Page 39 - All About History - Issue 34-16

The women before Wallis

PHILIP ZIEGLER

British biographer
and historian Philip
Author Ziegler is the author
Bio of King Edward VIII,
The Official Biography.
He has written for various
newspapers and journals,
including The Spectator, The
Times, The Daily Telegraph and
History Today.

dward VIII is remembered for causing what illicit liaisons. From his early 20s, he engaged changed the pattern of his private life. “Oh! To
may be the most infamous royal scandal in a series of relationships with prostitutes and set eyes on one of the darlings again!” he wrote
in history. In December 1936, less than a socialites, but most of all, married women. Might in anguish from the Front a few months later.
year after his coronation, he abdicated the the affair for which he is most remembered be “How one does miss them, and I don’t think of
E throne to marry the love of his life Wallis the least scandalous of them all? anything but women now.” Though it is true
Simpson. A two-time divorcee, the British and Towards the end of 1916, while the then Prince that in the whole of his life he only seriously
Dominion governments considered her politically, Edward was with the British Army in France, loved two women, as a young man he enjoyed
socially and morally unsuitable as a prospective his two equerries decided that, at the age of 22, an eventful and animated sex life, convincing
consort, and marrying her would have presented his virginity had been unhealthily protracted. himself each time that his passion was real and
a constitutional crisis. To avoid this, the king They took him to Amiens, gave him an excellent lasting before moving on to another conquest.
decided to step down. However, before he had dinner with much wine and then entrusted him On the whole, the prince preferred women
even met Wallis, Edward’s life was plagued to the skilled care of a French prostitute. Her who were older than he was. His first great
with scandal, mainly thanks to his penchant for ministrations proved effective, and dramatically love was Marion Coke, wife of the future Earl

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