Wallis Simpson
1896-1986
In early December 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire
arose when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an
American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was in
the process of divorcing her second. The widespread unwillingness to
accept Simpson as the King's consort and Edward's refusal to give her
up led to his abdication in December 1936. A year after his abdication,
they married and remained married until his death 35 years later.
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