convince George VI to allow David to return and to have Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth receive Wallis.

It was not going to happen.

From Greg's book:

Thereafter, both the Duke and Duchess would refer to Queen Elizabeth as "that fat Scotch cook;  to Wallis, she became "the Dowdy Duchess" and "the Monster of Glamis."

[CountessKate]

As I keep reading Greg King's book, I find that Buckingham Palace (the euphemism for George VI and Queen Elizabeth) kept putting road blocks in the Windor's way.  Even small things like no one in the Bahamas could curtsy to Wallis.
And David and Wallis could not go the the US (even though they did many times).  For everything that Greg says about Wallis, there is always something that Queen Elizabeth says that is nasty.
I don't think that the book which started out as a level look at Wallis is that at all, but an unfriendly look at Queen Elizabeth.
Queen Elizabeth was lauded for touring the bombed out East End of London while wearing her expensive clothes and gloves (which Greg says never came off) and hats.  But Wallis, who worked hard to help out the underprivileged in the Bahamas was criticized for wearing nice clothes.
No matter what Wallis did, there was always an opposing view from "Buckingham Palace".

I think the problem was that the Windsors (and particularly the Duke) obsessed about what - in a time of war - were frankly petty things such as the HRH business.  Yes, I think George VI and Queen Elizabeth were ungracious about that (and there is some question as to whether George VI actually had any right to do it).  But at the time it was hardly a monumental problem given that a war was going on.  But somehow the Windsors seemed to think that things like the HRH matter should be settled as they wished.  'Buckingham Palace' didn't really have to do anything more than sit back and watch the Windsors shoot themselves in the foot - Churchill and his ministers were not keen on repatriating them any more than were the king and queen.

[RoyalWatcher]

"'Just when you thought the whole thing couldn’t get more bizarre, Mohamed Al Fayed pops up in the film and is portrayed as a white knight for allowing Wally to read Wallis Simpson’s letters [which Fayed owns] when she goes to Paris."

Oh good God!

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...To put that Bertie & Elizabeth were "not gracious" towards David & Wallis is quite an understatement. The Windsors were cut off from the Royal Family and let to the winds. To be fair, there wasn't a guide book for ex-monarchs to act and most certainly the Royal Family had hoped that they would disappear into a hole. With an ego as big as David's, it is not surprising that he would accept the visit to Nazi Germany, where Wallis would be treated like a full fledged royal. His predecessor Archduke Franz Ferdinand loved to go on foreign tours, because his morganetic wife could be properly respected (she was greatly demoted in the Austrian Court). I think Wallis was grateful to David for giving her financial and social security, but she was also an independent American woman hence there were undercurrents in that marriage too.

[Alixz]

I wonder why David was not treated as a "younger brother" would have been.  I know that he had had many privileges as Prince of Wales and King Edward VIII, but I often think (and perhaps he did, too) that he and Bertie could have just traded places.

Maybe I am naive in thinking that, but I do think that he could have had a useful life as brother to the king just as his brothers would have had a useful life as brothers to him.  He wanted to stay at Fort Belvedere and I know that there was a lot of haggling over incomes and property rights, but somehow I always thought they could have worked it out.

I have said that divorce was a completely different issue in the 1930s, and it was.  People divorce so easily today that it is like a get out jail free card and three out of four marriages end in divorce in the US.  In the 1930s that wasn't true.  So Wallis's past had a different bearing on her life than it would today.

There are some things in Greg's book which indicate that Wallis could have been more concerned with material things than she should have been and I think it was hard for her to act without an attitude about being a duchess.  One of these examples is the theft of her jewelry after the war. One of the comments that she made at the time seems nasty and condescending.  When asked to describe what was stolen, she said something to effect that everyone should know that gold was worn with tweed in the afternoon and platinum was worn with gowns at night.

Not something that someone who was looking for help should have said to the person trying to help her.  And not something that the average person would know about or even guess about.  Wallis sounded as if she were above everyone else and just the fact that she had such jewelry after a debilitating war was more than the average person (or French police officer) would know or care about.

[Selencia]

I will always admire David for leaving an institution rather than bow to it. But with recent theories I have started to feel sorry for Wallis. It really seems like she was just a red herring for Edward to use to leave a job she did not want. If she truly did not love David and only divorced Ernest so he could marry someone else, then I admire her for sticking with Edward til the end despite what he had done to her; if indeed the recent theories are true. I believe Wallis was like Camilla and she was satisfied with being a mistress and wasn't desperate to be a wife; but Edward was in fact desperate to make her his wife.
I do think the way Queen Elizabeth acted was vindictive and from everything I read it was her who lead her husband in his treatment towards the Windsors. I don't think Wallis would have minded if Edward and George were reunited, but Elizabeth refused to let it go until her husband and the Duke were dead.

[feodorovna]

I imagine it would have been intolerable for Bertie to have David in the role of "younger brother." He had always seen himself as a pale shadow to David's glorious sun and would have lived in fear of of the huge popularity in which, at that time, David was held. I'm certain that egged on by Wallis, David would have enjoyed putting down his brother and sister-in-l
aw,revenge, perhaps, for withholding HRH."
I concur with Eric Lowe's views on Wallis-I believe her raison d'etre was financial and social security-and feel certain that she would have felt gratitude for being given both in abundance. Maybe it sheds new light on the title of her book "The heart has its' reasons."

[Eric_Lowe]

I think Elizabeth felt that her brother-in-law's return would steal the thunder of her husband. That may be true in the early years, but after the war, the king had achieved great popularity and David's return would not have been such a threat. Even Queen Mary had hoped that it would be. Elizabeth however refused to budge and continued the persecution of the Windsors. It was not until very late in their lives did the Queen Mother bowed to public opinion pressure to invite the Windsors to the Queen Mary event. She finally found it in her heart to forgive Wallis after seeing how distraught she was at David's funeral. But by that time it was too late.

[Tdora1]

The Guardian's review of W.E.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/sep/01/w-e-madonna-wallis-simpson-review

Here's the opening paragragh:

Whatever the crimes committed by Wallis Simpson – marrying a king, sparking a constitutional crisis, fraternising with Nazis – it's doubtful that she deserves the treatment meted out to her in W.E., Madonna's jaw-dropping take on "the 20th-century's greatest royal love story". The woman is defiled, humiliated, made to look like a joke. The fact that W.E. comes couched in the guise of a fawning, servile snow-job only makes the punishment feel all the more cruel.


The scene with Wallis dancing with Masai warriors to the Sex Pistol's "Pretty Vacant" didn't impress either. Putting to one side the appallingly naff and self-referencing cultural judgment of inventing and filming such a spectacle, I wonder if Maj knew (or cared) that by the time this song came out (July 1977) Wallis was suffering badly with Alzheimer's and was very frail. She also had had several falls (but not sure when) around that time, one which broke her hip. That kind of disregard is just of the reasons I think this POS won't even get to be one of the so-bad-its-good camp classics (like Mommie Dearest).

[Gerta]

I think Elizabeth felt that her brother-in-law's return would steal the thunder of her husband. That may be true in the early years, but after the war, the king had achieved great popularity and David's return would not have been such a threat. Even Queen Mary had hoped that it would be. Elizabeth however refused to budge and continued the persecution of the Windsors. It was not until very late in their lives did the Queen Mother bowed to public opinion pressure to invite the Windsors to the Queen Mary event. She finally found it in her heart to forgive Wallis after seeing how distraught she was at David's funeral. But by that time it was too late.

Eric, I really don't think the Queen ever forgave her.  In one of your previous posts, you quoted her as saying "You think I'm a nice person but I'm not" was spot on.  I think at the funeral she was just being polite and saying a comforting word to the widow.  At the same time, I don't think she let her dislike for the Windsors' consume her; she had more important things to do in her role as Queen and then Queen Mother.  But if a problem or concern came up about the Windsors, she could pull all those negative attributes out of her bag and use them.

[Robert_Hall]

RE. the Guardian review. Wallis did not marry a king. He had abdicated by the time of their marriage. She married a Duke.

[Eric_Lowe]

The funeral was a beginning for the Queen Mum. She followed through by sending her flowers (roses) with a card "In Friendship Elizabeth" to Wallis in Paris and even thought of visiting Wallis during her trip to Paris. However by that time, Wallis was already too sick to receive her. The book that carried the information was "Royal Feud" in which the author finally admitted that the Queen Mum co-operated with  him with information. So she did finally forgave her.

[Gerta]

The funeral was a beginning for the Queen Mum. She followed through by sending her flowers (roses) with a card "In Friendship Elizabeth" to Wallis in Paris and even thought of visiting Wallis during her trip to Paris. However by that time, Wallis was already too sick to receive her. The book that carried the information was "Royal Feud" in which the author finally admitted that the Queen Mum co-operated with  him with information. So she did finally forgave her.

  Eric, thank you for that information.  If Wallis had been in better health, how do you think she would have taken this gesture?