Edward VIII
Edward VIII is the king of the collaborationist United Kingdom of Great Britain. He is the eldest son of King George V and Queen Mary, uncle of Elizabeth II and brother of the late and deposed George VI.
Biography
He was made Prince of Wales on his sixteenth birthday, nine weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, he served in the British Army during World War I and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father.
Edward became king on his father's death. However, he showed impatience with court protocol, and caused concern among politicians by his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions. Only months into his reign, he caused a constitutional crisis by proposing to Wallis Simpson, an American who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands was politically and socially unacceptable as a prospective queen consort. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward's status as the titular head of the Church of England, which at the time disapproved of remarriage after divorce if a former spouse was still alive. Edward knew the British government, led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have forced a general election and would ruin his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. When it became apparent he could not marry Wallis and remain on the throne, Edward abdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI. With a reign of 326 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British history.
After his abdication, Edward was made Duke of Windsor. He married Wallis in France on the 3th June 1937, after her second divorce became final. Later that year, the couple toured Germany. In 1939, he publicly expressed his Nazi sympathy in a recording that urged Britain to use all of her power to come in terms with Germany. It was alleged that he collaborated with the Germans during World War II and encouraged Germany to bomb Britain to sue for peace. During World War II, he was initially stationed in France but subsequently fled to Spain and later Portugal during the German invasion of France. Threatened by Churchill to be court-martialed if he did not return to British soil, he left Portugal and was appointed as Governor of the Bahamas. After World War II, Edward was invited by Hitler to assume the role of king of Great Britain, a role he still possesses today.
In 1962, King Edward VIII, just like his kingdom, is the shadow of his former self. Now he rules the ghost of an empire which once had the sun never setting, as the puppet king of a diminished United Kingdom of Great Britain. A prisoner in his own palace, for fifteen years Edward has tried to strike a difficult balance between the well-being of his people, whom he loves perhaps too much, and the pressing demands of his de facto overlord, always caving in to Hitler, but always managing to prevent Germany from completely overpowering his government.
This, however, had the effect of leaving Edward bereft of any support: his people hate him, considering their king as a fascist and Hitler's lapdog, while Germany is frustrated with his moderation and hesitation to properly do their bidding, and closely surveil him, patiently waiting for the moment he will openly oppose Germany's demands. Bitter and remorseful, Edward is plagued by the consequences of all the things he has been forced to agree to, a weight which might soon be too much for him.
With Germany's power fading, and rumors of civil war freely circulating in the Unity-Pakt, protests are slowly but steadily mounting, and Edward's position is becoming more and more precarious... but with as they say, with change comes opportunity: will the king be able to seize the chance, and regain his lost honor? Or will he finally drown in the sea that threatens to swallow the entire world?
In-game
At the start of the game, Edward VIII is the sitting monarch of Britain.
If Her Majesty's Most Loyal Resistance wins the British Civil War, the House of Windsor will ask HMMLR boss Maxwell Knight to spare Edward VIII's life. Knight will comply and put Edward under house arrest for the rest of his life, though if the United Left Resistance carries out their revolution, they will not respect this wish and instead execute the King alongside other high-ranking collaborators. If the collaborationist government wins, he will rule until his death and is succeeded by his cousin Friedrich Josias, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who becomes Edward IX.
Trivia
Edward's history up to the start of the war is largely unchanged from real life - the most obvious difference being that, as Germany lost, he did not return to the throne. His niece Elizabeth still did become queen, although it was after the death of her father, George VI.