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"No, Prime Minister" - part 4 of our Abdication crisis series
Episode 19
Published 1 year, 4 months ago
Description
As Wallis Simpson awaits her divorce hearing, the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, pleads with Edward VIII to change course. From that moment, the relationship between the King and Mrs Simpson becomes an official issue of government business and the event can truly be called a constitutional crisis.
In the latest episode of our series on the abdication crisis, James Taylor and Gareth Streeter discuss:
- The King’s attitude toward the Prime Minister and the government
- Wallis’s divorce and the fallout
- The King’s dinner with Queen Mary, when he broke the news that he intended to marry Mrs Simpson
- The idea of a morganatic marriage and the attempts to find a compromise
- A controversial speech by an obscure Bishop
- The breaking of the story in the press
We were also joined by historian Adrian Phillips to learn more about Stanley Baldwin and his attitude toward the crisis.