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 rumours about Wallis

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. (Because her first marriage was dissolved in the United States, even if her second marriage had been annulled, she still would be in legal terms a "divorcée".) But his ministers (like his family) found Mrs. Simpson's background and behavior unthinkably unacceptable for a queen; his mother, the dowager Queen Mary, even suspecting that she held some sort of "sexual bond" over him (a situation similar to Cecily Neville's heated reaction to her son Edward IV's feelings for Elizabeth Woodville). Even Edward VIII's official biographer, Philip Ziegler, accepted that premise. He noted that:

Related Topics:
United States - Queen Mary - Cecily Neville - Edward IV - Elizabeth Woodville - Philip Ziegler

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:There must have been some sort of sadomachistic relationship . . . relished the contempt and bullying she bestowed on him. {{fn|2}}

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The private papers of Walter Turner Monckton, legal advisor to Edward, were released by the Bodleian Library in Oxford on January 29, 2003 (except for one batch concerning private correspondence to Monckton from Queen Elizabeth, the mother of Queen Elizabeth II, 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.

Related Topics:
Walter Turner Monckton - January 29 - 2003 - Elizabeth - 2037 - Rumours - Innuendo

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Wallis's other lovers

Police detectives following Mrs. Simpson reported back that while involved with King Edward, Wallis was in fact involved in another sexual relationship, with a married car mechanic and salesman named Guy Trundle. This fact may well have been made known to senior figures in the British establishment, including members of the royal family. King Edward, however, remained unaware of his mistress's infidelity with another man. A third lover has also been revealed, Edward Fitzgerald, Duke of Leinster, Ireland's premier peer and close friend of her future husband.

Related Topics:
Guy Trundle - Edward Fitzgerald, Duke of Leinster

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The Baltimore "gold digger"

Some correspondents from Wallis's home city of Baltimore, writing to the Royal Family and senior political figures, painted a less than impressive portrait of a woman some called a "prostitute". One correspondent, Joe Longton, wrote: "Being a Baltimorean of nigh on 30 years, we know this gold digger or 'prospector of the evening'" whom he further claimed was a "Queen of the Golden Gummet" (ie, lesbian). He further believed that the king was gay, with their prospective marriage a "Lavender Marriage", by which both could hide their true sexual orientations. Other Baltimoreans wrote less flattering claims, including that she was intersexed. Other correspondents suggested that it was "well known" that Mrs. Simpson had had an abortion, a crime in the vast majority of world states at the time. Another letter writer from the United States suggested Wallis's "hold" on the king's affections was because "she keeps him drinking and may be giving him drugs in his liquor."

Related Topics:
Baltimore - Lesbian - Gay - Lavender Marriage - Intersexed - Abortion

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Such venomous comments indicate the scale of Wallis's unpopularity. While it is not known whether such claims reached the ears of senior political or royal figures, they indicate the widely held view among the establishment (and among some of Wallis's own friends) that she was totally unsuited to be a royal consort, let alone the wife of the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

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These letters from Baltimore appear to be speculative at best and are just hearsay.

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What the FBI reported

If some people from Baltimore were scathing in their unsubstantiated attacks on Wallis, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation produced its own series of claims. The most damaging alleged that in 1936, while simultaneously having affairs with King Edward and Guy Trundle, she also had a third lover (not counting her husband), the German Reich's Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (i.e. Britain), Joachim von Ribbentrop. The Bureau not merely claimed that they had had a relationship, but that von Ribbentrop every day sent her 17 carnations, one for each time they slept together. It marked a further extremely damaging claim made against the woman who could become queen, that she (and indeed her husband) were Nazi sympathisers.

Related Topics:
Federal Bureau of Investigation - 1936 - Court of St. James's - Joachim von Ribbentrop - Nazi

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Wallis: A Nazi agent?

The British government was told that Wallis Simpson was a "Nazi agent", according to files released in January 2003. It was rumoured that Wallis had access to top secret government files which were sent to King Edward, and which he notoriously left unguarded at his Fort Belvedere residence. Even as Edward was abdicating, reports were sent to the Home Office from a Special Branch man following Wallis in exile in France, claiming that "Mrs. S. might flit at any moment . . . to G ."

Related Topics:
British government - Fort Belvedere - Home Office - France

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