Edward VIII
Edward VIII, later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year.
Edward was born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. He was created Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday, seven weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, Edward served in the British Army during the First World War and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father. The Prince of Wales gained popularity due to his charm and charisma, and his fashion sense became a hallmark of the era. After the war, his conduct began to give cause for concern; he engaged in a series of sexual affairs that worried both his father and the British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin.
Upon his father's death in 1936, Edward became the second monarch of the House of Windsor. The new king showed impatience with court protocol, and caused consternation among politicians by his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions. Only months into his reign, Edward caused a constitutional crisis through his proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, an American who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands was politically and socially unacceptable as a prospective queen consort. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward's status as titular head of the Church of England, which, at the time, disapproved of remarriage after divorce if a former spouse was still alive. Edward knew the Baldwin government would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have forced a general election and would have ruined his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. When it became apparent he could not marry Simpson and remain on the throne, he abdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI. With a reign of 326 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning British monarchs to date.
After his abdication, Edward was created Duke of Windsor. He married Simpson in France on 3 June 1937, after her second divorce became final. Later that year, the couple toured Nazi Germany, which fed rumours that he was a Nazi sympathiser. During the Second World War, Edward was at first stationed with the British Military Mission to France. After the fall of France, he was appointed Governor of the Bahamas. After the war, Edward spent the rest of his life in France. He and Wallis remained married until his death in 1972; they had no children.
Early life
Edward was born at 10:00 pm on 23 June 1894 at White Lodge, Richmond Park, on the outskirts of London, during the reign of his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. He was the eldest son of the Duke and Duchess of York. His father was the son of the Prince and Princess of Wales and his mother was the eldest daughter of Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge and Francis, Duke of Teck. At the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind his grandfather and father.Edward was baptised Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David in the Green Drawing Room of White Lodge on 16 July by Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury. The name Edward was chosen in honour of Edward's late uncle Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, who was known within the family as "Eddy" ; Albert was included at the behest of Queen Victoria for her late husband Albert, Prince Consort; Christian was in honour of his great-grandfather King Christian IX of Denmark; and the last four names – George, Andrew, Patrick and David – came from, respectively, the patron saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. He was always known to his family and close friends by his last given name, David.
As was common practice among upper-class families of the period, Edward and his younger siblings were brought up by nannies rather than directly by their parents. One of Edward's early nannies frequently mistreated him by pinching him before he was due to be presented to his parents. His resulting crying and distress would prompt the Duke and Duchess to send him and the nanny away. Her behaviour was eventually discovered, and she was dismissed and replaced by Charlotte Bill.
Edward's father, though a harsh disciplinarian, was demonstratively affectionate, and his mother displayed a playful side with her children that belied her austere public image. She was amused by the children making tadpoles on toast for their French master as a prank, and encouraged them to confide in her.
Education
Initially, Edward was tutored at home by Hélène Bricka. When his parents travelled the British Empire for almost nine months following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, Edward and his siblings remained in Britain with their grandparents, Queen Alexandra and King Edward VII, who showered them with affection. Upon his parents' return, Edward was placed under the care of two men, Frederick Finch and Henry Hansell, who virtually brought up Edward and his siblings for the rest of their nursery years.Edward stayed under Hansell's strict tutorship until he was almost 13. Private tutors taught him German and French. He took the examination for entry to the Royal Naval College, Osborne, and began there in 1907. Hansell had wanted Edward to enter school earlier, but the prince's father disagreed. After two years at Osborne College, which he did not enjoy, Edward moved on to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. A two-year course, followed by entry into the Royal Navy, was planned.
Upon the death of Edward VII, Edward's father ascended the throne as George V, and Edward himself became heir apparent. Preparations for his future as king began in earnest. He was withdrawn from his naval course before his formal graduation, served as a midshipman for three months aboard the battleship, and then immediately entered Magdalen College, Oxford, for which, in the opinion of his biographers, he was intellectually unprepared. A keen horseman, he learned to play polo with the university club. He left Oxford after eight terms, without any academic qualifications.
Prince of Wales
Edward automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay on 6 May 1910 upon his father's accession. He was created, by letters patent, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester a month later, on 23 June 1910, his 16th birthday. Edward was officially invested as Prince of Wales in a special ceremony at Caernarfon Castle on 13 July 1911. The investiture took place in Wales at the instigation of the Welsh politician David Lloyd George, Constable of the Castle and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Liberal government. Lloyd George devised a rather fanciful ceremony in the style of a Welsh pageant and coached Edward to speak a few words in Welsh.When the First World War broke out in 1914, Edward had reached the minimum age for active service and was keen to participate. He had joined the Grenadier Guards in June 1914, and although he was willing to serve on the front lines, the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, refused to allow it, citing the immense harm that would occur if the heir apparent to the throne were captured by the enemy. Edward visited frontline trenches several times, for which he was awarded the Military Cross in 1916. His role in the war, although limited, made him popular among veterans of the conflict. He undertook his first military flight in 1918 and later gained a pilot's licence.
Edward's youngest brother, Prince John, died at the age of 13 on 18 January 1919 after a severe epileptic seizure. Edward, who was eleven years older than John and had hardly known him, saw his death as "little more than a regrettable nuisance". He wrote to his mistress of the time that " told all about that little brother, and how he was an epileptic. 's been practically shut up for the last two years anyhow, so no one has ever seen him except the family, and then only once or twice a year. This poor boy had become more of an animal than anything else." He also wrote an insensitive letter to his mother, which has since been lost. She did not reply, but he felt compelled to write her an apology, in which he stated: "I feel such a cold hearted and unsympathetic swine for writing all that I did ... No one can realize more than you how little poor Johnnie meant to me who hardly knew him ... I feel so much for you, darling Mama, who was his mother."
In 1919, Edward agreed to serve as president of the organising committee for the proposed British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park, Middlesex. He wished the Exhibition to include "a great national sports ground", and so played a part in the creation of Wembley Stadium.
Throughout the 1920s, Edward, as Prince of Wales, represented his father at home and abroad on many occasions. His rank, travels, good looks, and unmarried status attracted considerable public attention. At the height of his popularity, he was the most photographed celebrity of his time, and he set men's fashion. During his 1924 visit to the United States, Men's Wear magazine observed that, "The average young man in America is more interested in the clothes of the Prince of Wales than in any other individual on earth."
Edward visited poverty-stricken areas of Britain, and undertook sixteen tours to various parts of the Empire between 1919 and 1935. On a tour of Canada in 1919, he acquired the Bedingfield ranch near Pekisko, Alberta, which he owned until 1962. Named the E. P. Ranch, he attempted unsuccessfully to develop it for the breeding of animals, including Shorthorn cattle, Dartmoor ponies, and Clydesdale horses. He escaped unharmed when the train in which he was travelling during a tour of Australia was derailed outside Perth in 1920.
File:Edward VIII with his staff in Japan 1922.jpg|thumb|Edward and his staff wearing formal samurai kimono in Japan, 1922
Edward's November 1921 visit to India came during the non-cooperation movement protests for Indian self-rule and was marked by riots in Bombay. In 1929, Sir Alexander Leith, a leading Conservative in the north of England, persuaded him to make a three-day visit to the County Durham and Northumberland coalfields, where there was widespread unemployment. From January to April 1931, the Prince of Wales and his brother Prince George travelled on a tour of South America, steaming out on the ocean liner, and returning via Paris and an Imperial Airways flight from Paris–Le Bourget Airport that landed specially in Windsor Great Park.
File:Fuad_I_of_Egypt_&_Edward_VIII_of_England.jpg|alt=Fuad_I_of_Egypt_&_Edward_VIII_of_England|thumb|With King Fuad I of Egypt in Abdeen Palace garden, 1932
Though widely travelled, Edward shared a common racial prejudice against foreigners and many of the Empire's subjects, believing that whites were inherently superior. In 1920, during his visit to Australia, he wrote of Indigenous Australians: "they are the most revolting form of living creatures I've ever seen!! They are the lowest known form of human beings & are the nearest thing to monkeys."