Wallis Simpson

Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (previously Wallis Simpson, Wallis Spencer, born Bessie Wallis Warfield 19 June 1896 – 24 April 1986) was an American socialite. Her third husband, Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII of Britain, abdicated his throne to marry her.

Wallis' father died shortly after her birth, and she and her widowed mother were partly supported by their wealthier relatives. Her first marriage, to U.S. Navy officer Win Spencer, was punctuated by periods of separation and eventually ended in divorce. In 1934, during her second marriage, to Ernest Simpson, she allegedly became the mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales. Two years later, after Edward's accession as king, Wallis divorced her second husband in order to marry Edward.

The King's desire to marry a woman who had two living ex-husbands threatened to cause a constitutional crisis in the United Kingdom and the Dominions, and ultimately led to his abdication in December 1936 to marry "the woman I love". After the abdication, the former king was created Duke of Windsor by his brother and successor, King George VI. Edward married Wallis six months later, after which she was formally known as the Duchess of Windsor, without the style "Her Royal Highness". She was instead styled as "Her Grace", a style normally reserved only for non-royal dukes and duchesses.

Before, during, and after World War II, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were suspected by many in government and society of being Nazi sympathisers. In 1937, they visited Germany and met Adolf Hitler. In the 1950s and 1960s, she and the Duke shuttled between Europe and United States living a life of leisure as society celebrities. After the Duke's death in 1972, the Duchess lived in seclusion, and was rarely seen in public. Her private life has been a source of much speculation, and she remains a controversial figure in British history.

Wallis Simpson in The War That Came Early
Wallis Simpson, who had toppled King Edward VIII and scandalised the United Kingdom in 1936-7, was still fresh in the minds of Britons when war broke out in 1938. Alistair Walsh and his squadron mates joked that it would be nice if some "popsy" swept the incompetent, untrustworthy King Leopold III off the Belgian throne, just as Wallis had dethroned Edward.

In 1940, after the "big switch" caused Britain to lean closer toward fascism, MP Ronald Cartland told Walsh that Edward, when still Prince of Wales, had seemed to harbour barely-concealed dictatorial aspirations. This caused Walsh to wonder whether Edward's passion for Wallis was the only reason he had forfeited the Crown.