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King Magnus and King Minus: A Play and a Playlet

King Magnus and King Minus: A Play and a Playlet Early in December 1936, Britain was shaken by the breakdown of press ´ self-censorship about the affair of the king and the American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson, and Winston Churchill saw in the crisis his way out of the political wilderness. He could become leader of a ``King's Party'' to back Edward VIII against the Conservative diehards led by the prime minister. Stanley Baldwin insisted that the king disavow Mrs. Simpson--or his throne. ``England promptly went mad,'' Hesketh Pearson recalls: Archbishops, bishops, peers, cabinet ministers, debated the matter behind closed doors. Could an English king contract a morganatic marriage? Could British peeresses and royal highnesses walk behind an American commoner? Why could not this English king do as many previous English kings had done? The questions were endless. Nothing else was discussed. . . . Nearly everyone treated it as a matter of life and death. Nearly everyone suddenly became conscious of the Church of England, the British Constitution, Duty, Virtue, and the Ten Commandments. Even football was temporarily forgotten.1 Resisting the Establishment threatened to compromise the political neutrality of the sovereign, essential to constitutional monarchy. Yet he could relinquish the throne to a legitimate successor and might http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png SHAW The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies Penn State University Press

King Magnus and King Minus: A Play and a Playlet

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Publisher
Penn State University Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 The Pennsylvania State University. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1529-1480
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Abstract

Early in December 1936, Britain was shaken by the breakdown of press ´ self-censorship about the affair of the king and the American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson, and Winston Churchill saw in the crisis his way out of the political wilderness. He could become leader of a ``King's Party'' to back Edward VIII against the Conservative diehards led by the prime minister. Stanley Baldwin insisted that the king disavow Mrs. Simpson--or his throne. ``England promptly went mad,'' Hesketh Pearson recalls: Archbishops, bishops, peers, cabinet ministers, debated the matter behind closed doors. Could an English king contract a morganatic marriage? Could British peeresses and royal highnesses walk behind an American commoner? Why could not this English king do as many previous English kings had done? The questions were endless. Nothing else was discussed. . . . Nearly everyone treated it as a matter of life and death. Nearly everyone suddenly became conscious of the Church of England, the British Constitution, Duty, Virtue, and the Ten Commandments. Even football was temporarily forgotten.1 Resisting the Establishment threatened to compromise the political neutrality of the sovereign, essential to constitutional monarchy. Yet he could relinquish the throne to a legitimate successor and might

Journal

SHAW The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies – Penn State University Press

Published: Oct 22, 2007

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