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Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII, 84 years after the most talked about marriage ever

June 3, 1937 went down in history as the day of one of the most discussed weddings of the twentieth century, that is the wedding between Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor, better known as l ‘from their pay Edward 8. It was 1936, we remember, when Edward VIII – uncle of Elizabeth II – he abdicated in order to marry the “American divorcee”. A decision that left the British royal family, the European aristocracy and most of the gossip fans speechless. To his British subjects, in saying goodbye, he simply said: “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of my responsibilities and fulfill my duties as king without the help and support of the woman I love.”

After the renunciation of the throne, the two remain “alone” the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, confined for much of life in exile, in France.

Tit all began in the autumn of 1931, when it was presented to the Prince of Wales and future King Edward Mrs. Wallis Simpson, arrived with her second husband, Ernest Aldrich Simpson. At the time, the future king was 37 years old and had never married. Wallis Simpson, who was born 35 years earlier in Pennsylvania, had also already had a first husband: US Air Force officer Earl Winfield Spencer, a violent man with alcohol problems.

Orphaned of her father by tuberculosis a few days after her birth, Wallis had grown up protected by her paternal grandmother, attending the best schools in Maryland, making herself known for her brilliant wit, wit, excellent manners. Qualities that will always accompany it, together with being ambitious, intelligent, witty, and endowed with enormous charm.

To present them is Lady Thelma Furness, Wallis’s acquaintance and at the time one of Edward’s mistresses. At the beginning of 1934 Wallis and the prince are practically inseparable. But King George V e Queen Mary they do not approve, at all. They even refuse to meet her when Edward first took her on a visit to Buckingham Palace. She was already divorced, something irreconcilable with the royal family of the time, as well as being frowned upon by the British government and public opinion.

On January 20, 1936, Edward ascends the throne with the name of Edward VIII. However, his reign, as we know, is very short. But that doesn’t mean that did not try in every way to have a crown and a beloved. At the window of St James’s Palace on the day of official proclamation, for one thing, was Wallis. But as head of the Anglican church, the king certainly can’t marry a divorced woman even if that’s what he wants.

The rest is history. The two will marry in exile in the south of France on June 3, 1937, the day on which the late George V would have turned 72. The bride chooses a blue dress designed for her by the stylist Main Rousseau Bocher, which will go down in history as the color «Wallis blue». Today the dress is exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

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