Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
RESEARCH INTO THE WALLIS SIMPSON AND EDWARD VIII RELATIONSHIP
Casey Watts
Year 1- Digital Media Journalism
Who are they??
It was a scandal that could have brought down the monarchy. The British king gave up his throne for an American divorcee. What was it that Mrs Simpson had?
Wallis Simpson
1. Born Wallis Warfield, to a distinguished American family.
2. In 1916 she married Lieutenant Earl Winfield Spencer. He was to develop a drinking problem and the marriage soon became abusive. Wallis eventually left him and the couple divorced in 1927.
3. Six months after her divorce, Wallis married Ernest Simpson and they moved to London.
4. Wallis met Prince Edward at a fashionable party and there was an instant attraction.
5. While many blame Wallis for seducing the Prince, it seems likely that she was herself seduced by the glamour and power of being close to the heir of Britain's throne.
6. On 20 January 1936, King George V, Edward's father, died, and Edward became King Edward VIII. His infatuation with Wallis distracted him from his state duties.
7. Some claimed Wallis was a German spy. 8. Edward abdicated the throne to marry Simpson
and was later succeeded by his brother Albert.
Print screens of online Biography's
Wallis Simpson the style icon
Style icon
http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/celebrity-photos/2011/09/08/wallis-simpson---style-file
Style icon
Her clothes were as challenging as her approach to royal etiquette. When Coco Chanel's boyish Breton tops and trimmed box jackets were de riguer, Simpson was trumping the nipped-in waists and corsetry of American couture designer Main Rousseau Bocher.
Her sharp wit led to a collaboration with Salvadore Dalí, who designed a lobster-print for the Elsa Schiaparelli gown that Simpson wore in Vogue in 1937. Photographer Cecil Beaton may have captured a demure Simpson sitting in the grass for the issue - but she can't have been blind to the connotations; Dalí was well known for using lobsters as an expression of frank and ardent sexuality.
However, Simpson was a realist as well as an exhibitionist and said, with a touch of vulnerability: "I'm not a beautiful woman. I'm nothing to look at, so the only thing I can do is dress better than anyone else." And so the Duchess wore fashion like a kind of armour - with her sense of style becoming more sophisticated the more notorious she became.
She is said to have worn a Paco Rabanne spacesuit to one party and at the funeral of the Duke in 1972 - an event when she would have known all the eyes of the world would be on her as she walked next to the Queen Mother - she had Hubert Givenchy stay up all night to perfect the length of her chiffon veil.
King Edward VIII
1. The first monarch to be a qualified pilot, Edward created The King's Flight in 1936 to provide air transport for the Royal family's official duties.
2. Met and fallen in love with the then married Mrs Wallis Simpson. When Mrs Simpson obtained a divorce in 1936 and it was clear that Edward was determined to marry her.
3. On 10 December 1936, Edward VIII abdicated the throne.
4. In 1937, Edward was created Duke of Windsor and married Wallis Simpson in a ceremony in France.
5. He lived abroad until the end of his life, dying in 1972 in Paris (he is buried at Windsor).
King Edward VIII
Name: King Edward VIIIFull Name: Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick DavidBorn: June 23, 1894 at White Lodge, Richmond, SurreyParents: George V and Mary of TeckRelation to Elizabeth II: uncleHouse of: WindsorAscended to the throne: Jan 20, 1936 aged 41 yearsCrowned: UncrownedMarried: Ms Wallis SimpsonChildren: NoneDied: May 28, 1972 at Paris, aged 77 years, 11 months, and 3 daysBuried at: FrogmoreReigned for: 10 months, and 21 days, Abdicated: December 11, 1936Succeeded by: his brother George VI
Timeline for King Edward VIII
Edward VIII succeeds his father, George V, as King on 20 January, 1936. Outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Germany, under Adolf Hitler, reoccupies the demilitarized left bank of the
Rhine. Britain begins to rearm as political tension increases in Europe and the
prospect of military conflict in the region becomes more evident. Fire destroys Crystal Palace, once the home of the Great Exhibition in
Hyde Park but now located in Sydenham, south London. J.M. Keynes publishes his book General Theory of Employment, Interest
and Money an internationally influential study of modern economics. Maiden voyage of luxury ocean liner the Queen Mary takes place. Jarrow crusade of unemployed marches to London The BBC inaugurates the world’s first television service at Alexandra
Palace in London. On 10 December Edward signs the Instrument of Abdication over his wish
to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson. Witnessed by all his brothers, it is a simple declaration of his intent to renounce the throne for himself and all his descendants. He is subsequently created Duke of Windsor.
Quotes
‘I wanted to be an up-to-date king. But I didn't have much time.’ - Edward VIII
‘I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help of the woman I love.’ - Edward VIII (abdication speech)
W.E Film
Plot
W.E. tells the story of two fragile but determined women – Wally Winthrop and Wallis Simpson – separated for more than six decades. In 1998, lonely New Yorker Winthrop is obsessed with what she perceives as the ultimate love story: King Edward VIIIs abdication of the British throne for the woman he loved, American divorcee Wallis Simpson. But Winthrop's research, reveals that the couple's life together was not as perfect as she thought. Weaving back and forth in time, the film intertwines Wally's journey of discovery in New York with the story of Wallis and Edward, from the glamorous early days of their romance to the slow unravelling of their lives in the decades that followed
