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The Edward VIII abdication crisis refers to events which occurred in 1936, when King-Emperor Edward VIII of the British Empire precipitated a constitutional crisis throughout his realms by his desire to marry his mistress, Mrs. Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite.

The marriage was opposed by the King’s governments in the United Kingdom and the Dominions on religious, legal, political, and moral grounds. Mrs. Simpson was perceived as an unsuitable consort because of her two failed marriages, and it was widely assumed by the Establishment that she was driven by love of money or position rather than love for the King. Despite the opposition, the King declared that he loved Mrs. Simpson and would marry her whether the Governments approved or not.

The unwillingness of the Commonwealth governments to accept Mrs. Simpson as the King’s consort, and the unwillingness of the King to give up Mrs. Simpson, eventually led to the abdication of the King, and the succession of his brother Albert to the throne as George VI.

The abdicated King became His Royal Highness The Duke of Windsor, and married Mrs. Simpson the following year. They remained married until his death 35 years later.

Background

Edward VIII ascended to the thrones of Britain and each of the Dominions on 20 January 1936. He was a bachelor, but for the last few years had often been accompanied at private social events by Mrs. Simpson. As the year progressed Mrs. Simpson attended more official functions as the King’s guest, and her name appeared regularly in the Court Circular, but pointedly without being accompanied by her husband, Ernest Aldrich Simpson. In the summer, the King eschewed the traditional prolonged stay at Balmoral, and instead he and Mrs. Simpson holidayed together in the Eastern Mediterranean onboard the steam yacht, Nahlin. The cruise was widely covered in the American and continental European press, but the British press maintained a self-imposed reticence to discuss the King’s trip. Nevertheless expatriate Britons and Canadians, who had access to the American reports, were largely scandalized by the coverage.Broad, p.47

By October, it was becoming apparent that Edward intended to marry Mrs. Simpson, as soon as she was free to marry. At the end of that month, the crisis came to a head as Mrs. Simpson filed for divorce from her husband and the American press announced that the marriage between her and the King was imminent.Broad, p.56

On 13 November the King’s private secretary, Alec Hardinge, wrote to the King warning him that:

The following Monday, 16 November, the King invited his Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, to Buckingham Palace and informed him that he intended to marry Mrs. Simpson. The Prime Minister informed the King that such a marriage would not be acceptable to the people and “the Queen becomes the Queen of the country. Therefore in the choice of a Queen the voice of the people must be heard.”Broad, p.75

The British Press still remained quiet on the subject, until Alfred Blunt, bishop of Bradford gave a speech to his Diocesan Conference on 1 December. In it he lamented the King’s need of grace: “We hope that he is aware of his need. Some of us wish that he gave more positive signs of such awareness.” The Press took this for the first public comment by a notable on the crisis and it became frontpage news the following day. When asked about it later, it turned out the bishop had never heard of Mrs. Simpson.

Arguments opposing the marriage

Opposition to the marriage came from several directions:

Religious

As King of the United Kingdom, Edward was also Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Church of England did not allow divorced persons to remarry in church while a former spouse was still living. Consequently, it was felt that Edward could not retain the office of Supreme Governor (i.e. King) and marry a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands.

Legal

Wallis’s first divorce (in the United States on the grounds of “emotional incompatibility”) was not recognised by the Church of England and, if challenged in the English courts, may not have been recognised under English law. Consequently, under this argument, her second (and third) marriages would have been bigamous and invalid. Any of Edward and Mrs. Simpson’s children would have been illegitimate and ineligible for the throne.

Moral

If the King’s advisors had considered Mrs. Simpson a suitable consort, they might have made more of an effort to find a legal solution to his problem. But his ministers (like his family) found Mrs. Simpson’s background and behaviour unacceptable for a queen. The King’s mother, the dowager Queen Mary, was even told that Mrs. Simpson may have held some sort of sexual control over Edward as she had released him from an undefined sexual dysfunction through practices learnt in a Chinese brothel; a view partially shared by Dr. Alan Campbell Don, Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who wrote that he suspected that the King “is sexually abnormal which may account for the hold Mrs. S. has over him.” Even Edward VIII’s official biographer, Philip Ziegler, noted that:

The private papers of Walter Turner Monckton, legal advisor to Edward, were released by the Bodleian Library in Oxford on 1 March 2000 (except for one batch, which remains embargoed until 2037). They provide a valuable insight into the facts and attitudes behind the abdication, and the rumours and innuendo that shaped them, most notably concerning Wallis Simpson.

Police detectives following Mrs. Simpson reported back that while involved with the King, Wallis was also involved in another sexual relationship, with a married car mechanic and salesman named Guy Trundle. This may well have been made known to senior figures in the establishment, including members of the Royal Family. Joseph Kennedy, the American ambassador, described her as “a tart”, and his wife refused to dine with her.Vickers, p.185 Edward, however, remained unaware of his mistress’s alleged infidelity with another man. A third lover has also been suggested, Edward Fitzgerald, Duke of Leinster, Ireland’s premier peer and close friend of her future husband.

Wallis was perceived to be pursuing Edward for his money; his equerry wrote that she would eventually leave him after “having secured the cash”.John Aird’s diary, quoted in Ziegler, p.234 The future Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain wrote in his diary:

Political

The British establishment feared Edward’s desire to modernise the Monarchy and opposed his wish to make it more accessible. When he visited depressed mining villages in Wales his unguarded comment that “something must be done”The Duke of Windsor, p.338 led to concerns that he would interfere in political matters, traditionally avoided by a constitutional monarch. As Prince of Wales he had publicly referred to left-wing politicians as “cranks”,The Duke of Windsor, p.253 and made speeches counter to government policy. His refusal to accept the advice of ministers continued as King, when he opposed the imposition of sanctions on Italy after the invasion of Ethiopia (then called “Abyssinia” by Europeans), refused to receive the deposed Emperor of Ethiopia, and would not support the League of Nations.Ziegler, pp.271-272

Far more damagingly, the British government was told that Wallis Simpson was a “Nazi agent”. A German diplomat leaked to the Foreign Office that dispatches sent by the German Reich’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Joachim von Ribbentrop, revealed his strong view that the abdication was motivated by the wish “to defeat those Germanophile forces which had been working through Mrs. Simpson”.Howarth, p.62 It was rumoured that Wallis had access to confidential government papers which were sent to King Edward, and which he notoriously left unguarded at his Fort Belvedere residence.Ziegler, p.273-274 Even as Edward was abdicating, reports were sent to Downing Street from the personal protection officers guarding Wallis in exile in France, claiming that she might “flit to Germany”.

Files of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation reveal a further series of claims. The most damaging alleged that in 1936, while simultaneously having an affair with King Edward, she was also having an affair with Ambassador von Ribbentrop. The Bureau’s source (the ex-Duke of Wurttemberg) not only claimed that Wallis and von Ribbentrop had had a relationship, but that von Ribbentrop every day sent her 17 carnations, one for each time they slept together. The FBI claims were symptomatic of the extremely damaging gossip made against the woman who could become queen, that she (and indeed her husband) were Nazi sympathisers.

Societal

Edward upset the aristocracy by treating their traditions and ceremonies with disdain. Many were offended by his abandonment of accepted social norms and mores.The Duke of Windsor, p.301Beaverbrook, p.14 He became extremely unpopular with the public in Scotland after he refused to open a new wing of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, claiming he could not do so because he was in mourning for his father. On the day after the opening he was pictured in the papers cavorting on holiday. He had turned down the public event in favour of meeting Mrs. Simpson.Vickers, p.140

Nationalistic

Relations between the United Kingdom and the United States were strained during the inter-war years, and the majority of Britons were reluctant to accept an American as queen consort.

Options considered

As a result of these rumours and arguments, the belief strengthened among the British establishment that Wallis could not become a royal consort. Stanley Baldwin explicitly advised Edward VIII that the people would be opposed to him marrying Mrs. Simpson, indicating that if he did, in direct contravention of his minister’s advice, the Government would resign en masse. The King responded: “I intend to marry Mrs. Simpson as soon as she is free to marry…if the Government opposed the marriage, as the Prime Minister had given me reason to believe it would, then I was prepared to go.“The Duke of Windsor, p.332 Under pressure from the King, and “startled” at the suggested abdication, Baldwin agreed to take further soundings and suggest three options to the five Dominion Prime Ministers, of whose nations Edward was also King. These were that:

1. they marry and Mrs. Simpson become queen (a “royal marriage”)
2. they marry and she not become queen but receive some courtesy title instead (a “morganatic marriage”)
3. he abdicate for himself and any potential heirs he might father; this would allow him to make any marital decisions without further constitutional implications.

The second option had European precedents (for example, Austria’s heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand – whose assassination in 1914 triggered off World War I) but no parallel in British constitutional history. The Commonwealth’s prime ministers were consulted, and the majority agreed that there was “no alternative to course (3)”.Eamon de Valera quoted in Bradford, p.188

Edward now proposed to broadcast a speech indicating his desire to remain on the throne or to be recalled to it if forced to abdicate, while marrying Mrs. Simpson morganatically. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and the British Cabinet blocked the speech, saying it would entail a grave breach of constitutional principles (as the King proposed to speak as a private individual and without the advice of his ministers) and would shock many people. In one section, Edward proposed to say:

In seeking the people’s support against the government, he was opting to oppose the binding advice of his ministers in all the Commonwealth states, a fundamental breach of constitutional principles dating back at least to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 (i.e., the assumption of the Throne by the Protestants William and Mary), perhaps earlier. The Sovereign could and can only act with the advice and counsel of Ministers drawn from, or approved by, Parliament. What Edward in effect proposed to do, was to ignore this advice and negotiate with Parliament, his Ministers, and the people direct, as an equal on the question of whom he should marry, and who could, under the law, as a consequence of such a marriage, succeed him on the Throne. The Cabinet felt that Edward’s proposed speech had revealed his disdainful attitude towards the constitutions of his realms, and threatened the political neutrality of the Crown.Beaverbrook, p.71

On 5 December, having in effect been told that he could not keep the throne and marry Mrs. Simpson, and having had his request to broadcast to the Commonwealth to explain “his side of the story” blocked on constitutional grounds,The Duke of Windsor, pp.378-379 Edward chose the third option,The Duke of Windsor, pp.386-387 becoming the first monarch in modern British and Dominion history to abdicate voluntarily.

Legal manoeuvres

Following Mrs. Simpson’s divorce hearing on 27 October 1936, her solicitor, John Theodore Goddard, had become concerned that there would be a “patriotic” citizen’s intervention (a legal device to block the divorce), which worried Goddard, who feared such an intervention would be successful. He was handling the case as if it were an undefended divorce brought against Mr. Simpson, with Mrs. Simpson as the innocent, injured party. The courts could not grant divorce by consent of both parties, or if it was shown that Mrs. Simpson “colluded” with her husband in the divorce by, for example, having an affair or intending to marry another. On Monday 7 December 1936, the King came to hear that Goddard planned to fly to the south of France to see his client who had fled there. The King summoned him and expressly forbade him to make the journey, fearing the solicitor would put doubts in Mrs. Simpson’s mind. Consequently, Goddard went straight to Downing Street and asked for Baldwin’s protection. The Government immediately provided the airplane and Goddard flew directly to Cannes.

Upon arrival, Goddard warned his client that a citizen’s intervention, should it arise, was likely to succeed. It was, according to Goddard, his duty to advise her to withdraw her divorce petition. Mrs. Simpson refused to do what her lawyer advised but they both telephoned the King to inform him that she was willing to give him up so that he could now remain King. It was too late, the King had already made up his mind to go, even if he could not marry Mrs. Simpson, a belief borne out by his ultimate actions. Indeed, as the belief that the abdication was now inevitable gathered strength, John Theodore Goddard stated: “[his] client was ready to do anything to ease the situation but the other end of the wicket [Edward VIII] was determined.”

Goddard’s visit led to false speculation that Mrs. Simpson was pregnant, and even that she was having an abortion. As Goddard had a weak heart and had never flown before, he had asked his doctor, William Kirkwood – then a resident at a Maternity Hospital, to accompany him on the trip. The press excitedly reported that the solicitor had flown to Mrs. Simpson accompanied by a gynaecologist and an anaesthetist (who was actually the lawyer’s clerk).Beaverbook, p.81

Abdication

Edward VIII’s written abdication notice was witnessed by his three younger brothers at Fort Belvedere on 10 December:

• Prince Albert, the Duke of York, who became George VI by it
• Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester
• Prince George, Duke of Kent

The following day, it was given legislative form by special Acts of Parliament. Under changes introduced in the relationship between the Monarch and his Commonwealth crowns by the Statute of Westminster, a singular all Commonwealth Crown had been replaced by multiple crowns for each Dominion worn by a single monarch. Edward’s abdication required legal acknowledgment in each Commonwealth state (His Majesty’s Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 in the UK, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand; and the Succession to the Throne Act in Canada). In the Irish Free State, however, that acknowledgment, in the External Relations Act, occurred a day later than elsewhere, leaving Edward technically as King of Ireland for a day, while George VI was king of all other Commonwealth Realms. It was Edward’s Royal Assent to these Acts, rather than his abdication notice, which gave legal effect to the abdication in the United Kingdom and the British Empire. As he had not been crowned yet, the coronation that had been planned for Edward VIII became that of his brother George VI instead.

Many members of the Establishment were relieved by Edward’s departure, as his own Assistant Private Secretary, Alan Lascelles, told Baldwin in 1927, “I can’t help thinking that the best thing that could happen to him, and to the country, would be for him to break his neck.”

Following his abdication, Edward (his title reverting for a few hours to His Royal Highness The Prince Edward, before his brother created him Duke of Windsor the following morning) broadcast a message to the people from Windsor Castle on 11 December. The official address broadcast had been polished by Edward’s friend Winston Churchill over lunch the previous day, and was moderate in tone, speaking about Edward’s inability to do his job “as I would have wished” without the support of “the woman I love”.The Duke of Windsor, p.409-413 The following day, Edward left Britain for Austria.

Duke and Duchess of Windsor

Edward’s younger brother Albert, now George VI, created his elder brother Duke of Windsor with the style His Royal Highness. On 3 May the following year, Mrs. Simpson’s divorce was made final. The case was handled quietly, there was no intervention, and it barely featured in some newspapers. The Times was especially disingenuous printing a single sentence”Mrs Ernest Simpson’s Divorce” The Times (London) Tuesday 4 May 1937 p.5 col. C below a seemingly unconnected report announcing the Duke’s departure from Austria.”The Duke of Windsor: Departure from Austria” The Times (London) Tuesday 4 May 1937 p.5 col. C When the Duke married Mrs. Simpson on 3 June 1937 in France, she became The Duchess of Windsor but much to Edward’s disgust was not styled Her Royal Highness.Ziegler, p.529

The Duke of Windsor lived most of the rest of his life in retirement in France. His brother gave him an allowance, free of income tax, and the Duke supplemented this income by writing his memoirs and through illegal currency trading. During World War II he served as Governor of the Bahamas, where he was plagued by rumours and accusations that he was pro-Nazi. He reputedly told an acquaintance, “After the war is over and Hitler will crush the Americans… we’ll take over… They [the Commonwealth] don’t want me as their king, but I’ll soon be back as their leader.” He told a journalist that “it would be a tragic thing for the world if Hitler was overthrown.”

Comments like these reinforced the belief that the Duke and Duchess held Nazi sympathies and that the effect of the abdication crisis of 1936 was to force off the throne a man whose political views could have been a threat to his country, and replace him with a king (George VI) who showed no such sympathies.Ziegler, pp.434 ff

Historical precedents

Henry VIII

Four hundred years before the crisis, Henry VIII had separated English Catholicism from Roman control, thus creating the Church of England, so he could divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn while Catherine was still alive. Henry and Catherine’s marriage was annulled in 1533 on the grounds that the marriage was incestuous under Levitical law. (Catherine had been married previously to Henry’s elder brother.) Henry then married Anne Boleyn but three years later, after Catherine’s death, Anne was convicted of treason, the marriage was declared invalid and Anne was executed. With both of his previous wives now dead, Henry was free to marry again, which he promptly did 11 days after Anne’s execution. The death of his third wife in childbirth led to Henry marrying a fourth time, to Anne of Cleves in 1540. The marriage wasn’t consummated and Henry divorced for a second time, just 6 months after the wedding, this time on the dubious grounds that Anne was promised to another. Henry went on to marry twice more, but importantly none of his wives were divorced prior to their marriage, and the divorces that did take place were sanctioned by both Parliament (because of the political necessity of Henry to produce an heir and form alliances) and Church (on religious grounds). Furthermore, technically his “divorces” were annulments (i.e., a declaration under canon law that the marriage was null and void ab initio and, therefore, they had never been validly married). This differs from Mrs. Simpson’s divorces, which were legal terminations under civil law of legally valid marriages. Whereas a person with an annulment can enter into a new “first” marriage, a person with a divorce has been married already.

Hanoverians

George I, Elector of Hanover, divorced his wife, Sophia of Celle, on 28 December 1694, on the grounds of her adultery before he succeeded to the British throne. Importantly, neither George I nor his wife remarried after divorce. George IV tried, unsuccessfully, to divorce his wife, Caroline of Brunswick also on the grounds of her adultery.

Edward VIII was thus the first British monarch to propose marrying a divorced woman.

Modern parallel

In 2005, Charles, Prince of Wales married his long-time partner and mistress, Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles. As his previous wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, was deceased, there was no bar to the Prince marrying again. However, just like Mrs. Simpson in 1936, Mrs. Parker Bowles was a divorcée whose previous husband was still living.

Unlike the situation in 1936, though, the marriage did not lead to a constitutional crisis for several reasons:

1. Divorce is now more socially acceptable than it was in 1936.Beaverbrook, p.113
   *
   *
2. The Church of England has moderated its stance on divorce, and now accepts that civil marriages after a divorce may be blessed in a religious service in a church.
3. Unlike Mrs. Simpson’s first divorce, the Parker Bowles divorce is recognised by most members of the Church, on the grounds of her husband’s adultery,
   * and is valid under English law.It should be noted that the civil divorce was granted on the basis of ‘irreconcilable differences’ rather than the adultery.
4. Mrs. Simpson had a reputation as an adventuress and was less socially acceptable as a bride than Mrs. Parker Bowles.
5. Camilla is styled as “Duchess of Cornwall” instead of the traditional title “Princess of Wales” for the wife of the Prince of Wales. Buckingham Palace has announced that on her husband’s accession she will not use the style of “Queen”, but rather will be known as the “Princess Consort”. Because of this, her and the Prince’s union has been referred to in the media as “a sort of morganatic marriage”.
6. The marriage of the Prince and Mrs. Parker Bowles was endorsed by the Royal Family and the British Government and blessed by the Church of England.
7. The marriage would produce no children, and thus no heirs, leading the governments of the other Commonwealth Realms to deem the granting of formal approval unnecessary (unlike the Prince’s first marriage, for which the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada assembled to grant consent).
8. Whilst public opinion in 1936 is difficult to gauge, polls taken shortly before the marriage of the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Parker Bowles showed widespread support.

Popular culture

The calypso Edward VIII by the Trinidadian calypsonian Lord Caresser was the most popular calypso record in 1937. Famous Last Words, a novel by Timothy Findley, is a fictional recreation of the relationship between the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. In it, the Duke and Duchess conspire with Ribbentrop to overthrow Hitler, with the intention of assuming control of the Nazi party and taking over Europe.

Notes and sources

References

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