biography
| name: |
Windsor, (Bessie) Wallis, Duchess of
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née Warfield, previous married names Spencer and Simpson
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1896–1986)
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| biography:
| Wife of Edward VIII, born in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, USA. An extrovert socialite, in 1916 she married Lieutenant Earl Winfield Spencer of the US Navy, but in 1927 the marriage was dissolved. The following year, in London, she married Ernest Simpson, an American-born Briton. Well-known in London society, she met Edward, the Prince of Wales, at a country-house party in 1931. In 1936, the year of his accession, she obtained a divorce in England, and the king subsequently made clear to Stanley Baldwin and his government his determination to marry her, even if it meant giving up the throne. They married in 1937 in France, but she was not accepted by the British royal family until the late 1960s. She and Edward lived in France and the Bahamas; after Edward's death she lived virtually as a recluse, and was in ill health for many years before she died, in Paris. She was buried beside her husband at Windsor Castle. |
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