Adorable Story #85: Wallis Simpson - Part 1
The Woman Who Changed a King’s Fate
Wallis Simpson, born Bessie Wallis Warfield, became a central figure in one of the 20th century’s most dramatic royal events. Her early life in Pennsylvania and Maryland set the stage for a journey marked by high society connections and scandalous romances. Twice-divorced, she infamously captivated King Edward VIII, leading to his abdication in 1936.
Table of Contents: Early Life / First Marriage / Second Marriage / Meeting Prince Edward / Becoming Lovers / Checkmate to the King / Marrying Edward / Life during WWII / Post War Life / Later Years
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“My story is simple, or at least that’s what I like to think: it’s the story of an ordinary life that became extraordinary.”
— Wallis Simpson
With these words Bessie Wallis Warfield defined a life that may seem like a fairy tale, but that was not without bitterness: as she repeated several times over the years, it was very “difficult to live the greatest love story of the century.”
Early Life
Wallis Simpson, was born Bessie Wallis Warfield on June 19th, 1896, in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania.
She was the only child of Teackle Wallis Warfield and Alice Montague. Her father was the fifth and youngest son of Henry Mactier Warfield, a prominent merchant, described as “one of the best known and personally one of the most popular citizens of Baltimore”, who also ran for mayor in 1875.
Wallis father died of tuberculosis on November 15th, 1896. For her first few years, Wallis and her mother were dependent upon the financial support of her father’s wealthy bachelor brother Solomon Davies Warfield — who was a successful businessman and president of the Continental Trust Company in Baltimore.
Wallis attended the prestigious Oldfields School, an exclusive girls’ boarding school in Glencoe, Maryland. Known for her social skills and charm, Wallis thrived in this environment.
She was aware of not being a particularly good-looking girl and hardened by the adversities of life (particularly the premature death of her father and, consequently, the scarce financial possibilities), Wallis soon dedicated herself to honing the two major weapons at her disposal: her style (“I’m not very good to see, the least I can do is dress better than anyone else”) and social skills (“when you are invited to a party you have the moral duty to be funny”).
“Though Wallis’s jaw was too heavy for her to be counted beautiful, her fine violet-blue eyes and petite figure, quick wits, vitality, and capacity for total concentration on her interlocutor ensured that she had many admirers.”
— Philip Ziegler, Wallis Simpson biographer, 2004
Style and social skills would guarantee throughout her life an influential and useful circle of friends and acquaintances.
Her education was further enriched by extensive travel, which helped her develop a keen sense of style and sophistication that would later define her public persona.
First Marriage
In the early 1916, during a stay in Florida, Wallis met the charming Earl Win Spencer Jr, a young pilot for the US Navy. It was at this time that Wallis witnessed two airplane crashes about two weeks apart, resulting in her lifelong deep fear of flying.
Earl bewitched her to the point of convincing her to marry him and on November 8th, 1916 he became her first husband.
In a short time, however, it became clear to Wallis that Earl’s overwhelming charm hid a terrible temperament, exacerbated by a heavy alcohol addiction.
After several attempts to make the marriage work, between furious fights, separations and reconciliations, on top of her husband’s frequent missions abroad, Wallis became more and more focused in her social activities in the attempt to insert herself into increasingly exclusive circles.
She frequently followed him on his missions to China, albeit the only phrase she learned in Chinese was:
“Boy, pass me the champagne!”
In 1924-25, Wallis toured China alone for more than a year, and while in Beijing guest of some American friends, she met the Italian Count Galeazzo Ciano (whom we already mentioned in the Adorable Story #84 and who would later become Mussolini’s son-in-law and foreign minister), had an affair with him, and became pregnant, leading to a botched abortion that left her infertile for the rest of her life.
In December 1927, once both Wallis and Earl had returned to America from China, she filed for a divorce.
Second Marriage
Wallis soon remarried with a stable and reassuring English gentleman, whose surname would make him famous: Ernest Aldrich Simpson.
Ernest divorced his first wife, Dorothea, to marry Wallis on July 21st, 1928.
Ernest was a British-American shipping executive with the he global shipbroking firm Simpson, Spence & Young (co-founded by his father in 1880), and this was the marriage which brought Wallis into British high society. The union was more stable than her first marriage, as Wallis found herself increasingly drawn to the social circles of London.
In 1929, Wallis’s investments were completely wiped out in the Wall Street Crash (her mother died penniless on November 2nd, 1929): luckily Ernest’s shipping business was still buoyant and the couple was able to settle in a large, staffed flat in Mayfair, London.
Thanks to his inclusion in a circle of aristocratic friendships, Wallis managed in a short time to meet the man to whom she inextricably linked her destiny: Prince Edward, the eldest son of King George V and Queen Mary, and heir apparent to the British throne.
Meeting Prince Edward
Wallis met Prince Edward for the first time in 1931, when she hit him with her frankness already in their first dialogue during a ball in a house of Thelma, Viscountess Furness (at the time the mistress of Prince Edward):
“Do you miss the central heating Mrs. Simpson?” Edward asked
“No sir and I must say that you disappointed me: all American women are asked the same thing in England, I hoped for something more original from the Prince of Wales” Wallis replied boldly.
Although it was not love at first sight, Wallis Simpson had intrigued the Prince and after this first meeting, Wallis and Ernest Simpson were increasingly invited to weekend parties organized by the Prince in his residence in Fort Belvedere, Surrey.
“You’re the first woman interested in my job,” Edward used to say to Wallis.
Becoming lovers
The turning point in the friendship between the two occurred in 1934 when “Mrs. Simpson”, while Lady Furness was away in New York City, became Edward’s mistress (at first, apparently, with her husband Ernest’s approval).
However, it was immediately clear that their relationship was not like the others.
Edward cut immediately all ties with Lady Furness as well as with his other former paramour, the Anglo-American socialite Freda Dudley Ward, and developed an ever-increasing and completely unusual and disproportionate adoration for her (it was “Wallis in Wonderland”, as her maternal aunt nicknamed this period of Wallis life) to the point of showering her with money, privileges and, above all, jewelry.
Soon, these jewels became Edward’s favorite medium to express his love for her: from the famous engagement emerald whose frame was engraved with the phrase “We are ours now 10 X 1936”, to the diamond pin depicting the symbol of the Prince of Wales, to the Cartier bracelet with the cross pendants given for each milestone of the relationship and the famous Cartier Flamingo Brooch of 1940 (photos below).
A remarkable addition to Wallis Simpson’s jewelry collection was the Cartier Flamingo Brooch, a testament to exquisite artistry and design. Crafted in 1940, this stunning brooch portrays a flamboyant flamingo meticulously fashioned from diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, capturing the graceful elegance of the majestic bird. Due to the scarcity of precious gems and metals during the war, clients were required to supply their own materials for jewelry-making.
By the end of 1934, Edward was completely infatuated with Wallis and his courtiers became increasingly alarmed as the affair began to interfere with his official duties.
End of Part 1. Part 2 will be published next week.
—Alberto @
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