Read The Duchess Of Windsor Online
Authors: Greg King
The Duchess Of Windsor (63 page)
Such continued ostracism on the part of the Royal Family was difficult for certain members to understand. David’s nephew, the earl of Harewood, later recalled: “It was hard for the younger amongst us not to stand in amazement at the moral contradiction between the elevation of a code of duty on the one hand, and on the other the denial of central Christian virtues—forgiveness, understanding, family tenderness. ”
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Nor was David any more favorably impressed by the battle he had had to wage to keep his financial settlement. In anger, he wrote to Wallis: ”It‘s hell to be even this much dependent on these ice-veined bitches, important for WE as it is.”
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Nor was David any more favorably impressed by the battle he had had to wage to keep his financial settlement. In anger, he wrote to Wallis: ”It‘s hell to be even this much dependent on these ice-veined bitches, important for WE as it is.”
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A year later, the same tense family scenes would be repeated. On March 6, 1953, David, along with his sister Mary, the Princess Royal—who happened to be visiting him and Wallis in New York—sailed from America to Southampton upon learning that their mother was dying. Once again, there was no question of Wallis’s joining him, and she remained at the Waldorf Towers in New York. There, on March 24, she learned that Queen Mary had died. Her reaction was a curious one: Upon hearing the news, she immediately burst into tears. For the rest of her life, she would keep a small photograph of the Queen on a table in her bedroom in Paris.
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Queen Mary had never wavered from her belief that Wallis was simply an adventuress, unworthy of her son and a royal title and style. She had never bothered, in the sixteen years of their marriage, to address a single letter to her daughter-in-law. Her Christmas cards, regularly dispatched from Marlborough House, were pointedly inscribed: “To David.”
18
But Wallis, according to one intimate friend, was “haunted by the idea that she had forever come between mother and son.” More than anyone, she knew how much the Duke had loved and revered his mother: “He spent his entire life trying to win her approval,” she commented sadly. “Now, it is too late.”
19
She had always hoped that despite the numerous indications to the contrary, David, at least, would be accepted back into his family.
18
But Wallis, according to one intimate friend, was “haunted by the idea that she had forever come between mother and son.” More than anyone, she knew how much the Duke had loved and revered his mother: “He spent his entire life trying to win her approval,” she commented sadly. “Now, it is too late.”
19
She had always hoped that despite the numerous indications to the contrary, David, at least, would be accepted back into his family.
If David had hoped that his mother’s death would help lessen some of the antipathy toward him among the Royal Family, he was mistaken. He attended Queen Mary’s funeral but was told he would not be welcome at the family dinner which followed at Windsor.
20
The experience left him bitter, filled with unhappy reflections on how he had been treated. He wrote to Wallis: “My sadness was mixed with incredulity that any mother could have been so hard and cruel towards her eldest son for so many years and yet so demanding at the end without relenting a scrap. I’m afraid the fluids in her veins have always been as icy cold as they now are in death.”
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The experience left him bitter, filled with unhappy reflections on how he had been treated. He wrote to Wallis: “My sadness was mixed with incredulity that any mother could have been so hard and cruel towards her eldest son for so many years and yet so demanding at the end without relenting a scrap. I’m afraid the fluids in her veins have always been as icy cold as they now are in death.”
21
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor did not attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II that spring. It was not simply a matter of David’s refusing to join the celebrations if Wallis was not invited, for he himself was deliberately excluded as well. Traditionally, of course, a king or queen followed to the throne upon the death of his or her predecessor; it was therefore considered somewhat unlucky that any former sovereign, with the exception of a consort, should be present during a coronation. The Duke knew that such an exclusion could only be advanced on the idea that one Crowned sovereign did not attend the coronation of another. Edward VIII, of course, had never been Crowned and thus fell beyond the bounds of convention. Even though a coronation traditionally brought together the scattered aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews, which constituted the entire Royal Family—a gathering which should automatically have included the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, as aunt and uncle of the new Queen—Queen Elizabeth II flatly declared that she did not wish for her uncle to be issued an invitation; neither he nor Wallis was welcome.
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On June 2, 1953, London and the world celebrated the start of a new reign filled with promise and hope; however, for the Windsors, this new Elizabethan age would bring no relief from the royal vendetta.
39
The Last Two Houses
F
OR SIXTEEN YEARS
, since that cold December day when David had abdicated, Wallis knew that his most heartfelt desire was to return home to England to live. Pathetically, he had hoped against hope that someday his family would relent. When his brother died, David briefly thought that his niece would halt the Royal Family’s war against him and his wife. Then, in 1953, Buckingham Palace announced that it was selling the lease on Fort Belvedere; David was informed that he would not be allowed to purchase it.
1
With this, it finally became clear that the new Queen would be just as unforgiving as her father where the Windsors were concerned. They finally abandoned their years of leases and temporary housing and began a serious hunt for a house in France to purchase.
OR SIXTEEN YEARS
, since that cold December day when David had abdicated, Wallis knew that his most heartfelt desire was to return home to England to live. Pathetically, he had hoped against hope that someday his family would relent. When his brother died, David briefly thought that his niece would halt the Royal Family’s war against him and his wife. Then, in 1953, Buckingham Palace announced that it was selling the lease on Fort Belvedere; David was informed that he would not be allowed to purchase it.
1
With this, it finally became clear that the new Queen would be just as unforgiving as her father where the Windsors were concerned. They finally abandoned their years of leases and temporary housing and began a serious hunt for a house in France to purchase.
From 1949 to 1953 the Duke and Duchess had lived in a rented house at 85, rue de la Faisanderie, in Paris. This was not as large as their house at 24, boulevard Suchet, nor did it possess a suitable garden. The salon was of an adequate size, but Wallis found the dining room too small for entertaining. They continued to remain in residence, but Wallis began to search for a new house in Paris.
It was by accident that she happened upon the house at 4, route du Champ d’Entrainement, in the fashionable Bois de Boulogne, only fifteen minutes by car from the center of Paris. A moderate-sized villa, it had been occupied immediately after the war by President Charles de Gaulle. The two acres of landscaped gardens, surrounded by tall hedges and an iron railing, promised privacy. Perhaps most important, the price was right: the French government agreed to let the Windsors take up residence for a token rent of fifty dollars (U.S.) a year; they signed the lease, and Wallis immediately set to work transforming the house into a miniature palace.
2
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Situated near the Porte de Madrid in the Neuilly District, the Windsors‘ new house had been built in the 1880s by architect Gabriel-Jean Antoine Davioud.
3
The massive iron gate, topped with gilded iron spikes and ducal coronets, was flanked by two tall stone posts that marked the entrance to the property. A small lodge, in the same style as the main house, stood here as well, providing accommodation for the concierge and his family. The crushed-gravel drive swept in a careful arc across the manicured, rolled lawns, past the immense oak and chestnut trees and clumps of colorful rhododendron bushes, to the columned portico of the main house. The Windsor Villa, as it came to be called, was an eclectic mixture of Third Empire architecture, mansard roofs, ornate stonework, and elaborate window grilles. From the exterior, it was a rather grand house, but there was only a handful of rooms within, allowing Wallis to entertain in the style she wished but comfortable enough for the Windsors to feel that they were, at last, home.
3
The massive iron gate, topped with gilded iron spikes and ducal coronets, was flanked by two tall stone posts that marked the entrance to the property. A small lodge, in the same style as the main house, stood here as well, providing accommodation for the concierge and his family. The crushed-gravel drive swept in a careful arc across the manicured, rolled lawns, past the immense oak and chestnut trees and clumps of colorful rhododendron bushes, to the columned portico of the main house. The Windsor Villa, as it came to be called, was an eclectic mixture of Third Empire architecture, mansard roofs, ornate stonework, and elaborate window grilles. From the exterior, it was a rather grand house, but there was only a handful of rooms within, allowing Wallis to entertain in the style she wished but comfortable enough for the Windsors to feel that they were, at last, home.
As in her house on boulevard Suchet, Wallis again called on the talents of Stephane Boudin, who by this time had perfected his skills as an interior designer. His approach to the Windsor Villa was more refined, and also much more lush, than his work at boulevard Suchet. Wallis, too, had changed: Her tastes and experiences had been honed through several decorating projects, and she brought to their new house very definite ideas she wished to see carried out. As a result, the house in the Bois de Boulogne became a true collaborative effort between Duchess and designer.
“It is hard to believe that there can ever have been an interior more surpassingly clean—where crystal was more genuinely scintillating and porcelain more luminous, or where wood and leather, polished to the consistency of precious stone, could more truthfully be said to shine,” wrote author Valentine Lawford of the Windsor Villa.
4
The sense of luxurious indulgence was immediate upon entering the house. From the front doors, a small vestibule opened to the foyer, rising two stories and circled by a second-floor gallery with an iron-and-bronze decorative railing. Wallis wanted a very grand, very formal introduction to the house, and Boudin provided his idea of a re-created Italian palazzo in the rococo style. The walls were painted in shades of antiqued yellow, apricot-and-green scagliola, or imitation marble, with gilded moldings, heavily veined greenish-blue pilasters, and touches of scarlet rubbed into corners and daubed on walls to add a richer, deeper hue. Above the cornice, a trompe l’oeil balustrade circled a painted blue sky filled with white clouds and free-flying birds.
5
4
The sense of luxurious indulgence was immediate upon entering the house. From the front doors, a small vestibule opened to the foyer, rising two stories and circled by a second-floor gallery with an iron-and-bronze decorative railing. Wallis wanted a very grand, very formal introduction to the house, and Boudin provided his idea of a re-created Italian palazzo in the rococo style. The walls were painted in shades of antiqued yellow, apricot-and-green scagliola, or imitation marble, with gilded moldings, heavily veined greenish-blue pilasters, and touches of scarlet rubbed into corners and daubed on walls to add a richer, deeper hue. Above the cornice, a trompe l’oeil balustrade circled a painted blue sky filled with white clouds and free-flying birds.
5
The most prominent feature of the foyer was the Duke’s Order of the Garter banner, from his time as Prince of Wales, hanging from the second-floor gallery. Opposite the front door, on either side of the entrance to the drawing room, were eighteenth-century, Regency-style consoles resting on immense gilded eagles; above them hung octagonal, gilded mirrors. Enormous banks of white orchids and arum lilies, in crystal and porcelain vases, stood at intervals around the room, illuminated by concealed spotlights, which cast a seductive, subdued glow over the jewel-toned walls. A sedan chair stood in one corner opposite a colorful antique Chinese screen. In the center of the foyer, on a mahogany-and-ormolu desk, stood the Windsors’ guest books and the red leather dispatch box marked simply: “The King.” There were further echoes of this royal heritage: Boudin had designed the wall sconces, carved in wood and brightly painted and gilded, to resemble the royal coat-of arms, with the motto of the Prince of Wales,
Dieu et mon Droit
, picked out in scarlet and gold; above hung a glass-and-ormolu Louis XV-style four-light lantern, surmounted by gilded Prince of Wales feathers, which had formerly been in Fort Belvedere.
6
Dieu et mon Droit
, picked out in scarlet and gold; above hung a glass-and-ormolu Louis XV-style four-light lantern, surmounted by gilded Prince of Wales feathers, which had formerly been in Fort Belvedere.
6
The drawing room occupied the center of the garden side of the house. Previously, Boudin had created his famous dining room for the London house of Chips Channon, modeled after François Cuvillies’s blue-and-silver rococo salon in the Amalienburg Pavilion at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich. At the Windsor Villa, he continued to draw from this inspiration, although this version was muted in its flamboyant detail. The walls were painted a pale blue, with moldings of braiding and tassels, as well as cornices, picked out in antiqued silver. Three French doors opened onto the terrace and garden beyond; between them stood silver Italian neoclassical-style consoles by Jansen, along with Empire-style painted fauteuils and matching stools.
7
The parquet floor was covered with a specially woven Aubusson carpet of pale blue with a motif of intertwined flowers and trelliswork enclosing the Prince of Wales’s feathers, worked in silver thread.
8
In one corner stood a black Steinway baby-grand piano; against the long wall opposite the French doors were sofas and armchairs in blue and silver, also by Jansen; the rest of the furniture—tables, chairs, consoles—was French Louis XV and XVI. Two enormous paintings hung on either side of the door to the foyer: Sir William Llewellyn’s portrait of Queen Mary in Garter Robes, painted in 1919, always hung to the left of the door; and at various times, Etienne Drian’s stern portrait of the Duchess in her blue taffeta gown (“It was my Scarlett O’Hara dress,” the Duchess had remarked with a laugh to a friend
9
) or a portrait of the Duke in his Garter Robes by Sir James Gunn hung to the right. “On every table,” wrote Lawford, “console, commode, and
gueridon
, are equally priceless objects and bibelots; a profusion of gold, enamel, porcelain and vermeil—seal cases, snuff boxes, Augsburg and Chinese and Meissen birds. And there is a phenomenal array of Meissen pugs—pugs on cushions, pugs on stools, pugs scratching themselves behind the ears, pugs asleep, pugs on the
qui-vive.”
10
This assortment rested on small outlines of felt, carefully cut to shape and placed to prevent scratching; wax had been melted onto the tables in their outlines to hold them in place in case they were jostled. “We have collected a few things,” Wallis remarked to one visitor.
11
With due irony, Lawford noted that Wallis’s “collector’s eye is by now as sure and discerning as her Royal mother-in-law’s ever was.”
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7
The parquet floor was covered with a specially woven Aubusson carpet of pale blue with a motif of intertwined flowers and trelliswork enclosing the Prince of Wales’s feathers, worked in silver thread.
8
In one corner stood a black Steinway baby-grand piano; against the long wall opposite the French doors were sofas and armchairs in blue and silver, also by Jansen; the rest of the furniture—tables, chairs, consoles—was French Louis XV and XVI. Two enormous paintings hung on either side of the door to the foyer: Sir William Llewellyn’s portrait of Queen Mary in Garter Robes, painted in 1919, always hung to the left of the door; and at various times, Etienne Drian’s stern portrait of the Duchess in her blue taffeta gown (“It was my Scarlett O’Hara dress,” the Duchess had remarked with a laugh to a friend
9
) or a portrait of the Duke in his Garter Robes by Sir James Gunn hung to the right. “On every table,” wrote Lawford, “console, commode, and
gueridon
, are equally priceless objects and bibelots; a profusion of gold, enamel, porcelain and vermeil—seal cases, snuff boxes, Augsburg and Chinese and Meissen birds. And there is a phenomenal array of Meissen pugs—pugs on cushions, pugs on stools, pugs scratching themselves behind the ears, pugs asleep, pugs on the
qui-vive.”
10
This assortment rested on small outlines of felt, carefully cut to shape and placed to prevent scratching; wax had been melted onto the tables in their outlines to hold them in place in case they were jostled. “We have collected a few things,” Wallis remarked to one visitor.
11
With due irony, Lawford noted that Wallis’s “collector’s eye is by now as sure and discerning as her Royal mother-in-law’s ever was.”
12
On the left side of the drawing room, double doors opened to the dining room, lit by two tall windows overlooking the gardens. When the Windsors leased the house, they also purchased the music room boiserie from the Château de Dampierre-sur-Aube, which was disassembled and later used on the walls of the new dining room in the Bois. Boudin painted the paneling a deep blue, then had workers scrub away at it with wire brushes to antique it; finally, glaze was rubbed into the paneling to create an authentic look. Above the paneling were painted Chinese scenes of exotic gardens, bridges, waterfalls, and distant pavilions.
13
From the center of the ceiling, painted in a trompe l’oeil scene of ribbons, flowers, sky, and birds, hung a chandelier of foliage and shell design. The rear wall contained a mirrored alcove in which stood a console; to either side were doors to the pantry; above were two tiny loges, which Wallis and Boudin decorated with old musical instruments. “The quarters must have been extremely cramped,” Wallis wrote “and I am sure that if the musicians were not dwarfs to begin with, they certainly must have learned how to perform in the pretzel position.”
14
The table here was new, but the Windsors used their old suite of French dining chairs from their house on boulevard Suchet, now painted deep blue and covered with light blue upholstery.
13
From the center of the ceiling, painted in a trompe l’oeil scene of ribbons, flowers, sky, and birds, hung a chandelier of foliage and shell design. The rear wall contained a mirrored alcove in which stood a console; to either side were doors to the pantry; above were two tiny loges, which Wallis and Boudin decorated with old musical instruments. “The quarters must have been extremely cramped,” Wallis wrote “and I am sure that if the musicians were not dwarfs to begin with, they certainly must have learned how to perform in the pretzel position.”
14
The table here was new, but the Windsors used their old suite of French dining chairs from their house on boulevard Suchet, now painted deep blue and covered with light blue upholstery.
To the right of the drawing room was the library, with light yellow walls and French doors opening to the garden. The room boasted the only fireplace on the first floor, a red-marble mantel above which hung, against a mirrored background, Gerald Brockhurst’s portrait of the Duchess. “She looks like Joan Crawford!” a guest was heard to exclaim upon seeing the painting one night.
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(Wallis, in fact, was never entirely pleased with any of her numerous portraits; she admired the portrait Salvador Dali painted of her friend Mrs. Winston Guest and also liked the work of Pietro Annigoni but never seemed to have the time to commission either artist.
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) The interiors of the four bookcases were painted bright crimson to match the scarlet tones of the carpet and the reds in the mantelpiece.
17
Against the rear wall, in an alcove, Boudin placed a large banquette upholstered in yellow silk, later replaced with a simple couch. Above this hung Sir Alfred Munnings famous painting
The Prince of Wales on Forest Witch.
15
(Wallis, in fact, was never entirely pleased with any of her numerous portraits; she admired the portrait Salvador Dali painted of her friend Mrs. Winston Guest and also liked the work of Pietro Annigoni but never seemed to have the time to commission either artist.
16
) The interiors of the four bookcases were painted bright crimson to match the scarlet tones of the carpet and the reds in the mantelpiece.
17
Against the rear wall, in an alcove, Boudin placed a large banquette upholstered in yellow silk, later replaced with a simple couch. Above this hung Sir Alfred Munnings famous painting
The Prince of Wales on Forest Witch.
A splendid marble staircase curved up from the left-hand side of the foyer to the open gallery which circled the space on the second floor; there was also an elevator hidden behind a door near the downstairs secretaries’ office behind the library. On the upstairs landing, display cabinets held the Duke’s collection of glassware, including many commemorative objects connected to his aborted coronation in 1937.
The Duke and Duchess each had a suite of rooms on the second floor, separated by a small boudoir that overlooked the garden. This room, just above the drawing room, was paneled in pale peach— colored
boiserie
, with accents of white and yellow. The curtains on the two windows were of yellow-and-white taffeta, while the sofa and overstuffed chairs were upholstered in bright yellows, peach, and apricots, with leopard-print pillows used as exotic accents.
18
The boudoir served as the Windsors’ main sitting room. Here they met each morning, took tea in the afternoon, and ate dinner on trays while watching the corner television set if they had no guests. The small tables were absolutely crammed with books, magazines, photographs, and souvenirs. In one corner stood an eighteenth-century japanned secretary in green, gold, and black lacquer which Wallis used as a writing desk.
boiserie
, with accents of white and yellow. The curtains on the two windows were of yellow-and-white taffeta, while the sofa and overstuffed chairs were upholstered in bright yellows, peach, and apricots, with leopard-print pillows used as exotic accents.
18
The boudoir served as the Windsors’ main sitting room. Here they met each morning, took tea in the afternoon, and ate dinner on trays while watching the corner television set if they had no guests. The small tables were absolutely crammed with books, magazines, photographs, and souvenirs. In one corner stood an eighteenth-century japanned secretary in green, gold, and black lacquer which Wallis used as a writing desk.
The Duke’s bedroom was connected by a large, open doorway to his study, a small alcove lined with shelves holding his collection of biographies and books of history. As she had done at La Croë, Wallis virtually re-created the bedroom he had used at Fort Belvedere, with the same beige walls, white moldings, brown carpets, and hanging banner with the Prince of Wales’s monogram and motto above his bed. His leather-topped desk was crowded with photographs of the Duchess, while military prints hung on the walls. The Duke’s dressing room, filled with row upon row of his famous plaid and checked suits, connected to his black-and-white-marble bathroom. David preferred his shower to the actual tub, which he used instead for storage of his papers—documents, letters, photos, and old scrapbooks. The Duchess once took a visiting Diana Vreeland into the bathroom and showed her the mess in the tub. “It was piled with papers, papers, pa-pers, PAPERS!” recalled Vreeland. “Bills, little things to do with golf.” “Isn’t this terrible?” Wallis said with a laugh. “Look at this heap!”
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Wallis’s own suite of rooms was on the opposite side of the boudoir, directly above the library and secretaries’ office. The walls of her bedroom were covered in pale blue silk moire, with moldings antiqued and finished in pale gray; against one wall stood an alcove in which rested her bed, covered in a matching blue satin eiderdown. At the foot of the bed stood a small French sofa piled with pillows. Many of them were silk screens of the Windsors’ favorite pugs; others were embroidered with the Duchess’s frequent sayings, including, “You Can Never Be Too Rich or Too Thin.”
20
Friends also contributed to this menagerie: Actress Sylvia Sidney stitched a pug pillow in petit point for her friend that Wallis kept at the foot of her bed until her death.
21
On either side of the bed, small shelves held Wallis’s collection of books, a Russian icon in a silver frame, and a number of Wedgwood medallions depicting members of various European royal families. Wallis’s kneehole dressing table, also covered in blue silk moiré, featured a glass top sprinkled with photographs of David. The rest of the furnishings—a Victorian-style plush chaise-longue and overstuffed slipper chairs—were done by Jansen in white cotton with white and blue bullion fringe and piping.
20
Friends also contributed to this menagerie: Actress Sylvia Sidney stitched a pug pillow in petit point for her friend that Wallis kept at the foot of her bed until her death.
21
On either side of the bed, small shelves held Wallis’s collection of books, a Russian icon in a silver frame, and a number of Wedgwood medallions depicting members of various European royal families. Wallis’s kneehole dressing table, also covered in blue silk moiré, featured a glass top sprinkled with photographs of David. The rest of the furnishings—a Victorian-style plush chaise-longue and overstuffed slipper chairs—were done by Jansen in white cotton with white and blue bullion fringe and piping.
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