Good morning all & at this time in 1936, King Edward VIII, witnessed by his brothers, the Royal Princes, signed the Instrument of Abdication, becoming the first British monarch to surrender the throne, so that he could marry Mrs Wallis Simpson.
In 1936, Edward VIII's marriage to the scandal-plagued Wallis Simpson needed the approval of not only the British Prime Minister but all of the Empire's various Prime Ministers. The conservative Australian Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, a devout Catholic, refused his approval.
The British Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, a good Tory with a very keen sense of public opinion, put forward 3 options to the empire's PMs - Edward marries Queen Wallis / Edward marries Mrs Simpson who is *not* Queen Wallis / or Abdication - and Lyons etal said Abdication.
Edward VIII was King but had never been coronated & the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time refused to coronate E8 if he was married to Mrs Simpson. The King's mother, Queen Mary, despised Mrs Simpson & was mindful of the enormous WW1 sacrifices of the Empire's subjects.
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