This article was originally published on WHerMoments
Throughout its lifetime, the Prince of Wales brooch has been on a long, strange journey. Its story encompasses a member of the royal family turning his back on destiny to marry the woman he loved, an innocent — or maybe not-so-innocent — mistake that saw it fail to be returned to its rightful owner, and coming into the possession of a famous actress with a passion for expensive jewels. Elizabeth Taylor may have been Hollywood royalty, and she may have famously portrayed a queen as Cleopatra, but how did she end up with this iconic piece of royal history instead of the Princess of Wales herself?
The meet cute
Naturally, given its name, this royal brooch was commissioned by a Prince of Wales. This man was Edward VIII, who had been the Prince of Wales before briefly becoming King Edward VIII and then the Duke of Windsor. And he had this very special piece of jewelry made for a special woman: Wallis Simpson. Edward first met Wallis in 1931 at a party thrown by his mistress at the time, Lady Thelma Furness. Then Prince of Wales, he became enchanted by the twice-divorced American socialite.
An extract of a letter he wrote to her in 1935 reads, “My own beloved Wallis. I love you more and more and more and more… I haven’t seen you once today and I can’t take it. I love you.”
Their love presents a problem
Edward and Wallis fell head over heels with each other, but people weren’t happy about it. By the time Edward became King in January 1936 the British police and press knew about the relationship, but the public was completely unaware.
Wallis presented a problem: as King, Edward would be the head of the Church of England, yet that institution deemed marrying a divorcée to be morally abhorrent. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin also believed that the public wouldn’t accept a divorced American as their Queen.
Proposing a solution
A “morganatic marriage” was proposed by Edward: it would see Wallis not be granted the title of Queen, nor any rank or properties.
Instead, she would become known as the Duchess of Cornwall; it was the very same move used almost seven decades years later by King Charles III — then the Prince of Wales — when he married Camilla Parker-Bowles in 2005. But these were different times. Baldwin turned the idea down flat, which left the situation very uncertain.
The cat is out of the bag
Yet, as of December 3, 1936, the situation could no longer be kept secret: the story of the King’s relationship had finally hit the headlines. Britain was utterly stunned, but seemingly not entirely opposed to seeing Edward and Wallis as their King and Queen.
Rumors soon began circulating that Wallis was a dangerous woman scheming her way to the British throne, though, not to mention a more outlandish one that she was a spy selling information to the Germans.
A historical decision is made
The day after they became headline news, Wallis flew to France to get away from an atmosphere she felt was turning scary.
On December 11, history was made: despite Wallis showing willingness to cut off the relationship so Edward could remain King, he decided to abdicate the throne entirely. By doing so, he became the very first British monarch to voluntarily walk away from the Crown.
A coronation, a wedding, and a new title
On May 12, 1937, Edward’s younger brother Bertie took the throne and became known as King George VI. Less than a month later, Edward and Wallis finally married in France, but the King banned any of the royal family from attending.
He then informed Edward that Wallis would not be given the title “Her Royal Highness.” Instead, the couple would simply be known as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
A huge sacrifice for love
In the end, Edward and Wallis were effectively exiled to France.
During this period, a worried Wallis wrote to her husband, “I hope you will never regret this sacrifice and that your brother will prove to the world that we still have a position and that you will be given some jobs to do.” Sadly, even though the couple made repeated overtures to be given royal duties, they were all ignored.
Victimised by gossip and scandal
It was all a sad reminder that some institutions are simply immovable. The couple’s reputation never truly recovered, with legendary Prime Minister Winston Churchill once saying of Wallis, “No-one has been more victimized by gossip and scandal.”
Incidentally, he had supported their love, stating, “Although branded with the stigma of a guilty love, no companionship could have appeared more natural, more free from impropriety or grossness.”
Passion, love, and courage
Over the course of their loving relationship, Edward would buy Wallis several meaningful pieces of jewelry to add to her collection. For instance, on their first wedding anniversary, she received a diamond-and-ruby Cartier bracelet.
Managing director of 77 Diamonds Tobias Kormind recently told British newspaper the Daily Express, “The rubies on this cuff bracelet are said to mark the passion, love, and courage shared between these disgraced royals.”
We are ours now
Likewise, Wallis’ 19.77-carat emerald engagement ring was engraved with, “We are ours now” on the inside of the band. Kormind believed this heartfelt message referenced “the couple’s decision to separate from the royal family to be married.
Representing hope, the stone was a symbol of protection for their marriage.” It can’t be denied that Edward was an expert at “linking romantic and personal stories with the individual pieces.”
Enter Liz
But how did Hollywood royalty Elizabeth Taylor come into the picture? Kate Andersen Brower’s biography The Grit and Glamor of an Icon revealed Taylor first encountered Wallis and Edward when she was only 18. At the time she had been married to hotel heir Nicky Hilton.
It wouldn’t be until many years later that Taylor actually struck up a friendship with the Windsors, though, when she was with actor Richard Burton.
Cleopatra brings Taylor and Burton together
You see, Taylor and Burton had engaged in an affair during the filming of Cleopatra, which had endured a notoriously expensive, disastrous Italian shoot that nearly put an end to the 20th Century Fox studio.
At the time Taylor had been 29 and married to her fourth husband Eddie Fisher, while Burton was 36 and with wife Sybil. By the time the shoot had finished, though, both marriages would be irretrievably broken.
A taboo romance
The affair made the front pages all over the world. As Chris Nashawaty wrote in Entertainment Weekly, “Soon, word of the taboo romance spread like wildfire.
The Italian press, with the paparazzi in its infancy, bribing its way onto the set as extras, took the adulterous story and ran with it. When Fisher packed his bags and left Rome, it was as much confirmation as anyone could want.”
The original Hollywood scandal
“The fact that the two stars would hole up in their trailer all afternoon when they were due on the set didn't help quiet speculation,” continued Nashawaty. “Neither did the alternating sounds of clinking highballs, screaming fights, and giggling frolics.”
He added, “Long-lens telephoto shots of the couple cavorting on holiday were splashed everywhere.” The affair had become a true scandal, and reactions were extreme.
Two couples in the same situation
Amazingly, a Georgian politician actually pleaded with the Attorney General to stop Taylor and Burton being allowed to re-enter America, citing their “undesirability.” Even more shockingly, the Vatican’s newspaper published an open letter to the couple, slamming Taylor in particular for her “erotic vagrancy.”
The couple were shunned by polite society, but this was when they met the Windsors, who knew exactly what they were going through. A bond quickly formed.
“The duchess”
According to The Grit and Glamor of an Icon, Taylor had been truly moved by Wallis and Edward’s relationship. Brower wrote that Taylor had said, “They really did love each other, and his respect for her was so beautiful.
He called her ‘duchess’, and if you didn’t call her duchess I think you would have been on your way out. I never called her Wallis; I always called her duchess.”
A mutual love of jewels
One thing Taylor and Wallis had in common was their mutual obsession with jewelry. In 2009 Taylor told More magazine, “My love affair with jewelry began when I was a girl. The first beautiful piece of jewelry I ever purchased was for my mother.
It was costume, but so finely made and so gorgeous that we still have it in the family treasures.”
Mother knows best
According to biographer William Mann, it was Taylor’s mom who had passed down a love of the finer things in life to her daughter. He told newspaper The Los Angeles Times, “Her mother loved jewelry too.
She was always living so larger-than-life: she would throw on a mink stole, an emerald necklace and a slip and she looked like a movie star. She loved it.”
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend
Over the course of her life, Taylor amassed one of the most extravagant collections of jewels the world has ever seen. Burton would constantly buy her glitzy jewels, including the Krupp Diamond, a 33.19-carat beauty which she wore as a ring.
He also spent more than $1 million on a 69.42-carat Cartier gem: this pear-shaped prize became known as the Taylor-Burton Diamond.
Any excuse to buy diamonds
In her book A Life in Jewelry, Taylor admitted that buying his wife beautiful trinkets was her husband’s love language. She wrote, “Richard was so romantic that he'd use any excuse to give me a piece of jewelry.
He'd give me ‘It's a beautiful day’ presents or ‘Let's go for a walk’ presents. Over the years I’ve come to think of these as my ‘It’s Tuesday, I love you’ jewelry.”
Taylor spies something intriguing
Apparently, Wallis had been so envious of her friend Taylor’s jewelry collection that she would only wear her biggest sapphire — not her diamonds — when in her company.
Still, this didn’t stop Taylor from spying something she coveted just as highly: a beautiful pin Wallis wore. As a true jewelry connoisseur, she had to know what the pin signified and where it came from.
The Prince of Wales brooch
“Elizabeth noticed a magnificent pin Simpson was wearing that was the insignia of the Prince of Wales, with three feathers and a gold crown made of diamonds set in platinum,” writes Brower.
“When Elizabeth asked if it was the royal insignia, Simpson said, ‘Yes, and when Monty [Edward] came over, he took all royal pieces back, but he missed this one.’” The romance of this spoke to Taylor, who ignored the slightly questionable claim that he simply forgot to return it!
The Duchess wants me to have that
In 1987 after Wallis passed, Taylor would finally get her chance to own her friend’s gorgeous brooch. As Brower wrote, she was convinced “the duchess wants me to have that.”
So, when the piece went up for auction at Sotheby’s in Geneva, Switzerland, Taylor made it her mission to outbid whoever else was interested in it. As fate would have it, this meant outbidding actual royalty!
A bidding war between Hollywood royalty and British royalty
In 2010 former Daily Mail features editor Roderick Gilchrist wrote about the auction for The Guardian. He had suggested to his boss that the newspaper should try to buy some of the pieces of royal history to then offer up to their — mostly female — readership.
Little did he know, he would soon bear witness to a bidding war between Taylor and none other than future British monarch Charles!
Diana loses out to Liz
“I bought five of Wallis Simpson’s diamond, pearl, and gold love gifts from Edward VIII,” wrote Gilchrist, “when they came up at Sotheby’s in Geneva in a sale that saw Elizabeth Taylor outbid Prince Charles for a Prince of Wales feathers-shaped diamond clip he was desperate to present to [Princess] Diana.
With wonderful insouciance, Liz raised the bidding to £400,000 while reclining by her Beverly Hills pool and following the auction on a satellite link.”
Sentimental value
In dollar terms, that meant Taylor had paid an eye-watering $565,000 for her friend’s brooch. She was extremely happy with her purchase, once saying, “It’s a royal piece that I save for special occasions because it means so much to me.”
If you think the price Taylor paid was enormous, though, it’s actually nothing compared to what the brooch fetched when it was auctioned again many years later!
Breaking records
The sell-off in 1987 — dubbed “The Duchess of Windsor’s Collection” — set a world record for jewelry auctions: to the tune of $50,281,887.
Yet after Taylor herself died in 2011 and her own collection — including the Prince of Wales brooch — was auctioned, it obliterated that previous world record. In only one evening, Taylor’s pieces fetched a truly insane $115,932,000!
A mystery owner
Amazingly, the Prince of Wales brooch sold for more than $1 million: $1,314,500 to be exact. The identity of the winning bidder has never been announced, so to this day no one knows who currently owns this piece of royal history.
Diana and Catherine, Princess of Wales — a.k.a. Kate — took to wearing the Princess of Wales Feathers pin instead, which had originally been gifted to Denmark’s Princess Alexandra when she wed the Prince of Wales in 1863.
A fitting outcome for two jewelry-lovers
Wallis and Taylor truly cherished their collections of beautiful jewels, so their auctions both setting world records was fitting. After all, in her book My Love Affair with Jewelry, Taylor wrote, “I never, never thought of my jewelry as trophies.
I’m here to take care of them and to love them. When I die and they go off to auction I hope whoever buys them gives them a really good home.”