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.

He was succeeded by his younger brother Albert who chose the regnal name George VI. The next day the last act of his reign was the royal assent to His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936. He famously said "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.

The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage arguing that the people would never accept a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands as queen. During the Second World War he was at first stationed with the British Military Mission to France but after private accusations that he held Nazi sympathies he was assigned to the Bahamas as the islands' Governor. Edward became king when his father died in early 1936.