Edward VIII

The eldest child of George Duke of York (later King George V); became heir to the throne on the accession of his father and was created Prince of Wales (23 Jun 1910); was educated at the naval preparatory college at Osborne, the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and Magdalen College, Oxford; served with the Grenadier Guards in France, Italy, Flanders, and Egypt during World War I; succeeded to the thrones of Great Britain, Ireland, etc. after the death of George V (20 Jan 1936); being unmarried at the time of his accession, he continued the love affair with Mrs. Simpson (née Wallis Warfield), which started in 1930; was advised by the cabinet of Stanley Baldwin (20 Oct 1936) to break up relationship with Mrs. Simpson, but the king informed Baldwin that he intended to marry her even if it meant his abdication; a proposal for morganatic marriage was rejected by the Cabinet that caused the Abdication Crisis; signed an Instrument of Abdication (10 Dec 1936) at Fort Belvedere, Surrey, declaring his "irrevocable determination to renounce the throne"; the instrument was endorsed by Parliament on 11 Dec 1936 and the same day Edward discharged his last duty as king, when he gave Royal Assent to "His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act," by which he himself and any children he might have were excluded from succession to the throne; with the "demise of the Crown" announced in the act, Edward's brother, Albert, became King George VI; was created Duke of Windsor (8 Mar 1937) and married Wallis Simpson (3 Jun 1937); served as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Bahama Islands (17 Aug 1940 - Apr 1945); lived abroad until the end of his life.