Meghan not first American to touch off a royal furor

Inevitably, Meghan is being compared to another American who roiled the royal family: Wallis Simpson. And her story is a wild one.

It was 1936, and King Edward VIII had fallen in love with Simpson. This was a problem.

For one thing, Simpson was, like Meghan, a divorcée. For another, she was about to divorce for the second time. Also, she was from Baltimore.

The king faced a choice: Dump “that woman,” as Simpson became known, or dump the throne. He dumped the throne. The extraordinary moment in the history of the monarchy has been recounted in countless books, movies and TV shows.

What these love stories have in common is the unlikeliness of their pairings — and the furors that followed.

Edward was just a prince when he first met Wallis at a party in 1931, a year that represented a busy period in which the prince had two other girlfriends.

Their courtship took place over a series of years and parties. Then, in 1934, the prince settled on Wallis as his favourite, dumping the other two.

Wallis was still married to Ernest Simpson.

And then, on Oct.15,1936, the following headline appeared above an Associated Press story in The Washington Post, setting off chaos in the monarchy: “Path Cleared for Ex-Baltimorean, Friend of King Edward, to Gain Freedom.” “Freedom” meant divorce. Edward wanted to marry the Baltimorean. The king could not reasonably do so. For one thing, he was the head of the Church of England, which did not allow remarriages. And the government would have collapsed over the matter.

So he abdicated, telling the world in a radio broadcast. Edward ended his address, “God save the king!”