King Edwards abdication and conspiracy theories
The extensive unwillingness of accepting Mrs. Simpson to be married to King Edward and the refusal by the king to give up in his ambition of marrying her eventually led to his abdication in 1936. As a result of his resignation, King Edward remains as the only king of the British Monarch who has ever given up the throne voluntarily. Following his resignation in order to follow his hearts desire, Edward became the Duke of Windsor after earning the title of His Royal Highness. In the following year, Edward went ahead and married the love of his life, Mrs. Simpson whom he lived with for the next thirty five years of his life before he eventually died.
King Edwards marriage to Mrs. Simpson was opposed on societal, religious, legal, moral, political and nationalistic grounds. However, it is not only his marriage to the twice divorced woman that led to his abdication. On the societal grounds of his abdication, Edwards desire of modernizing the British monarchy and making it much more accessible, despite the fact that it was a popular thought among many people, it was severely feared by virtually the whole of the British establishment. The aristocracy was upset by Edward after he treated their ceremonies and traditions with disdain, several people felt offended by Edwards abandonment of highly accepted social mores and norms. Edwards deviation from the norm of the British society made him to lack a lot of support when he intended to pursue the love of Mrs. Simpson and was thus easy for him to resign.
In terms of religion, there was no other king of the British monarchy before him who had ever proposed to marry a woman after she had been divorced or divorced his wife in order to marry another woman, and thus Edwards quest to marry a woman who had divorced twice was completely outrageous. Even though Henry VIII notoriously separated the England church from Rome so that he could obtain a cancellation of his original marriage, Henry VIII, never divorced he only had his marriages annulled. The England church did not permit persons who were divorcees to remarry especially if the other spouse was not yet dead. This led to the consensus perspective that, it was impossible for King Edward to continue retaining supreme governor office in the England church and marry Mrs. Simpson who was a divorcee with two ex-husbands who were both alive.
Legally, Mrs. Simpson who was first divorced in US on emotional incompatibility grounds could not be recognised under the England church and in fact if challenged under the courts of England, she might also not have been accepted under the English law. During this era, both the English law and the church considered that divorce could only be allowed on the grounds of adultery. Consequently, going by this particular argument, the second and the third marriages of Mrs. Simpson were invalid and bigamous. Therefore, the marriage of Edward to Mrs. Simpson was not acceptable to the church and to the laws that governed the land.
On morality grounds, the ministers of the king found out that the behaviour and background of Mrs. Simpson were unacceptable especially for a future queen. There were innuendo and rumours that circulated all over the British society about her. Edwards mother was told that Edwards future wife controlled her son sexually as Mrs. Simpson had released Edward from sexual dysfunction that was undefined via practices she had learnt from a Chinese brothel. Dr. Don Campbell also held the same view, he in fact wrote to that effect suggesting that he suspected that Edward was abnormal sexually, which might have made it easy for the divorcee to have a strong hold on him. Furthermore, Phillip Ziegler, the official biographer of the king noted that there was some form of sadomachistic association between the two, as the king relished the bullying and the contempt that was bestowed on him by her. Again, the police detectives who had been following the former divorcee reported that while Mrs. Simpson was involved with the king, she also had another sexual association, with Guy Trundle who was a car salesman and mechanic and was in fact a married man. However, Edward either did not know all these allegations or simply opted to ignore them all together. The sexual behaviour of Mrs. Simpson was completely unacceptable for a queen and thus the king had to resign from his position.
Politically, when the king visited the mining villages which were depressed in the Wales, made a comment that something needed to be done. This immediately led to a lot of concerns especially among the politicians who were elected as the statement implied that the king would interfere with matters that were political, which traditionally had been avoided by the previous constitutional monarchs. As the Wales Prince, Edward had in several instances referred to the politicians in the left wing as cranks he also made several speeches aimed at countering the governments policy. During Edwards reign as the king of the Empire, he greatly interfered with political matters. He declined to accept advice from his ministers Edward opposed the move of imposing various sanctions on the Italians after they invaded Ethiopia he declined to receive the Ethiopias emperor who had been disposed and he also refused to support the nations of the league. Even though most of his comments made him to be very popular in the Wales, Edward became exceptionally unpopular especially in Scotland after he refused to open the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, which was a new wing, since he claimed that he was still mourning for his late father. However, on that day, Edward was reported in the newspapers to be on a cavorting holiday Edward had actually turned down the Scotland public accession in order to meet Mrs. Simpson. Thus when calls started coming pushing for the kings resignation, the public of Scotland could not support him, and since he had greatly interfered with political issues, the politicians also favoured his resignation.
The British government members became more disgusted by the proposed marriage, when they discovered that Mrs. Simpson was a Nazi agent during the period of Holocaust. The foreign office received some leaked dispatches emanating from Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German ambassador to UK. These dispatches made some revelations that Mrs. Simpson was associated with the horrific events that took place under the Nazis and her marriage to a British king would imply that Britain was in favour of the Holocaust that took place in Germany. There were also rumours going round suggesting that Mrs. Simpson had accessed some confidential papers belonging to the government, which Edward had left unguarded. While the king was abdicating, the protection officers who were guarding his future wife sent some reports indicating that there was a possibility of her flying to Germany from France. Moreover, files that were received from the FBI of US, which were written after the kings abdication revealed a series of several other allegations. Among the several allegations that were put forward by the FBI, the most damaging one is the one that indicated that Mrs. Simpson had a sexual relationship with Ambassador Ribbentrop. The FBI claimed that the ambassador could send seventeen carnations daily, each representing each time the two had a sexual intercourse. The kings abdication was thus supported by other nations such as Germany who felt that having a queen in the British monarch with love affairs with its ambassadors could spoil the diplomatic relations between her and Britain.
Conspiracy theories
By 5th December, 1936 it was already known by the individuals in the higher circles of the monarch that King Edward had already decided to abdicate. But this particular announcement reached the general public five days later and was accompanied by the first statement the king had issued on the same issue. This led to the conspiracy theory that the king did not abdicate voluntarily as it was reported but was actually forced by bigger forces with the leadership of the empire. In fact, the conspiracy theories further suggest that the king was not actually forced to resign from the throne because of his proposed marriage to Mrs. Simpson, but due to his firm political stand and his frequent interference with the political issues of the empire which was a role believed to be only handled by the elected leaders and not kings and queens. Therefore according to this conspiracy theory, Mrs. Simpson had nothing to do with Edwards abdication but the marriage was only used as an excuse of removing the king from the throne. It was quite evident that most political forces in the country greatly feared the leadership of Edward as a king since they would have most of their duties interfered with and would thus never enjoy fully their political freedom. The conspiracy theory thus explains that the politicians had to look for ways and means of ensuring that the king was removed from office as soon as possible.
The crisis that was facing the British Monarch was eventually resolved following the abdication instruments passage. However, the speed at which the new king was sworn in raises several questions indicating that Edwards removal had been planned by some people for quite some time. There are also queries concerning whether crisis that was facing the monarch was as easy as the times made the general public believe. Was the decision that was made by Edward simply a threefold decision, either accepting the advice he was being given by his ministers, engaging parliament into a conflict that was largely a private matter, or abdicating voluntarily Or is the political conspiracy theory right in its explanation that there were strong political strengths that were working, which had an effect that was profound on the opinion of the public, despite the fact that the public did not know anything concerning the strong political forces acting against their king.
A close comparison of all the individual accounts to this particular incidence that can be considered to be among the most highly publicised incidents of the twentieth century indicates that there were several factors which were employed that eventually led to the final decision by the king to resign. To comprehend how both the local and international press became very much involved in this matter, it is important to first comprehend the manner in which the government first became involved. At the time when King Edward inherited the British monarchs throne, the new king also inherited the old fashioned or conservative court left behind by George V. the court was mainly comprised of individuals who not only disapproved the new king but also mistrusted him. Some conspiracy theories propose that this distrust did not emanate from the love affair between Edward and Mrs. Simpson, but it resulted from the fact that the new king was an energetic and a youthful man who inherited the throne with great passion of reforming several aspects of the British society.
These conspiracy theories thus suggest that the conservative individuals, who were the majority in the court, were not ready for any reforms and had to make sure that no reforms were undertaken not only by the new king, but also by any other king who inherits the throne while they are still in the court. They therefore capitalised on the weak point of the new king which was his proposed marriage to kick him out of the throne.
Conclusion
Even though the opponents of King Edward looked for reasonable grounds to compel him to abdicate, his abdication remains highly controversial to date. It is not only controversial since he is the only king of the British Empire who has ever resigned voluntarily, but because the real intentions of those who pushed for his resignation are believed to have only used the proposed marriage as an excuse but they had their own reasons which they could not disclose. As the conspiracy theories indicate, there is a possibility that the king did not resign voluntarily as alleged but was actually forced to give up the throne by great political forces that were surrounding him. The reforms and comments of Edward before and after he became king had made him popular among the public, there was therefore need for those who were opposed to his policies and reform agenda to look for ways of tainting his name and they succeeded in doing so through the press, which made this incident to be highly publicised.
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