The Duke and Duchess of Windsor

[pinkpearls]

I have a soft spot for Wallis. If there had never been a Wallis, there wouldn't have been a QEII. Silver linings!

[getafix]

  Emily

you know the most fascinating bits of history that seemed to fill in the gaps in me mind

G

[KittyHeaven]

It's a film about a pair of Nazi trannies, right? And how they plotted for Hitler to take over Britain and be installed as Nazi-Monarchs? 

More likely some sugary nonsense. I would actually watch the first film   

LMAO!! Did you read where they did baby talk to one another..."pleath" for please...etc? I have also read that Edward VIII liked to be spanked...and not in a sexy way...the way a sadistic nanny or parent would abuse a child! 

I mean...can you just imagine this creepy, kinky couple on the British throne??! I think Britons should have shrines erected to Wallis Simpson in every public square!!

[Lille]

Diana attending the funeral of the Duchess of Windsor.

[midnightblue711]

While it seems Wallis portrays herself as innocently as possible, I still feel badly for her. The reports of those who knew him are quite troubling.    I bet she had to treat him with kid gloves, so to speak, like a child.    Coddle him and do her best to keep him in an upbeat mood.  I bet it was quite emotionally draining.  

[getafix]

While it seems Wallis portrays herself as innocently as possible, I still feel badly for her. The reports of those who knew him are quite troubling.    I bet she had to treat him with kid gloves, so to speak, like a child.    Coddle him and do her best to keep him in an upbeat mood.  I bet it was quite emotionally draining.  

You know a lap dog is quite entertaining when its not your dog, and you have to give it back; but its a different story when its your own lap-dog and you have to look after it all the time!

She knew what he was like, and went for him like a heat missile.

coupled with external forces who saw the opportunity, wholla: her fate was sealed.

No sympathy there wotsoever

G

[Distelfink]

If anyone would like a painless and very entertaining account of the Wallis and Edward saga then read Laurie Graham's novel "Gone with the Windsors". I came across it  by accident and enjoyed it so much that I have recommended it to a number of friends. They in turn keep recommending it and we have all enjoyed it immensely.
There is a review link below if you want more details of a very good read.

http://www.independent.co...laurie-graham-504210.html

[PeDe]

Kate and William have the same bodyguard that Princess Diana had. It is Williams's own wishes and is even a link to his deceased mother.
 
The man in charge of security around Prince William and his Kate named Ian McRae, he was once Princess Diana's bodyguard, and even Prince Charles . It is Williams's own desire to have it so. A royal source said to newspaper  The People that William has fond memories of the bodyguard from his childhood, and that he finds it comforting to have someone near him who he can share memories of his mother. It was Ian McRae, for example drove Diana home from holiday in Austria in 1992 when her father, Earl Spencer, died and was the first who had to comfort her.



Diana lives on
 
The other day was Ian McRae follow Kate and her sister Pippa at a boardwalk along Llanddwyn Island near Kate's new home in Anglesey in Wales.



He also was with Kate and William recently when they visited Birmingham in response to the violent riots. Kate and "Wills" has a total of eight bodyguards around him, all hand picked. McRae is another example of how Diana lives on through William and Kate. William gave the former Kate of her mother's engagement ring, and did it with the words "It was right to bring them both."

[boneofcontention]

Thanks for the book recommendation Distelfink and great post Fairy

I've just spent the past week absorbed in a book about Wallis by Greg King. It is a sympathetic view and now that I am finished I am going to do what I always do with biographies of controversial figures - go and read a hatchet job to counterbalance it. That way, I can weigh up a dual presentation of the character.

My opinion, on a purely superficial level, is that Wallis was so elegant that I wish she had become queen just for the photos of her robes etc. instead of that fat, frilly, frou-frou, pastel hued Queen Mother who comes across both in the Wallis story and in Diana's subsequent words as someone more steely and unlikeable than her public image.

How she must have seethed knowing that Wallis would be reading newspaper stories of her own darling daughter Margaret going for a divorced man, albeit one she dropped. Then of course becoming a divorcee herself. And I bet she was glad Wallis wasn't around to view the Mark II behaviour of her beloved grandson Charles when he cavorted with and then married divorcee Camilla. How they hurt, used and humiliated Diana is much worse than anything the Windsors did. The chickens came home to roost for that judgemental, sanctimonious old Cookie.

And as for Edward, he was probably not the weak loser that they portray - the Establishment had to back the  replacement King and so inversely diminish his "rival" in people's minds. It took strength to stick to his guns as he did and in many ways it was his popularity with the masses when he had been King that the Establishment wanted to quash - much as they later shuddered at Diana's charisma. The monarch is better if he/ she doesn't rock the boat and has a pleasant but dull persona and never has a personality which becomes bigger than their role. They are tools of the state - "The King is dead. Long live the king" ie expendable - the role, not the individual, is what counts. Boring Kate - good, Diana - unmanageable. Boring Bertie good, Edward- unmanageable. And smoke and mirrors will be used to maintain the status quo.

[CyrilSebastian]

Edward and Wallis visited Miami, Florida in 1940.   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoHKa7MoLXs

[Seagull]

What a funny hat the Duchess is wearing! The Duke voice is strangely effeminate, almost meek?

[gameofdrones]

What a funny hat the Duchess is wearing! The Duke voice is strangely effeminate, almost meek?

I think the voice is due to speeding up the old b&w videos to match the current speeds. It makes the voices sound weird. Like inhaling from those gas balloons  and speaking.

[Carreen]

I'm currently reading Andrew Morton's 17 Carnations. I don't think he's a historian and I'll have to read more books about it before I judge about the Nazi theory etc... but I have a strong impression that David/Edward didn't really want to be king. And I think history turned out quite well after the abdication.

It was easy for everybody then to throw all the guilt on "that woman" although Wallis, it seems to me at least, didn't want any of this. She wanted fun, she wanted him as a lover but not for life, she didn't want to become the most hated woman of Europe. She was not educated in the spirit of service to Britain, and to blame her for not having it is ridiculous. The duke, on the other hand...

I can understand the attraction Wallis had for Edward when I saw some interviews with her on Youtube. When you see only photographs, it's difficult to appreciate her charm - but she definitely had charm. She was elegant, slim, had a sense of humour.

About her political views, I can't judge. Again, she didn't have the background knowledge her husband had. Many people in Britain and other countries misjudged Hitler at first and tried to see only his "positive sides".

I'm tired of seeing the women blamed for things men do. Wallis owed Britain nothing.

And why the Queen Mother hated Wallis so much and went to such lengths to keep the couple alienated... hmmm.... she did enjoy the role as queen, that's for sure, so the abdication didn't play out badly for her.

[cordtx]

The QM was in love with David herself when they were younger, supposedly??
Them later anger at the stress to her husband   

[Ellie]

It's pretty well documented the QM was ruthless and wanted the top spot, thus David, and Bertie had to propose to her three times to get her to say yes as she wasn't interested. I don't think theirs was a love story as people would have you believe at least not on her side. He clearly was mad about her.