The First Royal Media War

Edward VIII, The Abdication and the Press

Adrian Phillips

• Publisher: Pen and Sword History
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9781399065436
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Modern British History
• Index: History

The abdication crisis of 1936 demolished the wall of silent deference that had protected theBritish royal family from press comment and intrusion since the days of Queen Victoria.King Edward VIII was a child of the burgeoning age of media and the first celebrity monarch, but the immense personal popularity created by his charm and good looks was not enough tosave him when he came into conflict with a government that embodied the conservative ethosof the time. Nor did the support of powerful media barons. In the United States WilliamRandolph Hearst, who inspired Citizen Kane, dreamed of giving Britain an American Queenand maneuvered with Wallis Simpson to place her on the throne. In Britain the Anglo-Canadian newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook hoped to use the confrontation between theKing and the government to force the prime minister, his bitter enemy Stanley Baldwin, outof power. Edward was blocked from broadcasting his case directly to the public, which wasthe source of deep resentment to him. The government treated the couple's media initiativesas declarations of war and was prepared to respond savagely. The British press remainedtactfully silent almost until the end of the crisis, but behind the scenes, a cold war was beingfought. For the rest of his life, Edward fought to air his grievances against the ill-treatment to whichhe thought that he had been subjected. He believed that he had been forced to abdicate by acoalition of reactionaries grouped behind the Archbishop of Canterbury. Edward resentedbitterly the ostracism to which he and Wallis were subjected by his brother and sister-in-law, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, especially the refusal to grant his wife royal status.With sometimes farcical results, Edward tried to find authors who put over his side of the story.Beaverbrook supported Edward but tried to bend Edward's quest to fit his own agenda. Theestablishment did its utmost to restrain Edward and maintain a discreet silence over the crisis, but gradually members of the royal court abandoned reticence and fought back. The abdication challenged the British monarchy as an institution. A large part of the legacy istoday's no-holds-barred media environment where the royal family's issues are fought in aruthless glare of worldwide attention.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: The First Celebrity Monarch
• 1. The House of Windsor Enters the Age of Media
• 2. No Minister Will Dare to Go Against This Force
• 3. Unnatural Silence
• 4. Friday’s Job
• 5. Furnishing an American Queen
• 6. Editors as Statesmen
• 7. The Jolt
• 8. King Edward’s Contribution to Democratic Government
• 9. The Filthy Newspaper and the Mind of the English People
• 10. Round Trip to New York
• 11. The Dam Bursts
• 12. A Friend on Fleet Street
• 13. A Powerful Propaganda Agency
• 14. A Fireside Chat
• 15. A Thoroughly Efficient Horse-Whipping
• 16. The Brand of Unfitness
• 17. The Behaviour of Those in Power
• 18. Careful and Delicate Handling
• 19. Interlude
• 20. Despatches from St Helena
• 21. A Rope of Sand
• 22. This Wretched Publication
• 23. The Beaverbrook Car Service
• 24. The Beaverbrook Broadcasting Service
• 25. A Novice Lost on the Cresta Run
• 26. Garnished With Malice
• 27. The Black Rat and the Jazz-Boy King
• 28. Palace Persecution
• 29. Transference of Responsibility
• 30. A Forlorn Thermos of Tea
• 31. The End of Discretion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author