Before Prince Harry, King Edward abdicated for the sake of a woman

It seems that Prince Harry did not disagree with his great-grandfather, King Edward, who abdicated the throne when he was king in order to marry a divorced woman. Harry, before the outbreak of World War II, specifically in the year 1936, the popular King Edward VIII abdicated the throne of the United Kingdom, defying ancient royal traditions, in order to marry a divorced American woman he had fallen in love with, Wallis Simpson.

The king's decision to abdicate caused a huge media and political uproar, a decision that made Princess Elizabeth at the time the crown prince and then queen.

Eighty-four years after this event, the British media and the corridors of the royal palaces were preoccupied with a story whose details are not much different from what happened with King Edward, but this time the hero of the story is Prince Harry, the Queen’s grandson. Elizabeth The second, who had also decided to marry a divorced American actress.

Harry's marriage in itself was not the problem, but the couple's decision to give up their royal duties and stay away from the media spotlight and move to live in Canada is what caused the uproar, especially since the Queen and Crown Prince Charles were not informed of the decision or consulted about it before it was announced.

Queen Elizabeth summons Prince Harry, his father and brother for a crisis meeting

Prince Harry's sixth arrangement on the throne and his decision to stay away from the public scene will not change anything in Britain and will not affect the order of the throne in Britain, as happened before with King Edward VIII.

But Prince Harry is not much different from his great-grandfather, King Edward VIII, both of whom have huge appeals to the masses and are known for their refined taste and romance. When King Edward died in 1972, the New York Times wrote in his obituary that he was a "romantic and sympathetic prince, who had a great presence and charm among the common people."

Buckingham Palace responds to Prince Harry and Meghan stepping down as royals

And it is the same impression of the British about Prince Harry. In one of the polls conducted by YouGov in 2018, about the most popular member of the royal family, Prince Harry received 77% of the vote, compared to 74% for Queen Elizabeth herself.

Unwelcome hobbies

King Edward also had no interest in studying and was passionate about music and dance. In his diary, which was previously published by the newspaper "The Times", the king indicated that he prefers learning to dance rather than studying. It is a trait inherited from him by Prince Harry. In 2015, while visiting a youth center in Cape Town, South Africa, Harry said, "I don't enjoy school at all."

And that when he was at school he always wanted to be the naughty student, a trait that haunted him in his twenties when the British media competed to publish his scandals. British newspapers published leaked pictures of him wearing a Nazi military uniform at a private party for one of his friends, and he appeared again naked at a party in Las Vegas.

One of the other things in which Prince Harry is similar to his grandfather, King Edward, is the multiplicity of their emotional relationships, especially with famous art and cinema. Before Harry married Megan Merkel, he had a relationship with British singer Molly King, then model Cressida Bonas, in addition to pop star Ellie. Golding, and his grandfather was known for his relations with the princesses of Europe at that time.

Buckingham Palace responds to Prince Harry and Meghan stepping down as royals

Conflict with brothers like Prince Harry

It also appears that the two they share Also in the matter of disagreement with brothers and stay away from them. In 1937, after King Edward married Wallis Simpson, his younger brother, King George V, stopped visiting him and his wife, and Edward and his wife broke off with the royal family. Which is very similar to the rumors currently circulating in the media about the break in the relationship between Prince Harry and his brother William, and even Prince Harry himself admitted in one of the television interviews on ITV that there are differences with his brother and wife Kate Middleton, especially after Megan joined Merkel to the Buckingham Palace family.

The royal family of Mountbatten-Windsor has seen many rebels within its members such as Princess Diana and Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, but Prince Harry and King Edward VIII remain by far the rebels who made the biggest noise.

The decisions of King Edward and Prince Harry to abdicate royal duties stemmed from their similarity in their personalities and a deep-seated desire to modernize the royal traditions and customs to bring them into line with the modern lifestyle, and also in order to preserve some privacy and keep the media away from interfering in their lives.

royal family challenge

The attempt by Harry and Megan to challenge the royal family will come at a great financial and political cost to them, but they have previously announced that they do not want to rely financially on any of the money provided to them by the royal family and that they will seek financial independence and move to live in Canada, which forced Queen Elizabeth to hold An emergency meeting of the royal family members to discuss the decision.

The meeting was followed by a statement issued by the Queen in which she did not hide her annoyance at the decision and her unwillingness for her grandson and his wife to abdicate her royal duties, but at the same time she agreed to a transitional phase in which the couple would live between the United Kingdom and Canada until their exit from Buckingham Palace was arranged. Which the media called "Megxit".