Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Abdication of Edward VIII

Starting point is 00:00:00 In December 1936, the United Kingdom underwent its greatest constitutional crisis of the 20th century. The king, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne to marry an American divorcee. This might not seem like much of a scandal today, but at the time it threatened to collapse the entire British government when Europe was right on the brink of war. The aftermath of the abdication crisis saw the rise of a new king and the birth of an entirely new royal line, a legacy that endures to this day. Learn more about the abdication of Edward VIII, why it happened and its fallout on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Starting point is 00:00:37 What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Looking at the events of 1936 through the lens of the modern world, the abdication crisis can seem hard to understand.

Starting point is 00:01:24 It isn't just through a modern lens that this crisis doesn't make sense either. If it had happened several centuries beforehand during the divine rule of kings, it also might not have caused controversy. Many, many kings did far worse things and everyone overlooked it because they were the king. However, the events of this episode took place in a very particular time. after the Victorian era, but before the modern era. And the story starts in the reign of King George the 5th. George V was the son of King Edward V and the grandson of Queen Victoria. Born in 1865, he was not next in line to the throne when he was born. His older brother, Prince Albert Victor, died of pneumonia in 1892 at the age of 28. His father ascended to the throne in 1901 with the

Starting point is 00:02:13 death of Queen Victoria, and then himself died in 1910, elevating George V to king. George V was a pivotal and often overlooked monarch in the 20th century. He was king during the First World War, which saw the destruction of monarchies in Germany and Russia, monarchs who were his cousins. George reigned for over 25 years during significant changes to Britain and its empire. One thing that hadn't changed at the time were the societal morals of the period. More on that in a bit. George was noteworthy for having changed the name of his royal house from Saxe Cobra Gotha to Windsor. The name Saxe Goba Cotha came from the house of his grandfather, Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. The reason why it became the name of the royal house was because

Starting point is 00:02:58 the children of Victoria and Albert took the name of their father, as is the tradition in most cultures. George changed the name of the royal house during the First World War to something that sounded less German, Windsor. The name Windsor was taken from Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England. George had several sons. His eldest son was Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, whom his family just called David, but the world knew as Prince Edward. He had four other younger sons, Albert Henry, George, and John. John died at the age of 13, and George died in the Second World War at the age of 39. It was Edward as the eldest who was destined to be king, as well as was the practice at the time. He was primarily raised by nannies, although his parents were affectionate,

Starting point is 00:03:44 if demanding. He was privately tutored and admitted to the Royal Naval College, Osborne in 1907, and then moved to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. He was installed as the Prince of Wales in 1910 at the age of 16, and he entered the Navy for three months, but then later left to attend Oxford. According to those who knew him at the time, he was woefully unprepared for life at Oxford. He never received a degree or any credentials, but he was pretty good at Polo. In 1914, he joined the Grenadier Guards, with the intent of serving on the front lines of the First World War, but was denied by the Secretary of War, who thought it too great a risk for the heir to the throne to be captured. He visited the front lines many times in his role as the

Starting point is 00:04:27 Prince of Wales, where he earned the respect of many soldiers. After the war, Edward, in his position as Prince of Wales represented his father all over the world. He traveled to India, Australia, Canada, and the United States, as well as many other countries. In the early 1920s, Prince Edward became a media darling. He was a prince, he was good looking, single, and was extremely well-dressed. In fact, he became one of the male fashion icons of the era. In 1924, menswear magazine noted, quote, the average young man in America is more interested in the clothes of the Prince of Wales than in any other individual on earth. The Prince of Wales led a very active social life and was what you would call a playboy.

Starting point is 00:05:10 He had many affairs and romances in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and as such he began to develop a reputation. Many people in the royal family and the government began to express concerns about the behavior of the future king. He had multiple affairs, some with married women, which was extremely scandalous. His father, King George V, favored his younger brother Albert. Albert was married to his wife, Elizabeth, and had a stable life with a family. He reportedly told one of his assistants once, quote, I pray to God that my eldest son will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lillibet and the throne, end quote.

Starting point is 00:05:51 The prime minister at the time, Stanley Baldwin, also expressed similar concerns to those of the king. In January 1934, Edward met the woman. who was to be his future wife, an American named Wallace Simpson. Born Bessie Wallace Warfield, she was married and divorced to an American aviator named Earl Spencer, and then remarried to a British businessman named Ernest Simpson. She was still married to Simpson when she began her affair with Prince Edward. Eventually, Edward began to give attention to Wallace to the exclusion of all other women he was involved with. They became quite serious, even though she was still married. Edward and Wallace were extremely open about their relationship, despite the fact that the

Starting point is 00:06:34 king and queen vehemently opposed it, as did members of the British government. He once brought her to Buckingham Palace in 1935, but the king and queen refused to receive her. King George V died on January 20th, 1936, and Edward Prince of Wales became King Edward V. When his ascension to the crown was proclaimed the next day, Edward observed it from the balcony at St. James Palace with Wallace at his son. What was before a concern about the prince and his personal behavior now became a panic. As king, he wasn't just the king. He was also the head of the Church of England, and the head of the Church of England could not be involved with a twice-married woman.

Starting point is 00:07:17 Having ascended to the throne, Edward didn't break off his relationship with Wallace. In fact, he doubled down. He was seen socially with her at many events, and in August of 1936, he took a cruise in the Mediterranean with her, which became very public. Wallace was going through divorce proceedings, and Edward let it become known that he intended to marry Wallace. The idea of a twice-divorced American woman with two living ex-husbands as the Queen Consort of the British Empire and her husband being the head of the Church of England was simply too much for many people in government. Gossip about the couple was published freely in the United States and other countries, but it was not run by the press in the United Kingdom.

Starting point is 00:07:59 Most of Britain's gossip was done in whispers and not in public. On November 16, 1936, Edward formally told the Prime Minister of his plans to marry Wallace Simpson as soon as her divorce was finalized. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang, insisted that Edward had to be removed as king. Edward proposed a solution known as a Morgonatic marriage. A Morgonatic marriage is almost unheard of today, but it was a type of marriage between people of unequal social rank. Edward proposed that he would remain king, but Wallace would not become queen, and their children

Starting point is 00:08:35 would not be in line for the throne. However, this was rejected by the British cabinet and the dominion governments of Canada, Australia, and South Africa, where Edward was king. Another cause of concern was something that was kept secret for decades. Scotland Yard had followed Wallace Simpson around, and they found that she was having an affair behind the back of Edward with a car salesman by the name of Guy Trundle. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin eventually presented Edward with three choices. The first, he was not to marry Wallace and just move on.

Starting point is 00:09:09 The second was to marry, despite the wishes of the British and Dominion governments, in which case the governments would resign spurring a constitutional crisis that might just end the monarchy. And his third choice was to abdicate and marry Wallace. The British press had been silent on the whole man. matter, but it finally became front-page news on December 3rd. Wallace fled for the south of France at the suggestion of royal advisors, both for her safety and to keep her out of the public eye. Here I should note that the affair with Wallace Simpson was not the only concern that public officials

Starting point is 00:09:42 had. Edward had often opined on political matters, which was not supposed to be done by the king. British intelligence officials had intercepted German communications to their British embassy, which hinted that Simpson may have been working for them. Edward himself also expressed statements that were sympathetic to Nazi Germany. Facing the choice between the woman he loved and his position as king, Edward decided to abdicate the throne. On December 10th, he signed a declaration of abdication, and the next day Parliament passed His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act of 1936.

Starting point is 00:10:19 His last act as king was to consent to the law, thus and name. his monarchy. He had been king for less than a year. His brother Albert, who was known as Bertie in the family, became king and took the royal name George the 6th. The question now was, what do you do with a former king? Nothing quite like this had ever happened before. Edward became stylized a prince, which was his right as the son and brother of a king. He was given the title Duke of Windsor and was to be called his royal highness, but his wife, was not. By making him a Duke, he was given a prestigious title that ensured that he could never also run for Parliament. Wallace Simpson's divorce was finalized on May 3, 1937, and the couple

Starting point is 00:11:06 married exactly one month later in France. King George forbade any members of the royal family from attending. In October 1937, Edward and Wallace conducted a tour of Nazi Germany, against the advice of the British government, and had a private meeting. with Adolf Hitler. Supposedly, in the Nazi plans for their conquest of Britain, they would have installed Edward back on the throne as a puppet ruler. He was appointed to governor of the Bahamas in 1940, which was really thought to be more of a move to get him out of Europe. He and Wallace, now the Duchess of Windsor, spent the rest of their lives in a state of retirement in France, hobnobbing with celebrities and making occasional visits back to Britain for funerals. Edward, the Duke of Windsor,

Starting point is 00:11:51 formerly King Edward VIII, died on May 28, 1972 at the age of 77. Wallace, the Duchess of Windsor, died on April 29, 1986, at the age of 89. They are buried together at the Royal Burial Ground at the Frogmore Estate in England. For the rest of his life, and even afterwards, the royal family, especially Queen Elizabeth, had a deep animosity towards Edward. He was shunned from all official activities, and despite being, slowed in her later years, Queen Elizabeth refused to abdicate in favor of her son because of the precedent set by her uncle. And if it hadn't been for the abdication of King Edward the 8th,

Starting point is 00:12:33 the British monarchy would look radically different today. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Ben Long and Cameron Kiefer. If you aren't on the Facebook group or the Discord server, you might not know that this is the fourth anniversary of Everything Everywhere Daily. This podcast has been quite an experience for me, and launching it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. So I want to thank all of you who listen every day and who support the show over on Patreon. If it weren't for you, I literally would not be able to record this podcast.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Abdication of Edward VIII

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.