Abdication of Edward VIII (1936): The King Who Gave Up the Throne

The abdication of Edward VIII on 11 December 1936 is the only voluntary abdication of a British monarch in modern times. Edward gave up the throne after less than a year so that he could marry Wallis Simpson, an American who had been divorced once and was divorcing her second husband. The crisis tested the relationship between the Crown, Parliament, the Church and the Dominions, and brought his younger brother to the throne as George VI.

Background

Edward, the eldest son of George V and Queen Mary, was born in 1894 and became Prince of Wales in 1910. Handsome and informal, he was immensely popular and travelled widely across the Empire. His private life, however, worried his father and the government, especially his series of relationships with married women.

In 1931 Edward met Wallis Simpson, born in Baltimore in 1896. She had divorced her first husband, a US naval officer, in 1927 and married the British-American businessman Ernest Simpson in 1928. By 1934 she had become Edward’s closest companion. When George V died on 20 January 1936, Edward became king, and he soon made clear that he intended to marry her.

As king, Edward showed impatience with tradition and routine. He cut costs on the royal estates, sometimes ignored official papers and moved in a fashionable social circle that worried courtiers. Ministers were also concerned about his casual handling of confidential documents and about sympathies for Germany that he expressed in private, although historians differ on how deep these went.

The crisis builds

In the summer of 1936 the king and Mrs Simpson cruised the eastern Mediterranean on the yacht Nahlin. American and continental newspapers reported the relationship freely, but the British press kept silent under an informal agreement among newspaper owners.

On 27 October 1936 Wallis Simpson was granted a provisional divorce (a decree nisi) at Ipswich, which would become final six months later. On 16 November Edward told the prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, that he intended to marry her and was prepared to abdicate if necessary.

The obstacles were serious. The king was Supreme Governor of the Church of England, which at the time did not allow the remarriage in church of divorced people whose former spouses were still alive. Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang strongly opposed the match. Many politicians also doubted Mrs Simpson’s suitability as queen. A proposal for a morganatic marriage, in which she would be his wife but not queen and any children would not inherit, was rejected by the British cabinet and by the governments of the Dominions, whose consent mattered because the king was also their monarch under the Statute of Westminster.

The press breaks its silence

On 1 December 1936 the Bishop of Bradford, Alfred Blunt, made a speech suggesting that the king needed God’s grace. It was not meant as a reference to Mrs Simpson, but newspapers took it as permission to speak, and the story broke in the British press on 3 December. Wallis Simpson left for the south of France the same day to escape the attention.

Public opinion divided. Some, including Winston Churchill, urged the king to take time and called for a “king’s party” to support him. Most of Parliament, the Church and the established press backed Baldwin. On 7 December Mrs Simpson issued a statement from Cannes saying she was willing to withdraw from a situation that had become unhappy and untenable, but Edward’s mind was made up.

The abdication

On 10 December 1936, at his country house, Fort Belvedere near Windsor Great Park, Edward signed the Instrument of Abdication, witnessed by his three brothers: Albert, Duke of York; Henry, Duke of Gloucester; and George, Duke of Kent. Parliament passed His Majesty’s Declaration of Abdication Act the next day, and it received royal assent on 11 December 1936, ending his reign after 326 days. He had never been crowned.

The Dominions handled the change in their own ways. The Irish Free State passed its own legislation on 12 December, so in Irish law Edward remained king for an extra day, while South Africa later dated the abdication to 10 December.

The broadcast

On the evening of 11 December, Edward spoke to the nation and the Empire by radio from Windsor Castle. He was introduced by the BBC’s director-general, Sir John Reith, as “His Royal Highness Prince Edward”. In the broadcast he said that he had found it “impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love”. He left for Austria that night.

Key people

• Edward VIII (1894–1972): king from January to December 1936, afterwards Duke of Windsor.
• Wallis Simpson (1896–1986): American socialite whom Edward married in 1937, afterwards Duchess of Windsor.
• Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947): Conservative prime minister, who managed the crisis and insisted that the king must either give up the marriage or the throne.
• George VI (1895–1952): Edward’s younger brother, formerly Duke of York, who succeeded him.
• Cosmo Gordon Lang (1864–1945): Archbishop of Canterbury, a firm opponent of the marriage.

Aftermath

Edward’s brother Albert became king as George VI and was crowned on 12 May 1937, the date originally set for Edward’s coronation. George VI, shy and affected by a stammer, had not expected to reign, and his elder daughter Elizabeth became heir presumptive. Edward was created Duke of Windsor. He married Wallis Simpson on 3 June 1937 at the Château de Candé in France; by letters patent issued just before the wedding, she was denied the style “Her Royal Highness”, which the duke resented for the rest of his life.

In October 1937 the Windsors visited Nazi Germany and met Hitler, a trip that damaged the duke’s reputation and fuelled lasting questions about his political sympathies. During the Second World War he served as Governor of the Bahamas from 1940 to 1945. The couple lived mainly in France afterwards. The duke died in Paris on 28 May 1972, and the duchess died there on 24 April 1986; both are buried at Frogmore, near Windsor.

Forced out or free choice?

It is sometimes said that Edward was forced off the throne. Baldwin and the cabinet made clear that they would resign if he married against their advice, which would have created a constitutional crisis, but the final decision to abdicate was Edward’s own, and he chose it over giving up the marriage.

His departure also differed from earlier losses of the English crown. Edward II, for example, was removed against his will after his deposition in 1327. Edward VIII instead left at his own request through an Act of Parliament. Voluntary abdication had European precedents, such as the abdication of Charles V in 1555, but none in Britain’s modern constitutional monarchy.

Timeline

• 1936, 20 January: George V dies and Edward VIII becomes king.
• 1936, 27 October: Wallis Simpson is granted a decree nisi at Ipswich.
• 1936, 16 November: Edward tells Baldwin he intends to marry her.
• 1936, 3 December: The British press begins reporting the relationship.
• 1936, 10 December: Edward signs the Instrument of Abdication at Fort Belvedere.
• 1936, 11 December: The Abdication Act receives royal assent; Edward broadcasts from Windsor.
• 1937, 12 May: Coronation of George VI.
• 1937, 3 June: The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson in France.

Why it matters

The abdication confirmed that in a constitutional monarchy the sovereign must follow the advice of ministers, even on private matters with public consequences. It brought George VI and later Elizabeth II to the throne, shaping the British monarchy for the rest of the century.