Edward VIII Abdication Crisis - Edward and Wallis Simpson

Edward and Wallis Simpson

Edward VIII succeeded his father, George V, as King-Emperor of the British Empire on 20 January 1936. He was a bachelor, but for the previous few years he had often been accompanied at private social events by Wallis Simpson, the American wife of British shipping executive Ernest Aldrich Simpson. Mr Simpson was Wallis's second husband; her first marriage, to U.S. Navy pilot Win Spencer, had ended in divorce in 1927. During 1936, Mrs Simpson attended more official functions as the King's guest and, although her name appeared regularly in the Court Circular, the name of her husband was conspicuously absent. In the summer of that year, the King eschewed the traditional prolonged stay at Balmoral, opting instead to holiday with Mrs Simpson in the Eastern Mediterranean on board the steam yacht Nahlin. The cruise was widely covered in the American and continental European press, but the British press maintained a self-imposed silence on the King's trip. Nevertheless, Canadians and expatriate Britons, who had access to the foreign reports, were largely scandalised by the coverage.

By October, it was rumoured in high society and abroad that Edward intended to marry Wallis Simpson as soon as she was free to do so. At the end of that month, the crisis came to a head when Mrs Simpson filed for divorce and the American press announced that marriage between her and the King was imminent. On 13 November, the King's private secretary, Alec Hardinge, wrote to him warning that: "The silence in the British Press on the subject of Your Majesty's friendship with Mrs Simpson is not going to be maintained ... Judging by the letters from British subjects living in foreign countries where the Press has been outspoken, the effect will be calamitous." Senior British ministers knew that Hardinge had written to the King and may have helped him to draft the letter.

The following Monday, 16 November, the King invited the British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, to Buckingham Palace and informed him that he intended to marry Simpson. Baldwin said in response that such a marriage would not be acceptable to the people, stating: "... the Queen becomes the Queen of the country. Therefore in the choice of a Queen the voice of the people must be heard." Baldwin's view was shared by the Australian High Commissioner in London, Stanley Bruce, who was a former Australian prime minister. On the same day that Hardinge wrote to the King, Bruce met Hardinge and then wrote to Baldwin expressing horror at the idea of a marriage between the King and Wallis Simpson. Governor General of Canada Lord Tweedsmuir told Buckingham Palace and Baldwin that Canadians held deep affection for the King, but also that Canadian public opinion would be outraged if Edward married a divorcee.

Nevertheless, the British press remained quiet on the subject, until Alfred Blunt, Bishop of Bradford, gave a speech to his Diocesan Conference on 1 December. In it he alluded to the King's need of divine grace saying: "We hope that he is aware of his need. Some of us wish that he gave more positive signs of his awareness." The press took this for the first public comment by a notable person on the crisis and it became front page news the following day. When asked about it later, however, the bishop claimed he had not heard of Mrs Simpson at the time he wrote the speech.

Acting on the advice of Edward's staff, Simpson left Britain for the south of France on 3 December in an attempt to escape intense press attention. Both she and the King were devastated by the separation. At a tearful farewell, the King told her, "I shall never give you up."