After less than a year on the throne, Edward VIII abdicated rather than abandon his plan to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, whom the Church of England and government refused to accept as queen. His younger brother became George VI, and Edward took the title Duke of Windsor. Broadcasting to the nation days later, he declared he found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility without the help and support of the woman he loved.
The crisis had simmered in private for months while the British press, unlike American papers, kept silent about the king's relationship with Simpson until it could no longer be contained. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin told Edward plainly that the country would not accept her as queen, and church leaders warned that the head of the Church of England could not marry a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands.
Edward signed the abdication instrument at Fort Belvedering just after 10 a.m., surrounded by his three brothers, one of whom, Albert, would become King George VI and whose stammering, reluctant path to leadership later inspired the film The King's Speech. The instrument required ratification by Parliament, which passed His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act that same evening.
Edward's radio broadcast on December 11 was heard by millions and remains one of the most famous abdication speeches in history. He and Simpson married the following June in France, living out their lives largely in exile, stripped of royal duties, while George VI steered Britain through the Second World War, a role history suggests Edward, with his sympathies toward Nazi Germany, might have handled disastrously.
Key people: Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson