King Edward VIII gave up being a king! There are precious few kings in the world, and to make it to the actual Throne before he was forty meant a decent long life spent being the king; so this was a one in a billion chance to be the king of the world’s most popular monarchy. And he gave it all up for a woman, Wallis Simpson.
Yes, it sounds terribly romantic, but Wallis was very happily married to Ernest Simpson. Wallis was playing with fire, and David (Edward’s real name as a prince) was having sexual affairs with several woman, when he latched on to Wallis. Suddenly, she was at his beck and call, and Wallis could have walked away from it all; but she must have found it intoxicating that a man who would one day be a king desired her. So Wallis kept Prince David happy, and reportedly it was an incredibly tiring job for her: entertaining the prince took all her time.
On Edward’s side, he was quite a handsome party boy, who didn’t seem to want to buckle down and marry a nice genteel woman from the aristocracy, and he didn’t want to go about the tedious task of being a king either. Most of the time being the monarch is tiring. Yes, the rewards exist; but the cost of being in charge is steep. Edward VIII gave it up, so he could marry Wallis.
Wallis recorded in her diary that she didn’t love Edward the way she loved Ernest, but how would Wallis have looked if she had declined the ex-king’s marriage proposal after he gave up being the king for her? Wallis faced a daunting decision: She could live with a man who gave up a kingdom to be with her, or she could turn away from Edward and look awful in the eyes of the world. Wallis consented to be Edward’s wife.
Wallis Simpson was forty when she married Edward, and they never had children. There’s that. Wallis couldn’t offer him a child, even though I doubt Edward really expected to have one.
The couple lived a life on the edges of society. After it became known Wallis and Edward went and fawned over Hitler, and he essentially agreed to make them king and queen should he win WWII, polite society shut their doors on Wallis and Edward. The royals dealt with them by playing them in the Bahamas. After the war ended, the couple settled in France. They were not invited or permitted to live in Great Britain.
Wallis could only offer Edward some good sex, which might have grown bland after a while, and endless parties thrown for people who were not high society. Yes, France gave them a place to live and was their sanctuary; but how could that compare to the grandeur that Wallis fell in love with in Britain?
Wallis fell for the trappings that went along with Edward being royalty. That he gave it all up for little ole her meant what she loved was no longer there for her. Wallis wasn’t in love with Edward; she was in love with his position. She liked influencing a powerful man, and when he became powerless what was left?
Nothing. Not in Wallis’ eyes. Her last husband gave up the palaces, jewels, status, and elan associated with being the king of Britain and the Commonwealth. Edward, by becoming an ordinary man, held little appeal for Wallis. She liked the game of chase. She enjoyed the hunt. But was she worth leaving a crown and a realm? Not in her eyes. I think Edward came to see that in time, too. They both lost out, though thankfully for the UK the right brother was king during the dark days of WWII. King George VI. Edward’s little brother.
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