Wallis & Edward THE AFFAIR THAT CHANGED HISTORY

Is it the greatest love story ever told, or the greatest royal scandal?

- ANDREW ROSE

Edward VIII is known for causing what may be the most infamous royal scandal in history. In December 1936, less than a year after his ascension, he abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson. The government considered this two-time divorcée, politically, socially and morally unsuitable as a consort, and marrying her would have presented a constitutional crisis. To avoid this, the king stepped down.

Yet before he even met Wallis, Edward's life was plagued with scandal. From his early 20s, he engaged in a series of illicit liaisons with prostitutes, socialites and, most of all, married women. Might the affair for which he is most remembered be the least scandalous of them all?

Towards the end of 1916, while the then Prince Edward was with the British Army in France, his two equerries decided that, at 22, his virginity had been unhealthily protracted. They took him to Amiens, gave him an excellent dinner with much wine, and entrusted him to the skilled care of a French prostitute. Her ministrations proved effective, and dramatically changed the pattern of his private life. 'I don't think of anything but women now,' he wrote from the Front a few months later.

Although Edward only seriously loved two women, as a young man he enjoyed an eventful and animated sex life, convincing himself each time that his passion was real and lasting before moving on to another conquest.

First was Marion Coke, wife of the future Earl of Leicester. More serious was his affair with Portia Cadogan, the daughter of an earl. Portia wearied of the affair and announced her engagement to another man. The prince transferred his attentions to Rosemary Leveson-Gower, daughter of the Duke of Sutherland, until, in 1919, he met the first of his two great loves.