Inside The Mansions The Royal Family Paid For To Keep The Duke of Windsor Silent

This in-depth, full-length documentary explores how King Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936 to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, lived in French exile funded by £25,000 annual Crown payments, toured Nazi Germany meeting Hitler in 1937, governed the Bahamas during WWII, and died in their Paris villa where Wallis’s jewelry later sold for 53.6 million Swiss francs at Sotheby’s.

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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introduction

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Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David was born to be King of England but abdicated December 10, 1936, after 326 days on the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

Bessie Wallis Warfield was born June 19, 1895, in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, to a father who died when she was five months old, leaving her mother dependent on Baltimore relatives’ charity.

She married Navy aviator Earl Winfield Spencer Jr. in November 1916, but he was a serious alcoholic whose volatility made their marriage unstable across multiple naval postings including China.

After divorcing Spencer in 1927, she married Ernest Aldrich Simpson in July 1928—a Harvard-educated Anglo-American businessman whose London social connections introduced her to Prince of Wales social circles.

Through Lady Thelma Furness, Wallis met the Prince of Wales at a house party in Melton Mowbray in January 1931, becoming a fixture at Fort Belvedere by early 1934.

The constitutional crisis centered on Church of England prohibition against remarriage of divorced persons while former spouses lived—both Spencer and Simpson were alive.

Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin informed Edward in October 1936 that the government could not support marriage to Mrs. Simpson and would resign if he proceeded, triggering a general election.

Edward’s December 11, 1936, broadcast to several hundred million people worldwide explained he could not carry royal responsibilities “without the help and support of the woman I love.”

George VI paid Edward £25,000 annually tax-free (equivalent to £1.8 million today) but denied Wallis the title “Her Royal Highness”—she would curtsey to any royal family member for life.

They married June 3, 1937, at Château de Candé with no British royal family attendance, officiated by Church of England vicar Robert Anderson Jardine against his bishop’s wishes.

In October 1937, the Duke and Duchess toured Nazi Germany for eleven days, traveling on Hitler’s personal train, dining with Goebbels, Göring, and Hess, and meeting Hitler at Berchtesgaden.

Photographs showed the Duke giving a full Nazi salute to Hitler, telling the Führer: “The Germans and the British races are one, they should always be one.”

Winston Churchill appointed the Duke Governor of the Bahamas in August 1940—effectively six thousand miles of comfortable exile from any European influence during World War II.

The Marburg Files captured after the war revealed German Operation Willi aimed to use the Duke as a puppet monarch for post-invasion Britain or negotiated peace settlement.

In 1953, the French government provided them a villa at 4 Route du Champ d’Entraînement in Paris at nominal rent—the former residence of Charles de Gaulle from 1946-1953.

Stéphane Boudin of Maison Jansen designed the interiors with Louis XV furniture, Degas paintings, Asprey silver, and a painted ceiling inspired by Sicily’s grotesque Villa Palagonia.

The villa included Scottish footmen (Wallis refused French staff), a wine cellar, dining for sixteen guests, and a nuclear fallout shelter beneath the main reception rooms.

French tax exemptions, embassy access to duty-free goods, and the Crown annuity funded their lavish lifestyle of dinner parties, couture wardrobes, and jewelry worth tens of millions.

The Duke died May 28, 1972, at age 77 in the Paris villa, ten days after Queen Elizabeth II visited him for the first time since the abdication.

Wallis lived fourteen more years under increasing isolation managed by lawyer Maître Suzanne Blum, dying April 24, 1986, at age 89 after years of declining mental acuity.

Sotheby’s auction of her jewelry collection in Geneva on April 9-11, 1987, realized 53.6 million Swiss francs, with the Wittelsbach diamond brooch selling for 7.92 million Swiss francs.

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