Before Wallis

by Rachel Trethewey

  It seems that finally Freda had had enough of his childish behaviour, and so she broke off their relationship. They had a discussion where she put her ‘cards on the table’ and made him feel such a ‘worm’.27 Characteristically, Edward admired her for being so strong and ‘getting down to bed-rock’.28 Her change of heart was not just about the prince’s behaviour, it was also because her relationship with Michael had become more intense and he was demanding more commitment from her. In her frank discussion with the prince Freda set out new conditions for their relationship. She agreed that they would remain friends and still have talks, but he must not worry her all the time. She now wrote to him as his ‘devoted little chum’.29 However, although they were supposed to be just friends Edward still told her he loved her and made emotional demands. He also constantly confided in her about all his amorous adventures, perhaps in the hope of making her jealous. In August, he wrote to her:

  If ever there was the slightest chance of my drifting away from you it would be now Fredie – I know that for sure for I do fancy Audrey a lot and am fond of her but I’m not madly in love and never will be again and she’ll never mean a fraction to me of what you do.30

  He promised that he would still always tell her exactly how he felt. Keeping his pledge, he wrote openly to her about being with Audrey and her husband as the guests of the Ancasters at Drummond Castle in Perthshire: ‘Never have I had such an exciting week as this and the air is electric and it’s all too tricky for words. I’m quite exhausted and shall be lucky if I escape without a hell of a row.’31 Wearing a Fair Isle jumper and plus fours, he played a lot of golf with Audrey at Gleneagles, sometimes staying on the course until 8 p.m.32 Back at the castle, they played poker all evening. However, even when he was infatuated with another woman he still needed Freda. He explained: ‘I’m in a queer state of mind just now Fredie and do so want you to vet me and tell me what it all is – I feel very lost and all muddled up.’33

  His unstable state of mind may have been accentuated because the courtesan he had a fling with at the end of the war, Maggy Alibert, had come back to haunt him. In the summer of 1923 she shot her Egyptian playboy husband, Ali Fahmy, in the Savoy Hotel, London. It seems that the prince’s staff were very worried about what might come out at the murder trial. A recent book argues that Maggy used the prince’s letters to bargain with the authorities. According to Andrew Rose, evidence suggests that a contract was made between Maggy and the royal household in which she returned the letters and in exchange there was an undertaking that her full character would never be revealed to the jury. There would be no reference to her affair with Edward and his name would be kept out of court. As usual during this crisis the prince turned to Freda as if she were his mother confessor. She came up to London to spend time with him at York House and he wrote to her afterwards that he felt much better for getting it all off his chest. In September Maggy was tried at the Old Bailey. She was portrayed as the helpless European victim of her sexually abusive Eastern husband. The sexual element allied with crude racism worked. Instead of being hanged for murder Maggy was acquitted in a wave of popular sympathy.34

  In the autumn, the prince went to Canada to stay at his ranch. Before he left Freda told him that she was in love with Michael. Edward had always been jealous of his rival, but this was the first time Freda had admitted the depth of her feelings for the other man in her life. The prince told her that it was a ‘big blow’ to him but that he was glad to see her happy. However, he wrote: ‘It’s a horrid thought for me that I really mean nothing whatever to you now though you mean the hell of a lot to me.’ During their intense discussion, Freda had also told Edward ‘home truths’, chastising him for being so self-pitying and spoilt. He accepted what she said, thanking her for ‘showing me myself the other night darling and it’s the first time I had had a look at “the brute” for months’. He promised to try to ‘harden’ himself up while he was away.35 The ranch represented the real world for him in contrast to the artificial one he usually inhabited. He had built up a herd of shorthorn cattle there and wanted to inspect them.36 For a few weeks he played at farming: he harvested, helped store the winter feed and cleared out the cowshed.

  However, as usual he got into a romantic scrape and wrote to Freda about it. In Quebec he met an attractive American journalist. He was ‘all over her’ and danced with her most of the evening. It was not until the next morning when she asked to see him that she told him what her job was. The prince admitted he had been ‘had for a mug’ but she was very nice about it and said she would not say too much although she ‘got off with me’. The newspapers were full of the story, but the prince told Freda that he was past caring because nothing mattered now he was no longer in a full relationship with her.37 When he returned from Canada it seems that Freda relented, and they became lovers again. In November, he wrote to her: ‘I’m in a daze after our happy evening together and oh! So puzzled!!’38 With the prince back in her life Freda asked Michael to draw back. He was not happy about it, but he had little choice.

  In July 1924 Freda persuaded both the prince and Michael to go with her in the same car for a treasure hunt. These hunts had become the favourite society game of the year. Lady Diana Cooper described them as ‘dangerous and scandalous, but there was no sport to touch them’.39 Members of the smart set would rush around London in their open cars in the early hours of the morning, following carefully laid clues that required knowledge and concentration to follow. One clue might lead treasure hunters to a city courtyard where they would find a ‘lady in distress’, with a dead duellist at her feet. She would then hand them the next clue, which took them to a plague spot where a pockmarked ghost would whisper a riddle that took the hunters to their next destination. At Seven Dials, women in expensive dresses crawled on all fours searching for an elusive clue that was chalked on the pavement. On their travels competitors would collect an eclectic range of objects ranging from a police helmet to a horseshoe. The winners of the hunt were the ones who had collected the most items and they won a coveted prize.40 The search would end with a splendid breakfast, where hunters were serenaded by a string orchestra, at Norfolk House, St James.

  During the July treasure hunt, Lady Diana Cooper described Michael’s face, flushed ‘shocking pink’ with the pride of success, as he had found the corset of a courtesan signed by her famous clients.41 However, her husband Duff noticed the tension between Freda’s competing lovers. He wrote that Edward was charming, but Michael was ‘terribly proprietary over Freda in front of him’.42 Michael did not want to share Freda again, but he had to accept the situation or lose her.

  For years Duddie, Michael, Freda and the prince were locked in a toxic cycle that made none of them happy. The prince continued to be away often. In 1924 and 1925 he toured America, South Africa and South America. Since 1915 less than a third of his life had been spent in England, and such long absences were difficult for Freda and Edward.43 If she had relied on just the prince for company she would have been lonely. During a private visit to America in 1924 the prince visited New York to watch the international polo matches played on Long Island. While in New York, he was entertained by millionaires on a grand scale. He went out to all-night parties and enjoyed dancing to jazz. His father was furious about the newspaper headlines his playboy behaviour inspired.44

  During his South African trip the following year, the prince became increasingly concerned because he did not receive any letters from Freda although he wrote to her almost every day. He thought it was Michael’s fault. Edward’s equerry, Joey Legh, agreed. He thought that Michael’s influence over Freda was so great that he would not allow her to write. The prince had confided in Joey that just before he left on his tour he had had a ‘desperate row’ with Michael because he had forbidden Freda to go to a dinner at York House. Edward said that he would not be surprised to hear that Freda had run away with Michael.45

  While one of the prince’s mistresses was proving elusive, his other one was all too eager. Au
drey Coats wrote to him by every mail with the greatest regularity. Audrey was too available to be a challenge to the prince. Joey wrote to his wife that he did not think Edward cared ‘two straws’ about her except for purely physical reasons. On their voyage from South Africa to South America, Joey gave his friend a long lecture. He told him that he ought to marry as soon as possible because he would never be happy until he found ‘Miss Right’. The prince agreed.46 In Argentina, there were complaints that he looked bored and was not bothering to acknowledge the crowds. He was depressed and there were rumours that he was having a breakdown.

  During this period Freda also suffered from bouts of depression; she was trapped in her marriage and unsure of which of her lovers she would choose if she were free. Perhaps neither of her potential partners was exactly what she was looking for. From the earliest days of their relationship, the prince’s letters were rarely even remotely erotic; they show a man who was really obsessed with himself rather than his mistress. They are all about him and his needs – not hers. His assistant private secretary, Tommy Lascelles, who knew the prince very well, wrote that Edward was so isolated in the world of his own desires that he never felt ‘absolute, objective affection’ for anyone, even his lovers or family.47

  Michael’s letters show slightly more concern for Freda’s feelings. They focus a little more on her as a person, but he too comes across as self-centred. He constantly made emotional demands that Freda was unable to fulfill. By 1924 Freda and Michael were rowing frequently. Freda’s large blue eyes would fill with tears and then they would say cruel things to each other. Michael was hurt to the core when she told him that she got nothing out of their relationship and no pleasure at all from being with him.48

  Michael became worried about how depressed Freda was getting. He said that he would do whatever she wanted to make the situation better. He admitted that he had bullied her and been ‘awful’. He now promised he would be a changed man and more reasonable. He would not worry her so much or be so jealous.49 Although he still hoped one day that everything would turn out all right and they would be married, he realised that the only way to cope until then was to live day by day and not face the future. Freda was just living for the moment too. Many years later she told an interviewer that through all the years that she loved the prince she realised that no good would come of it. There was no future in it and when it ended it would be to her disadvantage.50

  The photos of Freda during this period capture her mood; there is one of her in profile looking painfully thin and miserable and another portrait of her with her pet dogs in which her expressive eyes show her sadness. Rather than being a promiscuous femme fatale who enjoyed playing her lovers off against each other, she looks like a woman who was trapped in a difficult situation and did not know what to do for the best. It seems that she genuinely feared Duddie would take their children if they got divorced. She loved both Michael and Edward, but she could not marry either of them. Neither of her lovers would let her go. They both threatened that they would go mad or commit suicide if she finished with them. Each man believed that she was the only woman in the world for them and essential to their happiness. As Michael accurately wrote: ‘Really everyone loves you so much, too much, that is the trouble.’51

  Freda’s family loved and needed her too. She always spent Christmas at Lamcote and as her parents became older and increasingly unwell she was required to be in Nottingham more often. Michael and Edward resented the demands made on her by her parents. Michael told her not to let her mother act as a tyrant and be selfish. He believed that she was such ‘an angel on earth’ and that she did too much for them.52 The atmosphere was often strained when Freda was at Lamcote because her parents did not approve of her complicated love life. Rather than speaking to her about it directly, her father spoke to her sister Vera about it. Neither of her lovers was welcome at Lamcote. Once Michael sneaked in for a visit while her parents were away, but whenever her mother saw him elsewere she gave him black looks.

  The prince was equally unpopular. In February 1925 Vera married Major James Seely, a member of another well-known Nottingham family. The prince turned up at the last minute to attend the wedding, which rather eclipsed the bride’s arrival. At three minutes before 2 p.m. the crowded congregation heard a roar of cheers from outside the church. Instead of the bride, the Prince of Wales walked in to a perceptible rustle of excitement. Some of the wedding guests even stood up on their pews to get a good view of him and started clapping.53 Unperturbed by all the attention, he walked up the aisle to sit in a front row seat next to Mrs Birkin. There was a hush again and then Vera walked in a few minutes later accompanied by her bridesmaids, Pempie and Angie. Unusually for a very conventional man, Colonel Birkin did not attend his daughter’s wedding. Instead, Vera’s young brother Charles, who was still at Eton, escorted the bride up the aisle and her mother gave her away. The colonel had been ill in the months preceding the wedding with heart trouble, but it is also possible that the prince’s unexpected arrival caused such a row that the respectable colonel refused to attend if he was there.54 It seems that Colonel Birkin resented the man who had played around with both his daughters. Freda and Vera’s mother, Claire, was more tolerant and smoothed things over. After the vows had been said, the prince followed the wedding group into the vestry and signed the register too. The bride and groom then walked down the aisle followed by Edward and Mrs Birkin. There is a photograph of the bride’s mother with the prince on the wedding day; while she appears rather strained he looks as nonchalant as ever. ‘What a lovely wedding it is,’ he exclaimed to one journalist.55

  Even though he often strayed, the prince always returned to Freda and her involvement in his life continued until he met Wallis Simpson. He told her that anybody else in his life was ‘a complete and utter side show compared to what you’ve been to me’.56 As well as the brief flings, there were constant rumours about official alliances for the prince. In his memoir Edward wrote that although his parents never pushed him into marriage, he knew that they thought it was time for him to settle down. They wanted him to take his chance in what he called the ‘grab bag’ of the royal marriage market.57 At various times throughout the 1920s his name was linked to at least nine continental princesses. There was the Queen of Italy’s daughter, who was a Roman Catholic; the King of Spain’s daughter Beatrice; and, most implausibly, Princess Eudoxia of Bulgaria, who was a bulky, 39-year-old musician.58

  One of the most promising candidates was the elegant Princess Marina of Greece. She was the granddaughter of King George I of the Hellenes; her family had been expelled from Greece and were in exile. In many ways Marina was Edward’s type of woman. She was beautiful, slim and sophisticated with dark hair and large eyes. Her conversation was also stimulating as she was witty and intelligent. Although Queen Mary had learnt that it was counterproductive to interfere in her son’s love affairs, she arranged for the princess to meet the prince at Windsor.59 Edward liked Marina very much and thought she was attractive. Their meeting was so promising that her brother-in-law, Prince Paul, was almost certain that she had won his heart.60 However, while Freda was in Edward’s life there was no real vacancy for another woman. Instead of marrying the heir to the throne, Marina was to become a close friend of Freda’s, and in 1934 she married Edward’s brother Prince George.

  Many years later, in his memoir, Edward set out his attitude to matrimony. He explained that he had no quarrel with marriage as an institution. Indeed, it was very much his intention to marry one day, but the idea of an arranged marriage was repugnant to him. When asked why he was not married he always repeated that he would not be hurried. He would only marry for love and under no circumstances would he agree to a loveless marriage. His choice would be dictated by his own heart, not considerations of State. He had seen too many unhappy couples to risk it for himself. He was also particularly careful because he realised that his royal position would make a divorce almost impossible if he chose the wrong bride.61

  Hi
s continuing devotion to Freda was plain for all to see. In a letter to his wife, Clementine, in 1927, Winston Churchill described the prince’s love for his mistress as ‘so obvious and undisguiseable’ that it was ‘quite pathetic’.62 Churchill had gone to Nottingham to make an important speech and, as Freda’s parents were very involved in the local Conservative party, he stayed with them at Lamcote. The prince was still not welcome by Colonel Birkin, so he stayed with Freda’s sister Vera who lived half a mile away.

  In 1927 Audrey Dudley Coats’s husband died. For several years Audrey and Muir had been leading separate lives. Since 1925, she had been running a small shop called ‘Audrey’s’ in Davies Street, just off Berkeley Square. She sold an eclectic mixture of merchandise; there were exclusive scents called ‘Divan Noir’ or ‘Doux’, silk stockings and feathered fans. She also offered a renovation and repair service for antique furniture.63 She told one journalist she hoped to help people solve ‘the wedding present problem’.64 Her friends Lady Curzon, Lady Beatty and Lady Edward Grosvenor were among her customers.65 During the season, she took her boutique to Cowes. She shared her shop with a well-known beautician, and it became a recognised meeting place for her friends who enjoyed popping in for a manicure or a massage.66 After the war it had become fashionable for society women to play at shopkeeping; Angela St Clair-Erskine (sister of Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland) and the prince’s other mistress, Lady Victor Paget, also ran dress shops for a while. However, their ventures did not last long; as Angela St Clair-Erskine explained, lack of business experience proved a problem and ‘initial mistakes usually end in costly failures’.67

  Audrey’s husband was rarely in London. For several years he suffered from frequent bouts of pancreatitis; Michael Herbert had seen him in San Moritz looking very thin and ill. Muir was a keen shot and fisherman. While Audrey was socialising and shopkeeping, he spent much of his time in Scotland with his parents. The year before he died he bought the 19,000-acre Perthshire sporting estate the Barracks, Rannoch. However, he was only able to enjoy it for a few months before he became seriously ill.68 In the spring his parents took him to their Cannes Villa, where his mother looked after him. On the Riviera, he seemed to rally and he managed to play a round of golf.69 However, it was only a brief respite as when he returned to Scotland he went into an Edinburgh nursing home. He died in August following an operation on a pancreatic cyst, at the age of just 29. His parents, not his wife, were with him at the end. Just days before his death Audrey was at Goodwood races.