The Abdication
At five minutes to midnight on January 20, 1936, King George V, Edward's father, passed away. Upon King George V's death, Prince Edward became King Edward VIII. To many, Edward's grief over his father's death seemed much greater than the grieving of his mother or his siblings. Though death affects people differently, Edward's grief might have been greater for his father's death also signified his acquisition of the throne, complete with the responsibilities and eminence that he deplored.
King Edward VIII didn't win many supporters at the beginning of his reign. His first act as the new king was to order the Sandringham clocks, which were always a half an hour fast, set to the correct time. This symbolized to many a king who was to deal with the trivial and who rejected his father's work.
Yet the government and the people of Great Britain had high hopes for King Edward. He had seen war, traveled the world, been to every part of the British empire, seemed sincerely interested in social problems, and had a good memory. So what went wrong?
Many things. First, Edward wanted to change many of the rules and become a modern monarch. Unfortunately, this caused Edward to distrust many of his advisors because he saw them as symbols and perpetuators of the old order. He dismissed many of them. Also, in an effort to reform and curb monetary excesses, he cut the salaries of many royal staff employees to an extreme degree. Employees became unhappy. The king also began to be late or cancel appointments and events at the last minute. State papers that were sent to him were not protected, some statesmen worried that German spies had access to these papers. At first these papers were returned promptly, but soon it would be weeks before they were returned, some of which had obviously not even been looked at.
One of the main reasons he was late or canceled events was because of Mrs. Wallis Simpson. His infatuation with her had grown so extreme that he was severely distracted from his State duties. Some thought she might be a German spy handing State papers over to the German government.
The relationship between King Edward and Mrs. Wallis Simpson came to an impasse when the king received a letter from Alexander Hardinge, the king's private secretary, that warned him that the press would not remain silent much longer and that the government might resign en masse if this continued.
King Edward was faced with three options: give up Wallis, keep Wallis and government would resign, or abdicate and give up the throne. Since King Edward had decided that he wanted to marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson (he told Walter Monckton that he had decided to marry her as early as 1934), he had little choice but to abdicate.7
Whatever her original motives, until the end, Mrs. Wallis Simpson didn't mean for the king to abdicate. Yet the day soon came when King Edward VIII was to sign the papers that would end his rule. At 10 a.m. on December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII, surrounded by his three surviving brothers, signed the six copies of the Instrument of Abdication:
I, Edward the Eighth, of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Emperor of India, do hereby declare My irrevocable determination to renounce the Throne for Myself and for My descendants, and My desire that effect should be given to this Instrument of Abdication immediately.8
