Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII

Like King Henry VIII of England, whose wish to marry Anne Boleyn in the 1530s rocked his kingdom, King Edward VIII created a crisis for the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth in the 1930s when he wished to marry Wallis Simpson: many have argued that the problem for Edward was that as king he was also Supreme Governor of the Church of England, which did not allow divorced persons to remarry in church while a former spouse was still living, and Mrs. Simpson's first two husbands were still alive. (One of the great ironies of the situation is that Henry VIII separated English Catholicism from Roman control, thus creating the Church of England, so he could divorce {{fn|1}} Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn while Catherine was still alive.) However, others point out that it was more of a problem with the Commonwealth governments being unwilling to accept the king's choice of consort.

The options

As a result of these rumours, the belief strengthened among the British establishment that Wallis could not become a royal consort. The government of Stanley Baldwin explicitly informed King Edward VIII that it was opposed to him marrying Mrs. Simpson, indicating that if he did, in direct contravention of their advice, the Government would resign en masse. Under pressure from the King, Baldwin (who knew what the answer would be), agreed to suggest three options to the King's many prime ministers in his other kingdoms throughout the British Commonwealth. These were that:

Related Topics:
Stanley Baldwin - British Commonwealth

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• they marry and Mrs Simpson become queen (a "royal marriage")
• they marry and she not become queen but receive some courtesy title instead (a "morganatic marriage")
• he abdicate to marry Mrs Simpson.

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 all but one – Eamon de Valera of Ireland, who argued for the first option, on the basis that as divorce was legal, King Edward should be allowed to marry a divorcée – agreed that marriage to Mrs. Simpson in any form was not an option they would accept.

Related Topics:
Franz Ferdinand - 1914 - World War I - Eamon de Valera - Ireland

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