Secret Letters.

Yesterday, I didn't feel too good and decided to ensconce myself on the sofa in the evening, cuddling a cushion and watching a programme I had saved for myself on the planner. Entitled Secret Letters, it was about the most recent discovery in a family members loft of several suitcases full of the authenticated letters and correspondence of Wallis Simpson. A secret that has been kept until the last of them went to their graves and promised to keep hidden until the true story could be told.

'David'.

As I am enraptured by history, and especially this period. Long have I drooled over some of Walli's clothes and flawless style. I of course know the story of Wallis and Simpson - who doesn't! The woman who got her man. Love story of the Twentieth Century. The scarlet harlot of a twice divorced woman who lured the dashing bachelor future King V111 away from his duty and the throne of England - Scandal galore!!!
But you see, what many people don't realize is that history changes. It is not dead and in the past. It is alive and vibrant and changing all the time, as historians and archaeologists discover and understand new things. Evidence that will change our points of view is surfacing all the time. Usually only the victors got to write history, but remember there are always two sides to every story.

Wallis Simpson.

Only from Wallis' own pen can we see this other side to the tale - it seems no one really knew the real true story except perhaps three close people. Wallis didn't love Edward - or David as she and the Royal family called him. In her frank and open letters between her aunt Bessie and current husband Ernest Simpson it seems that she and Ernest played a very dangerous social climbing game. Just the same as the modern film Indecent Proposal, with Demi Moore and Robert Redford - where the man offers one million pounds for one night with Woody Harelson's wife. Things went wrong. The human heart is not to be tampered with.
It seems in order to climb the social ranks Ernest and Wallis set out to 'have fun and climb ranks', by allowing her to become one of the Prince's mistresses, of course with Ernest's blessing and understanding - as was the protocol at the time. This was normal practice in their society. Still happens today - look at Camilla and Charles. They all thought Edward would tire of Wallis, like he had every other woman. He didn't, instead he fell in love. A deep, needing and controlling love. She tried to leave, tried to end it - even writing to the British Government and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, to beg them not to allow him to abdicate, because she knew once he did her fate would be forever sealed.

Edward was never letting Wallis go, and she would loose all the society points if she caused a scandal. Ernest and her would be ruined the world over. She tried everything she could to remove herself from the situation, but she had realised the enormity of her fate too late. The newly crowned  King even told his family, Wallis, Ernest and his ministers - that if he lost Wallis he would slit his own throat! There was to be no escape for Wallis and Ernest. They had little choice but to comply with the Royal pressure. Ernest agreed to grant a divorce and be seen with his mistress, which was now agreeing to an illegal contract. After begging him to remain King, Wallis listened to Edward's abdication speech in tears and realized it was the lid coming down on her coffin, once he spoke those famous words :

" But you must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love". - King Edward V111.

  For two years after her marriage to Edward, Wallis wrote her feelings and love to ex husband, Ernest, whom she had realised too little too late - she really truly loved. He wrote to her imploring her to always keep a fan flaming for their love. Their cold and calculating social gamble had gone horribly wrong. They had played with fire and got their fingers irreparably burnt.