King Edward VIII
1894 – 1972 · Generation XXXVI · King of the United Kingdom (Jan–Dec 1936) · House of Windsor
Edward VIII (1894–1972). King of the United Kingdom (Jan–Dec 1936). Married Wallis Simpson in 1937. Abdicated in December 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson; thereafter Duke of Windsor. As Prince of Wales he served with the army in the First World War and toured the world on his father's behalf; charming and famously well dressed, he was the most photographed celebrity of his time and set the style in men's clothes — though his string of affairs alarmed both the king and Stanley Baldwin. On the throne he chafed at protocol and unsettled politicians by brushing aside constitutional convention; his reign of 326 days stands among the shortest in British history, and he remains the most recent British monarch to abdicate. In 1937 he and his wife toured Nazi Germany, feeding rumours of sympathy with the regime. During the Second World War he served with the British mission to France and then as Governor of the Bahamas, and he lived out his final decades in France.
One of 48 people of House of Windsor (from 1917) in this archive. The present house — it renamed itself Windsor in 1917, setting aside the German title Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → Elizabeth Stuart → Sophia of Hanover → King George I → King George II → Frederick Prince of Wales → King George III → Edward Duke of Kent → Queen Victoria → King Edward VII → King George V → King Edward VIII.
Parents
- King George V (1865 – 1936)
- Mary of Teck (1867 – 1953)
Siblings
- King George VI (1895 – 1952)
- Mary Princess Royal (1897 – 1965)
- Henry Duke of Gloucester (1900 – 1974)
- George Duke of Kent (1902 – 1942)
- John Windsor (1905 – 1919)
Partners
- Married Wallis Simpson (1896 – 1986) in 1937
Life
- 1894 — Born
- 1936 — Edward VIII succeeds his father, George V, as King on 20 January.
- 1936 — On 10 December Edward signs the Instrument of Abdication over his wish to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson. Witnessed by all his brothers, it is a simple declaration of his intent to renounce the throne for himself and all his descendants. He is subsequently created Duke of Windsor.
- 1937 — Married Wallis Simpson
- 1972 — Died