I take it you all are familiar with American socialite Wallis Simpson. She created a constitutional crisis in Britain when she tried to marry the king of England.
Anyways they could never allow the marriage. She was twice-divorced. And since the Anglican Church of England didn’t recognize divorce, if the king married her, he’d be guilty of polygamy and adultery. Think about it.
But when I hear the story told, people often say there is more to it than that. Many people object to the fact she was American too.
Why did people object to that? We were enemies during the American Revolution. But we had always been allies since then. Frankly sometimes it seems we are friends alone, in an angry world.
Anyways with Meghan Marckle and Prince Harry that seems to be a thing of the past.
I don’t have a cite for this as of yet. I actually think I heard it on TV during Wallis Simpson’s funeral in 1986. But if anyone asks for one, I will certainly try to provide one.
Publicly, Americans are, of course, traitorous rebel colonials and thus utter scum. Privately, we are the proud parents of the rebel teenager who turned out right after all.
More seriously, one of the issues with Wallis was that she wasn’t the right sort of woman. She wasn’t blue-blooded. Indeed, she was from trade. And she allegedly had Nazi sympathies. My father was a teen at the time and recalled no anti-Americanism.
As much as anything else I think she was the wrong sort of American. Twice divorced social climber, possessed of a cold brittle elegance she did not appeal to either the common people nor the not so common people of Britain. Compare another American who married into royalty, Grace Kelly. Unlike Simpson she was undoubtedly a lady. She was adored.
Edward also had Nazi sympathies. It’s entirely possible that Wallis Simpson prevented the Nazis from taking over the world simply by causing Edward to resign in order to marry her.
No. Rich, upperclass Americans would have been the right sort. For example, Winston Churchill’s mother. Of course, things have changed since then, and those classist standards are no longer applicable. (at least I hope.)
I’ve mentioned my opinion on this subject before; the marriage wasn’t the real issue.
Edward wanted to have more political power than Parliament was happy with. But nobody wanted to start a major political battle in 1936 which would divide Britain at a time when it was facing foreign threats. So Edward’s marriage was used a convenient non-political reason to force his abdication.
It was the 1930s. The social attitudes of the British upper classes (in which we incluide the royal family itself, naturally) were intensely conservative and included a healthy dose of snobbery, of classism, and of course of racism. There was widespread expectation that the heir to the throne would marry royalty, although the tiniest remote admixture of mere nobility would be allowable. - Edward VIII’s mother was a German princess by birth, his maternal grandmother was a British princess by birth; his paternal grandmother was a Danish princess by birth. His four great-grandmothers comprised a British queen, two German princesses and a lowly Hungarian countess.
It was accepted in the British nobility that a financially-strapped family could admit American wives, provided they were (a) cultured and (b) extremely wealthy. Wallis was neither, and so wouldn’t have been considered marriageable for a peer, never mind for the heir to the throne.
It’s true that Edward’s brother, who became George VI, had married but the daughter of an earl, but he was not expected ever to come to the throne. And his daughter married a Greek and Danish prince. Their son and heir married the daughter of an early, which was a first for an heir to the throne, and it was only his son who married someone from a completely non-noble family. And even she was English.
My understanding is that Meghan Markel is despised among Britishers (although perhaps not among Americans) for multiple reasons, some of which seem “American”–like her blantant Kardashianism.
Henry VIII, contrary to popular belief, did not divorce any of his wives. He had two marriages annulled: Catherine of Aragon on the basis that it was incestuous (she was his brother’s widow, so was considered so at the time) and because he claimed the Pope did not have the authority to overrule that; and Anne of Cleves due to non-consummation.
Since that’s simply a standard “all got up by the tabloid press” confection, it looks as though whatever news sources you use are badly skewed.
If weren’t already aware, they habitually work on the principle that someone in the royal family (usually female) is this month’s unpopular one (“pushy”, “scheming”, “rude”, “demanding”) and someone else is flavour of the month, and always according to unnamed “Palace insiders” or"close friends", the whole thing constantly re-hashed by self-appointed “royal experts”.
In reality, all that means nothing to the vast majority of us. Even those who buy the papers concerned will just click over it with a “Fancy that” and move on to something else.
As for Mrs Simpson, previous posters have it about right. She hardly stands as some grand symbol of UK/US political relations, whether among the politicians or the voters at large. She simply wasn’t suitable to the court or the political establishment because of the kind of person she was - too many skeletons not even in the cupboard, too prone to “smart” remarks that could give offence, too obviously presumptuous. The fact of her being American had little to do it, other than being one explanation for her not understanding what was and wasn’t expected. There would be American high society circles who would, and IIRC did, look askance at her.
That’s ok, Spanish kiosks are inundated with news and opinion columns on whether Letizia is or is not the right woman for Felipe. She shouldn’t have had any work done; she should get more work done; OMG she’s repeated a blouse; OMG do you realize how much she spends on clothing; why does the foreign press like her; reprint of a foreign article about her… Mind you, the same mags and columns will rant on how old his white hairs make him look vs how dignified his white hairs make him look.
We call gossip mags which have some manners “the press of the heart”; nowadays most gossip mags and columns are “press of the cancerous liver”.
A lot of people believe that now, but that certainly wasn’t the case back then. Yes, they were pretty happy they didn’t have to deal with him, but his marriage was a HUGE deal. Marrying a divorced woman was a big no-no.
So even if they loved him as king, if he couldn’t marry Wallis and stay on the throne.
