Prince Philip Is Dead

[kingsley88]

Yup plus if EVIII didn’t abdicate that means he couldn’t have married Wallis which would have caused more stress on his emotional/mental health.

 

I have heard how EVIII was a Nazi sympathizer and always wondered how WWII would have resulted had he been king during that time.

[BtmBearDad]

You make a good point about George VI’s family living longer.

 

As for Margaret, sheseemed like the type who liked unavailable men. IMO, if it hadn’t been Townsend, it would have been either another married guy or a flamboyant bad boy like Armstrong-Jones. It’s hard for me to picture her living in domestic bliss with some aristocrat.

 

Re: Margaret - while she was regarded as a “rebel princess”, she was also one who demanded her royal prerogatives, was fiercely loyal to her duties, as well as being deeply religious. So take away her father being crowned, which would result in never meeting Townsend, would she still have developed her rebellious characteristics? Or would she developed into a dutiful, yet spoiled daughter of a royal Duke, happy to be indulged by a wealthy husband? Like I said, it’s one of the fun “what if’s” to game out.

 

I have heard how EVIII was a Nazi sympathizer and always wondered how WWII would have resulted had he been king during that time.

 

A good indicator would be EVIII’s own words in an interview after the war where he is quoted saying “of course if I had been king, there never would have been a war”, and expanded offering that Germany should have been given a free hand to crush communism. Not surprisingly, he never touched upon Germany’s conquest of most of Europe before invading Russia, and not a whisper about concentration camps or the Holocaust.

[Luv2play]

Ruling Brittania? She doesn’t rule anything. She’s a constitutional monarch.

Actually she is more than a figurehead as Britain's Head of State. Among her many duties, she signs bills into laws and has the power to dismiss a government and request Parliament to form another government. Her representative in Canada, the Governor General, is also our head of state. The occupant of the office of GG has the same powers of the Queen when the Queen is absent from Canada.

 

In the past, a governor general has refused to call an election when the government lost a vote of confidence in Parliament and instead summoned the opposition to form a government.

 

So yes, the Queen is a rather consequential figure. She doesn't just cut ribbons. That is why she is briefed weekly by her prime minister about affairs of state. She gets to read cabinet papers and is privy to secrets held by the government. You want someone with a bit of gravitas in the job, as well as a lot of discretion.

[wsc]

From kingsley88, "A good indicator would be EVIII’s own words in an interview after the war where he is quoted saying “of course if I had been king, there never would have been a war”, and expanded offering that Germany should have been given a free hand to crush communism. Not surprisingly, he never touched upon Germany’s conquest of most of Europe before invading Russia, and not a whisper about concentration camps or the Holocaust."

 

This statement from Edward VIII aka Duke of Windsor only serves to underscore his unfitness to be king. Not because it exposes his leanings toward Hitler, which, taken together with other indicators, it seems to do, but also because it exposes his own exaggerated sense of self to believe that in a parliamentary democracy, the constitutional monarch has the influence, let alone power, to dictate to the elected government in matters of policy, let alone those as grave as war and peace.

 

And if he had remained king for as late as 1940, after Britain declared war on Germany, and had opposed that declaration, I have no doubt he would have had to contend with an incredulous Churchill who would have quickly parted ways the the king, reminding him both of his duty and of his proper place in the scheme of British political life. Monarchist that he was, Churchill was first and always the self-described "man of the House [of Commons]" and would never have tolerated public intrusion of the king into political debate. The cabinet would have likely resigned en masse, creating a constitutional crises that would probably have necessitated Edward's abdication, or even possibly an end to the monarchy altogether, an unthinkable outcome under almost any other circumstance.

Edited April 23, 2021 by wsc