Abdication of Edward VIII

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In early December 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was in the process of divorcing her second.

Edward in 1932

Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in the Mediterranean, 1936

Fort Belvedere, Surrey, Edward's residence in Windsor Great Park

Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (left) and his British counterpart Stanley Baldwin (right), 1926

Edward VIII

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Edward VIII, later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year.

Edward in 1919

Edward with his father George, grandfather Edward, and great-grandmother Victoria

Edward (second from left) with his father and younger siblings (Albert and Mary). Photograph by his grandmother Alexandra, 1899

As a midshipman on board HMS Hindustan, 1910