BALTIMORE — Prince Harry is not the first royal to choose love over the crown. A look at the Baltimore connection to a love story that changed the course of history.
It is only natural to compare the Duchess of Sussex to the Duchess of Windsor, both divorced American women who met their prince at 34 years old.
They are united though in a lifetime of scandal and controversy. Go ahead and compare but most will say it is simply a stretch, but what a story it is.
Back in the 1930s Wallis Simpson from Baltimore, somehow, someway found herself in the circles of British Royalty. She caught the wandering eye of a man who would be King.
Edward gave up his crown for the woman he loved. Here was Wallis, raised on Biddle Street in Baltimore, off to Oldfields to get polished. Here she was, from Baltimore to Buckingham, ruffling the royals.
“She dethroned a king, changing the course of history," said Mark Letzer, who runs the Maryland Historical Society.
At the Maryland Historical Society, you will see Wallis’s famous Monkey Dress. You will also see the Duke’s suit along with a goblet which reads “UNCROWNED” around the rim.
Wallis and Edward visited Baltimore and the Eastern Shore often, they both went back to England for a ceremony honoring the Queen mother.
This is where Edward met his niece, now the Queen, for the first time since bolting Great Brittan when she was just 10 years old.
Edward would die in the 70s and Wallis would pass in 1986.
After making arrangements to be laid to rest at Greenmount Cemetery, the royal family brought them home. They are both buried on the grounds of Frogmore House.
