Edward VIII
Edward VIII, also known as David, (PROSE: Players [+]Loading...["Players (novel)"]) was king of the United Kingdom for a brief period in 1936.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Prior to being King, Edward was Prince of Wales. He was thought of as "handsome, charming" and "someone who thought it his right to have anything and everything he wanted without delay". Winston Churchill knew Edward from an early age, and described him to the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown as a "reckless boy and very much spoiled, but [with] a good heart". In 1936, Edward ascended to the throne following the death of his father, George V. (PROSE: Players [+]Loading...["Players (novel)"])
The First Doctor claimed that the police box disguise taken on by the outer plasmic shell of his TARDIS had even fooled the court of King Edward VIII. (AUDIO: The Cold Equations [+]Loading...["The Cold Equations (audio story)"])
When the King announced his plans to marry his mistress, the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin informed him that neither his subjects nor the British government would accept the marriage. After weeks of deliberation, the King claimed to have chosen to abdicate, but, having been manipulated by the Players, was really planning to dissolve Parliament and replace it with one more loyal to him, aided by support from the Nazi party.
The plan was thwarted by the Sixth Doctor, Peri Brown and Winston Churchill, after Peri managed to steal a list from Joachim von Ribbentrop that identified all major figures in Britain with Nazi sympathies. With this information, the group were able to arrange for forces under the command of Colonel Jeremy Carstairs to monitor everyone on the list while recording rather than broadcasting Edward's message. They then used that recording to coerce him into abdicating the throne, threatening to have him charged with treason if he did not go along with the original plan. (PROSE: Players [+]Loading...["Players (novel)"]) He then became Duke of Windsor. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus [+]Loading...["Timewyrm: Exodus (novel)"])
Following his abdication, Edward was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI. (PROSE: Players [+]Loading...["Players (novel)"], The Monster in the Cupboard [+]Loading...["The Monster in the Cupboard (novel)"]) 1936 (PROSE: Players [+]Loading...["Players (novel)"]) would thus become known as "the year of three kings". (PROSE: The Monster in the Cupboard [+]Loading...["The Monster in the Cupboard (novel)"])
Alternate timelines[[edit] | [edit source]]
In an alternate timeline in which Germany won World War II, Edward VIII was restored to the throne with Wallis as his Queen in 1940. He signed a treaty which established Great Britain as a protectorate of the Greater German Reich. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus [+]Loading...["Timewyrm: Exodus (novel)"])
Billy Coote heard the King's abdication speech in his mind a whole year before it was broadcast. (PROSE: Nightshade [+]Loading...["Nightshade (novel)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- He was played by Peter Barkworth in Crown Matrimonial, John Standing in To Catch a King, William Boyde in A Dance to the Music of Time and James D'Arcy in W.E..
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