Scandals That Rocked The World
by Scandals involving obscure and plain individuals might not be disturbing and nerve rocking as we might think, but when famous personalities are involved, it will surely generate headlines and attract media attentions and gossipers for ages.
The following four famous scandals that happened in the 20th century created frantic media headlines and public attention around the globe that the events remained controversial even after the death of its leading performers.
Voluntary Abdication of King Edward VIII (1936)
The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson during their June 1937 wedding in France.
Great Britain owes its mystic and charm from the legendary monarchs who ruled the nation with natural compassion and magic since the Norman conquests. It holds a profound fascination among the adoring subjects who are mesmerized with pomp and pageantry of royalty. For more than four centuries, this powerful nation enjoyed prosperity and progress and hardly encounters humiliating headlines, consequently, no Kings in history dragged the nation into uncertainty and shame for a very silly reason-woman. But the nightmare of the highest throne on earth came into reality when Edward VIII, posed an uncomfortable situation in 1936 that eventually provoked a constitutional crisis.
Three months after his accession, Edward VIII, expressed his intention to marry his mistress as soon as she is free to remarry. For almost a year, the King is besotted with the American commoner, Wallis Simpson, once divorce and currently undergoing a troubled second marriage. To the royal family who uphold duty and tradition and to the British ministers who are as morally conscious as the King’s subjects, Edward’s choice of a wife is unthinkable. For a largely despised woman, who has nothing but two failed marriages in her name, to be called Queen of the British Empire is simply outrageous, so disgraceful that British Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, threatened to resign if Edward will proceed to marry the despicable Mrs. Simpson.
For several months, the country is plunged into anxiety and tension as the King struggled to keep his balance between emotion and decorum. His ministers were equally under pressure as they scrambled to steer Edward’s consciousness back to the weight of his duty, but then the monarch already conditioned his brain to give up the throne in case it is inappropriate to remain King and marry Mrs. Simpson.
Edward VIII, known to his family as Prince David before his accession, was the eldest child of Queen Victoria’s grandson King George V, he was often recognized as the most popular Prince of Wales in history. As heir apparent, Prince David had spent most of his life trying to balance things expected from him and at the same time struggled to create his own happiness, but as a future monarch, David, was not accorded to live a comfortable life of freedom, his every move and decision magnified to the public and any actions not conforming to his future role always ended up in criticism. But the Prince, in an effort to live a normal life, sometimes defied rules that his father often felt if David should need to be exorcised to be aware that he couldn’t just act freely, without considering the position of the monarchy.
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