Wallis, Duchess of Windsor and the Duke of Windsor on their wedding day

Bessie Wallis Warfield, more widely known as Wallis Simpson and later The Duchess of Windsor (June 19, 1896–April 24, 1986) was the wife of Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. The King's desire to marry Wallis, an American and twice divorced, caused a constitutional crisis in the United Kingdom, which ultimately led to his abdication. Image File history File links This work is copyrighted. ... Image File history File links This work is copyrighted. ... June 19 is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 195 days remaining. ... 1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... April 24 is the 114th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (115th in leap years). ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... His Majesty King Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor, formerly von Wettin), later His Royal Highness The Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), was the second British monarch of the House of Windsor. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A constitutional crisis is a situation in which separate factions within a government disagree about the extent to which each of these factions hold sovereignty. ... Like King Henry VIII of England, whose wish to marry Anne Boleyn in the 1530s rocked his kingdom, King Edward VIII created a crisis for the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth in the 1930s when he wished to marry Wallis Simpson: many have argued that the problem for Edward...

The Duchess of Windsor remains a controversial figure in British history, and has been linked to many outrageous stories concerning her private life. She was denied the title and style of Her Royal Highness as would be the normal style of the wife of a British prince, and was blamed for bringing the British monarchy into disrepute. Both the Duke and Duchess of Windsor have also been accused of being Nazi sympathisers. HRH is an acronym for His Royal Highness or Her Royal Highness. ... This is a list of British Princes from the accession of King George I in 1714. ... This article describes the British monarchy from the perspective of the United Kingdom. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

Life

Bessie Wallis Warfield was born in Square Cottage at Monterey Inn, a resort hotel in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania in the United States of America. The inn is extant. She was the only child of Teackle Wallis Warfield and his wife, Alice Warfield née Montague. She was born seven months after their wedding, though some sources state that she was born before her parents' marriage. She was christened Bessie Wallis (Bessiewallis according to some sources), in honor of her father and her mother's sister, but was generally known as Wallis. Her father died of tuberculosis when she was five months old. She was raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Blue Ridge Summit is a town in southeastern Pennsylvania, located at 39. ... State nickname: The Keystone State Other U.S. States Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Governor Ed Rendell (D) Official languages None Area 119,283 km² (33rd)  - Land 116,074 km²  - Water 3,208 km² (2. ... Tuberculous lungs show up on an X-ray image Tuberculosis is an infection with the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (miliary TB), genitourinary system, bones and joints. ... Motto: BELIEVE (formerly The City That Reads) Nickname: Charm City Location in Independent city, Maryland Founded  -Incorporated 30 July 1729 1797  County Independent city Mayor Martin J. OMalley (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water 349. ... State nickname: Old Line State; Free State Other U.S. States Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Governor Robert L. Ehrlich (R) Official languages English Area 32,160 km² (42nd)  - Land 25,338 km²  - Water 6,968 km² (21%) Population (2000)  - Population 5,296,486 (19th)  - Density 165 /km² (5th) Admission...

Previous marriages

Her first marriage was to Earl Winfield Spencer, Jr., a hard-drinking, reportedly abusive US Navy pilot, in 1916; she divorced him in 1927. She then became the mistress of Ernest Aldrich Simpson, a mild-mannered half-English, half-American shipping executive and former captain in the Coldstream Guards, who divorced his first wife to marry her. Their union lasted from 1928 until their divorce in October, 1936. Earl Winfield Spencer, Jr. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Ernest Aldrich Simpson (1895 - 1958) was an Anglo-American shipping executive best known as the second husband of Wallis Simpson, who married the former Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. ... The Coldstream Guards is a regiment of the British Army. ... 1928 was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Relationship with Prince Edward, Prince of Wales

After her second marriage, Wallis was living in Britain and had been introduced to the Prince Edward, The Prince of Wales. The Prince was the eldest son and heir of King George V and Queen Mary. Wallis later became his mistress, although Edward denied to his death that she was his mistress before they married. Wallis soon ousted the Prince's previous companion, the exotic American-born Viscountess Furness (née Thelma Morgan), and distanced him from a former lover and confidante, the Anglo-American textile heiress Freda Dudley Ward. His Majesty King Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor, formerly von Wettin), later His Royal Highness The Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), was the second British monarch of the House of Windsor. ... His Majesty King George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert Windsor, formerly Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) (3 June 1865–20 January 1936) was the last British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, changing the name to the House of Windsor in 1917. ... HSH Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, image by Lafayette of Bond Street, London. ... A viscount is a member of the European nobility, especially of France, and of the British peerage, where a viscount ranks above a baron, below an earl (a count in France), and corresponds in Britain to the Anglo-Saxon shire reeve. ... Thelma Morgan (August 23, 1904 - January 29, 1970) was an American socialite best known as Viscountess Furness, the mistress who preceded Wallis Simpson in the affections of Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. ...

The Prince was infatuated by Wallis, to the fury of his father. Although the pre-war media in the UK remained deferential to the monarchy, and no stories of the affair were reported in domestic press, foreign media reported Edward and Wallis’s relationship widely.

Abdication Crisis

On January 20, 1936, King George V died and Edward ascended the throne as King Edward VIII. The next day, he broke royal protocol by watching the proclamation of his accession from a window of St. James's Palace, in the company of the still-married Wallis. The King’s behaviour and his relationship with Wallis made him unpopular with the Conservative British government, as well as horrifying his mother and brother. January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

There was no legal barrier to King Edward marrying Wallis, and she would have automatically become Queen of the United Kingdom, and Empress of India. However, the British government and the governments of the dominions (except the Irish Free State) were against the idea of marriage between the King and an American divorcee. The British Royal Family and the Churches of England and Scotland were also opposed to the union. A Commonwealth Realm is any one of the 16 sovereign states of the Commonwealth that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their Queen and head of state. ... The Irish Free State (Irish: Saorstát Éireann) was (1922–1937) the name of the state comprising the 26 of Irelands 32 counties which were separated from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Irish Free State Agreement (or Anglo-Irish Treaty) signed by British and...

After Wallis and her second husband laid a petition in court to divorce, her relationship with the King began to become public knowledge in the UK. Wallis fled the country as the scandal broke, going to the South of France to stay with friends.

Back in the United Kingdom, the King consulted with both the British Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin and the Archbishop of Canterbury on a way to marry Wallis and keep the throne. A suggested morganatic marriage was rejected by Baldwin and the other Commonwealth Prime Ministers, leading the King with no option but to abdicate if he were to marry Wallis. The King signed the Instrument of Abdication on December 10, 1936 and special laws in the British Parliament, His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 ended his reign with effect from 11 December. That day, the now HRH The Prince Edward made a broadcast to the British people, saying of Wallis, “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”. In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is the head of government, exercising many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. ... Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (August 3, 1867 - December 14, 1947) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on three separate occasions. ... Arms of the Archbishop of Canterbury The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior clergyman of the established Church of England and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ... A morganatic marriage is a type of marriage which can be contracted in certain countries, usually between persons of unequal social rank (unebenbürtig in German), which prevents the passage of the husbands titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage. ... December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... His Majestys Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 was the Act of the British Parliament that allowed King Edward VIII to abdicate the throne, and passed succession to Prince Albert, Duke of York. ... December 11 is the 345th day (346th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Afterwards, Prince Edward left the UK and joined Wallis in France.

Duchess of Windsor

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor with Adolf Hitler

Free to marry, Wallis and Edward married on June 3, 1937 at Chateau de Candé, Monts, France. No member of the British Royal Family attended the wedding. Image File history File links This work is copyrighted. ... Image File history File links This work is copyrighted. ... June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining. ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Edward had previously been created Duke of Windsor by his brother, the new King George VI. However, Letters Patent issued by the new King prevented Wallis from using the style of Her Royal Highness, following pressure from Queen Elizabeth. As such, Wallis was now styled ‘‘Her Grace The Duchess of Windsor’’. King Edward VIII King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, King of Ireland Emperor of India His Majesty King Edward VIII, (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David), later His Royal Highness The Duke of Windsor (23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972) was the second British monarch of the House... His Majesty King George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George Windsor, formerly von Wettin) (14 December 1895–6 February 1952) was the third British monarch of the House of Windsor, reigning from 11 December 1936 until his death. ... HRH is an acronym for His Royal Highness or Her Royal Highness. ... Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in her later years as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother The Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, L.G. , L.T. , C.I. , G.C.V.O. , G.B.E. ,O.N.Z., C.C. , (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was the Queen consort of George...

Edward and Wallis lived in France in the pre-war years. In 1937, the Duke and Duchess visited Germany as personal guests of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, a visit much publicised by the German media. The couple then settled in France. When the Germans invaded the north of France in May 1940, they fled south, first to Biarritz, then in June to Spain. In July the pair moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where they lived at first in the home of a banker with close German Embassy contacts. The British Foreign Office strenuously objected when the pair planned to tour aboard a yacht belonging to a Swedish magnate, Axel Wenner-Gren, whom American intelligence considered to be a close friend of Hermann Goering, one of Hitler's top lieutenants. A "defeatist" interview with the Duke that received wide distribution may have served as the last straw for the British government: in August a British warship dispatched the pair to the Bahamas and the Duke was installed as Governor, returning to France after the war. Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889–April 30, 1945) was the Chancellor of Germany from 1933, and Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and chancellor) of Germany from 1934, to his death. ... Biarritz is a town and commune which lies on the Bay of Biscay, on south-west coast of France. ... District Lisbon Mayor   - Party Pedro Santana Lopes PSD Area 84. ... Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren was the founder of the world famous Electrolux company and one of the wealthiest men in the world by the early 1940s. ... Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also spelled Hermann Goering in English) (January 12, 1893–October 15, 1946) was a prominent and early member of the Nazi party, founder of the Gestapo, and one of the main architects of Nazi Germany. ...

Later life

The British Royal Family never accepted the Duchess and would not receive her formally, although the former king sometimes met his mother and a brother after his abdication. It is believed that Queen Elizabeth, Edward’s sister-in-law, remained bitter towards Wallis for her role in bringing her husband to the throne. The British Royal Family is a group of people closely related to the British monarch. ... Abdication (from the Latin abdicatio, disowning, renouncing, from ab, from, and dicare, to declare, to proclaim as not belonging to one), the act whereby a person in office renounces and gives up the same before the expiry of the time for which it is held. ... Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in her later years as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother The Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, L.G. , L.T. , C.I. , G.C.V.O. , G.B.E. ,O.N.Z., C.C. , (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was the Queen consort of George...

The couple lived in Neuilly near Paris for most of the remainder of their lives. They were neighbours and soon became close friends of Oswald and Diana Mosley. They had no children, though the Duchess had been briefly a stepmother by her marriage to Ernest Simpson, who had a daughter by his first wife. Neuilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine département in France. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (November 16, 1896 - December 3, 1980) was a British politician principally known as the founder of the British Union of Fascists. ... Diana Mitford (June 17, 1910 - August 11, 2003) was one of Britains noted Mitford sisters. ...

In 1965 the Duke and Duchess visited London. They were visited by the Queen, Princess Marina and also the Princess Royal. Within a week the Princess Royal was dead. 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... Her Royal Highness Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (neè Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark), (13 December 1906 - 27 August 1968) was a member of the British Royal Family, the wife of HRH Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary. ... Princess Mary of the United Kingdom, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood, Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary (25 April 1897 – 28 March 1965) was a member of the British Royal Family. ...

In 1967 they joined the Royal Family for the centenary of Queen Mary's birth. The last occasion they were in England together was the funeral of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent in 1968. 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... HSH Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, image by Lafayette of Bond Street, London. ... Her Royal Highness Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (neè Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark), (13 December 1906 - 27 August 1968) was a member of the British Royal Family, the wife of HRH Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ...

Upon the Duke's death from cancer in 1972, the increasingly senile and frail Duchess travelled to England to attend his funeral, staying at Buckingham Palace during her visit. 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... Buckingham Palace and the Victoria memorial. ...

The Duchess lived the remainder of her life as a recluse, a bed-ridden invalid fed by tubes. She was due to receive the Queen Mother in October 1976; instead, she received flowers from her. On the card, in the Queen Mother's handwriting, were the words "IN FRIENDSHIP, ELIZABETH." Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in her later years as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother The Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, L.G. , L.T. , C.I. , G.C.V.O. , G.B.E. ,O.N.Z., C.C. , (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was the Queen consort of George... 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The Duchess of Windsor died on 24 April 1986 in Paris. She is buried next to Edward behind the Royal Mausoleum in Windsor Castle's Home Park. Her tombstone simply reads "Wallis, His Wife". Her funeral was attended by her surviving sisters-in-law Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Princess Alice. April 24 is the 114th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (115th in leap years). ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Frogmore or Frogmore House is a former royal residence in England, in the grounds of Windsor Castle, and is the site of the Frogmore Mausoleum containing the grave of Victoria and Albert. ... An early 18th century view of Windsor Castle by Kip and Knyff. ... Headstones in the Japanese Cemetry in Broome, Western Australia A cemetery in rural Spain A typical late 20th century headstone in the United States A headstone, tombstone or gravestone is a marker, normally carved from stone, placed over or next to the site of a burial. ... Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in her later years as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother The Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, L.G. , L.T. , C.I. , G.C.V.O. , G.B.E. ,O.N.Z., C.C. , (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was the Queen consort of George... Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (Alice Christabel Windsor, née Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott) (December 25, 1901 – October 29, 2004) was the wife of the Duke of Gloucester — the third son of King George V and Queen Mary &mdash. ...

Historical speculation

FBI files compiled in the 1930s, released under the US Freedom of Information Act in 2003, portray Wallis Simpson as a possible Nazi sympathiser. It has been suggested that this may have been the real motivation for the abdication crisis, although officially released British documents do not appear to confirm this. British documents released on January 30, 2003 also stated that in 1935 Wallis Simpson was being followed by Special Branch detectives and was secretly conducting a love affair with Guy Marcus Trundle, an engineer and salesman for Ford, who was an upper-middle-class Englishman and son of a respected Anglican canon. However, a lengthy September 2003 article in the U.S. magazine Vanity Fair casts considerable doubt on the veracity of the Simpson-Trundle affair, based on comments from a man whose mother was Trundle's mistress for nearly two decades. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United States. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Special Branch is the arm of the British, Irish and many Commonwealth police forces that deals with national security matters. ... Licensure and Qualifications for the Practice of Engineering The Engineers Ring The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer Engineering Disasters and Learning from Failure American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) ASEE engineering profile (2003) PDF Categories: Architecture and engineering occupations | Engineering ... The Ford Motor Company (often referred to simply as Ford; sometimes nicknamed Fords or FoMoCo, (NYSE: F) is an automobile maker founded by Henry Ford in Detroit, Michigan, and incorporated on June 16, 1903. ... A canon (from the Latin canonicus and Greek κανωνικωσ relating to a rule) is a priest who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to a rule (canon). ... Vanity Fair is a glossy American glamour magazine monthly that offers a mixture of articles on high-brow culture, jet-set and entertainment-business personalities, politics, and current affairs. ...

There have been rumours of pregnancy and abortion, but no hard evidence that the Duchess became pregnant by any of her lovers or her three husbands. The aforementioned Vanity Fair article included the comments of a doctor who, after examining X-rays of the duchess, stated that she likely suffered from androgen insensitivity syndrome, also known as testicular feminisation. Rumors of abnormal genitalia date to a dossier compiled at the start of her relationship with Edward VIII. Radiography is the creation of radiographs, photographs made by exposing a photographic film or other image receptor to X-rays. ... Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) is a set of disorders of sexual differentiation that results from mutations of the gene encoding the androgen receptor. ...

Titles from birth to death

These are the titles that the Duchess of Windsor bore, in chronological order:

• Miss Bessiewallis Warfield
• Mrs. Warfield Spencer (American social custom for women linked the maiden and married names)
• Mrs. Ernest Aldrich Simpson
• Mrs. Wallis Simpson
• Mrs. Wallis Warfield
• Her Grace The Duchess of Windsor

External links

• BBC news story: Simpson's 'Nazi past' led to abdication
• BBC news story: Mrs Simpson's secret lover revealed
• Guardian story: Fear that Windsors would 'flit' to Germany