Edward finds a suitable bride.

What if Edward VIII married a non divorced woman and stayed on the throne. How would the pro Nazi king have done reigning over a nation at war. Would his desire for a negotiated peace have leaked out?
 
It's for the best that he didn't find a 'suitable' bride. He'd have been a -10% penalty to industrial capacity, and they'd have had to put in other ministers with IC boni just to bring it back to normal...

But on a serious note, I don't think it would cause political so much as social issues. The monarchy was able to be a source of national unity in OTL thanks to remaining in the 'danger zone' within German bombing range, among other things, but inklings that the monarch, however powerless, wasn't as enthusiastic as everyone else might have been damaging for social cohesion.
 
Edward VIII

As King, Edward would not have had the opportunity to go to Germany or offer any solace publicly to Ribbentrop or any other leading Nazi.

He would have been shackled by the same convention that British monarchs have lived under for the past couple of hundred years. The bigger question is whether Edward has an heir by this other wife - any son would be Prince of Wales and next in line.

The obvious candidate, oddly enough, would be Freda Birkin if you could butterfly away her husband, William Dudley Ward, who she married in 1913 in OTL and became Edward's mistress from 1918 to 1924. If Edward marries Birkin in say 1919 or 1920, he could become a father in the mid-1920s.

A lot would be very different.
 
If Edward VIII manages to stay on the throne what are the chances that he would be "deposed" if he showed sympathy for the Nazis?
 
It's for the best that he didn't find a 'suitable' bride. He'd have been a -10% penalty to industrial capacity, and they'd have had to put in other ministers with IC boni just to bring it back to normal...

Not to mention the -20 to diplomatic relations with any country which wasn't facsist.

Seriously, now, what could Edward VIII do if he were monarch during WWII?
 
Depends who/when, but 'tis certainly feasible. Assuming no butterflies Churchill is even more likely to be tapped in 1940 than OTL, and as per OTL Churchill will keep him firmly muzzled. Where things get really interesting is postwar when Lab comes in, because Edward is a true-blue Tory who barely (and sometimes doesn't) conceals his partisanship.
 
Τry to make UK part of the Axis and then kicked out of office?

a.) It's not an office
b.) No, he might give unwanted advice and would prefer to co-operate with Germany rather than oppose it but he would be thoroughly constrained by the Government, Court and Establishment from doing anything.

Interestingly in this ATL the Royal Family could have a very awkward 70's/80's as after his death and the (inevitable) breakdown of the deference society his true views on the Nazi's might leak out.
 
If Prime Minister Churchill or Chamberlin made public any demands for a negotiated peace the king made during thier private meetings, there would have been calls for his abdication.
 
If WWII follows the same shape as OTL would he have stayed in the UK during the Blitz or left for Canada? Or stayed and sent his family away? That was proposed iOTL but George VI refused. If Edward had left, however sensible the decision might be, the morale effect is going to be bad, and it would tremendously damage the image of the Royal Family post war.
 
Where things get really interesting is postwar when Lab comes in, because Edward is a true-blue Tory who barely (and sometimes doesn't) conceals his partisanship.
Labour was granted significant domestic power in the wartime coalition. I wonder whether King Edward would complain about that - and if so, how much impact he'd have. Would Churchill (no Labour sympathizer himself) actually listen, or would he just tell the King to shut up and not disrupt the coalition?
 
Edward VIII would have done his duty if he was still King during the war. Many an individual, king or not, may have held pro-nazi views prior to the war's outbreak but most fell into line and became loyal and patriotic citizens. A king would be no different. During World War I the Royal family had no problem fighting against their cousins in Germany. Edward VIII's selfish me first attitude in 1936 would gave fallen into line once war broke out and millions of young men began fighting and dying in his name.
 
Maybe if he were king his attitude would be different. OTL, he did not fall in to line when the war broke out. ITTL he would have quickly learned not to over estimate his own power and he would have appointed Churchill but I still think in his private meetings with the Prime Minister, he would have called for a peace deal. I think that either Chamberlin or Churchill might have made the King's views public and he would have been forced from the throne.
 
Who do you think invited Labour into the government?
Oh yes. But I feel that if the king was complaining, Churchill might stop subsuming his own preferences and do something? Maybe? Remember how he said in the 1945 election campaign that they were little better than Communists...
 
Maybe if he were king his attitude would be different. OTL, he did not fall in to line when the war broke out. ITTL he would have quickly learned not to over estimate his own power and he would have appointed Churchill but I still think in his private meetings with the Prime Minister, he would have called for a peace deal. I think that either Chamberlin or Churchill might have made the King's views public and he would have been forced from the throne.


How much do we know about the King and Queen's attitude on this question? Was it all that different from Edward's?

They were certainly very pro-Appeasement before the war. Their inviting of Chamberlain onto the Palace balcony after Munich was a political statement and (given that the country was not of one mind on this question) more constitutionally questionable than anything Edward VIII had done.
 
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It depends a lot on which woman Edward marries. I don't get the feeling that he was the dominant partner in the marriage he had, and it might work out the same way with the hypothetical wife we're talking about on this thread. With luck it would be someone who could drive some sense into him and make him an asset to the country like his brother turned out to be.
 
...just having read Stephen Clarke's "1000 Years of Annoying the French" I instinctively thought about Edvard VII finding a wife to stop his frequent joyrides to Paris.
 
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