Just before the New Year, Denmark's Queen Margrethe II announced her surprise abdication. King Edward VIII was the last British monarch to abdicate in a historic moment in 1936. Report by Bangurak. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 Just before the new year, Denmark's Queen Margarethe II announced her surprise abdication.
00:07 But who was the last British monarch to abdicate?
00:10 Back in 1936, after ruling for less than one year, Edward VIII became the first English monarch to renounce the throne.
00:18 He chose to abdicate after the British government, public and the Church of England condemned his decision to marry the American divorcee, Wallace Walford Simpson.
00:28 Wallace Simpson was an American socialite. While seeing Edward, she was married to Ernest Simpson, an English-American businessman.
00:36 She had also previously divorced a US Navy pilot. The royal family disapproved of Edward's married mistress, but by 1936, he was intent on marrying her.
00:48 Before he could discuss his wishes with his father, George V died in January 1936 and Edward was proclaimed king.
00:57 To the Church of England and most British politicians, an American woman twice divorced was unacceptable as a prospective British queen.
01:06 However, despite mounting disapproval, Edward could not be dissuaded.
01:11 He proposed a marriage in which Wallace would be granted no rights of rank or property.
01:16 However, then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin rejected the suggestion as impractical.
01:22 The next day, British newspapers broke the news and the situation was discussed openly in Parliament.
01:28 With no resolution possible, the king abdicated the throne on December 10th.
01:33 On the evening of December 11th, he gave a radio address explaining his decision.
01:39 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.
01:58 God bless you all. God save the king.
02:03 On December 12th, his younger brother, the Duke of York, was proclaimed King George VI.
02:10 The new King, George VI, made his older brother the Duke of Windsor.
02:14 In June 1937, the Duke of Windsor and Wallace Warfield married in France.
02:20 They lived there for the next two years and visited other European countries, where the Duke was honoured by Nazi officials in October 1937 and met with Adolf Hitler.
02:30 The moment is referenced in the hit Netflix series The Crown.
02:34 After World War II broke out, Edward took a position as liaison officer with the French before the country fell to Nazis.
02:42 He then moved to Spain, but the Nazis plotted to kidnap and return him to the British throne as a puppet king.
02:49 Unaware of the kidnapping plot, but conscious of Edward's pre-war Nazi sympathies, Winston Churchill offered him the governorship of the Bahamas in the West Indies.
02:59 He set sail in August 1940, narrowly escaping a Nazi SS team sent to seize them.
03:07 In 1945, the Duke resigned his post and the couple moved back to France.
03:12 They lived mainly in Paris and Edward made a few visits to England, such as to attend the funerals of King George VI in 1952 and his mother, Queen Mary, in 1953.
03:24 Edward died in Paris in 1972, but was buried at Frogmore on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
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