Trivia

His name and primary title changed eight times in his life: he was born Prince Edward of York, then became Prince Edward of Cornwall and York in January 1901, Prince Edward of Wales in November 1901, Duke of Cornwall in May 1910, Prince of Wales in June 1910, King Edward VIII (His Majesty The King) in 1936, untitled (The Prince Edward) from December 1936 to March 1937, and finally Duke of Windsor in 1937.

As the first son of King George V and heir apparent, he was invested as the Prince of Wales in 1911.

The coronation that had been planned for him went on as scheduled on May 12, 1937 but for his brother King George VI.

He was the last monarch to serve his entire reign as Emperor of India.

His close friend Winston Churchill (then a backbencher) suggested setting up a "King's Party" as a group to try to sway public opinion and the establishment in favor of Edward remaining on the throne after marrying Wallis Simpson (the Duchess of Windsor).

He had to give his Royal Assent to the Act of Parliament confirming his abdication. By a quirk in their constitution he remained King of Ireland for an extra day.

For approximately nine hours after his abdication he bore no official title, he was simply "His Royal Highness The Prince Edward." He was not created "His Royal Highness The Duke of Windsor" until the morning after he left England.

He was the only British king and emperor to voluntarily abdicate the throne.

Married Wallis Simpson in France in 1937, but no members of the royal family attended. He was effectively exiled from the United Kingdom and could only return with the permission of the monarch. He returned to England a few times - briefly after the end of the World War II in 1945, for the funeral of his brother, George VI, in 1952, for the funeral of his mother, Queen Mary, in 1953 and for the unveiling of a statue of his mother in 1967.

Brother of King George VI, Princess Mary, the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, and Prince John.

Son of King George V and Queen Mary

Along with Lady Jane Grey (the legitimacy of her nine-day reign in 1553 was disputed) and Edward V (who ruled for less than three months in 1483), he is one of only three British or English monarchs never to be crowned.

He was the first English or British monarch since King James II (1685-1688) whose reign did not end with his death.

After Lady Jane Grey (nine days, disputed by Mary I) and Edward V (two months), he is the third shortest reigning monarch in British history.

First British or English monarch to die outside of Britain since King James II in 1701.

First monarch of England to be a qualified pilot.

He was unable to attend the state funeral of his former friend and ally Sir Winston Churchill in January 1965 because he was recovering from a serious eye operation at King Edward VII hospital in London.

In the final year of his life, he underwent a hernia operation.

He outlived his younger brother King George VI by twenty years. The only other English or British monarch to outlive their successor is James II who died in 1701, almost seven years after the death of his daughter Mary II.

As he visited Germany and met Adolf Hitler in 1937, he was accused of being pro-Nazi and finally moved to the Bahamas as Govenor and Commander-in-Chief during World War II. Hitler and the Nazis greatly admired the British aristocracy and had plans to restore him to the British throne if they had defeated the UK in 1940.

Lived at 4 rue du Champ d'Entraînement in Paris, where the City of Paris provided him a house.

Is buried in the Royal Burial Grounds at Frogmore.

The song "Edward VIII" by Lord Caresser was the most popular calypso record in 1937.

Is portrayed by Richard Chamberlain in The Woman I Love (1972), Edward Fox in Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978), Anthony Andrews in The Woman He Loved (1988), Stephen Campbell Moore in Wallis & Edward (2005), Guy Pearce in The King's Speech (2010),and James D'Arcy in W.E. (2011).

Uncle of Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, Prince William of Gloucester, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Edward, Duke of Kent, Prince Michael of Kent and Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark.

Introduced to Wallis Simpson by his then-mistress Thelma Morgan.

Though officially his first name was Edward, he was known to family and close friends as David.

The government of the Irish Free State, taking the opportunity presented by the crisis and in a major step towards its eventual transition to a republic, passed an amendment to its constitution on 11 December to remove references to the Crown. The King's abdication was recognized a day later in the External Relations Act of the Irish Free State, and legislation eventually passed in South Africa declared that the abdication took effect there on 10 December.

He had heart surgery in 1964.

After Germany invaded France in May 1940 the Windsors fled to Spain, before moving to Portugal. Edward declined an invitation from the Nazis to return to Spain in July, and shortly afterwards he sailed to become Governor of the Bahamas.

His longtime friendship with Winston Churchill was badly damaged by what Churchill regarded as the Duke's "defeatist" interview with the American "Liberty" magazine in December 1940. When the interview was published in March 1941 the Duke said he had been misquoted and his words taken out of context.

Adolf Hitler insisted on using interpreters when they met in October 1937, even though the Duke of Windsor spoke German quite well.

During his visit to Germany in October 1937 Edward went to the early stages of a concentration camp, although it is not thought evidence of mass murder was made clear to him.

Autobiography "A King's Story: The Memoirs of HRH the Duke of Windsor" was ghostwritten by Charles Murphy.

After his abdication, he would sometimes call his brother King George VI multiple times a day, pestering him to raise his allowance and for a "royal highness" style for his wife, Wallis. Eventually, George stopped accepting his calls.

After his abdication, he settled in France and was effectively exiled from the United Kingdom, and if he returned without his brother's permission his allowance would be cut off. He initially expected his exile to last only a year or two, but it lasted for the rest of his life.

He was known to use disparaging nicknames for his family members when talking about them with friends and his wife, Wallis. Among them was "Cookie" for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, because he thought she resembled an overweight Scottish cook, and Shirley Temple for Queen Elizabeth II.

Prior to his abdication, the government considered stripping him of all royal titles and he would only be entitled to be called "Mr. Edward Windsor", but ultimately decided to let him keep his princely title to prevent him from running for public office.

Although Edward's abdication has been cited as the reason Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne, several biographers have asserted that Edward may have been sterile due to a bout with mumps in his youth, and Elizabeth likely would have come to the throne even if he hadn't abdicated.