Windsor, duke of

Cultural  

1. An English nobleman of the twentieth century who ruled Britain as King Edward VIII in 1936. He gave up the throne after less than a year to marry an American divorcée, Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson, because British law did not permit a divorced woman to become queen.

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In a famous speech to the British people announcing his abdication, the duke said that he could not carry on as king “without the help and support of the woman I love.”