Royal Crisis brewing in Great Britain

The King of Great Britain is in love with a married commoner. Bessie Wallis Simpson is a socialite from the United States. She has long been an acquaintance to the King. Mrs. Wallis Simpson is in the process of divorcing her second husband, Ernest Aldrich Simpson.

King Edward VIII informed Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin of his intention to marry a commoner on the evening of November 16. The Prime Minister informed the King that his subjects would not accept a marriage with a commoner on moral grounds. The Church of England does not allow for divorced persons to remarry. An American divorcée was even worse in public opinion.

The King also offered a Morganatic Marriage which would allow him to marry her without any inheritance of title to herself or any resulting issue the marriage might produce. This was rejected as well.

There is a particular law that also requires more than just the home government's acquiescence. The Statute of Westminster of 1931 states that "any alteration in the law touching the Succession to the Throne or the Royal Style and Titles shall hereafter require the assent as well of the Parliaments of all the Dominions as of the Parliament of the united Kingdom."

Many of the commonwealths of the British Empire have rejected the possibility of the King marrying Mrs. Wallis Simpson. These include South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Only Ireland has been indifferent.

Mrs. Wallis Simpson has fled for the South of France to avoid the negative attention since the public became aware of the affair and the King's intention to marry her upon finalization of her divorce.