II.

Reign

On the death of his father, King George V, in January 1936, Edward was proclaimed King Edward VIII. Before long, rumors circulated about his alleged romance with an American, Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson, then married to her second husband, a London shipping broker. On October 20, 1936, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin counseled Edward, as king and head of the Church of England, to remove all cause for the rumors. A week later Mrs. Simpson was granted a divorce, to become final in six months. In November the king confided to Baldwin that he intended to marry Mrs. Simpson even if it meant his abdication. A morganatic marriage was proposed, but the cabinet was unwilling to accept this compromise. On December 11, 1936, therefore, the king abdicated in favor of his brother, the duke of York, who became King George VI. Edward received the title duke of Windsor and married Mrs. Simpson in June 1937.