“I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.” Now that’s a statement of love if I ever heard one and one to ponder on this Valentines Day. Thus in a very public radio address, the newly crowned King of England, Edward VIII told the world of his love for the american adventuress Wallis Simpson. He was first introduced to Mrs. Simpson when he was the Prince of Wales in 1931. At that time she was married to her second husband, a minor detail as it turned out. They soon began a relationship that would rock Britain’s most prominent institutions including Parliament, the monarchy and the Church of England, not to mention poor Mr. Simpson. Edward felt that Simpson was “the perfect woman.” A good many others criticized her as a financially unstable social climber. “Picky, Picky, Picky”. True love won out and just months after being crowned King in January 1936, after the death of his father, George V, Edward proposed to Simpson, setting off a huge scandal and prompting Britain’s prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, to say he would resign if the marriage went ahead. Not wanting to push his country into an electoral crisis, but unwilling to give Simpson up, Edward made the decision to abdicate the throne. Married and given the titles of Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the couple lived in exile in France, where they lived long and seemingly very content lives and became the usual suspects of cafe society. They even had a social fling with Adolf Hitler before WWII. Oh well, as they say true love never runs smooth, but on Valentines Day it’s good to remember a man who would give up his Kingdom not for a horse, but for the woman he loved.
Tags: Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII, Valentines Day, Wallis Simpson
