Edward & Mrs. Simpson

- Season 1

(1978)

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales performs his official duties well and is loved by those around him and his people. He enjoys entertaining his friends and has an active social life. In his private life he has, since the end of the First World War, shown a preference for having relationships with married women. When his most constant companion, Freda Dudley Ward, is unable to accompany him on his planned safari in East Africa, she suggests Lady Thelma Furness as a suitable companion. They form a close friendship and it is she who introduces the Prince to Wallis ...

With Wallis firmly established as his mistress and his hostess, gossip and muttering begins. When her instructions to the household staff are ignored, the Prince lets it be known in no uncertain terms that whatever she says is to be followed to the letter. With her husband unavailable due to business commitments, Wallis and the Prince set off for an extended holiday sailing in the Mediterranean. King George V and Queen Mary are concerned at the Prince's lengthy absence from his official duties all the more so when he extends the holiday by three weeks. They are also ...

The new King assembles his new staff and his mother, Queen Mary, sees it as a positive beginning. He also assures Wallis that his new position will not change anything but he does make it clear that he will not go through with the coronation, still some months away, unless their situation is clarified. Ernest Simpson informs the King the Wallis must choose between. Wallis and her husband agree that their marriage is finished and he suggests that she sue him for divorce. The King and Wallis visit his old friend Walter Monkton, a barrister, to get advice on her divorce....

As Wallis proceeds with her divorce, away from London, there is increasing concern in official circles as to what the future may hold. The American press are having a field day with the affair but the British press has remained silent. Of greater concern to the Prime Minister is the possibility of a constitutional crisis should the King persist with his intention to marry Wallis. The British media, led by the influential press baron Lord Beaverbrook, agree to cover the divorce in as low key a way as possible. The Prime Minister, who very much likes and supports the ...

With Wallis Simpson's interim divorce decree issued, the King makes his intentions known. He advises his friend Walter Monkton and Prime Minister Baldwin that he has every intention of marrying Wallis and that he will not be crowned unless she can stand by his side. He also advises him that should he be prevented from proceeding with his intentions, he will abdicate in favor of his younger brother Bertie. The King has a few supporters - Lord Beaverbrook and Winston Churchill among them - but for the most part, few believe that the people would accept the union. The ...

With the chances of getting the government's support for his marriage to Wallis ever diminishing, the King attempts to get their support for a morganatic marriage. Used in some countries when royalty marries a commoner, a morganatic marriage results in the sovereign's wife not becoming Queen and does not allow the children to inherit the throne. There is no provision in British law for this type of marriage and there is no support, either from the government or the Opposition, to enact the necessary legislation. Wallis for her part simply can't understand why the King...

With all avenues now exhausted, King Edward VIII accepts his situation and proceeds with the abdication. In his broadcast to the nation, he appeals for understanding and tells his people that he cannot continue without the woman he loves. His brother, Prince Albert, feels that he is completely unprepared to take on the duties of the monarch but he accepts his duty and becomes King George VI. The new King decides that his brother, now Prince Edward, will be known as HRH the Duke of Windsor. The Duke however is dismayed when told that his future wife, while becoming a ...