3-022-631 - British Pathe Ltd/Heritage Images

'England's American Queen', title card, 1936. 'King Edward VIII, the world's most famous batchelor...the American press is filled with rumours of royal romance, of the possibility of King Edward marrying Mrs. Wallis Simpson, the former Baltimore Belle...in this topsy-turvy world, it may be time for an American woman to marry a British king'. A constitutional crisis was caused by Edward's intention to marry Wallis Simpson, an American who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands was politically and socially unacceptable as a prospective queen consort. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward's status as titular head of the Church of England, which, at the time, disapproved of remarriage after divorce if a former spouse was still alive. When it became apparent he could not marry Simpson and remain on the throne, he abdicated, and was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI. From "Time To Remember - The Time Of The Three Kings", 1936 ( Reel 3); documentary about events of the year of the abdication crisis.