The Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s romance is often called the love story of the century. Writers gush about their grand passion, and lavish lifestyle as part of European high society, and many memoirs, including the Duke and Duchess’ autobiographies, paint an overly rosy picture of the couple. I discovered during my research for THE WINDSOR CONSPIRACY, that the truth behind their romance and lives is actually much darker. Below, I share some of those tidbits, as well as some lighter facts I learned while researching THE WINDSOR CONSPIRACY.
The relationship between Kind Edward of England and the twice divorced American Wallis Simpson is often called the romance of the century. The truth is very different. There is a great debate on whether or not Wallis really loved or wanted to marry Edward. She called him Peter Pan behind his back and once wrote to a friend “I’d rather be the mistress of the King of England than the wife of the Governor of the Bahamas.” She wanted to be Queen of England and was furious when the King abdicated and cheated her out of a crown and turned her into an international pariah. Her illicit activities with the Nazi’s during World War II, which form the basis of my novel THE WINDSOR CONSPIRACY, were an attempt to reclaim the crown that had slipped through her fingers, and to prop up the husband she’d helped pull off his throne.
The Windsors are often portrayed as a glamorous, jet-setting couple, but the truth is that they were very lonely and aimless. The Duke no longer had a country to rule and few official responsibilities. As a result, he filled his days with golf and following Wallis around. The job of amusing the Duke fell almost entirely to the Duchess and she found it to be an exhausting task, especially as the years wore on. She once wrote to a friend that “you have no idea how hard it is to live out a great romance.” The Duke and Duchess’ lack of real friends or purpose began with their wedding. They were married at the Château de Candé on June 3, 1937. Instead of the grand state wedding they’d both wanted, it was a quiet affair with more press and staff in attendance than guests. None of Edward’s family was allowed to attend, and Wallis only had her faithful Aunt Bessie to represent her side. Alexandra Metcalf, wife of Edward’s best man, wrote about the wedding “seven English people present at the wedding of the man who, six months ago, was king of England… It was hard not to cry. In fact I did…afterwards we shook hands in the salon. I knew I should have kissed her but I just couldn’t. In fact I was bad all day: my effort to be charming and to like her broke down. I don’t remember wishing her happiness or good luck as though she loved him. One would warm towards her but her attitude is so correct and hard. The effect is of an older woman unmoved by the infatuation of a younger man.”
The Windsors never had children and their dogs became their children. In later years, pugs would be their favorite breed, but during the time period of THE WINDSOR CONSPIRACY, they owned three terriers named Pookie, Detto and Prisie, which was short for surprise. The dogs were spoiled and allowed to run wild through their houses. The Duke called them gangsters and hand fed them from the dinner table. The dogs were with the Windsors throughout their time in Europe and during the escape from France to Spain after the Germans invaded France in 1939. The dogs also lived with them in The Bahamas.
Wallis Simpson wasn’t one to follow tradition, as her unusual life revealed, and this lack of convention extended to her engagement ring. Instead of a diamond, the Duke of Windsor chose for her a 19-carat emerald set in gold by Cartier. The Duke had “We are ours now 27 X 36” engraved inside. WE was their combined initials and the WE topped by a coronet was embroidered on linens and stamped on everything including their soap. 27 x 36 was their engagement date. The emerald was remounted for their 20th anniversary, but Wallis kept the original setting. Both the second ring and the original setting were sold as part of the massive auction of the Duchess of Windsor’s jewels in 1987. I mention the ring in THE WINDSOR CONSPIRACY, along with many of her other iconic jewels. The Duchess of Windsor was also known for her sense of style. One famous dress was the lobster dress she wore for a 1937 Vogue photo shoot. The dress was designed by Schiaparelli and the lobster was painted on silk by a young Salvador Dali, yes that Salvador Dali.
When the Duchess of Windsor’s death was announced on April 28, 1986, she hadn’t been seen in public for over a decade and most people thought she was already dead. During her last ten years, she was bedridden in her house in France, unable to speak, her life ruled by her iron fisted lawyer Suzanne Blum, who I briefly mention in THE WINDSOR CONSPIRACY. Mary Raffray, Wallis’s childhood friend who she’d stabbed in the back, and the woman who’d married Ernest Simpson after Wallis had divorced him to marry Edward, somewhat predicted Wallis’s sad ending. Mary wrote in her diary before her death in 1941 “If I believed in that sort of thing, I might say that my getting cancer again was a judgment on me because I once wished that when Wallis came to die she’d be fully conscious and know it because she is the most arrant coward I ever knew and terrified of dying. I had hoped she knows it is to pay her back for all the wicked things she’s done in her life…”
I hope you enjoyed this peek into the lives of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. To learn more about how far they were willing to go to reclaim the British throne, read THE WINDSOR CONSPIRACY. It’s an eye-opening look at a famous couple.
THE WINDSOR CONSPIRACY by Georgie Blalock
Georgie Blalock, the acclaimed author of The Other Windsor Girl, delivers an enchantingly reimagined fictional portrait of Wallis Simpson through the lens of her cousin who is engaged to spy on the Duchess of Windsor for her alleged Nazi sympathies and finds much more than she bargained for!
American Amelia Montague defied her family five years ago to marry the man she loved, but that decision cost her everything. Disowned by her family, and left a penniless widow after her husband’s death, Amelia becomes her cousin Wallis Simpson’s private secretary in France. With no other prospects available, Amelia has no choice but to succeed, and under their Aunt Bessie’s direction, hopes to have a positive influence on Wallis and the Duke of Windsor.
During the next two years, Amelia realizes that not everything with the Windsors is glittering happiness. Beneath the façade of the besotted couple simmers Wallis’s rage at her stunted ambition, and the couple soon reveal themselves to be self-centered Nazi supporters who pursue their own interests at any cost.
When the Germans invade France, and the Windsors leave Amelia to escape the Gestapo on her own, Amelia finds herself in position to work for the most unlikely of employers: MI5 and the FBI. Convinced to work undercover, Amelia joins the Windsors in Nassau and soon realizes that Wallis’s treachery extends far deeper than the US and British government even knows…
Richly imaginative, Georgie Blalock’s novel stuns as it explores two women, opposites in every way, and the choices they make to survive both war and each other. . .
Historical | Non-Fiction Biography [William Morrow Paperbacks, On Sale: July 16, 2024, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063339842 / eISBN: 9780063339859]
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About Georgie Blalock
Georgie Blalock is an amateur historian and movie buff who loves combining her different passions through historical fiction, and a healthy dose of period piece films. When not writing, she can be found prowling the non-fiction history section of the library or the British film listings on Netflix. Georgie writes historical romance under the name Georgie Lee.
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