Edward Albert Christian George

Edward VIII was born on 23 June 1894 in Richmond, Surrey, as the eldest son of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. He was always known in his family as David, one of his many middle names. He was created Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday, seven weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, he served in the British Army during the First World War and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father. He gained popularity due to his charm and charisma, and his fashion sense became a hallmark of the era. After the war, he engaged in a series of affairs with married women that worried both his father and the British prime minister Stanley Baldwin. Upon his father’s death in 1936, Edward became king as Edward VIII. He showed impatience with court protocol and caused consternation among politicians by his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions. Only months into his reign, he caused a constitutional crisis by his proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, an American who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing that a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands was politically and socially unacceptable as a prospective queen consort. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward’s status as titular head of the Church of England, which at the time disapproved of remarriage after divorce if a former spouse was still alive. Edward knew that the Baldwin government would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have forced a general election and ruined his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. When it became apparent that he could not marry Simpson and remain on the throne, he abdicated on 10 December 1936. The following day, he broadcast to the nation and the empire to explain his actions. He left for Europe and married Simpson in France in 1937. He was created Duke of Windsor by his brother King George VI prior to the marriage. For the next two years, the Duke and Duchess lived mainly in France. On a visit to Germany in 1937, they had a controversial meeting with Adolf Hitler. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Edward was appointed governor of the Bahamas. He remained in this post until the end of the war, when he and the Duchess returned to France. In the remaining years of his life, he paid only short visits to England to attend the funerals of family members. There continued to be much bitterness between him and his family. He died of throat cancer on 28 May 1972 in Paris and was buried near Windsor.