Love Letters Fetch a Princely Sum at Auction
Edward VIII gave up the British throne for Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American socialite he loved. Now, an auction house has sold more than 260 of his love letters--but they’re not to Wallis.
“Mon amour, I swear I’ll never marry any woman other than you,” he wrote to Freda Dudley-Ward, the wife of a Parliament member, with whom he had a 16-year relationship. The letter was dated April 18, 1920, when he was still Prince of Wales.
That relationship ended when he fell in love with Simpson in 1931. He hoped to make her queen, but Parliament and the Church of England opposed it. On Dec. 10, 1936, he abdicated. They wed in 1937.
Collector Barry Davies paid $48,645 for the letters, Bonhams & Brooks auctioneers said.
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