The Story that Shook the World

 

On December 10th 1936,
King Edward VIII made his famous abdication speech in which he announced that he could no longer fulfil his duties, “…without the help and support of the woman I love.” From that day the story of Edward and Mrs Simpson passed into the history books as the love story of the century…..

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   Bessie Wallis Warefield, from Baltimore, USA married her first husband, a naval pilot and a heavy drinker, at the age of 20. During frequent separations she is alleged to have had an affair with an Italian diplomat who was later to become Mussolini’s son-in-law. By the time her marriage was dissolved she had already become involved with Ernest Simpson a mild mannered, easy going Anglo-American, who divorced his wife to marry Wallis in July 1928 at the Chelsea Register Office, London.

Through a friend, Wallis met Thelma, Lady Furness, the then mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales, who introduced the Simpsons to the Prince. They continued to meet at various house parties and functions and Wallis was even presented at Court. When Lady Furness was obliged to travel to New York she asked Wallis to ‘keep an eye’ on the Prince during her absence and whilst she was away Wallis, allegedly became Edward’s mistress.

By the end of 1934, the Prince of Wales was irretrievably besotted with Wallis and, whilst she clearly revelled in his attention, she still retained enormous affection for, and a strong emotional bond with her husband Ernest. He, so in love with her and somewhat in awe of the British Monarchy, tried to give her what she wanted. He remained very much a man in the shadows, desperately trying to behave in the manner he thought expected of an English gentleman.

  In January 1936, King George V died and Edward ascended to the throne. The very next day he broke with royal protocol by watching the proclamation of his accession from a window, in the company of the still married Wallis.

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   It was becoming clear to both Court and Government that Edward intended to marry her and this caused enormous disapproval within the Conservative Government led by Stanley Baldwin. Not only did the Church, of which Edward was now head, forbid the re-marriage of divorcees, but Baldwin and his government believed that Wallis was socially, politically and morally unsuitable as a prospective consort. It was rumoured that she was a Nazi sympathiser, that she had indulged in prostitution whilst in the Far East and even that she was a spy.

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   Eventually Baldwin made it clear to the King, that if he were to marry Wallis against his advice, the government would be required to resign, causing a constitutional crisis.
The rest, as they say, is history……..

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