Edward VIII (born Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972) was King of the United Kingdom, from 20 January 1936 until 11 December 1936. He was born at White Lodge, Richmond Park in London.
Edward abdicated (resigned) from the throne, because he wanted to marry the American woman Wallis Simpson. Simpson had been married twice before. As King, he was Head of the Church of England, and the Church did not support divorce. After abdicating as king, he was known as His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor. His wife was not allowed to be called "Her Royal Highness".
Early life
Edward, commonly known by those close to him as David, was born as the first son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, later King George V and Queen Mary. As a young man, he disliked his royal duties, but his charisma made him popular with the British people. Edward was officially invested as Prince of Wales in a ceremony at Caernarvon Castle on 13 July 1911 and was even tutored by the future Prime Minister David Lloyd George to speak a few words of Welsh.
At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the twenty-year-old Edward was keen to participate. He witnessed trench warfare at first-hand and attempted to visit the front line as often as possible, but he did not experience as much hardship and misery as ordinary British soldiers.
Edward undertook a military flight in 1918 and gained a pilot's licence later. Throughout the 1920s, Edward represented his father, King George V, at home and abroad on many occasions. His popularity was at its greatest peak in that decade and gained him much public and media attention.
However, his increasing womanising and reckless behaviour in the 1920s and the 1930s worried Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and his hardworking, strict father, King George V. Edward was also uninterested with royal duties and disliked the British establishment. George V was disappointed by Edward's failure to settle down in life and was furious with his many affairs with married women, and he was reluctant to see him inherit the Crown. George V preferred his son Albert (later King George VI), a family man who was loyal to his beloved wife.
Edward had a string of relationships with married women including Freda Dudley Ward and Lady Furness, the American wife of a British peer, who later introduced him to Wallis Simpson. She was an American who had been twice divorced. Edward later became Wallis Simpson's lover.
That further weakened his poor relationship with his father, who stated, "After I am dead," George said, "the boy will ruin himself in 12 months".
Reign
After months of ill health, King George V died on 20 January 1936. His son became King Edward VIII and watched the announcement of his new role from a window of St James's Palace with his lover, Wallis. After only a few weeks, Edward began to cause unease in government circles with actions that were seen as too political. He did not work hard as king and was not careful about important state papers. Far from working, in August and September, Edward and Wallis simply sailed around the Mediterranean on a luxury steam yacht.
On 16 November 1936, Edward invited British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to Buckingham Palace and expressed his plans to marry Wallis Simpson after her divorce. Baldwin was unhappy about that and informed him that his subjects would see it as morally unacceptable, because remarriage after divorce was opposed by the Church of England, which Edward was the formal head, and the people did not like Wallis. Edward knew that the government, led by Baldwin, would resign if the marriage went ahead. That action could have led to a general election and would ruin Edward's status as a politically-neutral monarch. That would be disastrous for the Royal Family and damage the nation.
As a result, he chose to abdicate in December of that year and married Wallis later in 1937. His brother, Prince Albert, Duke of York, became King George VI.