“Bertie,” a shy and awkward man, seemed to be ill-suited to lead the country at war.

As 1940 came to a close, Edward formally abdicated the throne in favor of his brother, coronated as King Albert I.

When delegations from the West Indies Federation and the Dominion of India supported abdication, the King knew that his time on the throne was at an end.

The Tories and Labour parties both expressed their desires that the King either call off the plans or abdicate the throne. The Church of England had fiercely protested the proposal, as it was improper for the head of the Anglican Church. The king had frequently become a figure of public scandal for being spotted with young debutantes, and had expressed his wish to marry recently-divorced American film actress Constance Bennett. The Tories had been unsatisfied with King Edward’s performance and leadership during the war, and this had only exacerbated his low public standing. The Dominion of Canada had seen setback after setback, and had failed to secure any landing zone on the British Home Isles. The Entente had been suffering a crisis of leadership. What made the war worse is that it seemed that progress anywhere was slow countless soldiers were dying for very little gain much like the First Weltkrieg. The seas could erupt at any time into a sudden death of torpedoes and naval bombardment, and the coasts were saturated with mines. The rivers were choked with fuel and blood. Europe and Asia had turned into rolling battlegrounds of armor and artillery, the fields littered with bodies and the hulks of tanks. The Second Weltkrieg had seen millions of men dead on every continent save Antarctica. “I am a war man in times of war, and a peace man in times of peace.” -Michael Collins

Kaiserreich dominion of india