I am posting my Wallis posts in reverse order, that way if you haven't read them you can just scroll down and get them in the correct order.
Here we have the fabulous Wallis Warfield Windsor with a hipster scarf, but not looking like a hipster at all.
She is a rather controversial royal woman... well, actually the royals (or at least Queen Mary and the Queen Mother) would say she wasn't ever a royal, and the internet would say she wasn't actually a woman either. So please, for a minute, indulge me and pretend you don't have the internet. Well, that's rather hard as you're on it right not, but let's just say I'm posting this on a bulletin board or something.
Best known as Wallis Simpson, Wallis is a woman who's name, when typed into autofill, brings up terms like "hermaphrodite" and "Nazi". I really don't believe she was either, and there's not much evidence either way. If she was the former, well, that's hardly her fault and it says nothing whatsoever about her morality or character. If anything, it means she was a very strong person to be able to survive being intersexed in that time period. If she was the latter, well, that's horrible, but despite popular belief, that is not a fact. It's really more of a rumor, and not even a particularly substantial one. She met Hitler, once, and had a lot of enemies. Yes, I know what it says on wikipedia. But I also know what it says in most of the many biographies written about her. And I know what many of her surviving friends say.
[www.people.com]
The persistent rumors branding the Windsors themselves as Nazi sympathizers are "preposterous," the countess says. "I know those stories backwards and forwards, and they're absolutely untrue. The duchess was extremely American, and one of the most patriotic women I've ever known. I would only involve someone in a mission if I felt they were totally conscientious and trustworthy."
Now, that was Aline, Countess of Romanones, who spent World War II working for the OSS hunting down and exposing high level Nazis. Maybe Madonna should make a movie about her next. But even if Wallis was a Nazi (and I wouldn't know; I wasn't there) she was never convicted of anything, so let's just give her the benefit of the doubt for a moment.
Wallis was born in 1896 (or possibly earlier, records are scarce and she wasn't the most honest woman in the world) in Pennsylvania. Her parents were traveling there, either to help her father's illness or to cover-up her mother's out-of-wedlock pregnancy, depending on who you ask. They were from Baltimore and Wallis grew up there. Her father died not long after her birth, and her mother was forced to work. Wallis was in a difficult situation, her father's family had some money, and her mother's family liked to pretend they had once had money. But Wallis and her mother didn't have any money. So Wallis had a childhood that ranged from being flat broke to moderately well off. She had a rich uncle who would sometimes give them money, and other times wouldn't. Given that this was the turn of the century, the only job Wallis's mother, Alice, could get was as a seamstress. And she didn't make all that much. She remarried when Wallis was 10 or 11, but her second husband died a few years later.
I have two books with me at the moment, The Woman He Loved by Ralph G. Martin, and The Secret File on the Duke of Windsor by Michael Bloch. The first I would recommend because it's a great biography. The second is okay, but I would recommend it because there are letters. They only make up about a fourth of the book, but I am a huge junkie for royal letters. They give an insider's point-of-view.
Anyway, as a girl Wallis was sent to boarding school, paid for by her rich uncle. There she got into all kinds of weird fashions (she wore feathers in her hair, men's shirts, bow-ties, and a monocle according to accounts I've read though I've only ever found one photo of her dressed like that and it won't scan) and liked to sneak out and meet boys (this involved slipping out a second-story window). She made friends, but in many ways she always felt like she was on the outside looking in, because her family wasn't rich and she didn't have the same lifestyle as the other girls. She was known to be "fast", which among teenage girls of that time period meant "wild and kind of slutty". From her teen years on, she kind of fell into the role of the "scarlet woman", which was one of about three possible roles women could have in those days, and for the rest of her life she never shed that label.
One story had her and a friend being assigned to memorize two pages for her German class. They were told they would each have to recite a page when they were done, without being told which one. Wallis told her friend it was ridiculous and agreed to do one page. Her friend wasn't sure how they'd handle it, and sure enough the teacher called on Wallis to recite the page the other girl had memorized. Wallis distracted the teacher by complimenting her scarf and going into a long conversation about where she'd gotten it. When there was a pause, Wallis said "Shall I begin?" and began reciting the page she has actually memorized. Her friend was then asked to read another one. They got away with it. Her best friend at school was Mary Kirk, who would later play an important role in her life. Together they made a scrapbook on the then Prince of Wales, with pictures they cut out of newspapers. He would later play an even more important role in her life.
At sixteen, Wallis was offered the chance to be the heir to her rich uncle, provided she move in with him and not see her mother anymore. The rest of the family thought her mother was "corrupting her", being a woman who had actually worked for a living. Wallis refused and after she finished highschool she went to stay with her cousin, Lelia, in Florida. Wallis knew there wasn't much money left, and she needed to get married as soon as possible. It's not like she could go to college or get a job or anything, the best solution was to get married.
While in Florida, Wallis met Navy Pilot (this was back when flying was new and exciting) Earl Winfield Spencer (not to be confused with Princes Diana's father, who was an actual Earl). They got married in 1916, and then lived happily ever after.... Wait, actually not. He turned out to be an insane drunken rapist who liked to fly his plane around drunk. But we'll get to that next time, with another chapter of Wallis's life story. I never meant for this to be some bit multi-part thing, but I got carried away.
She is a rather controversial royal woman... well, actually the royals (or at least Queen Mary and the Queen Mother) would say she wasn't ever a royal, and the internet would say she wasn't actually a woman either. So please, for a minute, indulge me and pretend you don't have the internet. Well, that's rather hard as you're on it right not, but let's just say I'm posting this on a bulletin board or something.
Best known as Wallis Simpson, Wallis is a woman who's name, when typed into autofill, brings up terms like "hermaphrodite" and "Nazi". I really don't believe she was either, and there's not much evidence either way. If she was the former, well, that's hardly her fault and it says nothing whatsoever about her morality or character. If anything, it means she was a very strong person to be able to survive being intersexed in that time period. If she was the latter, well, that's horrible, but despite popular belief, that is not a fact. It's really more of a rumor, and not even a particularly substantial one. She met Hitler, once, and had a lot of enemies. Yes, I know what it says on wikipedia. But I also know what it says in most of the many biographies written about her. And I know what many of her surviving friends say.
[www.people.com]
The persistent rumors branding the Windsors themselves as Nazi sympathizers are "preposterous," the countess says. "I know those stories backwards and forwards, and they're absolutely untrue. The duchess was extremely American, and one of the most patriotic women I've ever known. I would only involve someone in a mission if I felt they were totally conscientious and trustworthy."
Now, that was Aline, Countess of Romanones, who spent World War II working for the OSS hunting down and exposing high level Nazis. Maybe Madonna should make a movie about her next. But even if Wallis was a Nazi (and I wouldn't know; I wasn't there) she was never convicted of anything, so let's just give her the benefit of the doubt for a moment.
Wallis was born in 1896 (or possibly earlier, records are scarce and she wasn't the most honest woman in the world) in Pennsylvania. Her parents were traveling there, either to help her father's illness or to cover-up her mother's out-of-wedlock pregnancy, depending on who you ask. They were from Baltimore and Wallis grew up there. Her father died not long after her birth, and her mother was forced to work. Wallis was in a difficult situation, her father's family had some money, and her mother's family liked to pretend they had once had money. But Wallis and her mother didn't have any money. So Wallis had a childhood that ranged from being flat broke to moderately well off. She had a rich uncle who would sometimes give them money, and other times wouldn't. Given that this was the turn of the century, the only job Wallis's mother, Alice, could get was as a seamstress. And she didn't make all that much. She remarried when Wallis was 10 or 11, but her second husband died a few years later.
I have two books with me at the moment, The Woman He Loved by Ralph G. Martin, and The Secret File on the Duke of Windsor by Michael Bloch. The first I would recommend because it's a great biography. The second is okay, but I would recommend it because there are letters. They only make up about a fourth of the book, but I am a huge junkie for royal letters. They give an insider's point-of-view.
Anyway, as a girl Wallis was sent to boarding school, paid for by her rich uncle. There she got into all kinds of weird fashions (she wore feathers in her hair, men's shirts, bow-ties, and a monocle according to accounts I've read though I've only ever found one photo of her dressed like that and it won't scan) and liked to sneak out and meet boys (this involved slipping out a second-story window). She made friends, but in many ways she always felt like she was on the outside looking in, because her family wasn't rich and she didn't have the same lifestyle as the other girls. She was known to be "fast", which among teenage girls of that time period meant "wild and kind of slutty". From her teen years on, she kind of fell into the role of the "scarlet woman", which was one of about three possible roles women could have in those days, and for the rest of her life she never shed that label.
One story had her and a friend being assigned to memorize two pages for her German class. They were told they would each have to recite a page when they were done, without being told which one. Wallis told her friend it was ridiculous and agreed to do one page. Her friend wasn't sure how they'd handle it, and sure enough the teacher called on Wallis to recite the page the other girl had memorized. Wallis distracted the teacher by complimenting her scarf and going into a long conversation about where she'd gotten it. When there was a pause, Wallis said "Shall I begin?" and began reciting the page she has actually memorized. Her friend was then asked to read another one. They got away with it. Her best friend at school was Mary Kirk, who would later play an important role in her life. Together they made a scrapbook on the then Prince of Wales, with pictures they cut out of newspapers. He would later play an even more important role in her life.
At sixteen, Wallis was offered the chance to be the heir to her rich uncle, provided she move in with him and not see her mother anymore. The rest of the family thought her mother was "corrupting her", being a woman who had actually worked for a living. Wallis refused and after she finished highschool she went to stay with her cousin, Lelia, in Florida. Wallis knew there wasn't much money left, and she needed to get married as soon as possible. It's not like she could go to college or get a job or anything, the best solution was to get married.
While in Florida, Wallis met Navy Pilot (this was back when flying was new and exciting) Earl Winfield Spencer (not to be confused with Princes Diana's father, who was an actual Earl). They got married in 1916, and then lived happily ever after.... Wait, actually not. He turned out to be an insane drunken rapist who liked to fly his plane around drunk. But we'll get to that next time, with another chapter of Wallis's life story. I never meant for this to be some bit multi-part thing, but I got carried away.
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