Edward VIII & Wallis Simpson...THEIR STORY

The price this famous royal couple of the 1930s paid for their love remains incomprehensible still to this day.  When King Edward VIII renounced the British throne after his 325-day reign in order to be free to marry the twice-divorced American, Wallis Warfield Simpson, it seemed then, as it does now, a story fairytales are made of.  Their affair and subsequent marriage made headlines the world over. The prince fell in love with the married Wallis Simpson from Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, in 1930.  Six years later, the newly-divorced Simpson and recently-crowned, 42-year-old King of England went public with their forbidden love affair, revealing to the world their burning desire to be together no matter what the price. Knowing full well that his country would never accept an American divorcee as their queen, King Edward stepped down from his throne on December 10, 1936, abdicating to his successor, younger brother George, who became King George VI.  The day after his abdication, Edward made a global radio address, providing the explanation everyone had been waiting to hear: "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love." Shortly after his resignation, the besotted Edward, newly-titled the Duke of Windsor, gifted his beloved a platinum-set, 19.77-carat rectangular emerald engagement ring fit for a queen, who would only be queen of his heart.  Their 1937 marriage at Chateau de

Candé, near Tours, France, had only 16 guests in attendance, none of whom were from the Duke's family.

As a wedding gift, the Duke presented his wife the one-of-a-kind "Marriage Contract Bracelet," designed by Van Cleef & Arpels of Paris.  This stunning piece, designed in the shape of a garter, featured an invisible setting with a cluster of cushion-shaped sapphires at the center of a wide diamond and platinum bracelet.

The couple sacrificed it all for their undying love and spent the rest of their lives in exile from England, mostly in France and the United States. They remained loyally devoted to each other until the Duke's 1972 death in Paris.  Wallis died 14 years later in 1986.  They are buried beside one another in the royal burial grounds of Windsor Castle.

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