Queen Mother: 'The people who caused me most trouble were Wallis Simpson and Hitler'

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Part Two of a major new biography reveals how theQueen Mother's withering verdict meant the Duke and Duchess would forever be... the unforgivenFor Wallis Simpson, maligned as 'the woman who stole theKing', the Abdication was a tragedy. She was fond of Edward VIII but was not inlove with him.
She used to say, in later life, that she aged ten years in 1936and the one thing for which Wallis never forgave the Duke of Windsor was hisdecision to renounce his throne. Certainly, life after the Abdication was going tobe difficult. The Labour MP Herbert Morrison (grandfather of Peter Mandelson)talked of the dilemma facing the Duke. 'The choice before the ex-King is either to fadeout from the public eye or be a nuisance,' he said. 'It is a hard choice,perhaps, for one of his temperament, but the Duke would be wise to fade out.'

Outcasts: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1966. Wallis Simpson was acutely aware ofhis family's unwillingness to accept herThe Duke did not heed that advice. Bitterness cameeasily to him and, since he had nothing to do, he had time to mull it all over.Years later, he told the biographer Kenneth Rose: 'Twenty years I worked for mycountry and they kicked me out on my ass.' The social historian Cleveland Amory, who helpedghost the Windsors' autobiographies, wrote: 'Almost every conversation I hadwith the Duke would have at least one time in it the preface, "When I wasKing", and then a story about that.
'As for the Duchess, she did not knowthe first thing about the British government, nor indeed about the Britishpeople. All she knew was how to get a man and how to get ahead.' This begs the question: how did she get 'her man'?Every possible theory has been advanced. It was even suggested that Wallis hadlearnt special sexual techniques in Shanghai, where she had gone in 1924 to tryto patch up her marriage to her first husband Win Spencer.

Feud: Queen Elizabeth told the Duke when he abdicated that she would always remember him in her prayers, though she soon became irritated by his demandsThe attitude of King George VI and the Royal Familytowards the Duke following the Abdication was something he found hard to cometo terms with and arguably never forgave.
Like so many other elements in thelives of the Duke and Duchess, their wedding in 1937 was rife with problems.The King decided that no member of the Royal Family would attend the ceremony. From that day on, the Duke lay in wait for slightsand succeeded in finding them at every turn. Moreover, Wallis was not given the right to be aRoyal Highness or a member of the British Royal Family. The title of RoyalHighness was to be restricted to the Duke alone. The Duke minded this more than Wallis did andinsisted that his staff call her 'Your Royal Highness' at all times. For therest of his life the Duke appealed over and over again to have this decisionreversed.
It became a major preoccupation - alongwith his wish that the Duchess be received by the King and Queen, and for thismeeting to be recorded in the Court Circular.

In practice, the Royal Family could do as theypleased. They took steps to prevent the Duchess becoming a Royal Highnesspartly out of fear that the marriage would not last. At the time it was saidthat they did not want divorced Royal Highnesses 'floating around the cafes ofBudapest'.

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An ill-advised trip to Berlin in October 1937 tosee Hitler can hardly have helped. The Duke continued to demand the right to return toBritain from France, where they had settled, but the new King, his brother George VI, wasadvised that the Windsors must not come back.

Once with his wife and her cafe society world, theDuke found his own family more a! ntiquate d and distant than ever This would be another issue to dog them for therest of their lives. The Duke was alarmed to find that if he arrived in Britainwithout obtaining the King's permission, private financial arrangements madefor him by his brother could be cancelled. The Windsors were at Cap d'Antibes in the South ofFrance when the Second World War broke out, and the Duke agreed to return toBritain without insisting on terms. He had one lone meeting with King George VI, atwhich various options were discussed concerning his future in wartime. A year after war was declared, Churchill accusedthe Duke of disobeying military orders, hinted at the threat of court martial,left him to stew overnight and then sent him a telegram informing him that itwas in his power to offer him the Governorship of the Bahamas.
Nobody was excited about the appointment: the Duke and Duchess considered itanother form of exile while Queen Elizabeth attempted to quash the appointmenton account of the Duchess. Such attitudes clearly wounded Wallis. Towards theend of the war, she complained to a friend: 'I can't see why they don't justforget all about the Windsors and let us be where we want to be -in obscurity.' There is no evidence that Wallis consciously triedto isolate the Duke of Windsor from his family, but she was acutely aware oftheir unwillingness to accept her.

Rare encounter: The Queen and Prince Charles with the Duchess of Windsor in Paris in 1972 shortly before the Duke died
Once with his wife and her cafe society world, theDuke found his own family more antiquated and distant than ever.
Queen Mary,the Duke's mother, confined her contact with him to letters. His decision toabandon the throne and the title of Edward VIII was, in her view, made when hismind was absolutely unhinged. She was devoted to her eldest son, but could notaccept his wish to put the path of personal happiness! with Wa llis before hisduty.
This was best summed up in her remark to him: 'It seemed inconceivable tothose who had made such sacrifices during the war that you, as their King,refused a lesser sacrifice.' As the years went by, the Duke of Windsor rejiggedhis version of history. He attributed the Abdication to an Establishment plotand began to believe that Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the new Queen, had led acampaign against him. In fact, she played no part in the Abdication. Many have insisted that she did not hate WallisSimpson and simply wanted peace, while others enjoyed the idea of a feud.Certainly, as the new Queen Elizabeth and later the Queen Mother, she kept herdistance. The women presented contrasting styles. Elizabethwas sensibly dressed, wholesome and loyal. Stylish and sharp, Wallis had avaguely raffish edge. That suspicion extended to the Duke. There remaineda fear within the aristocracy that he might attempt to reclaim his birthright,that his charisma was a threat to the new King and that he could now no longerbe trusted.

Wallis knew that few would put flowers on her graveNevertheless, Queen Elizabeth told the Duke when heabdicated that she would always remember him in her prayers, though she soonbecame irritated by his demands.
Years later, she told Henry Gillespie, afriend from Australia: 'The two people who have caused me the most trouble inmy life are Wallis Simpson and Hitler.' It was her view that the Windsors should bediscouraged from re-entering Royal circles. In 1939 she made it known that shehad no wish to meet the Duchess of Windsor. If she did, she believed, it wouldbe no time before the pair would be wriggling their way into court functions. The slights continued. On returning to Europe fromthe Bahamas after the war, the Duke was irritated that neither he nor theDuchess was received at Buckingham Palace, the accepted practice for everycolonial Governor and his wife. The question of what the Duke might do next hadbeen raised in London. Tommy Lascelles, the King's Priva! te Secre tary, told thePrime Minister's office that nothing had given him so much worry over a quarterof a century as the problems associated with the Duke of Windsor. Lascelles did not want him in England and made thedevastating point that it would be 'a constant agony (I use the word advisedly)to the present King, which might have really serious consequences'. There wouldbe no more official jobs.

Meeting a monster: The Windsors' ill-advised trip to Berlin in October 1937 to see Hitler can hardly have helped family relations

In February 1952, George VI died and the Duke cameto London alone for the funeral. If he had hoped that the new reign would makehis life easier, he was mistaken. He soon discovered, for example, that he had losthis allowance of 10,000 a year, a voluntary sum given him by hisbrother. The Duke was shocked at this and claimed he would have to adjust hisstandard of living while trying to live as befitted the son of an Englishsovereign. A mere four days after the death of George VI,Queen Mary sent a request to Queen Elizabeth (by now the Queen Mother)beseeching her and 'the girls to see [the Duke] & bury the hatchetafter 15 whole years'. They did see him, though, as her officialbiographer put it, Queen Elizabeth was not enthusiastic.

Queen Mary thought, rather overoptimistically: 'Sothat feud is over, I hope, a great relief to me.' Unfortunately, the feud was not over. The Duke soonrealised that there was no future for him in Britain and that he would not beoffered another job. The Windsors put down roots for the last years of theirlives, moving to the house in the Bois de Boulogne, 20 minutes from centralParis. The Duke and Duchess were not invited to theCoronation of Elizabeth II in June 1953. Sir Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, told theCabinet that whereas it was understandable that the Duke of Windsor mightattend a Royal funeral, ! it was c ompletely inappropriate for a King who hadabdicated to attend the Coronation of one of his successors. The Cabinetendorsed this view. Therefore, the Windsors watched the Coronation ontelevision, a friend jesting that it was much more chic to watch the ceremonyon a black-and-white set in the company of the Duke and Duchess than to beseated in Westminster Abbey.

Awkward: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor (right) are seen with (l to r), the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester in 1967

In June 1964, the Duke of Windsor turned 70, with aflood of presents and a telegram of congratulation from the Queen. Incelebration of this milestone, a newspaper article suggested that the Queen andthe Royal Family should relax their distant attitude and invite the Windsors tolunch. The article caused outrage. However, June 1967 saw one of the Duke's wishesfulfilled: a formal meeting for the Duchess with the Queen and the Royal Familywas arranged. It took place at Marlborough House when a plaquewas dedicated to the memory of Queen Mary, who had died there in 1953. TheRoyal Family were there in force. The Queen and Prince Philip were joined by the QueenMother, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Marina and others. Theywere lined up - the Windsors on the far end, next to theGloucesters. The Queen could be seen shaking hands with the Dukeand Duchess and chatting briefly to them. The Queen Mother surprised courtiersby suddenly kissing the Duke on the cheek. As the Duke of Gloucester's PrivateSecretary said: ' Consummate actress. She wouldn't have him to lunch.' In 1970 the young Prince of Wales, somewhatinfluenced by his great uncle Lord Mountbatten, thought they should come overfor a weekend. He suggested as much to the Queen Mother but met with a negativeresponse. She reserved her communications with the Windsors to an annu! alChrist mas card, on which she occasionally wrote a brief personal message. Even after the Duke died in 1972, the frostinesswent on unabated. When the Queen Mother went to stay at the British Embassy inParis in October 1976, there was a suggestion she might visit the Duchess ather Bois de Boulogne home. But this was never going to happen. Such a visit would have given no pleasure to eitherparty, nor was the ailing Duchess by then in any state to receive a momentousvisit of that kind. Instead, the Queen Mother, ever one to do the right thing,sent flowers with the message: 'In friendship, Elizabeth.' Three of her ladies-in-waiting have attested thatthe Queen Mother did not hate the Duchess of Windsor. Visiting the Royal BurialGround at Frogmore, Windsor, about six years after the Duke's death, the QueenMother saw his grave and said: 'And I suppose the poor old Duchess will be hereone day?' The Queen Mother's line was that you have to knowsomeone to hate them. The Queen Mother hardly knew the Duchess. When the Duke died, the Queen invited the Duchessto stay. When he was buried at Frogmore she saw that his grave and the placereserved for her lay under the branches of a plane tree. The Duchess had alwaysloved plane trees. Aware that it was unlikely that many would layflowers on her grave, she took comfort that the leaves would fall on to hergrave in the autumn. When the Duchess died in 1986, she was given afuneral service at St George's Chapel and buried beside the Duke. The Queenstood at the graveside. Duke and Duchess were finally united under Britishsoil.

Hugo Vickers. Adapted from Behind ClosedDoors, by Hugo Vickers, to be published by Hutchinson on April 7 priced25. To order your copy for 20. with free p&p,call the Review Bookstore on 0845 155 0730 or visit www.MailLife.co.uk/Books