Wallis, Part 6

So, we're back with part six of the scandalous life of Wallis Warfield Windsor. You cans see the other parts in the blog under May.

While they were on their honeymoon in June 1937, David and Wallis, now Duke and Duchess of Windsor, were faced with deciding what to do with the rest of their lives. They believed they would be invited back to England to do royal stuff within a few years, but what to do until then?

Their friend Charles Bedaux suggested arranging a pseudo-royal tour of housing developments. In Nazi Germany. Now, with hindsight, it's apparent how stupid going on that trip was. But at the time, to David and Wallis, who perhaps weren't the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree, it sounded like a good idea. It would be something to do, and a way for Wallis to get some level of recognition as a royal wife, which wasn't going to happen in Britain. On the internet, the going theory is that they took this trip because they were just so in love with Nazi stuff they had to see it for themselves. But there are some problems with that theory. First of all, the trip wasn't their idea. It was suggested to them by others and they went along with it. Second of all, they had also considered going on a trip to Soviet Russia, which was probably an even stupider idea considering what usually happened to royalty in Soviet Russia. But after the negative attention they got because of the Nazi Germany tour, the idea was scrapped.

Also, I really don't think they had Nazi sympathies and have yet to see and solid proof to the contrary. In all of the letters they wrote to each other there are very few mentions of Nazis at all, and what there is pretty negative. When it comes to the various second and third hand accounts, usually dating from years after the fact, it's really up to individuals rather or not they believe them. It is worth noting that there are similar second and third hand accounts of Nazi sympathies involving other members of the British royal family, and that includes the present Queen's parents and husband. Of course, there's nothing to most of these allegations, but it's interesting how stuff like this gets much more attention when it involves the black sheep of the royal family. But then again, I wouldn't know, I wasn't there. I'm trying to stick to documented facts when it comes to Nazi stuff. I will say that being raised in a royal family and being brought up to believe in the concept of monarchy might make someone inclined towards fascism or at least less likely to be against it.

Anyways, David and Wallis had decided to go to Nazi Germany to tour housing developments in October 1937. While there, they met with Nazis, toured Nazi buildings, and were generally given a feel for Nazi life. They even got to meet Hitler who told them about how he totally didn't want a war with anyone and was just misunderstood. Wallis found the whole trip kind of boring. She made small talk with some Nazis but none of them seemed to share her interests, which were fashion and campy movies.

After their Nazi visit, they got some angry responses from Britain. Not because they were in Nazi Germany hanging around with Nazis, but because they were taking attention away from the good royals back in Britain. It didn't help that David's fangirls had formed a society in his honor called the Octavians and were planning an annual pilgrimage to his place of birth to celebrate his accomplishments and complain about how The Firm had wronged him. I'm really not making this up. Imagine how poor Bertie must've felt. His only fangirl was his mother. One of the less angry responses was from Winston Churchill, who was one of the only people who knew what was coming when it came to Hitler. Though he had advised against the trip, he said that it had gone pretty well and praised them for not acting quite as stupid as they could've acted.

David and Wallis were once again with nothing to do. Charles Bedaux suggested a trip to America touring his factories, but it didn't happen after pretty much every person who knew David and Wallis told them not to do anything else that idiot suggested. So instead they rented a house on the French Riviera and had some relaxation time. They threw parties, and attended parties, and fell into married life. As to what to do all day, they shopped, played games, and generally had fun. The concept of David getting some kind of job was floated around, but royals really look down on people who work for a living. They regard them much in the same way Middle America regards prostitutes, though they have spent the better part of a century trying to convince people they don't feel that way. Even though personally he wasn't adversed to the concept, David's family and the British government would have seen it as undignified. Plus, they weren't exactly hurting for cash.

Wallis went to a lot of fashion shows, which she enjoyed, and took to circling things she wanted in Vogue magazine for her husband to buy her as gifts. Despite not being exactly happy with how things had turned out, to the point of fighting with David about it quite a bit, Wallis enjoyed the first few years of married life greatly. She was no longer as concerned about David changing his mind about wanting to marry her, though the idea of him regretting abdicating the throne was always on her mind. And for the first time in her life, she didn't have to think about money. David had also turned out to be a more affectionate and respectful husband than either of her other two had been. He put up with her problems, as well as her efforts to fix his own. One of them was that, growing up in a royal family where people nod along to whatever you say, he didn't know how to keep his mouth shut at dinner parties. So Wallis would kick him under the table whenever he said something that people not born with his particular brand of privilege might find offensive. That way he would know to stop talking. If only they could find someone to do that for Prince Philip...

Another problem David faced being in the real world (or the rich White people vacation real world at least) was his complete inability to do basic tasks like packing a suitcase and filing papers. Poor guy didn't even know how a paperclip worked. Of course, his situation was nowhere near as bad as that of some of the surviving Romanovs, who found themselves ex-royals with no money and half their family dead. And they were even more sheltered. Wallis found this more amusing than frustrating and arranged to hire a small army of servants so her poor husband wouldn't be forced to do anything himself. She would still helpfully remind him sometimes: "Remember, darling, you're not King anymore!"

During the early years of their marriage, Wallis figured that since her husband was British she needed a fake British accent to make it official. By all accounts, this accent was incredibly annoying, possibly even more than Madonna's. As a young girl she probably spoke like any other Baltimore girl of her generation, but once she started traveling during her first marriage she played up her "Southern" accent. That lasted until she decided to be British (after she'd been kicked out of Britain) which lasted until she settled on a New England accent modeled after her favorite actress, Katherine Hepburn. Regardless of accent, her voice was alleged to have sounded like "rusty gates", "a bird", or "a cat being strangled to death" depending on who you asked.

Starting in 1939, there was a war going on. I'm not a big World War II person, and that's why I don't watch The History Channel. I don't like wars; they're unpleasant and the only unpleasant historical things I like happened in Tudor England. Plus, unpleasant as it may have been, World War I was more interesting. Anyway, I do have a book on Wallis's life that goes into the war years and all that quite a bit. It's called "The Woman He Loved" by Ralph G. Martin and my copy is currently held together by tape. I really need to take better care of my books.

Long story short, at the outset of the war, David and Wallis came back to England so he could get an assignment to help the war effort. He was given a choice between a job in France or in Wales. He chose Wales, but they sent him to France anyway because the Queen didn't want them in the U.K. at all. A contemporary news article described his visit home:

"Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, went home, taking with him his still unroyal, still beloved Duchess. Once the news would have been the biggest in all Britain; last week it was just another parenthesis in the sad story of war. The Kelly was scheduled to dock at Portsmouth at 6:30 one evening. At 6:45 the blundering Ministry of Information announced that the Duke had landed. But not until 9, more than two hours after the news hit the wires, did the Duke set foot on the red carpet which covered the very jetty from which he had left England exactly two years, nine months before.
[sic]
Next morning the couple drove (Duchess at the wheel) to Major Metcalfe's grey stone house in Ashdown Forest, about 40 miles south of London. In the car were two paperbound books: Winston Churchill's Step by Step, Dr. Ivan Lajos' Nazis Can't Win. Beaming like newlyweds, they received newspapermen. The Duchess was bright ("looked even better than when she left") in a gold dress, a gold and black checked coat, the Duke proper ("looked several years younger") in gray double-breasted flannels and a maroon-and-white tie."

But then they went back to France, where David was to supervise British troops. There wasn't a lot of fighting going on yet; it was mostly sirens and the occasional bomb getting dropped. Wallis joined the Red Cross and spent her days gathering and packing supplies for soldiers. Once things started picking up and bombings increased, she worked in an ambulance delivering blood. Her servants had to leave to either join the service or be with their families and Wallis considered herself the "busiest" she'd ever been taking care of her household as well as trying to help the war effort. In 1940, the Nazis invaded France and Wallis fled to the South of France while David remained at his post. Though it was later claimed (in several books and on wikipedia) that he deserted his post, he had been given permission to leave and was planning on staying. This changed a few weeks later when Wallis started to get worried and demanded he join her at their house on the French Riviera because she was convinced he would get captured or killed if he remained in Paris.

When Italy declared war on France, the Windsors got papers to go to Italy, while the non-royals were left to suffer. Though they have since been accused of generally being selfish during the war, the worst of their behavior was during the summer of 1940. While they didn't do much that was really "wrong", considering all the horrible things most people in Europe were going through they didn't act very decently.

Wallis and David arrived Madrid after a difficult trip in June. While in Madrid, some Nazis took an interest in them. Basically, Hitler had this crazy idea that if he invaded Britain he might be able to get the Windsors to act as puppet King and Queen. The British government heard about this and decided to try and get the Windsors to come to Britain. They wanted them to come to London, but they still wouldn't receive Wallis or acknowledge her as David's wife. They also wanted them to get on a plane, which Wallis wasn't going to do because she was terrified of flying. Once she became aware of the gravity of the situation, Wallis agreed to go, but David refused because he felt like his wife was being disrespected.

Winston Churchill then called up George VI and Queen Elizabeth and asked them if they would receive Wallis. He explained that he really wanted to get the Windsors out of Spain and that the whole situation would be helped along a great deal if they would pretend they didn't hate Wallis for just a few weeks. They said no. He then told the Windsors that it would be the mature thing to do to come anyway and ignore the slight. They also said no.

While both sides were acting like four-year-olds (except for poor Churchill who had to manage both a war and the inbred clusterfuck known as The Royal House of Windsor), David was approached by a Spanish spy working for the Nazis. He basically explained to him all the "wonderful" things Nazism had to offer. Sort of like a Mormon missionary, except instead of Jesus he was talking about Hitler. David refused, and said that he was a loyal British subject. It's worth noting that the spy in question, when interviewed years later, recounted it happening like that, which goes against the now widespread theory that he was "in on" whatever plans the Nazis had. The Nazis then tried a combination of bribery and blackmail which also didn't work to convince him to do anything.

The Nazis then decided the whole thing would work a lot better if they kidnapped Wallis and David and then tried to brainwash them. To do this they needed to keep them in Spain long enough for their agents to get ahold of them. Which didn't work, because Wallis and David soon left for Lisbon to await further information from Britain. The Nazis then needed to get them back to Spain. They tried to scare them by throwing bricks through their windows and firing gunshots outside where they were staying. They did succeed in scaring them, but instead of going to Spain they finally agreed to go to Britain. Before they could get there, the government gave them an assignment to go to the Bahamas where David would serve as governor. He didn't want to do it, and Wallis really didn't want him to do it, but he wasn't in a position to say no and so Wallis and David found themselves on a ship called "Excalibur" like King Arthur's sword, headed to a smoldering Caribbean island in the middle of July. Wallis cried and complained to one of her friends that she "didn't pack for that".