Windsor, Duchess of (1896-1986), was the wife of Edward, Duke of Windsor, who as King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom gave up his throne in 1936 to marry her.
Bessie Wallis Warfield was born on June 19, 1896, in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, United States. She became a leading figure in American society. In 1916, she married Lieutenant Earl Winfield Spencer, who was in the United States Navy. In 1927, their marriage ended in divorce. In 1928, she arrived in England and married an American-born British stockbroker named Ernest Simpson, with whom she moved to London. Soon she was well known as a London socialite.
In 1931, Wallis Simpson, as she was then known, met Edward, Prince of Wales, at a country house party. Over the next five years, they became increasingly close. In 1936, Wallis divorced her second husband. When the Prince of Wales ascended the throne that year as King Edward VIII, he informed the British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, of his intention to marry Wallis Simpson. The government, the Church of England, and much of British and Commonwealth society were scandalized by the idea of a British monarch marrying a commoner who had been twice divorced. Faced by a rising tide of opposition to his marriage, King Edward abdicated (gave up the throne) and was never crowned. He then became the Duke of Windsor.
In June 1937, Edward and Wallis Simpson were married in France, where they took up residence. She received the title Duchess of Windsor but not the additional title of Her Royal Highness. In 1940, Edward was made governor of the Bahamas, and the duke and duchess lived there until the end of World War II (1939-1945). After the war, they returned to France, where they remained for the rest of their lives. In 1956, her autobiography, The Heart Has Its Reasons, was published. She died on April 24, 1986.
See also Edward VIII .
