The Peoples King (36 page)

Megan Lloyd George's warning was the same as the one that had emerged from the King's visit to Wales just weeks before - that
something must be done.

It was not just the poor and the working class who remained loyal to the King. A prominent member of the Norfolk gentry sent a telegram to Edward on 7 December pointing out that 'England has had two Prince Consorts neither was crowned. Why not a princess consort a duchess consort or simply consort. Even an archbishop's wife does not share title. Plenty of precedents for altering the succession. Don't be bounced.'
⁷
' A group of upper-class young women, who described themselves as 'sub debutantes' and were studying in Paris, sent a telegram of Move and support'.
⁷⁴
Above all, Edward had the support of many of his generation. 'Particularly those from 50 downwards . . . We all pray that if you are forced to abdicate, you will allow us to support your Majesty as Ruler, perhaps Dictator, of a nation', urged a journalist in London.
⁵

There were grounds, believed Edward, to assume that if he so wished he would be able to convert his popularity into something more forceful - to topple Baldwin and to protect his position as monarch. 'Had I made a move', he wrote in his memoirs, years later,

to encourage the growth of this movement, it might have grown. If I had made an appeal to the public I might have persuaded a majority, and a large majority at that. I shall go further and say that had I remained passive while my friends acted the result might well have been the same. For there is no want of evidence that a multitude of the plain people stood waiting to be rallied to my side.
⁷⁶

It is not known whether or not Edward read the thousands of letters and telegrams of support that were sent during these days of crisis, though it is unlikely. But had he seen them he would have been in no doubt that many 'plain people' supported his wish to marry Wallis and to stay on the throne. As well as letters and telegrams, there came petitions - from streets, households, shops and organizations all over the country.

One of the ideas frequently put forward in this correspondence was for a plebiscite - a direct vote by the whole of the electorate, on the specific issue of Edward's wish to marry Wallis. This proposal was sent from overseas, as well as from within Britain.
''Vox Populi, Vox Dei -
the Voice of the People is the Voice of God', urged a telegram to the King from Finland. It added, 'Please arrange plebiscite.'" 'I am certain of this, if a plebiscite is practical and were taken,' said one letter, then '99 out of every 100 voting from among all the British Nations would see that the marriage is honourable, just as you think so - and would gladly agree - that the lady be Your Queen.'
⁷⁸
One woman urged the King to 'take a vote of the
people
- The nation wants
you,
no one else, the nation needs
you,
& the nation (the people) is with you, & you have their full sympathy and love.'
⁷⁹
Some thought that a plebiscite should be held for all the people in the Empire. The sovereign power in the country, said one man, lay not in the Cabinet but in the whole of the Empire - 'Might I respectfully suggest that the question of your marriage should be referred direct to the people . . . A direct ballot of the people should be taken. The ballot could be of the peoples of the whole Empire. Australia has already the referendum and in its case it would be almost routine.'
⁸⁰

Many of Edward's subjects advocated governmental change, through a general election that would jettison the Prime Minister. Baldwin's effort to prevent the King marrying Wallis, and possibly bouncing him into abdication, was seen by some to be consistent with his poor record on foreign relations. 'I think that millions of people besides myself', one man wrote to Churchill, 'must in their inmost minds have been saying for a long time past "Will no one ever rid us of this man?"' There were some in the Cabinet, he added,

whom individually I approve very highly, including Mr Duff Cooper . . . but the actual deeds of Mr Baldwin's government in relation to foreign affairs frequently cause me to writhe and groan in impotent anger. Soon, I image, we shall be buying off the hostility of the truculent dictators of Europe by the barter of our possessions .. ,
⁸¹

Many people wanted an alternative to the present Government. A letter signed 'Public opinion' urged, 'Call the Cabinet's bluff & let there be an Election if necessary.
You'll win!
The Church have enough to say NOW - as regards unemployment etc they have nothing to say! . . . You offended by being frank after
Your visit to Wales’
⁸²
'Your Majesty has only to force a General Election to gain your point,' said another letter, 'as the people are with you in every way. We do not want the
Duke of York
or any other substitute.'
⁸³
From Notting­ham came the suggestion that 'a People's Party with yourself at its head would be acceptable to all.'
⁸⁴

'The Country is rising on your behalf. All that we need is Time', wrote a Londoner. 'Do not permit Yourself to be hurried into an irrevocable act. With a few days' delay it will become evident that a Government can be formed to carry out the will both of Your Majesty and of the Country.'
⁸⁵
The election should be fought, said one letter, on the right of the King to choose his own wife - 'the slogan would be "We want Edward VIII. Not Baldwin.'"
⁸⁶
A man in Brighton asked, 'Should Your Majesty's Government resign, why not a Royal dictatorship? I am ready to fight the issue at an Election on your behalf and instructions.'
⁸
' Some people believed that a King's Party would be able to eliminate the problem of long-term unemployment. 'Undoubtedly there is a strong group most anxious to secure the King's abdication,' said one man. 'Things he said on his visit to South Wales were a tacit rebuke to the Government, and I thought a conflict would come some day.' A new government, he added, 'would represent a new People's Party which would have to be rapidly organised, especially in the distressed areas, and amongst intellectuals who are sick of party politics.' The country should be run, he said, by those who had already demonstrated their ability to deal with social problems - 'Why not put in Malcolm Stewart and a dozen others who are anxious to get on with the job to actually do it without more talk?'
⁸⁸

A railwayman from London assured the King that if it came to a choice between him and Parliament, 'the bulk of the people of this country would support yourself . . . The present Prime Minister is, from his own lips, a trickster, the church stands for nearly all that is opposed to real Christianity.'
⁸⁹
Winston Churchill was regarded by some as the best man to organize such an election campaign. A woman working at Elstree Studios, who said she was speaking for friends and associates in the film industry, asked him to act on their behalf. 'I know very little about Parliamentary procedure,' she said,

but isn't it possible for you to approach the King offering to form a Cabinet which will treat the situation on these lines, and put the whole matter to the country? Apart from the domestic crisis, your Freedom and Peace programme would surely win you support from large numbers of Conservatives and Socialists all over the country, who are by now heartily sick of Baldwin and his methods of misgovernment. . .
⁹⁰

Some of the King's supporters wanted to take up arms for him. A man in Hove told Edward that he had spoken to some people about Edward - I said you were the PEOPLE'S KING. That the crowd loved you; that you were democratic; that forms and ceremonies were nothing; that LOVE rules the world, or SHOULD rule. Good luck! good health! And God bless you.
I'll die for you if necessary.
'
^9I
'Every ex-service man,' wrote another supporter, 'is behind you, and will obey your orders in Liverpool. We want you to lead, take charge of everything, regarding you, and our Empire. Remember Sire there are 2,000,000 of men willing to die for the first gentleman in the world (Yourself).'
⁹²
And from Durham, a former Lieutenant of the Durham Light Infantry asked the King never to forget 'that there are thousands of men in this country today, who had the honour to serve with you in France, & who will uphold, with
their lives
if necessary, Your Majesty's desires as opposed to convention, as they welcomed your flaunting of convention in the war years.'
⁹¹

Not only were the ex-servicemen behind the King, thought some, but active servicemen too. A composer assured the King that

You Sire have got the Navy and the Army behind you - and the masses - it's the masses that matter. Come out and show yourself to your people. We WONT LET YOU DOWN. We want YOU - YOU - and always YOU . .. What you
[r]
private life is doesn't matter a damn to us - but come out in the open - you'll find we'll go to Hell cheerfully - if you ask us to . . . Come out into the open and let us see you.
⁹⁴

Many of the public pressed the King to show himself, to generate support. 'And come up & show yourself to the people who remember the distressed areas', encouraged one man. 'Come to London.'
⁹⁵
'Why not shew on the Balcony at Buckingham when the Crowd shouts "He's a Jolly Good Fellow"?' asked another.
⁹⁶

Sunday
6
December was cold, with a biting wind. Baldwin told a meeting of senior Ministers in the morning that 'This matter must be finished before Christmas.' Chamberlain argued that to wait even that long (less than three weeks) was unacceptable, as the Christmas trade was being damaged.
⁹
This was true. 'Those of us who were authors of recent novels', wrote Vera Brittain in her autobiographical story,
Testament of Experience,
'soon realised that national tension had killed the Christmas market in the fortnight when book sales normally reach their peak.' One of the biggest British booksellers, she added, which sold an average of a thousand books a day, found itself reduced to fifty a day during this period. Her novel
Honourable Estate,
which had come out earlier that year, joined 'the many minor victims' of this period.
⁹⁸
Noting that there were '374 less customers in today!', a saleswoman in a London department store regretted a 'desperate day's trade partly the weather partly the King.'
⁹⁹

There was a growing sense of urgency and crisis, felt by everyone. Coming past the Palace at night, wrote Virginia Woolf, 'there were crowds waiting in the cold - it is very cold - cant [sic] write - with eyes fixed on the windows. Two or 3 lights were burning in upper windows.'
¹⁰⁰
A vicar in Kensington, London, reported that 'At Even­song tonight, after prayers [had] been said for the King, this Con­gregation in a poor quarter of the Royal Borough spontaneously broke out into the National Anthem with a fervour seldom heard.'
¹⁰¹

For a brief moment, Edward was tempted to appeal to his subjects. On a 'night of soul-searching', he wrote later in his memoirs, he paced his bedroom floor, weighing the alternatives. Wallis had also paced the floor sleeplessly when faced with her own critical decision, on the traumatic night before her divorce suit was presented at Ipswich Assizes. Eventually, Edward reached the decision 'which had been implicit throughout the course of my action - to put out of mind all thought of challenging the Prime Minister.' Otherwise, he could see, he would leave 'the scars of a civil war'. The price of his marriage under such circumstances, he believed, would be to strike a terrible blow at the social unity of the nation and to the Empire. He would still be King, but not by the free and common consent of all. If he made a stand, it would divide the country.
¹⁰²

It is arguable that Edward
could
have imitated in some way the model of dictatorship that was now much in evidence on Continental Europe. Many people in Britain, especially those who despaired of their 1936 Government, were looking to the King for strong leadership as a bulwark against the risk of revolution. 'I believe that first-class leadership will be needed in the near future', wrote a man from Kent, 'if this country ... is to steer a course between the Scylla of stagnation and the Charybdis of disastrous social conflict. Like many others, I have been looking to you to play your part in that leadership."
⁰³
Edward not only had a star quality that gave him widespread popu­larity, but he could draw on the loyalty of many thousands of ex- servicemen all over the country. This kind of support had been crucial to the power bases established by Mussolini and Hitler, who received massive backing from veterans of the 1914-18 war; like ex-servicemen in Britain, they were angry at the lack of employment and the poverty that followed their return home.

Nor would it have been difficult for Edward to make contact with Hitler - either through the many members of the Establishment who supported the Nazi regime, or through Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German ambassador to Britain. Ribbentrop was frequently seen in the best houses of Society, including the glittering receptions that were held at Londonderry House. The Londonderrys were just a few of the many members of the ruling class at the time - including Geoffrey Dawson, Mrs Greville, and a number of politicians in the National Government - who advocated what they called a 'rapprochement' with Hitler's Germany. In 1938, Lady Londonderry complained in her memoir,
Retrospect,
that 'The more positive "isms" are taboo, like Nazi-ism or Fascism, because they imply doing something."
⁰⁴
She and Lord Londonderry visited Germany in the winter of 1936, calling on Hitler and Goebbels and attending the Winter Olympics in Munich. In the same week that Edward was visiting the poor of South Wales, Ribbentrop was a guest at Wynyard, the Londonderrys' seat in County Durham; earlier that year, he had stayed at Mount Stewart, the family estate in Northern Ireland.
¹⁰⁵
It would not have been difficult for Edward to get in touch with Ribbentrop if he had wanted to seek support and help from Germany. And there is every indication that Ribbentrop (and Hitler) would have been delighted.