Possible one of the most well known romances of the 20th Century was that of Wallis Simpson and Prince Edward Duke of Windsor.
Wallis Simpson was an American Socialite who was currently married to her second husband, Ernest Aldrich Simpson, when she first met the Prince who was at the time Prince of Wales and next in line to ascend to the British throne.
She met him through her friend Lady Furness who was the prince's Mistress. The visited several times more after their initial meeting and one weekend while Lady Furness was away, it's said there affair started, witness by house staff.
Over the coming months Edward became besotted with Wallis and sent her gifts. For her 40th birthday he commissioned a necked of rubies and diamonds which intertwined like a rope, leading down to a waterfall of rubies. On the clasp he had inscribed
'My Wallis from her David, 19,VI, 1936'
David was his birth name, used by close family.
Set in platinum it was designed by Rene-Sim Lacaze and made by Van Cleef & Arpels.
They holiday together a number of times during 1935 and it was now that couriers at the royal palaces where beginning to get uneasy. As next in line to the throne Edward could not marry Wallis, He would be King when he ascended to the throne which would make him head of the church of England. The Church Of England did not permit the remarriage of divorced people who still had living ex-spouses.
On 20th January 1936, George V died and Edward was declared King Edward VIII. It was becoming apparent now the king intended to marry Wallis Simpson. In the eyes of the British and Dominion governments Wallis as a soon to be twice divorced woman was unsuitable as a consort either politically, socially or Morally. So when the King with the British, Australian and South African governments to brooch the subject of marriage to Wallis was given a flat No! If he went ahead anyway the government would be faced to resign on mass.
As the King Edward deliberated on what to do next he commissioned a bracelet for his beloved Wallis. It consisted of four clusters of rubies surrounded by diamonds and had the inscription
'Hold Tight 27,III,36'. Hold tight was a phase the couple used whenever they where in trouble.
Wallis' divorce was finalised on 27 October 1936. It was around now the British press where starting to report on the affair and Wallis was forced to flee Briton and took up refuge in the South of France at the Villa Lou Viei, near Cannes. It was while she was here being under siege by press, that the King's Lord In Waiting, Lord Brownlow asked her to renounce the King. She gave in and he helped her pen a press release of her readiness to give up the King which was released on the 7th December 1936. This could have been the end of the Relationship and history could have been very different, but it wasn't. Edward ignored Wallis' press release and a few days later on 10th December he announced his abduction from the throne.
On the 11th December 1936, Edward made his famous speech of abduction.
"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 so,
without the help and support of the woman I love."
After his abduction Edward and Wallis had to spend their first Christmas apart due to complications. To help cheer her up he sent her a present. A brooch of double holly leaves, one was encrusted with Rubies and the other with baguette diamonds.
The couple where reunited in France at the Chateau De Cande on the 4th May 1937. They married a month later.
