The Abdication, 11 December 1936

[Royal Smurfness]

Originally Posted by NGalitzine

Prince George, Duke of Kent the brother of Edward VIII.

This man than.
Thank you, with all the Georges it's hard to know who is who...

[Royal Smurfness]

Originally Posted by Iluvbertie

In 1936, when he abdicated, there were many people in Britain who supported the Nazis - many prominant people. At that time he was highly respected around the world, because the worst excesses of the regime were still in the years ahead. Churchill was speaking out against Hitler but the majority of people didn't do so - in fact the government wasn't all that concerned at that time.

Edward VIII pro-Nazi tendencies weren't a real factor in 1936 - had the abdication happened in say 1938 or 1939 it would have been but not in 1936 when the Nazis were only just getting going on their military build-up.

But during the war, he regularly gave valuable information to the Germans on parties, when he had too many drinks.
Churchill was furious.

[Daz_Voz]

The King does not need permission of the Government to marry nor does he need the approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

True.

As The Sovereign, he is above the law.

Well that's putting it a bit strongly! The Sovereign is certainly subject to the law: King John was forced to acknowledge as much in a fairly famous document...

We don't get to rerun the experiment of what would have happened had he not abdicated. Maybe Parliament would not in fact have resigned if he married Wallis: it's a huge step.

[Iluvbertie]

Originally Posted by Royal Smurfness

But during the war, he regularly gave valuable information to the Germans on parties, when he had too many drinks.
Churchill was furious.

I wasn't talking about during the war but in 1936 - when he abdicated Hitler was only just really starting his build-up and many many people liked his approach to things - including many in the British parliament and even George VI liked many of his ideas - in the early to mid-30s. They changed their minds later.

It is easy to judge someone based on events later in their timeline but it isn't fair to put later events and attitudes onto an earlier event and what he may or may not have done during the war with regard to the Nazis had no bearing on the reasons why the government were determined to get rid of him in 1936. It was still a couple of years before Time named Hitler Man of the Year (1938)