(From Hakkō Ichiu)
King Edward VIII was the King-Emperor of the United Kingdom (and the British Empire) by extension from the expiration of his father (George V) on January 20, 1936, to his death on May 28, 1972. The reign of His Majesty was fraught with struggles from the very beginning. Shortly after taking the throne, The King's brother, the late Albert, Duke of York and Governor-General of Canada, was assassinated by members of the People's Liberation Army of Quebec. As well, his relationship with his niece, Alexandrina began to heavily deteriorate after Edward made unflattering remarks about his late brother's wife, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Bowes-Lyon would retire for the rest of her natural life to a Scottish mull, while Her Majesty, the Queen Mother, took Alexandrina under her wing to train her to inherit the throne after Edward's departure from Earth.
However, Edward VIII found an amicable relationship with
Victoria Louise of Prussia in 1937, the two driven together by the sense of loss of family members. Two children would later come about this relationship,
James, Prince of Wales (later King James VIII) and
Princess Louise, whom would later marry the young Duke of Grafton in the 1950s.
Edward VIII's legacy amongst the British Empire is controversial in some degrees-- in 1944, with roiling social turmoil bubbling up in Canada, and Britain's attempts to coerce Canada into joining her war against the French Sorelians despite the tense and often violent situation in Quebec, Canada underwent a peaceful revolution, and Edward VIII found himself being forced to abdicate the throne of Canada. The throne would be awarded to his estranged niece, who had emigrated to Canada in the 1940s, no longer able to tolerate her uncle. As
Queen Alexandrina, she became the face of the new Canadian national identity, and became the lightning rod for Canada's new maganimous steps into the world as a power in her own right, rather than an appendage of British settler colonialism.
Similarly, Australia and New Zealand would later renounce their loyalty to the King, and become Republics after his death in 1972, with Australia voting for Republic in 1981, and New Zealand in 1983.
India, his crown-jewel, remained only loyal in name for most of his reign, with the triumvirate of British, Hindu and Muslim populists holding down the burgeoning masses of leftist sentiment and Princely intrigue, later allying with the radical right-wing government of Nanjing, and plunging the world into another war in the late 1980s. After Edward VIII's death, the Empire of India quietly dissolved, and was replaced by the Indian Social Republic, which retained the same triumvirate council as Head of State.
Edward VIII is a man who defined some of the most crucial moments of the 20th Century, and will not likely be forgotten any time soon.