Baltimore’s Royal Daughters
De Richelieu
Love Match
Recalled
By KENNETH M. ELLIS
WHEN one American
girl who ranks all
other American girls who
have married European no
bility finds herself suddenly
outranked by another Amer
ican girl who has managed
to marry not mere nobility
—but royalty itself—well,
all the other American girls
find themselves with some
thing to talk about! And
when both these girls come
from the same “home town”
—you might
expect .that
city to per
form aston
ishing social
gyrations.
Until Wal-
Duchess
of Windsor,
married the
former King
of England,
Elinor, Duch
esse de Rich-
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Photo by Kollar from I.N.P.
IN BLACK AND SILVER
THE DUCHESS OF WINDSOR poses at a win
dow overlooking the historic Tuileries in dinner
dress of black and silver lame. (Top) The Duchess
de Richelieu photographed a few years ago at her
estate in England.
elieu, had attained the high
est social rank that had ever
fulfilled any Cinderella s
dream of Prince Charming.
The whole world was ex
cited when Edward VIII of
England decided he would
marry Wallis Simpson. Bal
time was swamped in a tidal
wave of curious interest the
world suddenly had in Wal
lis Warfield Spencer Simp
son. But Baltimore itself
did not seem to give a hoot
about the excitement.
What? A city to have a
reigning queen selected from
its rank and file—and Wal
lis, according to all reports,
was very much of the rank
and file—a boarding house
dweller whose romance al
most paralleled that of a Cin
derella —and remain calm?
k Why not?
Baltimore had had a duch
ess for 25 years.
A duchess whose distin
guished position in society
was not less than that of the
present Duchess of Windsor,
but, since the “official” rul
ings of the Heralds’ College
—more! Moreover, Balti
more’s duchess had wed the
son of the only American
woman who ever did actu
ally share the throne of a
reigning monarch—and, in-
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stead of a religious quarrel
over her nuptials, they had
been blessed on a sunny Feb
ruary 8, 1913—25 years ago
come Tuesday next week—
by Baltimore’s beloved
James Cardinal Gibbons.
For on that date Eleanor
Douglas Wise—Douglas to
her intimates—became the
bride of Marie Odet Jean
Armande de Chapelle de Ju
milhac, Due de Richelieu,
Due de Fronsac and Marquis
de Jumilhac.
* * ♦
NOT only was that some
thing — but the Due’s
mother, the former Alice
Heine, of New Orleans, after
the death of the Due de
Richelieu, whose coffers she
filled with the Heine for
tunes, married Albert, Prince
of Monaco. His status was
that of a ruling monarch, and
she shared with him —until
a court decree shattered their
marriage—the throne of the
little principality where
Chance was even more the
King than its ruler.
That’s why, when the rest
of the country was gasping
over the news that Balti
more would probably have
a Queen to call its own—or
very near its own—Balti
more took it in stride and
waited. Then came the dra
matic renunciation —the giv
ing up of the world’s great
est throne—the never-to-be
forgotten “Woman I Love”
speech—and—“at long last,”
Baltimore settled quietly
back to its oysters and beer.
They still had a sort of step
relationship to a Queen —well
anyway a Princess who had
reigned—by the marriage of
her son to Douglas Wise.
Now there is no name more
glamorous in all France than
that of Richelieu. It is no
less regarded there for the
Great Cardinal than for the
valor and nobility of Jean
de Vignerot, grandson of
the Cardinal’s sister, Fran
coise, to whom, at the death
of the Cardinal, the Duke
doms of Fronsac and Rich
elieu passed.
This Jean de Vignerot had
a son, Louis, the famous
Marshal Due de Richelieu
who in the 92 years of his
life conquered enemies, in
trigues of state and women
with equally brilliant persist
ence. It was he who wrote,
with Gallic wit, in the fly
leaf of a book the present
Due possesses:
“It is true that the Good,
Book tells us to forgive our
enemies. But it must not be
overlooked that it nowhere
speaks thus of our friends!”
♦ * ♦
AND what of that lovely
Baltimore girl who
smiled into the sunlight
streaming through the cathe
dral windows a quarter of
• a century ago as the great
Cardinal Gibbons united her
to the scion of the family
that claimed the Great Cardi
nal Richelieu?
Today the Duchess and
her husband are as happy
as on that occasion when
reporters bluntly asked him
what he thought of inter
national marriages. He said
then:
“Marriage is not a matter
of nationality. I have Se
mitic blood, I am a Catholic,
a Frenchman, as well. My
bride-to-be is an American—
of English ancestry. We are
two people. That is the im-
THE WASHINGTON TIMES, SATURDAY, JANUARY, 29, 1938
Wallis Replaces Girlhood
Friend as Highest Ranking
American in Europe
portant thing. If mutual love
and respect are the basis of
marriage it will last. If not—
nothing can hold it together.
We love and respect each
other. It will last.’'
And it has.
To know this one had but
to be present a few days
ago when the Military Order
of the Dragons held its an
nual banquet in the Nation’s
Capital. Lovely and vivacious
as when Washington and Bal
timore knew
pleading with Canadian au
thorities for the life of a con
demned slayer whose crime
seemed something of an ac
cident; charming—all these
was Her Grace the Duchess
de Richelieu—but more than
that—devoted to the noble
Due upon whose arm she en
tered the banquet hall.
THERE her brother, Brig.
Gen. Frederick May
Wise, was joining his com
rades of the China Wars—
not the present embroilment
with Japan—but the Boxer
Rebellion, and other forays
when “the Marines took the
situation t_h o r o u g h 1 y in
hand.” General Wise is a
member of the society of
Dragons, as is “Smeds” —
Gen. Smedley Butler—and
other gallant Marines who
have never stopped fighting
for something or other.
Did the Duchess de Richc
ligu know Wallis, Duchess of
Windsor?
Rather! They were girl
hood friends. Frequently
Douglas Wise visited Wallis
Warfield in Wallis’ East
Chase Street home in Balti
more. Both were known by
what their girl companions
called “boy’s names” —for
although she was christened
Elinor Douglas Wise, the
Duchess de Richelieu was
then always “Douglas,” a
name of family significance,
as “Wallis” was also a “fam
ily” name among the War
field clan.
As a matter of fact, a 11
that “Cinderella” business is
a little overplayed. For
neither Wallis Warfield nor
Douglas Wise was in any
real sense “impoverished.”
Both families had genealogi
cal evidence of the highest
gentility. But neither had the
money with which to play
the society game, and neither
attempted it. Both families
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AS GIRLS IN BALTIMORE
WALLIS WARFIELD (right) photographed at a Princeton prom in 1914,
and Eleanor Douglas Wise. When these pictures were taken neither girl
dreamed of marrying royalty.
gave their “rich relatives” a
more determined snooting
than might have been ex
pected.
♦ * *
FOR ONE the path to
rank and power was a
single step to the altar of
the Baltimore Cathedral.
Os the other Fate demanded
more steps—the first a mar
riage to First Lieutenant
Earl Winfield Spencer, jr.,
U. S. N. The brilliance of
the naval set was hers —her
husband advanced with
proper regularity from rank
to rank. Social connections
broadened. But she was not
happy. She would not live
unhappy, so she divorced him
to marry the former officer
of His Britannic Majesty’s
her as a debu
tan te; gra
cious as she
has always
been after
her marriage
in always de
voting herself
to social
causes—sing
ing as a dis
ting u i shed
pupil of Em
ma Eames for
starving Bel
gian children,
1 fl M
* AN EXCELLENT
' camera study of the
a el®!™ ’"Mt Duke and Duchess of
fl . IO Windsor. It was taken
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'flK sTWIk their complete happi-
______ness together.
Coldstream Guards —to per
severe in her search for love
that lived luridly—a nd to
fail again to find it.
Then she met Edward, the
world’s Prince Charming,
and England’s Prince of
Wales. He had succeeded
to the throne of the gentle
man King—George V—and
was, it has never been de
nied, eager to make a job of
it. To be a King, Edward
thought, meant to be a leader.
And he got a sound rap on
his royal knuckles for h i s
rashness. Well—at least it
meant to be a modern—free
—individual person. And if
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he must be King he would
pick his Queen as he liked.
And he liked Mrs. Simpson.
The world has no serious
convulsions of horror when
its idols of all sorts untie
misfortunate knots in an ef
fort to adjust things as they
are to things as they should
be.
♦ * *
BUT the Church of Eng
land, through the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, went
into antics that would shame
the lithest of contortionists;
Earl Baldwin—then just
“Stan”—“good old Stan,”
Britain’s stodgy premier—
was stricken with a govern-
7*«t«pAana REpvblie 1234
mental apoplexy. And to
unbend the archbishop’s di
lemma sufficiently to permit
his theological breathing, and
to decrease the very high
diplomatic b1 o o d-pressure
which threatened to extin
guish the cabinet as well as
to get himself in a position
to marry the woman he
loved, Edward chucked his
crown and scepter.
Wallis got her divorce—
though even that was made
the target of attack by com
pletely disinterested persons
—and Edward having been
made a Duke, she became
his Duchess with the aid of
a British parson and the
courtesy of the British di
vorce courts.
But while this hectic
drama was unfolding for
Wallis, her girlhood friend
was living quietly and hap
pily, the life of a Duchess
with a title than which there
is no nobler in France.
Douglas Wise had given
up her hope of a brilliant
operatic career to become
the bride of the great-great
nephew of the Eminence
that was France under
Louis XIII. She was 18—
she was in Paris, studying
music. The young Due—
he was then about 35—met
her. It was one of those
things. Her father was of
the distinguished Virginia
Wises. Her mother’s ances
try mingled a French strain
with the Puritan blood of
the Adamses. Her grand
father, John Danels, was the
son of one of LaFayette's
THE DUC DE RICH
ELIEU and his devoted
wife, the former Doug
las Wise, of Baltimore.
They have been mar
ried for 25 years and
are still very much in
love.
French officers who came
to fight in the American
revolution. So the Duchess
de Richelieu, too, has a
strain of noble French blood
of her own.
♦ ♦ *
This is the circle of these
two girls who lived side by
side in Baltimore. Douglas
Wise moved to No. 208 East
Chase Street after the death
of her father in Japan in
1901, to be with her sister,
Mrs. John W. Frick. Wallis
Warfield lived at No. 210.
♦ ♦ ♦
WALLIS went overseas
to wed her Duke. Eli
nor brought hers to the shore
of the Chesapeak e—and
thereafter he built her a
home in New York—and they
have spent most of their time
in America since. 'When Wal
lis, a few weeks ago, thought
of bringing her Duke to the
old home town —the wholly
articulate American working
man handed them a snub that
would do credit to an indig
nant dowager! Dukes—they
were 0.K., if you like ’em—
said Jonathon Yank—and as
for Wallis—O.K. But to bring
along a man whom they felt
was antagonistic to the aims
of labor—thumbs not only
down—but horizontally ap
plied to the tip of the Amer
ican working nose!
During the World War,
Edward, Prince of Wales,
now Duke of Windsor,
fought in the British
trenches. It was no “paper
fighting.” Ask the Tommies!
During that same war the
Due de Richelieu fought in
the French army. Just ask
the Poilus! And his Duchess,
Elinor, raised $70,000 for
tubercular French soldiers,
not one cent being taken
from the subscriptions for
expenses.
Thus today one noble
couple—a Baltimore girl and
her Duke—spend their time
wandering from hotel to ho
tel—from land to land—in
search of home; while an
other Baltimore girl and her
Due spend their time peace
fully between three French
chateaux, Southampton, New
York and Miami, secure in a
happiness which has stood
that most acid of tests—a
society existence —for 25
years.
(Copyright. lt3S. by The
Waihinfton Timei)
21