Wallis Simpson

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Wallis Simpson (1936)
The Duchess of Windsor at a 1970 reception

Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (born June 19, 1896 in Blue Ridge Summit , USA ; † April 24, 1986 in Paris ; maiden name: Bessie Wallis Warfield ) was the wife of the former British King Edward VIII. She was the formal reason for the abdication Edward VIII in 1936.

Life

Wallis Simpson was born as Bessie Wallis Warfield in Blue Ridge Summit ( Pennsylvania ) as the only daughter of Teackle Wallis Warfield (1871-1896) and Alice Montague (1869-1929) from Baltimore ( Maryland ). Her father died of tuberculosis just five months later and she and her mother were dependent on the support of wealthy relatives. "Because there are so many cows called Bessie", she gave up her first name early. Her first marriage to Earl Winfield Spencer, an American and alcoholic, soon failed. This was followed by an affair with an Argentine diplomat and another with married businessman Ernest Simpson, which became the second marriage in 1928. During this second marriage, Wallis Simpson met the British heir to the throne, who fell in love with her.

Allegedly Wallis Simpson wanted to keep both men and did not care about Edward's abdication. But in 1936 her marriage to Ernest Simpson broke up, and on December 11th of the same year Edward, who had just become king, laid down the crown. Edward and Wallis were married in France on June 3, 1937 . In 1941, the couple was targeted by the FBI because Wallis Simpson allegedly leaked important information to her alleged lover, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop . She was also said to have had an affair with Jimmy Donahue, a homosexual offspring of the Woolworth dynasty, after the war .

Neither her life nor that of her husband seems to have been fulfilled after the abdication. Wallis Simpson himself once commented: “You can't abdicate and eat it.” (A play on the phrase “you can't have your cake and eat it”; perhaps analogous to: “You can't abdicate and the privileges to keep").

The couple remained married until Edward's death in 1972 and lived alternately in France and the United States . The Duchess died in Paris in 1986 at the age of 89 and was buried at the side of her husband in the Royal Cemetery of Frogmore near Windsor.

Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma , suggested that the Queen erect a statue for Wallis Simpson. She justified this suggestion with the words: "If we hadn't had it, we wouldn't have had you".

1936 Wallis Simpson was the first woman Person of the Year of the Time Magazine . She owned a large collection of valuable jewelry.

In popular culture

Wallis Simpson has been portrayed by well-known actresses in several films:

literature

  • Alain Decaux: Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. Triumph of love over politics? A Windsor biography. Benziger, Zurich, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-545-34142-9
  • My heart was right - The Duchess of Windsor's Memoirs . Forum Verlag, Vienna-Frankfurt, no year (around 1960/65)
  • Anne Sebba: That Woman. The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchesse of Windsor. Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-297-85896-6 .
  • Dieter Wunderlich: Seductive Women: Eleven portraits. Piper Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-27274-2 .

Web links

Commons : Wallis Simpson  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ news.bbc.co.uk: Profile: Wallis Simpson
  2. ↑ diannemannering.co.uk: Section 1 - General of Historical Interest
  3. ↑ Edward & George. Two brothers - one crown. Retrieved June 10, 2019 .
  4. ↑ The Brooch Queen. In: sueddeutsche.de. August 2, 2010, accessed March 22, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Simpson, Wallis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, Wallis (full name); Warfield, Bessie Wallis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British noblewoman, Duchess of Windsor
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Blue Ridge Summit , USA
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1986
PLACE OF DEATH Paris