The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Monday 13 June 2005

Wallis and the Royal Family, Part I

Mistress: Before the Abdication 

For a woman who spent precious little time with most members of the British royal family, Wallis, Duchess of Windsor had surprisingly complex relationships with many of her in-laws. Although not all of these relationships warrant more than a passing glance, a few are exceptional � either for their historical or anecdotal value or for their sheer infamy.

From the notoriously bad blood between Wallis and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother to the unique bond Wallis shared with Princess Michael of Kent, these relationships affected the royal family for more than 56 years and, in some cases, still do. While some of them were reflective of personal vendettas, political ambitions and even greed, others managed to reveal rare moments of surprising tenderness and empathy. Sadly, with the obvious exception of Wallis' husband, the Duke of Windsor, barely a one displayed genuine intimacy or unconditional friendship or love, particularly after the Abdication.  

The Favorite Brother

If Wallis ever came close to becoming friends with a member of the British royal family, it was with the Duke of Windsor�s youngest surviving brother, Prince George, Duke of Kent. 

Perhaps more than any of his brothers, Prince George was a wild child. He ran with a fast set, stayed out late at clubs, and dabbled in drugs. More serious allegations of his behavior go as far as accusing him of bisexuality and drug addiction. By 1930, however, Prince George appeared to have settled down somewhat, thanks in part to his close relationship with his eldest brother, the Prince of Wales. For all his own �fast� living, David � as the Prince of Wales was known to family � had served as a balancing influence to Prince George, and the two spent a great deal of time together. It was thanks in part to this closeness that Wallis met both Princes for the first time on the same evening in January 1931.  

The story of how Wallis met the Prince of Wales requires little retelling, but the long and short of it is that Wallis had been invited to attend a house party at Burrough Court, the country home of the Prince of Wales� current mistress, Thelma, Lady Furness, at Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. Lady Furness� husband was conveniently out of town, so the Prince of Wales was naturally expected to attend. Wallis had a terrible cold and was nervously excited about meeting royalty. She had had to learn how to curtsey on the train ride to Melton Mowbray and it�s possible to imagine how nervous she must have been as she awkwardly carried out her first two curtsies to royalty � first to the Prince of Wales and second to Prince George.  

By that time, Wallis had been enough around London society that she had developed an opinion regarding both the Prince of Wales and Prince George. In her memoirs, �The Heart Has its Reasons,� Wallis recalled, �Long before I had met the Prince of Wales� I had formed a strong impression� that he was a gay blade; that his brother, Prince George, was often in hot water for one thing or another��  

As Prince George was quite literally tall, dark and handsome, it�s perhaps prophetic that Wallis initially appears to have found the Prince of Wales � who was shorter, paler and had what many considered an innate sadness about him � more attractive than his younger brother. Nevertheless, Wallis reflected in her memoirs that Prince George �was considerably taller [than the Prince of Wales], with neatly brushed brown hair, aquiline features, and dark blue eyes. He gave an impression of gaiety and joie de vivre.� She went on to say, �What attracted me at once about the two brothers and especially the Prince of Wales was their utter naturalness.� She had little opportunity to develop much more of an impression of Prince George since he left Burrough Court within an hour of his arrival.  

As Wallis� relationships developed with individuals close to the young royals, so did her encounters with the royals themselves. In the first few months of 1933 alone, Wallis and her husband Ernest were invited on four occasions to the Prince of Wales� country home, Fort Belvedere, where Prince George was frequently a guest. In her memoirs, Wallis wrote that Prince George would play the latest jazz music on the piano for the other guests to dance to. She recalled that �Saturday evenings at the Fort were usually a little livelier when Prince George was on the scene; he was a natural mimic and loved to do caricatures of the people he knew well��  

Many more such weekends were had at the Fort during 1933 and 1934, and according to Greg King in �The Duchess of Windsor,� Wallis had become very fond of Prince George. Unfortunately, Prince George�s feelings for Wallis during this time are not as historically evident. It�s likely, however, that the two got along well, since both were fun-loving and sociable individuals who shared a number of common interests, including the Prince of Wales.

Prince George�s marriage to Princess Marina of Greece on November 29, 1934 naturally curtailed Wallis� contact with the younger prince, just as it curtailed the close relationship between the two brothers. In fact, many historians note that the bond between Wallis and the Prince of Wales grew stronger when Prince George � now Duke of Kent � married, leaving a gaping emotional hole in the Prince of Wales� life. For Wallis, the loss of a potential ally in the royal family must have been at least slightly assuaged when she and her husband, Ernest Simpson, were invited to the Kent wedding � for all intents and purposes, the society event of the season.  

In the years between the Kent wedding and the Abdication Crisis, the Prince of Wales and Wallis were, from time to time, guests at Coppins, the Duke and Duchess of Kent�s country home in Buckinghamshire, and were invited to tea there as late as November 1936. But despite the outward show of friendliness between the two couples, it is fairly safe to say that the feelings Prince George and Princess Marina may have had for Wallis didn�t go far beyond the purely social. Certainly, Princess Marina and Wallis were never good friends, and any fondness Prince George may have had for Wallis prior to the Abdication would not resist the greater forces at work against her when she became the �cause� of the royal tragedy.  

Although Wallis� friendly, but short-lived, relationship with the Kents all but ended after the Abdication, it would manifest itself once again with the next generation in a unique and generous way. 

King George V and Queen Mary

Few biographers have failed to note that many wives would give their right arm to have as little contact with their parents-in-law as Wallis had with King George V and Queen Mary. To her great credit, Wallis was incredibly circumspect on the subject, so we have little idea � speculation aside � of her true feelings on the subject. Prior to the Abdication, however, she had little reason to worry about her relationship with David�s parents, as she also had little reason to suspect that the King and Queen would actually someday be her parents-in-law. 

In fact, Wallis only met King George V and Queen Mary one time in her life. Once again, Wallis owed this event to the wedding of Prince George and Princess Marina. Just before the wedding, the Prince of Wales had arranged for Wallis and Ernest Simpson to be invited to a state reception hosted in honor of the wedding by the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace. Greg King described the meeting: 

�He [the Prince of Wales] then took Wallis over to where the King and Queen were standing. �I want to introduce a great friend of mine,� he said. Wallis stepped forward and sank into a deep curtsey before the King, who had taken her hand in his. She turned to Queen Mary� and curtsied once again. Like her husband, Queen Mary reached out and shook her hand. Later, she would tell one of her ladies-in-waiting, Mabell, Lady Airlie, that she had done so without thought.�  

Two years later, during the Abdication Crisis, Queen Mary is also known to have said to Lady Airlie, �If I had only guessed then I might perhaps have been able to do something, but now it�s too late.�  

Wallis described the meeting as �the briefest of encounters � a few words of perfunctory greeting, an exchange of meaningless pleasantries�� Of the King and Queen, she noted she �was impressed with Their Majesties� great gift of making everyone they met, however casually, feel at ease in their presence.� It was a fairly easy statement to make considering that it was the only chance Wallis had ever had to feel anything in the King and Queen�s presence.

There�s little doubt that King George despised the mere thought of Wallis, and although Queen Mary was somewhat more diplomatic in her approach to her son�s mistress, she no less vehemently disapproved of her. Although King George died in January 1936, he apparently made Queen Mary promise him that she would never receive Wallis Simpson. Although the Queen was true to her word, the Abdication inextricably tied the two women together and, as a result, they managed to consume each other�s lives whether they liked it or not.   

The Yorks

For all that has been said of the seemingly eternally antagonistic relationship between Wallis and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, it�s fair to say that the two women might have been on relatively good terms if the circumstances had been different from the very beginning. After all, The Queen Mother � then known as the Duchess of York � had no problem with her brother-in-law�s previous married mistresses � one of whom, Lady Furness, was also an American. Like Wallis, Lady Furness � born Thelma Morgan � was previously divorced and re-married to an Englishman, the 1^st Viscount Furness, when she was the Prince of Wales� mistress. Although David and �Bertie� � as the Duke of York was known � were not as close as David and Prince George, the brothers shared a bond nonetheless, and David was also known to have a warm and solid relationship with the Duchess of York. Considering all of these things, there�s little reason why the Duke and Duchess of York shouldn�t have had a similar relationship with Wallis as they had with Thelma Furness; or, for that matter, a relationship similar to what Wallis had shared with the Duke and Duchess of Kent. But it wasn�t to be.

Wallis' first meeting with the Duke and Duchess of York took place at the same state reception where she was introduced to King George V and Queen Mary. The brief encounter was fairly uneventful, but the stark differences between the two women were obvious enough that it was almost impossible for them to get off on the right foot. In particular, much has been said of the dress Wallis wore for the reception, described by biographer Michael Thornton as �a dramatic dress of violet lam� highlighted by a brilliant green sash.� Fashionable though it may have been, it would not have been deemed by the likes of Queen Mary and the Duchess of York as appropriate to the occasion. In his book, �Royal Feud,� Thornton quoted a close friend of the Duchess of York, the Dowager Lady Hardinge of Penshurst, as recalling the meeting forty years later: 

�I am afraid Mrs Simpson went down badly with the Duchess from the word go. It may have been the rather ostentatious dress, or the fact that she allowed the Prince of Wales to push her forward in what seemed an inappropriate manner. �it was apparent to me that she did not care for Mrs Simpson at all.�

Among a number of concerns likely affecting the Duchess of York�s opinion of Wallis was that she � like others � felt Wallis was directly responsible for the Prince of Wales� unceremonious dropping of two of his previous mistresses, including Lady Furness. It�s also important to address at this time the much discussed idea that the Duchess of York had once allegedly been romantically inclined toward the Prince of Wales. Perhaps, but if jealousy had been the key issue with Wallis, it seems reasonable that it must also have been an issue with her brother-in-law�s previous mistresses, but it was not.

Despite the bad start, Wallis and the Yorks met from time to time at either Fort Belvedere or the Prince of Wales' London home, York House. In her memoirs, Wallis recalled that she had thought David�s brother, the Duke of York, was quiet and shy. Of his wife, the Duchess of York, Wallis recalled her �justly famous charm� and the �beauty of her complexion and the almost startling blueness of her eyes.� But these were the public thoughts and they spoke more for what they did not say than for what they did. Although by all accounts the Duchess of York had done her best to disguise her disapproval and dislike of Wallis, Wallis not only sensed those feelings, she also considered the Duchess� attitude to be �false and artificial.� And while the Duchess of York may have disapproved of Wallis� �ostentatious� style of dressing, Wallis took equal exception to the Duchess� style, dubbing her �the Dowdy Duchess.� All things considered, the two women were on a fast track to a confrontation � an event that inevitably arrived within just a few months of their first meeting. 

Every biographer of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor worth his or her salt has related the story, but it is perhaps most succinctly described in �The Duchess of Windsor, the Secret Life,� by Charles Higham:

�In January 1935, she [Wallis] made one of her most serious mistakes. She began imitating the Duchess of York with a harsh, mocking style� One afternoon Elizabeth walked into the drawing room at Fort Belvedere and stood frozen. Wallis was performing an aggressive parody of her voice and gestures. Elizabeth stormed out. Wallis was not forgiven.�   

Surprisingly, the women managed to deal relatively politely with each other after the incident, although neither was apparently under any illusion regarding the other. Of a visit to Royal Lodge � the Kent�s home in Windsor Great Park � in April 1936, when David � now the King � and Wallis visited the Duke and Duchess of York to show off the King�s new American station wagon, Wallis wrote that, �I left with a distinct impression that while the Duke of York was sold on the American station wagon, the Duchess was not sold on David�s other American interest.� What ruined the sale was quite possibly that, as the York family�s governess, Marion Crawford later related, Wallis deeply offended the Duke and Duchess of York by suggesting that certain changes be made to the gardens and lawns to �improve the view.� Wallis� relaxed manner in the presence of the Duke and Duchess and with the King apparently also offended the Duchess.

While each incident was gradually doing its part to ensure that Wallis and the Duchess of York would never be friends, none of them holds a candle to the event that served as the d�nouement to any pretense of friendliness between the two women. At a dinner party given by the King at Balmoral in September 1936, Wallis was presiding as official hostess. The Yorks, who had not wanted to attend the dinner party, arrived after all of the other guests. Acting as a good hostess should, Wallis advanced toward the Duke and Duchess of York to greet them. Despite Wallis� smile and outstretched hand, the Duchess of York walked right past her, stating �I came to dine with the King,� then proceeded to ignore Wallis for the rest of the evening.  

Greg King summed up the situation when he said: 

�There is no indication that she [Wallis] behaved in a presumptuous manner at Balmoral or that she was anything less than friendly toward the Duchess. The Yorks had taken her simple gesture of greeting for something which it almost certainly was not: an unpardonable breach of royal etiquette and good manners.� 

So long as Wallis had seemed to be only a temporary figure in David�s life, perhaps the Duchess of York felt she posed little real threat. As such, the Duchess would have been able to withstand a certain amount of distaste for her brother-in-law�s mistress and maintain a veneer of diplomacy and tactfulness. But the Duchess of York was nothing if not aware of her position and would also have been keenly aware of Wallis� position, so once Wallis appeared to be taking a more permanent role in the new King�s life, the veneer cracked. Similarly, where David�s previous mistresses may have played a significant role in his life, they were undoubtedly careful always to be deferential to the Duchess of York � giving special attention to her position. Wallis, on the other hand, only gave special attention to treating the Duchess of York as if she were just about anyone else in London high society.

On both sides, the divide was complete. The two women had become implacable enemies and the King and the Duke of York were now fully vested on their respective sides of the battlefield. Unfortunately for Wallis, her nemesis would soon hold a position of immense power over her, while Wallis herself was almost completely powerless.

Thankfully, Wallis was never the type of person to let her feelings for the Duchess of York transfer onto the latter's children. Wallis recalled in her memoirs meeting Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret during a visit to Royal Lodge. At the time of the meeting, the future queen was just 10 years old, while Princess Margaret was six. Wallis wrote, �They were both so blond, so beautifully mannered, so brightly scrubbed, that they might have stepped straight from the pages of a picture book.� As for the future queen, she had apparently seen enough to ask her governess who �that� woman was. Little did she know that Wallis was the woman whose role in the British royal family ensured that Princess Elizabeth would one day be queen. 

Lord Louis Mountbatten

With few allies among the royal family, the consistent presence of Lord Louis Mountbatten must have been somewhat reassuring to Wallis and David. As a grandson of Queen Victoria, Lord Louis was the Prince's cousin, but had also become one of his best friends. �Dickie,� as he was affectionately known, had joined the Prince of Wales on his royal tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1920 and in one of his letters to his mistress, Freda Dudley-Ward, during that trip, David wrote that he and Dickie had become very close and were �inseparable.� In 1922, Lord Louis had married the Honorable Edwina Ashley and the Prince of Wales had served as best man.

Wallis also knew Lord Louis before she ever met the Prince of Wales. In her memoirs, she stated that she first met Dickie and Edwina when she was living in Washington D.C. in the early 1920s. Wallis wrote of him, ��I had always thought him one of the handsomest of men, his good looks being coupled with an arresting physical presence and an extraordinary drive.�   

David, Dickie and Edwina socialized together quite a bit, so the Mountbatten's were naturally aware of the Prince's blossoming relationship with Wallis as it happened. In the beginning at least, it seems as though they were happy that the Prince was so content with Wallis, and the two couples became regular social companions. But for Edwina, socializing didn�t seem to necessarily equate to fondness. In �Edwina,� Richard Hough wrote that Edwina �had never held a very high opinion of David, regarding him as weak if amiable and sometimes amusing company�� Of Wallis, Hough quoted Edwina�s sister as saying that although Edwina may have admired her, she felt no affection for her.

Regardless of the personal feelings of his wife, Dickie proved his substance as a friend to David on the eve of the Abdication, professing his support for Wallis as others were abandoning the King. In March 1937, Lord Louis even offered to serve as the Duke of Windsor�s best man at his forthcoming wedding to Wallis, although the Duke declined, assuming that his brothers would stand up for him at the wedding. Given the attitude of the royal family toward Wallis and the Duke�s marriage to her, it was an incredibly bold and risky move on Lord Louis' part.  

But by the time the Duke of Windsor figured out that no one in his family would be attending the wedding, even his best friend had realized that he couldn�t support David and Wallis and maintain favor with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Dickie had essentially decided his offer was no longer politically expedient and even declined to attend the wedding. According to Michael Thornton in �Royal Feud�:

�The Queen�s [the former Duchess of York] uncompromising attitude towards her brother-in-law and his future wife sent a new and icy wind blowing through the corridors of Buckingham Palace, and Mountbatten, fly helmsman that he was, trimmed his sails accordingly. On May 5 [1937] he wrote to the Duke of Windsor regretfully declining an invitation to the wedding and explaining that �while �Bertie� and �Georgie� had been willing to come, other people had stepped in to create a situation which made all the Duke�s friends most unhappy.��

Before they were even married, Wallis and David had lost their last ally among the British royal family. In the days and years following the Abdication, the same forces that changed Lord Louis Mountbatten�s attitude toward the Duke and Duchess of Windsor would become endemic to the whole of the royal family. And if getting along with members of her future husband�s family was difficult before the Abdication Crisis, Wallis didn�t stand much of a chance after she became his wife. Her enemies were stronger than ever, and the intensity of their feelings would be passed to the next generation. Even those who came in the name of goodwill often had another agenda, and despite a lifetime of alienation and animosity, more than a few expected something from her in the end. Then again, Wallis also managed to find small pockets of friendliness in some unusual places among the royal family.

Next time, we�ll explore Wallis� continuing relationships with Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Queen Mary, and Lord Louis Mountbatten, among others, as well as discover her unusual relationships with Prince Charles, Princess Michael of Kent, and other modern members of the royal family.  

Until then, 

- Tori Van Orden Mart�nez

Read Part II Here