Your questions answered (Twixmas special)

12/27/24 • 1 min

Royal History Geeks

What are your burning Royal history questions? Over twixmas, Gareth will do his best to answer them...

What are your burning Royal history questions? Over twixmas, Gareth will do his best to answer them...

Previous Episode

The summer of love - part 3 of our series on the Abdication crisis

As the events of 1936 heat up, the King abandons the traditional Balmoral summer for a pleasure cruise of the Balkans. The world media goes crazy for pictures of the King and Mrs Simpson. The pressure begins to get too much for Wallis.

In this episode, Royal commentator James Taylor joins RHG founder, Gareth Streeter to discuss:

Churchill's "failure" to tell the King and Wallis what they want to hear
Edward's "sulky" attitude toward his duties
Why someone, please, in the name of mercy, needs to think of the poor debutantes
Whether Wallis was intelligent
Observations of Edward and Wallis's behaviour on the Balkan trip, based on eye-witness testimony
Wallis's attempt to break it all off
The King abandoning his duties to collect Wallis from Aberdeen station

Gareth also embarks on a rant about Edward acting like a rebel within the system, rather than the head of the system with real agency to make change if only he had the courage to confront.

Next Episode

"No, Prime Minister" - part 4 of our Abdication crisis series

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.