The Abdication Crisis

On the 20th January 1936, Edward VIII became King of England after his father, King George V died. Later that year, on the 10th December he abdicated - having not yet been crowned - in a speech to the British public saying: "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love."

In 1931, a friend of Edward's, Thelma Furness, introduced him to an American woman named Wallis Simpson at a party in London. Simpson was then in her second marriage after having divorced her first husband to be able to marry her second, Ernest Simpson. Following that meeting, Edward and Simpson proceeded to have a serious relationship. When Edward ascended to the throne in January 1936, it was assumed that this relationship would end. However, the pair were seen together on a Mediterranean cruise that summer. It then became clear that they intended to marry. But the match was not approved of by either the Church of England, the government or many Britons. Simpson had been divorced once (twice after she divorced Ernest Simpson in October 1936) and both her husbands were still alive, it was therefore condemned by many for her to remarry; even more so for the King, who as head of the Church of England, ought to follow their customs. As a result, when Edward announced to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin that they intended to marry, he was told that the government would not accept the marriage and that the people too would not be happy with Simpson as their queen. So, he suggested three options going forward:

•      Royal Marriage: Edward and Mrs. Simpson marry each other and she becomes Queen.
•       Morganatic Marriage: Edward and Mrs. Simpson marry each other, but Mrs. Simpson does not become Queen and receives another courtesy title instead.
•          Abdication: Edward abdicates and is no longer King. He would then be able to marry Mrs. Simpson without having to think of the opinion of the people and the government anymore.

As Edward was King of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa as well as England, the Prime Ministers of these countries would need to approve his decision. He came to the decision of a morganatic marriage, but this was not approved of by the other governments, so he had to abdicate instead. The Instrument of Abdication was signed on the 10^th December 1936, making Edward the only British monarch who had ever voluntarily abdicated. He became the Duke of Windsor, and his brother George took to the throne. The couple married in France in June 1937, creating a divide in the Royal family. Wallis Simpson was not accepted by Buckingham Palace until 1968.

Edward VIII remains to this day the only British monarch to have abdicated. The sequence of events leading to it however meant that the British public lost faith in the monarch for several years.

AE

The King's Speech

Nonsuch HP has been pleased to hear that many students have seen The King's Speech over the last few weeks. The film has clearly done very well, winning positive reviews, awards and nominations and seems to be very popular in the cinema. The film covers the events leading to the abdication of Edward VIII and George VI's accession to the throne. As this article shows, this was a time of economic and political crisis - the time of the Jarrow March and Oswald Mosley's blackshirts, and of ominous storm clouds gathering as Hitler increased his grip on Germany and its neighbours. The King's personal crisis therefore had important implications for a country in need of a figurehead. "When war broke out in 1939," writes Dominic Sandbrook, "he became an unlikely symbol of national resistance, his mundane domesticity a reminder of what Britain was fighting for."

There have been some criticisms of the film's historical accuracy - particularly over the role of Churchill. Michael White writes that, "The absence of deference, stifling and awful though it must have been, is inherently wrong." Christopher Hitchins is more critical of the portrayal of Churchill. He believes that the film shows Churchill to be too critical of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, who were dangerously sympathetic to Hitler's views. In reality Churchill damaged his political repuation in his efforts to defend him, "turning up at the House of Commons—almost certainly heavily intoxicated... —and making an incoherent speech in defense of "loyalty" to a man who did not understand the concept."

What did you think of the film? Did you think it was acccurate, and does this matter? Please let us know.