The Last King: Planning

I've been watching The Crown, and I've been inspired to write an Edward VIII timeline. This post is outlining the basic concept and asking some questions. I'd appreciate any feedback people can give me. I've decided on a couple of ground rules:

1) Edward never marries Wallis Simpson. I just don't believe the British government would ever accept that and allow him to remain King.

2) Edward is not a Nazi. Ignorant self-absorbed bigot who can't see what's wrong with saluting Hitler and taking tours of concentration camps, yes. Actual fascist ideologue, no. He will be King throughout the whole of World War Two without aiding the Nazis in any way. Except maybe by accident.

So if we're not writing about Queen Wallis, and we're not doing the Nazi King bit, what's the point? The question the timeline will address is whether the monarchy can survive. All through The Crown, people ominiously warn about the monarchy being put in danger. Everything from marrying divorced people to giving a bad speech in a car factory is supposed to lead to a popular revolt. But one character points out that in a constitutional monarchy, the royals have no power, so there's never anything to complain about. A king has even gone hopelessly insane without significantly affecting the government.
So, Edward reigns from 1936 to his death in 1972 despite being completely unsuited to the role. Does he destroy the monarchy and bring in a republic? If not, what's the monarchy like by the present day?

I'll post the first installment soon, but there are a few questions I'm mulling over.

1) How do we avoid the whole Wallis thing? Is she never born, never meets Edward, he's just not attracted to her?

2) Does he marry someone else? It's more interesting if he has his own children to inherit, rather than just having a middle-aged Elizabeth take over. My initial idea for the POD is that the husband of his girlfriend Freda Dudley Ward dies in a car accident, and he marries her before he meets Wallis. But I'm open to other suggestions.

3) What does Edward do differently during WWII?

4) How does the 1945 Labour government handle an unpopular monarch?

5) What happens to Prince Albert (our George VI) and his daughters? Do they have the same marriages and lifespans?

6) Generally, what's within the British monarch's power to do that would massively honk off the public, without actually getting him thrown out?
 
1) His father makes him marry someone and he could just keep Wallis as a mistress if they still have their romance.
2) He needs some kind of sense knocked into him to actually settle down and try to produce heirs...he can bang whoever he wants on the side, but needs to marry. Who...is another question. Best bet would be someone who wont entangle the royal family in any of the European intrigues at the time, so probaly some noble by blow in the British isles, or someone blue blooded enough in a neutral nation.
3) Hed probably be more charismatic, but bungle alot. Tbh i could see him trying to get Halifax to win the conservative party struggle to keep out the war, maybe rejoining later when hes forced too.
4) It depends if the Labour party win in 1945, but i could see them pushing alot of reforms on the monarchy.
5) He'll still be heir less Edward pops some kids out. If he does, then i could see him just being a kinda regent in some part of the country/Empire, or a liaison with the Navy and doing most of the duties if Edward doesn't get his act together. His kids will marry different people for sure, most likely more for love than duty.
6) this is the 30's, 40's, 50's, so still not alot, but they could push on points via influence in the old boys clubs and such and still have minute power in parliament to dissolve it and such.
 
I'll give this a go

How do we avoid the whole Wallis thing? Is she never born, never meets Edward, he's just not attracted to her?

Whatever suits best...no divorce...hit by a bus... its Edwards temperament that matters... Wallis is a symptom not the disease


2) Does he marry someone else? It's more interesting if he has his own children to inherit, rather than just having a middle-aged Elizabeth take over. My initial idea for the POD is that the husband of his girlfriend Freda Dudley Ward dies in a car accident, and he marries her before he meets Wallis. But I'm open to other suggestions.

Probably not, it, like Diana has to be someone younger ,'unsullied' and compliant


3) What does Edward do differently during WWII?

Nothing he's a constitutional monarch... fume he might do, but if Churchill is in he smiles for the camera

4) How does the 1945 Labour government handle an unpopular monarch?

Why is he unpopular?

5) What happens to Prince Albert (our George VI) and his daughters? Do they have the same marriages and lifespans?

Up to you but I can't see Mountbatten manoeuvring Philip at all ,I mean why?

6) Generally, what's within the British monarch's power to do that would massively honk off the public, without actually getting him thrown out?

The 'public' only matter so much, there are other powers that you need to look at.

And it depends on when you do this ,very much so what kind of figure is he in WW2?

Have fun with this

Regards
Hugh
 
Thanks for the comments, I'll give them some thought.

Why is he unpopular?

5) What happens to Prince Albert (our George VI) and his daughters? Do they have the same marriages and lifespans?

Up to you but I can't see Mountbatten manoeuvring Philip at all ,I mean why?
I'm assuming Edward doesn't put as much care into public relations as George VI did, so he becomes more unpopular. Maybe he has an enormous luxurious wedding in the middle of the Depression, or flees to Balmoral during the Blitz. As for Elizabeth, she won't be Queen but Princess Elizabeth of York isn't too bad for Phillip. I can still see Mountbatten manoeuvring them together.
 
Hmmmm
Edward was far more popular than George...all George ever wanted was a quiet life.
And I would say that reading a little about The Mountbatten/Battenberg family would amply repay you....motives matter.
I very much doubt if King Edward would be allowed to flee anywhere.... its not as if U.K monarchs are free agents.
Regards
Hugh
 
How do we avoid the whole Wallis thing? Is she never born, never meets Edward, he's just not attracted to her?

On 16 July 1936, Jerome Bannigan, alias George Andrew McMahon, gets closer than IOTL to Edward and tries to shoot him. The bullet/s miss him completely but he has the shock of his life. This experience turns him upside down and Simpson is shipped back to the USA.

Does he marry someone else? It's more interesting if he has his own children to inherit, rather than just having a middle-aged Elizabeth take over. My initial idea for the POD is that the husband of his girlfriend Freda Dudley Ward dies in a car accident, and he marries her before he meets Wallis. But I'm open to other suggestions.

What if he wants to remain single?
 
I thought that you were going to describe Simpson being killed. That would be one way to resolve the situation, but a little on the nose. If he just gets a terrible shock, I'm not sure how that convinces him to break with Simpson. As for him staying single, that's a fair point. It would be more fun to make up Edward's descendents, but it's not strictly necessary for the timeline. I was going to have his son be named "John Charles Richard" - bonus points if you get the reference.
 
Here's an interesting POD: In our timeline, George V was thrown off his horse and seriously injured in 1915, right in front of Edward. Let's say he dies, and Edward becomes King at 21. Wallis Simpson is very unlikely to be a problem - she hasn't even met her first husband yet and years of random changes means she never meets Edward. More generally, the young King will be under far more scrutiny and supervision, and won't get near any equivalent of Wallis. But with a POD at 21 he's essentially the same person. What's his 57-year reign like?
 
1) Edward never marries Wallis Simpson. I just don't believe the British government would ever accept that and allow him to remain King.
Yup not a chance - and the Dominions were equally opposed to the marriage - and their approval was important Edward couldn't marry without the consent of all. The easiest is to butterfly his and Wallis' meeting - Lady Furness doesn't get called to support her sister Gloria Vanderbilt in her custody fight - Thelma doesn't introduce Wallis and remains Edward's mistress until he moves on to the next older married lady that takes his fancy?
2) Edward is not a Nazi. Ignorant self-absorbed bigot who can't see what's wrong with saluting Hitler and taking tours of concentration camps, yes. Actual fascist ideologue, no. He will be King throughout the whole of World War Two without aiding the Nazis in any way. Except maybe by accident.
Edward VIII was not necessarily pro-German but he was a rabid appeaser - and remember in the late 30s the vast majority of people were also appeasers (including his brother and sister in law and his mother) - no-one was that keen on another European war on the scale of the Great War. Edward was also closer to his German cousins and had very fond memories of a visit to Germany in 1913 (his first real escape from his parents). In Exile he was certainly not intelligent enough to keep the dodgy characters with dodgy connections at arms lengths and it was them who involved him in closer connections with Nazi Germany, more virulent in his appeasement and dodgy financial transactions when he was Gov of the Bahamas.

2) Does he marry someone else? It's more interesting if he has his own children to inherit, rather than just having a middle-aged Elizabeth take over. My initial idea for the POD is that the husband of his girlfriend Freda Dudley Ward dies in a car accident, and he marries her before he meets Wallis. But I'm open to other suggestions.

George V is going to oppose Freda Dudley Ward - marrying your mistress just wasn't the done thing - he and Queen Mary might have thrown a few eligible girls his way but he just wasn't interested in well behaved well born aristocratic girls.

Like his brother's Edward tended towards quite strong-willed women and was quite capable of forming a passion for the right woman - but the longer you have him waiting the harder it is to find one that would be unblemished enough for him to marry - until Wallis he really showed no great interest in securing the succession particularly as his younger brother's married and produced issue - so i think it is unlikely he marries in time to produce an heir in this scenario - we forget he was in his 40s at the abdication

3) What does Edward do differently during WWII?

If he is single then he probably does pretty much what his brother did - no abdication then his popularity (and he was immensely popular as P O W - think Princess Diana) and perceived "modern" approach will go down well with his subjects - even if his ministers and staff find him lazy, self serving, vain and unreliable and a bit of a security risk due to his habit of leaving papers everywhere. He like George VI will have to rely on his brother and sister in law's for the numerous duties in terms of visiting bombed out cities etc.... I suspect his private lifestyle may attract criticism if he continues to live lavishly etc - as the bomb's falls there's a risk that its found out he spends most of his time in the safety of Fort Belvedere rather than Buckingham Palace - (just as it wouldn't have gone down well if it was made clear that the King and Queen didn't stay in London at night but usually retreated to the relative safety of Windsor Castle).

Basically its a single King battling to save the nation line instead of the perfect loving family unit that George VI and Elizabeth were portrayed as

4) How does the 1945 Labour government handle an unpopular monarch?

Unless it emerges he was Pro-German, literally gave secrets away during the war or behaves really badly in public then I doubt he will - the reality is that the abdication had a bigger effect on how George VI, his mother and his wife viewed public perception of the monarchy - it made them even more conservative and careful of their public image - WE Four and all that - without that event the monarchy is probably free to carry on much as it did in the 30s - Edward himself believed very strongly that he was entitled to a private life - the clash might come later with biographies of court figures or tell alls in the papers in the late 50s and 60s as mass news media grows apace exposing the hidden lives of the great and the good.

5) What happens to Prince Albert (our George VI) and his daughters? Do they have the same marriages and lifespans?
Well - they continue in much the same vein in terms of their family life - the girls probably spend the war with their governess at Royal Lodge rather than at Windsor Castle - Bertie wears uniforms and does the public duties his brother doesn't want to do or can't do - it is possible he instead of the Duke of Kent is named as future Governor General of Australia (it never happened in otl as Kent was killed of course) - The Duchess of York was already popular and likely will remain so - in terms of Bertie's lifespan - whilst the stress of the war and the job might have caused him additional strain and damaged his health it is still quite likely that he will still suffer from the cancer that killed him early but he might live a couple of more years.
In terms of the relationships - well it was Wallis that really broke Edward's relationship with Bertie, George and Henry - without her Edward will probably remain close to his brother's and their families despite his failings - certainly until Wallis his relationship with Elizabeth was also good - and she certainly had an element of sympathy for him in terms of his poor relationship with George V - all the family were quite tolerant of all his other lady friends.
His reluctance to marry before the war already put plenty of attention on Elizabeth as a possible future Queen - in this timeline you can expect her to still be on object of interest to matchmakers like Mountbatten - in terms of her education it will continue as it was before the abdication - pretty poor but typical of a well-born young woman - by the forties you might see extra tuition on the assumption she might be Queen as in otl.

If she still marries Philip and she might though their initial meeting is butterflied - then it might well be that she marries him as Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark not as Lt Philip Mountbatten - in otl they were determined he should be a naturalised British citizen rather than a dispossessed prince - in this tl he might not feel the need to. So perhaps no change till Elizabeth becomes Queen. If so then her children will be Prince's or Princesses of Greece and Denmark - unless their father is naturalised then they start life as Mr Charles Mountbatten and Miss Anne Mountbatten lol.

6) Generally, what's within the British monarch's power to do that would massively honk off the public, without actually getting him thrown out?
As long as it doesn't become public he can get away with quite a lot to be honest. Depends whether he has the nack of getting on with ministers even when their politics are very divergent from his own private views - depends whether he tries to impose his will (by acting unconstitutionally)
My view no Wallis then a rather undistinguished but lengthy reign - probably never marrying with a series of ageing lady friends usually high born or rich - bit of tattle in the press that most people forgive because they remember the playboy prince of the 20s. Ministers despair of him and after his death they talk of how dangerous he was in terms of leaving state papers open to view and how he argued with his ministers about policy when he shouldn't have done.
Talk of his reluctance to go to war and his half hearted attempts to try and intervene between Hitler and Chamberlain to avoid war at the last minute to Chamberlain's fury. Admiration for his sense of duty during the war etc etc.
Succeeded in 1972 by his middle aged niece - whose personal domesticity made a refreshing change to her uncle whose lifestyle was reminiscent of the grand Edwardian era in terms of how he lived in his private homes. A lifestyle his ageing sister in law the Duchess of York also enjoyed putting herself into a lot of debt until she was bailed out after her daugther became Queen.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I may have been relying too much on depictions of Edward's later life, where he was bitter about the royal family and vice versa. So we'll assume he stays reasonably popular with the public. Maybe he becomes a kind of Hugh Hefner figure - your grandad thought he was cool, you see him as a bit ridiculous but don't have any serious criticism of him.
 
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Names are going to be tricky in this timeline, because most of the characters don't have surnames and their names can change between timelines and with the passage of time. Here's a family tree with the names I'll refer to everyone by. It also contains some spoilers for what's going to happen - ask if you'd like more detail. The POD is now that King George V dies in 1928. Edward VIII never meets Wallis Simpson and marries Princess Marina, his younger brother's wife in OTL.

windsors2.png

First Generation
Mary = Queen Mary
George = King George V

Second Generation
Marina = Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (OTL's Duchess of Kent)
Edward = King Edward VIII
Elizabeth = Elizabeth, Duchess of York (OTL's Queen Mother)
Albert = Prince Albert (OTL's King George VI)
Edward's other siblings are omitted.

Third Generation
Nicholas = Prince Nicholas (not born in OTL)
Princess Elizabeth = Princess Elizabeth of York (OTL's Queen Elizabeth II)
Philip = Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (OTL's Prince Philip)
Margaret = Princess Margaret of York
Rolf = Rolf Harris, Australian artist and musician.
 
How do we avoid the whole Wallis thing? Is she never born, never meets Edward, he's just not attracted to her?

On 16 July 1936, Jerome Bannigan, alias George Andrew McMahon, gets closer than IOTL to Edward and tries to shoot him. The bullet/s miss him completely but he has the shock of his life. This experience turns him upside down and Simpson is shipped back to the USA.
Ah the McMahon business. Wonderfully murky, and full of possibilities. Don't forget his fascist associations either.

What if he wants to remain single?
That's probably not an option.
 
I thought that you were going to describe Simpson being killed. That would be one way to resolve the situation, but a little on the nose. If he just gets a terrible shock, I'm not sure how that convinces him to break with Simpson. As for him staying single, that's a fair point. It would be more fun to make up Edward's descendents, but it's not strictly necessary for the timeline. I was going to have his son be named "John Charles Richard" - bonus points if you get the reference.
In Jackson's Empires Lost series the time travelling Nazis kill her off.
 
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