# Canonical recap data for Abdication Crisis & Edward VIII's Renunciation (1936)
# Source: https://recap.at/1936/abdication-edward-viii
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: abdication-edward-viii
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1936/abdication-edward-viii"
title: Abdication Crisis & Edward VIII's Renunciation
subtitle: King Edward VIII's forced abdication over his romance with divorcée Wallis Simpson convulsed the British monarchy and shattered royal precedent.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1936-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1936
decade: 1930
country:
name: United Kingdom
slug: united-kingdom
summaryShort: In early December 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was in the process of divorcing her second.
summaryLong: In early December 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was in the process of divorcing her second.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Edward_abdication.png/1280px-Edward_abdication.png"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Abdication of Edward VIII"
importance: 71
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts: []
timeline: []
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdication_of_Edward_VIII"
  title: Abdication Crisis
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
categories:
- election
metaDescription: In early December 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who wa
wikidataQid: Q307716
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260624090429/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdication_of_Edward_VIII"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-24
  label: Abdication Crisis
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdication_of_Edward_VIII"
