How Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang helped to force Edward VIII to abdicate in 1936

Bruised by criticism from other Anglican leaders and facing claims that he has ‘fallen under the spell’ of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Archbishop of Canterbury has had a difficult start to the year. 

Justin Welby admitted in December that he had been having ‘nightmares’ about things going wrong when he presides over King Charles’s coronation in May.

But Welby’s difficulties are small when compared to the struggles faced by some of his predecessors, including those who presided over coronations in the last century.

Cosmo Gordon Lang was widely thought to have helped push King Edward VIII to abdicate in 1936 over his desire to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson. The churchman was fiercely criticised for a radio broadcast in which he heaped opprobrium on the departed monarch.

Although the Archbishop, who had previously been a popular figure, went on to oversee over the crowning of King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth in 1937, his reputation was tarnished forever. 

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby admitted that he had been having ‘nightmares’ about things going wrong when he presides over the Coronation in May

Welby’s difficulties are nothing when compared to the struggles faced by some of his predecessors, including those who presided over coronations in the 20th-century, such as Cosmo Gordon Lang. Above: Lang with Edward VIII on Maundy Thursday in 1936

At the start of the century, Frederick Temple, the elderly Archbishop who had crowned Edward VII in 1902, struggled to get back to his feet after kneeling during the service. He died just three months later. 

And while Geoffrey Fisher successfully led the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, he was later criticised for disapproving of Princess Margaret’s wish to marry her divorced lover, Group Captain Peter Townsend. 

The intelligent and charismatic Lang was close to the Queen Mother and had baptised the infant Princess Elizabeth after her birth in April 1926.

He was also the first Archbishop of Canterbury to broadcast to the nation.

But in 2012, the emergence of letters and files held in Lambeth Palace’s archives revealed the depth of Lang’s role in the abdication of a monarch to whom he was meant to be loyal.

They showed how Lang colluded with the then editor of The Times, Geoffrey Dawson, to threaten Edward over his affair with Mrs Simpson – telling him that the relationship would be revealed in public unless he abdicated. 

At the time, relationships outside of marriage were taboo. The fact that Edward was the King and head of the Church of England made his situation all the graver.  

Lang falsely alleged that the King was mentally ill, telling the Times’s editor: ‘My dear Dawson, I have heard from a trustworthy source that His Majesty is mentally ill and that his obsession is due not to mere obstinacy but to a deranged mind.

Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang presides over the coronation of King George VI in Westminster Abbey in May 1937

Archbishop Lang leaves Westminster Abbey after a rehearsal for the coronation of King George VI

Lang strongly disapproved of Edward VIII’s relationship with Wallis Simpson. Above: The couple on their wedding day in June 1937 after the former king had abdicated to become Duke of Windsor 

George VI was crowned by Lang alongside his wife Queen Elizabeth inside Westminster Abbey

A letter sent  by Lang to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin at the height of the abdication crisis. Winston Churchill had suggested that Edward could remain on the throne and still marry Mrs Simpson, Lang said he must give up the crown immediately

‘More than once in the past he’s shown symptoms of persecution-mania. 

‘This, even apart from the present matter, would lead almost inevitably to recurring quarrels with his ministers if he remained on the throne.’

Lang also told the then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin that the King had undergone treatment for alcoholism.

And in another letter sent to the PM at the height of the abdication crisis, after Winston Churchill had suggested that Edward could remain on the throne and still marry Mrs Simpson, Lang said he must give up the crown immediately.

(Although then in the political wilderness, Churchill still commanded considerable authority.) 

Lang wrote: ‘He must leave as soon as possible. It would be out of the question that he should remain… any announcement that is to be made of the kind you indicate to me, it should be made as soon as possible and the announcement should appear as a free act. 

‘I understand that you are seeing him tonight; and doubtless you would make this plain.’

Before Edward had become King, there were concerns about his suitability for the role.

His own father, George V, had told the Archbishop: ‘What’s the use in all this if my son is going to ruin it after I’m gone 

Lang’s private secretary recorded: ‘Edward is all out for youth and common people. He hates society and the conventions of court life. 

‘All this has its advantages in a democratic age but there are difficulties.’ 

The bad blood went both ways, with Edward later writing that Lang was ‘more interested in the pursuit of prestige and power than the abstractions of the human soul.’

Lang had been horrified by Edward’s decision to take Wallis on a cruise of the Mediterranean in August 1936, while his younger brother – who would become George VI – attended planning meetings for the Coronation in his place. 

The Archbishop was further put out when he was not invited to Balmoral for the first time in 25 years. He was disappointed despite the fact that Mrs Simpson would be there.

After Edward had abdicated, Lang made the radio broadcast which permanently damaged his reputation.

He said that the King had received from God a ‘high and sacred trust’, but ‘by his own will he has… surrendered the trust.’

He added that Edward’s motive had been a ‘craving for private happiness’ that he had sought in ‘a manner inconsistent with the Christian principles of marriage.’

At the start of the century, Frederick Temple, the elderly Archbishop who crowned Edward VII in 1902, struggled to get back to his feet after kneeling during the service. He died just three months later

King Edward VII is seen with his wife Queen Alexandra at their coronation in 1902

The statement was at odds with the fact that Edward, young, dashing and confident, was still popular among the public.

However, Lang did go on to oversee the coronation of Edward’s brother, which was the first joint crowning of a Queen and her consort since the ceremony for Victoria in 1837. 

Lang later said the ceremony had been ‘the culminating day of my official life, the day on which the Archbishop of Canterbury fulfils his highest office in national life, on which through him the Church of God consecrates that life in the person of its King.’

The only notable mishap came when Lang almost placed St Edward’s Crown on the King’s head the wrong way around.

But George later wrote to Lang to thank him for his words of encouragement ‘in the course of that very trying ordeal’. 

The King’s mother, Queen Mary, added that ‘everything was perfect’ and praised Lang for his ‘marvellous voice’, whilst the mother of Queen Elizabeth thanked him ‘from the bottom of my heart’.

Five years later, in January 1942, Lang announced that he was to resign his post to make way for a younger man ‘more vigorous in mind and spirit’.

He left his post at the end of March that year and was replaced by William Temple. 

But when Temple then died suddenly after little more than two years in office, Geoffrey Fisher was selected to step up. 

Within two years, he had successfully presided over the glorious wedding ceremony of the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in Westminster Hall.

As an estimated 200million people listened on BBC radio around the world, Fisher got the royal couple to make solemn vows that they would both keep for the rest of their lives.

Less than five years later, he had a key role in leading the nation’s mourning after the death of King George VI. Aged just 56, he had passed away while his daughter and the Duke of Edinburgh were in Kenya.

Fisher carried out his most solemn duty – to preside over the King’s funeral at St George’s Chapel – despite the fact he had been bedridden from bronchitis just days earlier.

The Archbishop then led the historic Coronation service inside Westminster Abbey in 1953.

The crowning of the Queen was particularly momentous because of the fact that the service in the Abbey was televised for the first time. An estimated 20million people watched around the world.

Fisher’s most important task was to administer the ancient Coronation Oath, which saw the Queen make a series of promises after questions by Fisher.

They included vows to ‘maintain the Laws of God’, and to cause ‘law and justice, in mercy, to be executed in all my judgements’.

Then, after leading the congregation of royals, politicians and dignitaries from around the world in prayer, he carried out the sacred anointing of Her Majesty, which was not televised.

The moment that Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher crowns Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 

The Queen carries the Orb and Sceptre inside Westminster Abbey after being crowned by Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher

The placing of St Edward’s Crown on the Queen’s head by Fisher, as a 21-gun salute was fired from the Tower of London and the audience chanted ‘God save the Queen’, perhaps remains the most iconic moment of the service.

The only hiccup had come right at the start of the ceremony, when the Queen arrived and found that her robes were getting caught on the carpet, because it had been laid with the pile running the wrong way. 

She had to tell Fisher to ‘Get me started’ and he duly helped her on her way.

Fisher’s starring role in the Coronation was later partly overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Princess Margaret’s relationship with Group Captain Townsend.

The Archbishop had not approved of the princess’s desire to marry the war hero even though their relationship was popular with the public.

When the union did not go ahead, and Margaret stated that she had made the decision ‘entirely alone’, there were rumours that Fisher had intervened to stop it from happening.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s son Randolph said that the speculation had done ‘incalculable damage to the Church of England’.

Fisher did go on to conduct the service when Margaret instead married Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960. He retired the following year.

In May, Archbishop Welby will be hoping that his key role in the Coronation of King Charles will go as smoothly as his predecessor’s service in 1953.

But, admitting to his ‘nightmares’ last December, Welby said that in one dream he ‘left the crown at Lambeth Palace’.

The other Archbishop of Canterbury to preside over a coronation in the 20th-century was grain merchant’s son Randall Davidson, who oversaw the crowning of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911.

He had replaced Frederick Temple and would ultimately remain in post for 25 years, making him the longest-serving Archbishop since the rule of King Henry VIII.

And in that time, there was more social upheaval and bloodshed than the country had seen in generations.

Archbishop of Canterbury Randall Davidson, who presided over the coronation of King George V, is seen seated (centre) at a meeting in 1927

A drawing depicting the moment that King George V was crowned by Archbishop of Canterbury Randall Davidson

Before the coronation, which ran smoothly, he had to preside over the state funeral of King Edward VII, Queen Victoria’s son, after the monarch’s death aged 68 in 1910.

In the First World War – a conflict that would ultimately claim nearly a million British lives – Davidson was confronted with the constant danger of saying the wrong thing.

He was attacked for objecting to what he saw as immoral methods of warfare carried out by by Britain, although he did believe that the country was engaged in a just fight against Germany.

But Davidson’s skill at soothing tensions was on prominent show in the General Strike of 1926, when millions of workers brought the country to a standstill by downing tools for weeks.

Seeking to play a conciliatory role, he expressed disapproval at the strike but also called on the Government to help end the unrest.

He later collaborated with leaders of other Christian denominations to call for a resolution.

Davidson became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in history to retire from his post, doing so in November 1928.

His death, at the age of 82, came less than two years later, in May 1930.

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