Not many things that happened 70 years ago are remembered these days. But one event certainly hasn't been forgotten. On December 10th 1936 King Edward VIII abdicated. At his house, Fort Belvedere, bordering on Windsor Great Park, he signed an Instrument of Abdication to which his three brothers, the Dukes of York, Gloucester and Kent were witnesses. That afternoon the Speaker of the House of Commons read the King's Message to a packed House. In his Message the King pointed out that his lawful successor was his brother, the Duke of York, who ascended the throne as George VI.
This extraordinary event surpassed any other royal happening of the last two centuries both in drama and controversy. The King abdicated because, despite many efforts, he could find no way acceptable to his government of both being crowned King and marrying Mrs Wallis Simpson, an American from Baltimore who'd been divorced twice. It had to be the crown or Mrs Simpson and King Edward chose the latter. He went off into exile as the Duke of Windsor and married Mrs Simpson in France the following June.
The whole episode has always been treated as a scandal and numerous attempts have been made to establish who was most to blame for what happened. Naturally, in such a climate of recrimination, none of the principal figures involved, the King, Mrs Simpson and the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, comes out of the conventional account smelling of roses.
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