legal sense and nonsense

#61 February 6th 04, 11:47 PM

(Sam Sloan) wrote in message ...
On 4 Feb 2004 17:53:51 -0800, (Nick) wrote:
(snipped)
With regard to the 1936 British 'constitutional crisis' that led to the
abdication of King Edward VIII, I recall reading that at least one popular
American writer has misunderstood it to mean, in effect: "King Edward VIII
had to abdicate because the British constitution made it illegal for him to
marry Mrs Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee." That is untrue.

But it was not illegal for Edward to marry Wallis Simpson, which he did.
It was unconstitutional, however, for Edward, as the King, to marry her
and make her the Queen. And it was dangerously unconstitutional for
King Edward VIII to attempt to defy the *binding advice* of the elected
Government over the issue of the royal marriage, indeed, over any issue of
state. Essentially, that was the 1936 British constitutional crisis.

Could he have just married her and not made her the queen?

That possibility was proposed in desperation by King Edward VIII.

The elected British government (Stanley Baldwin was the Prime Minister)
informed King Edward VIII that it was opposed to him marrying Mrs Simpson,
and that if he did marry her anyway, in direct contravention of that binding
advice, the government would have no choice but to resign.

Under pressure from King Edward VIII, the British government consented to
submit these options to the other governments in the British Commonwealth:

1) The King could marry, and then Mrs Simpson would become the Queen
(which would be a 'royal marriage').
2) The King could marry, and Mrs Simpson would *not* become the Queen but
receive some courtesy title (which would be a 'morganatic marriage').
3) The King could abdicate and then marry Mrs Simpson.

Almost all of the other governments decided that only the third option
would be acceptable to them and their peoples.

I have never understood this. Why did he have to abdicate?

King Edward VIII did *not* have to abdicate if he had been able to resolve
himself *not* to marry Mrs Simpson. But he could *not* both marry her and
remain on the throne. So Edward made his choice.

--Nick

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode