King Edward VIII’s abdication

King Edward VIII (1894-1972) is the only British monarch to have abdicated. He ascended the throne in January 1936, but eleven months later announced on radio to the British public that he was stepping down.

Mrs Wallis Simpson, an American, had divorced her first husband and was in the process of divorcing her second, Mr Ernest Simpson. Both of them had been part of the Prince’s social circle and were frequent guests of Edward and his then girlfriend, Thelma. Events took their course and Edward became enamoured with Wallis, proposing to her a few months after becoming King, unaware of the gossip going on behind the scenes.

Although her divorced status was officially given as the reason for the abdication, the King could marry whomsoever he pleased, provided she was not a Roman Catholic, which Wallis was not. Nevertheless, he was manoeuvred into choosing between calling off the wedding, abdicating or going ahead and facing the consequences of the government resigning. He chose Wallis and they became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. They lived in France and had no children. His brother Albert (actual name) became King George VI.

(Image [cropped]: James Vaughan at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)