The American Duchess

John Aird, who was in attendance on the trip, was alarmed when, on arrival at the villa, the prince rushed in and gave the best bedroom to his equerry, apportioning himself ‘a rotten little room next to W’. An hour later the decision was reversed. ‘At whose suggestion I do not know,’ recorded Aird. Most likely Wallis’s, given that only she could steer the prince towards more dignified behaviour. Indeed, the couple’s correspondence during the trip bears witness to Wallis’s eye for detail. She writes to him from her room in the morning, suggesting that as they have a lunch for ten later that day, including with Sir Robert Vansittart, the permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office, it would be more comfortable if the butler could organise ‘chairs without arms’. As well as seating plans, menu plans – ‘I didn’t see a green vegetable on the menu’ – she explains: ‘I like everyone to think you do things well.’

Wallis always needed to be in control. ‘She liked to know exactly what was going on,’ said Hugo Vickers. ‘Later in their life together, if someone dropped a plate in their house in the French countryside and the Duchess was in Paris, she would know as if by radar. She said to her butler: “If something breaks, please tell me. I won’t mind but please always let me know.” She was incredibly straightforward like that and her staff adored her for it.’ Indeed, a kitchen maid who later worked for Wallis attests to this: ‘All the maids spoke well of Mrs Simpson.’

Oblivious to the dramatic extent of it, Wallis, with her maternal chiding, vigilant housekeeping, lack of sycophancy, genuine intelligent interest in Edward’s official duties and air of assured competency, had become indispensable to the prince. She was his oxygen. Without her, Winston Churchill observed, he was haggard and dejected. By the end of the long summer holiday, having stretched their European sojourn through to October, Edward knew that he wanted to marry her. How he would realise this became his principal obsession. ‘It was all quite vague but nonetheless vivid,’ he later wrote. ‘This dream of being able to bring into my life what for so long had been lacking.’ He intended to discuss the matter with his father that autumn. Meanwhile, he wrote to Wallis, pleading with her not to forsake him: ‘Please, please Wallis don’t get scared or loose [sic] faith when you are away from me. I love you more every minute and no difficulties or complications can possibly prevent our ultimate happiness.’

His obsessive desire for Wallis now left no room for Ernest. ‘I do hate and loathe the present situation … and am just going mad at the mere thought (let alone knowing) that you are alone there with Ernest. God bless WE forever my Wallis. You know your David will love you and look after you so long as he has breath in his eanum body.’

* When Chips Channon’s diaries were published in 1967, his views on the royal family were seen as so controversial that certain names were redacted. In this instance it is likely that he is referring to the Duchess of York and then the battle between the king’s camp and the York camp, which would include the attitude of the king and queen.