[A*O]

Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 when ANY kind of divorce was considered shocking and shameful. As King and therefore Head of the Church of England he also had a lot of religious pressure not to marry a divorcee. But times have changed - 3 of the Queen's 4 children have divorced and 2 of those have remarried (Charles and Anne). The stigma and scandal surrounding divorce just doesn't apply any more, thank God.

I'm quite sure that if Edward VIII was the current king and wanted to marry a divorcee (and an AMERICAN at that!) he would not have been forced to abdicate although no doubt there would have been some old farts who disapprove.

Apart from being a Nazi sympathiser he was also a weak, lazy and selfish man who would have made a crap king so handing the throne to his dutiful if somewhat dull brother (George VI) and thence to the current Queen was actually a the very best thing that could have happened. Wallis Simpson. Duchess of Windsor was denied the title HRH (to which she was fully entitled) out of sheer petty spite from the royal family (mainly the steel magnolia Queen Mother) and the Duke of Windsor never forgave them for it.