Archive - Apr 8, 2012

Edward and his wife Wallis meets Hitler.

Paul Holmes reminds us in his weekly New Zealand Herald column that the Queen is an "accident of history" thanks to King Edward VIII's abdication crisis of 1936. The British establishment are to thank, Holmes says, because they saw Edward's wife, Wallis Simpson, as a bad apple to be tossed out (although books such as The People's King argue that it really had more to do with Edward's criticism of government policy and his pro-Nazi views and statements at a time of tension with Germany). Holmes has accidentally emphasised that it is the British Establishment who is the final arbiter over who can and cannot be the Head of State of New Zealand.