January 20, 1936: Edward VIII, Hitler's Preferred King, Crowned in UK

On January 20, 1936, the crown of the United Kingdom was placed on the head of Edward VIII, a man later accused of being a Nazi sympathiser and whose resignation from the throne Adolf Hitler was recorded lamenting. Edward, the eldest child of George V, was a World War I veteran and known for his charm and fashion sense, which made him popular with the public. But he encountered his first great controversy not long after acceding to the throne, with his determination to marry US divorcee Wallis Simpson. The prime ministers of what were then the UK's dominions - which constituted the later Commonwealth of Nations - objected to the match, and Edward faced the prospect of the resignation of the UK government. So, besotted, he gave up his crown for love. He hardly succumbed to a life of beggary, though, with he and Simpson appointed Duke and Duchess of Windsor under the reign of Edward's younger brother, George VI. Edward was king for just 326 days. In 1937, the married couple went on a tour of Nazi-led Germany, during which Edward performed Nazi salutes and the couple were treated with great respect. Edward was a supporter of the policy of appeasement toward Hitler - in his own words, because he did not wish to see a new outbreak of terrible violence after WWI. But some among the UK government, including future Prime Minister Winston Churchill, were suspicious of Edward's sympathies, while Hitler himself was recorded by Albert Speer to have lamented Edward's abdication, saying that had he remained king, conflict between the UK and Germany might have been avoided. During WWII, Edward denied leaking plans for the Allied defence of Belgium to the Nazis, a claim which had been made by a German ambassador. He was appointed Governor of the Bahamas in 1940 - many historians suspect this office was given to keep Edward out of German hands, on the possibility of the Nazi government putting him on the throne of a conquered England as a puppet king. Following the war, Edward admitted to admiring the German people, but denied being a Nazi sympathiser, calling Hitler "ridiculous" in his memoirs - though reports continued to circulate that his private thoughts were quite different. He died in Paris in 1977. DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on theApple App StoreandGoogle Play.