Editing Stanley Baldwin (section)

===Abdication of Edward VIII===
The accession of King [[Edward VIII]], and the ensuing [[abdication crisis]], brought Baldwin's last major test in office. The new monarch was "an ardent exponent of the cause of [[Anglo-German relations|Anglo-German understanding]]" and had "strong views on his right to intervene in affairs of state," but the "Government's main fears... were of indiscretion."<ref name="autogenerated1">Middlemas and Barnes, p. 979.</ref> The King proposed to marry [[Wallis Simpson]], an American woman who was twice divorced. The high-minded Baldwin felt that he could tolerate her as "a respectable whore" as long as she stayed behind the throne but not as "Queen Wally".<ref>Philip Williamson, ''Stanley Baldwin: Conservative Leadership and National Values'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 326.</ref>

Mrs. Simpson was also distrusted by the government for her known pro-German sympathies and was believed to be in "close contact with German monarchist circles".<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

During October and November 1936, Baldwin joined the royal family in trying to dissuade the King from that marriage, arguing that the idea of having a twice-divorced woman as the Queen would be rejected by the government, by the country and by the Empire and that "the voice of the people must be heard."<ref>Middlemas and Barnes, p. 990.</ref><ref>Norman Lowe, ''Mastering Modern British History'', 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1989), p. 488.</ref> As the public standing of the King would be gravely compromised, the Prime Minister gave him time to reconsider the notion of this marriage.<ref name="autogenerated2">Middlemas and Barnes, p. 992.</ref> According to the historian Philip Williamson, "The offence lay in the implications of [the King's] attachment to Mrs. Simpson for the broader public morality and the constitutional integrity which were now perceived—especially by Baldwin—as underpinning the nation's unity and strength."<ref>Williamson, p. 327.</ref>

News of the affair was broken in the newspapers on 2 December.<ref name="autogenerated3">Lowe, p. 488.</ref> There was some support for the wishes of the King, especially in and around London. The romantic royalists Churchill, [[Oswald Mosley|Mosley]], and the press barons, [[Lord Beaverbrook]] of the ''[[Daily Express]]'' and [[Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere|Lord Rothermere]] of the ''[[Daily Mail]]'', all declared that the king had a right to marry whichever woman he wished.<ref name="autogenerated3"/> The crisis assumed a political dimension when Beaverbrook and Churchill tried to rally support for the marriage in [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]].<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/> However, the King's party could muster only 40 [[Members of Parliament]] in support,<ref>Middlemas and Barnes, p. 1008.</ref> and the majority opinion sided with Baldwin and his Conservative government.<ref name="autogenerated3"/> The [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] leader, [[Clement Attlee]], told Baldwin "that while Labour people had no objection to an American becoming Queen, [he] was certain they would not approve of Mrs. Simpson for that position", especially in the provinces and in the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth countries]].<ref>Middlemas and Barnes, p. 1003.</ref> The [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], [[Cosmo Lang]], held that the King, as the head of the [[Church of England]], should not marry a divorcée.<ref>G. I. T. Machin, "Marriage and the Churches in the 1930s: Royal abdication and divorce reform, 1936–7." ''Journal of Ecclesiastical History'' 42.1 (1991): 68–81.</ref> ''[[The Times]]'' argued that the monarchy's prestige would be destroyed if "private inclination were to come into open conflict with public duty and be allowed to prevail".<ref name="autogenerated3"/>

While some recent critics have complained that "Baldwin refused the reasonable request for time to reflect, preferring to keep the pressure on the King – once again suggesting that his own agenda was to force the crisis to a head" and that he "never mentioned that the alternative [to the marriage] was abdication",<ref>Lynn Prince Picknett and Stephen Clive Prior, ''War of the Windsors'' (2002) p. 122.</ref> the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] immediately and overwhelmingly came out against the marriage.<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/> The Labour and [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] parties, the [[Trades Union Congress]],<ref name="autogenerated4">Williamson, p. 328.</ref> and the [[dominions]] of Australia and Canada, all joined the [[British cabinet]] in rejecting the King's compromise, initially supported and perhaps conceived by<ref>{{Cite book |author=Pearce and Goodland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hL8zAgAAQBAJ&q=churchill+++morganatic+marriage.&pg=PT64 |title=British Prime Ministers From Balfour to Brown |date=23 May 1991 |publisher=Transworld Publishers Ltd |isbn=978-0-4156-6983-2 |access-date=3 January 2019}}</ref> Churchill,<ref>{{Cite book |author=Pearce and Goodland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e5yLAgAAQBAJ&q=n+king+Edward+VIII+wanted+to+marry+Mrs.+Wallis+Simpson%2C+++Cosmo+Gordon+Lang&pg=PA80 |title=British Prime Ministers From Balfour to Brown |date=2 September 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-4156-6983-2 |page=80 |access-date=3 January 2019}}</ref> for a [[morganatic marriage]] that had originally been made on 16 November.<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/> The crisis threatened the unity of the [[British Empire]], since the King's personal relationship with the Dominions was their "only remaining constitutional link".<ref>Williamson, p. 327</ref>

Baldwin still hoped that the King would choose the throne over Mrs. Simpson.<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/> For the King to act against the wishes of the cabinet would have precipitated a [[constitutional crisis]].<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/> Baldwin would have had to resign,<ref>Middlemas and Barnes, p. 998.</ref> and no other party leader would have served as the prime minister under the King,<ref name="autogenerated2"/><ref name="autogenerated3"/> with the Labour Party having already indicated that it would not form a ministry to uphold impropriety.<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/> Baldwin told the Cabinet, one Labour MP had asked, "Are we going to have a fascist monarchy?"<ref name="autogenerated4"/> When the Cabinet refused the morganatic marriage, Edward decided to abdicate.<ref name="autogenerated3"/>

The King's final plea, on 4 December, to broadcast an appeal to the nation was rejected by the Prime Minister as too divisive.<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/><ref>Middlemas and Barnes, pp. 1006–7.</ref> Nevertheless, at his final audience with King Edward on 7 December, Baldwin offered to strive all night with the King's conscience, but he found Edward to be determined to go.<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/> Baldwin announced the King's abdication in the Commons on 10 December. [[Harold Nicolson]], an MP who witnessed Baldwin's speech, wrote in his diary:

<blockquote>There is no moment when he overstates emotion or indulges in oratory. There is intense silence broken only by the reporters in the gallery scuttling away to telephone the speech.... When it was over... [we] file out broken in body and soul, conscious that we have heard the best speech that we shall ever hear in our lives. There was no question of applause. It was the silence of Gettysburg...No man has ever dominated the House as he dominated it tonight, and he knows it.<ref>Harold Nicolson, ''Diaries and Letters. 1930–1939'' (London: Collins, 1966), pp. 285–286.</ref></blockquote>

After the speech, the House adjourned and Nicolson bumped into Baldwin as he was leaving, who asked him what he thought of the speech. Nicolson said it was superb to which Baldwin replied: "Yes&nbsp;... it was a success. I know it. It was almost wholly unprepared. I had a success, my dear Nicolson, at the moment I most needed it. Now is the time to go".<ref>Nicolson, p. 286.</ref>

The King abdicated on 11 December and was succeeded by his brother, [[George VI]]. Edward VIII was assigned the title of the [[Duke of Windsor]] by his brother and then married Mrs. Simpson in France in June 1937 after her divorce from [[Ernest Simpson]] had become final.

Baldwin had defused a political crisis by turning it into a constitutional question.<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/> His discreet resolution met with general approval and restored his popularity.<ref name="autogenerated3"/> He was praised on all sides for his tact and patience<ref name="Stuart_Ball"/> and was not in the least put out by the protestors' cries of "God save the King—from Baldwin!" "Flog Baldwin! Flog him!! We—want—Edward."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20081211150526/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,757199,00.html Foreign News: Baldwin the Magnificent – TIME], ''Time Magazine'' (21 December 1936).</ref>

[[John Charmley]] argued in his history of the Conservative Party that Baldwin was pushing for more democracy and less of an old aristocratic upper-class tone. Monarchy was to be a national foundation by which the head of the Church, the State, and the Empire would draw upon 1000 years of tradition and could unify the nation. George V was an ideal fit: "an ordinary little man with the philistine tastes of most of his subjects, he could be presented as the archetypical English paterfamilias getting on with his duties without fuss." Charmley finds that George V and Baldwin, "made a formidable conservative team, with their ordinary, honest, English decency proving the first (and most effective) bulwark against revolution". Edward VIII, flaunting his upper-class playboy style, suffered from an unstable neurotic character and needed a strong stabilising partner, a role that Mrs. Simpson was unable to provide. Baldwin's final achievement was to smooth the way for Edward to abdicate in favour of his younger brother, who became George VI. Both father and son demonstrated the value of a democratic king during the severe physical and psychological hardships of the world wars, and the tradition was carried on by [[Elizabeth II]].<ref>{{Cite book |first=John |last=Charmley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_AcBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA129 |title=A History of Conservative Politics Since 1830 |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-1370-1963-9 |pages=129–30|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>