I don't see that the main reason for the late Queen mother Elizabeth not wanting Edward to marry Wallis was because she was divorced A point often overlooked is that at the time Edward said to his Prime Minister Baldwin that it was about time he met his future wife, Wallis was still married to Ernest Simpson and not a divorced woman. It might have been planned and in the offing but to all effects she was a married woman and could not marry anyone without committing bigamy.
The oft quoted story about the time that the Queen mother as the Duchess of York gave a so called snub to Wallis when she went to dinner at Balmoral was that the then mistress of the King was doing something unthinkable in those days, she was acting as hostess in a Royal home to the wife of a Royal Prince, so she was being in the eyes of anyone present being extremely impertinent, it was definitely not her place to welcome a member of the royal family to a royal house.
There are snippets that come to us from different sources and one such is from the young princesses' governess Crawfie, who said on the visit when Edward drove over for tea with his brother and family and "brought along" Mrs Simpson she was heard to say that she would like to see the trees cut down to make the view better. The Duchess of York was very put out by this remark, Wallis just didn't seem to know her place when she was mixing with royalty.
In the days that Edward became besotted with Wallis divorce was looked at in a completely different light to what it is these days, it is not really ironic, it is just that times have changed. Divorce is upsetting, but it is not the scandal it was in those days.
Wallis was viewed as an upstart and another factor that upset the royal family was the amount of money Edward was spending on his then mistress. He was always known as stingy if not downright niggardly, and was so until the end of his life, but he spent big money on Wallis. Mrs Belloc Lowndes a well known writer of the time saw her once at the theatre and remarked she was surprised that a woman who dressed so well would wear so much "dress" (false) jewellery, when her answer was smiles and laughs she realised that the jewellery which was in great quantities and very large was real.
I have posted this elsewhere, it is in this morning's DM and has some interesting points, not all bad about Wallis at all for once.
T