Wallis Simpson - Widowhood and Death

Widowhood and Death

Upon the Duke's death from cancer in 1972, the Duchess travelled to England to attend his funeral, staying at Buckingham Palace during her visit. The Duchess, increasingly frail and suffering from dementia, lived the remainder of her life as a recluse, supported by both her husband's estate and an allowance from the Queen. She suffered several falls, and broke her hip twice. After her husband's death, the Duchess's French lawyer, Suzanne Blum, assumed power of attorney. Blum sold items belonging to the Duchess to her friends at lower than market value, and was accused of exploiting her client in Caroline Blackwood's The Last of the Duchess, written in 1980, but not published until after Blum's death in 1995. Later royal biographer Hugo Vickers called Blum a "Satanic figure … wearing the mantle of good intention to disguise her inner malevolence". In 1980, the Duchess lost the power of speech. Toward the end, she was bedridden and did not receive any visitors, apart from her doctor and nurses. The Duchess of Windsor died on 24 April 1986 at her home in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris. Her funeral was held at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, attended by her two surviving sisters-in-law: the Queen Mother and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, and other members of the royal family. The Queen, Prince Philip, and the Prince and Princess of Wales attended both the funeral ceremony and the burial. She was buried next to Edward in the Royal Burial Ground near Windsor Castle, as "Wallis, Duchess of Windsor". Until an agreement with Queen Elizabeth II in the 1960s, the Duke and Duchess had previously planned for a burial in a purchased cemetery plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, where the father of the Duchess was interred.

In recognition of the help France gave to the Duke and Duchess in providing them with a home, and in lieu of death duties, the Duchess's collection of Louis XVI style furniture, some porcelain and paintings were made over to the French state. The British Royal Family received no major bequests. Most of her estate went to the Pasteur Institute medical research foundation, on the instructions of Suzanne Blum. The decision took the Royal Family and the Duchess's friends by surprise, as she had shown little interest in charity during her life. In a Sotheby's auction in Geneva in April 1987 the Duchess's remarkable jewellery collection raised $45 million for the Institute, approximately seven times its pre-sale estimate. Blum later claimed that British-based Egyptian entrepreneur Mohamed Al-Fayed tried to purchase the jewels for a "rock bottom price". Al-Fayed bought much of the non-financial estate, including the lease of the Paris mansion. An auction of his collection was announced in July 1997 for later that year in New York. Delayed by his son's death in the car accident that also claimed the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, the sale raised more than £14 million for charity in 1998.