Amazing Stories from the Web
Part 1
THE ROMANCE OF THE CENTURY,
OR,
HOW ELIZABETH BECAME QUEEN
Pre-Reading
Discussion Questions:
1) How does one become a King or Queen?
2) When did Elizabeth II become Queen of England?
The rules and regulations which determine the order of succession to the throne in the United Kingdom are relatively simple and easy to understand. Once a monarch dies, their eldest child becomes the new monarch immediately. There is no interval. The Accession Council gets together to proclaim the new king or queen; then coronation follows. There are rather strict regulations which determine the order of succession to the throne, in case the elder child is for some reason unable to accept the crown.
The present Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant from King Egbert, who united England in 829. If we look at a chart which shows the descendants of Queen Victoria (1819-1901), we shall see the order of succession to the throne at a glance. Victoria herself became queen in 1838; she had nine children. Her eldest son Edward became king in 1901. His eldest son George became king in 1910. His eldest son 
Edward became king in 1936… Ay, there’s the rub, as Shakespeare would say. Edward’s younger brother, that is the next royal in the line of succession to the throne, was proclaimed king at the end of 1936. In 1952, when George died, his eldest daughter Elizabeth became queen. Were it not for some extraordinary circumstances, she would never have ascended the throne.
The future king Edward VIII was born on June 23, 1894, in Richmond, Surrey, England. He died on May 28, 1972, in Paris, as Duke of Windsor. He had been King of the United Kingdom for only a few months. What happened? His full name was Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, Prince of Wales (1911–36) and king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions and Emperor of India from January 20 to December 10, 1936, when he abdicated in order to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson of the United States. He was the only British sovereign ever voluntarily to resign the crown.
As the eldest child of King George V, Edward became heir to the throne on accession of his father in 1910, right after the death of his grandmother, Queen Victoria, who had been Queen of Great Britain for 63 years. Since his early years, Edward showed a great interest in the affairs of state, and took part in many events and functions. He was extremely popular in his own right, and also as a future king. His private parties were well-known in the society, and it was considered a great honour to be invited as a guest to one of them, given at his own residence in the country.
In 1930, an American couple first visited the young prince. Mrs. Simpson, divorced from her first husband in 1927, married Ernest Simpson in 1928. Some people said that once she was introduced to the future king, Mrs. Simpson began to insert herself into his most private circle of friends, and to play for his affections. Others insist that it was mutual love at first sight. Be that as it may, by 1934 Edward confessed to a few select friends that he was deeply in love with Mrs. Simpson. Eventually, he decided to discuss the situation with his father the king. But before he could do that, George V suddenly died on January 20, 1936, and Edward was proclaimed king.
During the year, Edward tried to gain the royal family’s acceptance of his affair with Mrs. Simpson, but he was met with firm opposition. The British Parliament and the Church of England backed the family position and refused to give him any support. Though the affair was kept from the British press, it received wide coverage in the European and American mass media.
Mrs. Simpson managed to obtain a preliminary divorce decree in October 1936, and the king tried to persuade the whole country that he could marry a twice-divorced woman, who was not even a British subject, and to make her queen. The country would have none of that. On December 3, the Parliament and the British press discussed the situation at great length. The word “abdication” first appeared in the newspapers. The Parliament decreed that a British king could not marry a divorcee from another country.
On December 10, 1936, the following declaration was published: “I, Edward, do hereby declare my irrevocable determination to renounce the throne for myself and my descendants”. On December 11, the king addressed the nation on the radio. He spoke about his love for Mrs. Simpson, and maintained that he could not remain king without the support of the woman he loved. The same night he left for the continent, never to live in Great Britain again. When the decree of divorce became final, Wallis Simpson and Edward, formerly king of the UK, quietly married in France on June 3, 1937. The new king, George VI, Edward’s younger brother, had created his older brother Duke of Windsor, but acting on the advice of his cabinet, he refused to extend to the new duchess of Windsor the rank of “royal highness”. Though the duke visited his native land briefly during the ensuing years, it was only in 1967 that both he and his wife were invited to an official ceremony in London. The couple lived quietly in Paris, where the prince died in 1972.
One cannot help but wonder about the lady’s feelings and desires, naturally. Bessie Wallis Warfield, as she was known before her marriages, in 1956 published her autobiography, The Heart Has Its Reasons. In it, she claimed that when she first met Prince Edward, she fell in love with him. Obviously, she filed for divorce, with the intention of marrying Prince Edward and becoming queen. She had never thought that, as a woman twice divorced, she was socially and politically unacceptable as a prospective British queen. Her bid for the position of the first royal British lady proved unsuccessful.
It is said that Edward’s abdication was a completely unexpected turn of events for her, but she rallied nicely, and accepted the consequences with great stoicism. Throughout her long life, she stuck to the attitude of eternal love. While Edward was alive, the couple remained a source of interest to the press. They traveled and entertained a lot. When Edward died in 1972, she continued to live in Paris, in ever-increasing isolation, until her death in 1986. Alone, she was never invited to any of the royal functions.
Wallis Simpson, who remained in history as “Mrs. Simpson” and not as the duchess of Windsor, was born in the USA in 1896; she died in Paris in 1986. After their deaths, according to Edward’s wishes, the duke and the duchess were buried side by side at Frogmore, within the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Accession (to the throne) n. the act of becoming king or queen
Succession n. the act of taking over an office, or accepting a position
If you wish to read more about this episode from the British history, use any Search Engine, e.g. google.com, yahoo.com.
Just type Edward VIII, or Wallis Simpson, into the Search line, and click “Go”.