Edouard VIII of the United Kingdom

Edouard VIII ( Edouard Albert Christian Georges Andre Patrice David ) (June 23rd 1894 - May 28th 1972) was king of the the United Kingdom of other and Great Britain and Northern Ireland Dominion S of the the Commonwealth and Empereur of the Indies of the January 20th 1936 until its Abdication the December 11th 1936, and then duke of Windsor . He is the only British monarch to abdicate voluntarily (although others are “famous to have abdicated” after having fled, carried out, etc).

The beginning of its life

It was born with Richmond upon Thames in the Surrey, oldest son of Their Royal Highnesses the duke and the duchess of York. The duke of York, which became then the king Georges V, was the second wire of Albert Edouard, prince de Galles (the future Edouard VII), itself oldest son of the queen Victoria I {{Re}}. The duchess of York, before Her Highness Sérénissime the princess Marie de Teck, was back-small-girl of the king Georges III and niece of the queen Victoria Ire. As of his birth, Edouard was third in the order of succession with the throne, behind his grandfather and his father.

Called David within his family, it became automatically Duc of Cornouailles and Rothesay, Count de Carrick, baron de Renfrew, lord of the Islands, prince and large seneshal of Scotland, at the time of the succession of his father the May 6th 1910. It was created Prince de Galles and Count de Chester the June 2nd 1910 and was officially invested of these titles at the time of a special ceremony to the castle of Caernarfon to the Wales. It was the first time since the Middle Ages which such an event occurred in Wales; the decision was made at the instigation of the Welsh politician David Lord George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer of the liberal government .

At the beginning of the First World War, David was of ripe age and was in a hurry to take part. It was allowed to him to join the army but it was never sent to be useful where its safety could have been compromised.

After the war, a series of love affairs with married women contributed to worry his/her very preserving parents. Among its in love are counted Freda Dudley Ward (born Winifred May Birkin, woman of William Dudley Ward then of Pedro, marquis de Casa Maury), as well as the viscountess Furness, born Thelma Morgan.

The dynastic crisis of 1936

The latter made known to him Wallis Simpson, American which had divorced its first husband in 1927 and was then the woman of an American business man. M^me Simpson and the prince of Wales fell in love while the mistress of the prince, Furness lady, was abroad. Following the death of his/her father the January 20th 1936, it made scandal by looking at the proclamation of its own accession to the throne by a window, in company of M^me Simpson, itself always married. It appeared impossible for the king to marry with M^me Simpson, even after its second divorce. The two preceding husbands were both in life and he even was the chief of the Église of England, which prohibited the remarriage after the divorce. One proposed alternatives, like a Mariage morganatic, but Edouard was obstinated to want to marry with M^me Simpson and it ends up giving up the throne the December 11th 1936.

Two political reasons are also advanced to explain its abdication. First of all, the couple would have liked to intervene in policy, whereas in England, the king reigns, but does not control. Then, the king, related with several German princely families, was close to many notable which supported the Nazisme. Under these conditions, the government - and Stanley Baldwin - did not wish to preserve Edouard VIII as king.

The abdication of Edouard VIII caused a constitutional instability, and the throne passed to the Heir apparent, the younger brother of king, Albert, duke of York, which became the king Georges VI of the United Kingdom.

After its abdication

The March 8th 1937, Georges VI raised his brother with the row of Duc of Windsor, but specified that neither his wife, nor her descendants, would have the qualification of Royal Highness. That contributed to envenimer still more the relations between the duke and the royal family, relations which had become tended because of the indulgence of the duke on the subject of the totalitarian modes in Europe. Indeed, it had never hidden its admiration for the voluntarism of the chancellor Adolf Hitler on the economic plan following the world-wide crisis of the beginning of the Années 1930.

The duke married M^me Simpson in a private ceremony the June 3rd 1937 with the castle of Candé with Monts in France. Their honeymoon will be a cruising on the Mediterranean, which they begin starting from a port of Italy mussolinienne. The duke thought of being allocated to the United Kingdom after one or two years of exile to France (where it profited from an tax exemption and a private mansion on behalf of the French government), but the king, with the support of his mother, the Marie queen, and of his wife, the Queen Elizabeth, threatened it to withdraw its pension to him if it returned to the United Kingdom without being invited there.

It was named governor of the the Bahamas, a station which it kept until in 1945; the couple turned over then to France, where they passed the majority of the remainder of their very fashionable life.
It returned later to see the other family members on several occasions royal, but his wife was never accepted there. He died in 1972 with Paris, and its body was returned to the United Kingdom to be buried with Frogmore, close to the Château of Windsor. The duchess of Windsor, at the time of her death one decade and half later, was buried at her sides. They did not have any child.

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