How many times have you wondered what would happen if you did something different? Maybe a simple change on whether having an iced coffee or tea wouldn’t affect so much your timeline, but what happens when an apparently simple decision as who you choose to be with and love, shapes not only the history of your family but your country and even the world! Well, we are talking about how Prince Edward from England choose love over duty and changed the course of history by giving us, Queen Elizabeth.
How so? Well, Prince Edwards, Elizabeth’s uncle, was once the King of England, but a tumultuous relationship with an American divorceé made him abdicate and give the crown to his brother, Prince Albert, better known as King George VI and later, it was passed to Queen Elizabeth.
You might find interesting: Queen Elizabeth won’t formally abdicate, but the transition is already happening
Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson shook the British Royal Family to its core and almost caused a constitutional crisis. This is the story of the couple to which Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been compared.
Who was Wallis Simpson
Raised in Baltimore, Wallis Simpson was part of the American socialite in Maryland. In 1916, she married to United States Navy officer Win Spencer whom she divorced years later. In 1931, she had a second marriage to Ernest Simpson, an Anglo-American shipping executive, and who she lived in England.
How did Prince Edward meet Wallis Simpson?
It was during this marriage that she met Prince Edward through a common friend, Lady Furness. At that time, she was the mistress of the future King of England and had a close relationship with Wallis.
Both couples started a good friendship that was translated into being invited to hunting or dinners that made their relationship close. According to some reports, the prince found Wallis an elegant and well-dressed woman.
As time went by, the two of them became closer to the point of him insisting to invite her to the Jubilee Ball and Buckingham Palace, and Ascot; however, Edward always maintained that they never had an affair during her time married to Ernest.
Prince Edward becomes a King
On January 20, 1936, learned that his father, King George had died after a few days of severe illness. This could only mean one thing, he was going to be the new King of the United Kingdom and as such, the first person he gave the news to was no more than his friend, Wallis.
A few months after King Edward was appointed, rumors of Wallis’ divorce started spreading, ringing the alarms not only amongst the Royal Family but in the House of Commons as well. The then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin warned King Edward of the consequences of his relationship with Wallis and urged him to prevent the divorce. Of course, he refused to do so.
Wallis listed extramarital affairs as the cause of her divorce to Ernest Simpson, but many believe that it was her the one who was having an affair with the new King.
King Edward abdicates
Not even one year had passed since Edward was appointed as King when he announced his plans to marry Wallis and abdicate to the throne, something never seen before in the modern era.
It was exactly on November 16, 1936, when he broke the news to the Prime Minister and to his mother, Queen Mary.
According to Andrew Morton, author of Wallis In Love: The Untold Life Of The Duchess Of Windsor, The Woman Who Changed The Monarchy, there was no way King Edward could marry Wallis without causing a constitutional crisis, so he choose love before duty, something her mother would never forgive.
Morton reported that Queen Mary wrote to Edward a letter about his situation saying, “it seemed inconceivable to those who had made sacrifices during the war that you, as their king, refused a lesser sacrifice.”
Before King Edward’s abdication was even finalized, he proposed to Wallis with a 19.77-carat emerald Cartier ring, and by December 10, he signed the Instrument of Abdication, leaving the throne to the next in line, his brother Prince Albert, who took the name of King George VI.
Wallis and Edward get married
In May 1937, Wallis received the notice that her divorce was finalized and immediately called the newly appointed Duke of Windsor who was in Austria to give him the news. The next day, the two reunited at the Château de Candé in France to get married.
The wedding took place on June 3, 1937, with no Royal Family members present. After the wedding, Wallis did not receive any titles despite her new husband being a Duke.
Why did his decision change the course of history?
Edward’s decision changed the rules of succession that let Princess Elizabeth become a Queen.
When King Edward was on the throne, the rules said that only the firstborn male in the family could become king, no matter if there were any women before him. But, because the newly appointed King George VI had no sons, but two daughters, the rules were changed letting Princess Elizabeth become Queen in 1953.
If Edward had not abdicated, Prince Albert would continue to be a Prince, and the Duke of York and Princess Elizabeth and Margaret would have a less public life. And another line of Windsors would occupy the Palace today.