Who is the American divorcee who married a prince?

Answer 1

Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Spencer, then Simpson; 19 June 1896 - 24 April 1986, was an American socialite who in 1934 began an affair with Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, the heir apparent to the British throne. On 20 January 1936, Edward's father, George V died and he ascended the throne as Edward VII.

Following his becoming king, Wallis Simpson, still married, filed for divorce, while Edward sought advice as to how he could marry her and make her queen. He was told the fact that she was twice-divorced would cause a constitutional crisis (as the king was the head of the Church of England). The only solution offered was a morgantic marriage, whereby Edward could marry Wallis but she would not be queen.

Edward refused to contemplate this possibility and with no possibility of Wallis Simpson becoming queen, Edward took the decision to abdicate and signed the instrument of abdication on 10 December1936.

After his abdication, Edward, who had been given the title Duke of Windsor by his successor, George VI, and Wallis went into voluntary exile in France. Edward and Wallis Simpson married on 3 June 1937 at the Château de Candé, France. In 1937 they went to Germany as the personal guests of Adolf Hitler.

In recent times evidence has come to light that both the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson were Nazi sympathisers (Wallis had had an affair with leading Nazi and German foreign minister joachim von Ribbentropp) and for this reason th eBritish Government used the impending marriage and constitutional crisis as an excuse to force the king to abdicate.

With the outbreak of war the Duke was given a military post in the British Army stationed in France, but it is alleged that Wallis continued to entertain friends associated with the fascist movement, and leaked details of the French and Belgian defenses gleaned from the Duke to the Germans.

As the Germans advanced they were moved to Lisbon before being taken to the Bahamas, where the Duke was appointed Governor. Wallis hated her time there and her racist attitudes were reflected in letters to an aunt, inwhich she referred to the local population as "lazy, thriving ni**ers".

After the war they settled in France and became neighbours with the Duke's old friend, British fascist leader Oswald Mosley and his wife Diane, who later said that the Duke agreed with her husband's views regarding Hitler and communism. In 1966, the Duke wrote in the New York Daily News: "...it was in Britain's interest and in Europe's too, that Germany be encouraged to strike east and smash Communism forever ... I thought the rest of us could be fence-sitters while the Nazis and the Reds slogged it out"

Edward died of cancer in 1972 and Wallis died in 1986. Both are buried at the Royal Burial Ground, Windsor.