Edward & Wallis Windsor

EDWARD DUKE OF WINDSOR & WALLIS SIMPSON. King of The United Kingdom from 20th January 1936 until his abdication on 11th December 1936. Edward was the eldest son of King George V and Queen Mary. He was created Prince of Wales on his sixteenth birthday (nine weeks after his father succeeded his own father Edward VII as king). As a young man, he served in the British Army during WW1 and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father. He became king following his father's death on 20th January 1936. He showed impatience with court protocol and caused concern among politicians over his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions. Only months into his reign, he caused a constitutional crisis by proposing marriage to the American socialite Wallis Simpson (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 the people would never accept a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands as queen consort. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward's status as the titular head of the Church of England (which at the time opposed the remarriage of divorced people if their former spouses were still alive). Edward knew that the British government led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have forced a general election and would ruin his status as a politically neutral monarch. Choosing not to end his relationship with Wallis Simpson, he abdicated and was succeeded by his younger brother Albert who chose the regnal name George VI. With a reign of just 326 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British history. After his abdication, he was created Duke of Windsor. He married Wallis Simpson in France on 3rd June 1937, after her second divorce became final. During WW2, he was at first stationed with the British Military Mission in France but after private accusations that he held Nazi sympathies, he was assigned to The Bahamas as Governor. After the war, he was never given another official appointment and spent the remainder of his life in retirement in France. He died aged 77 in 1972. After the Duke's death in 1972, the Duchess lived in seclusion and she was rarely seen in public. Her private life has been a source of much speculation and she remains a controversial figure in British history. She suffered with poor health in her latter years and died aged 89 on 24th April 1986.