Irish officials criticised ‘venal’ Churchill amid King Edward VIII crisis

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press Association

Irish civil servants concluded Winston Churchill was “unscrupulous” as they discussed how the crisis over King Edward VIII’s proposed marriage to an American divorcee could be used to the Irish Free State’s advantage.

Historical files show how Irish authorities reacted to the constitutional crisis in Britain.

The monarch decided to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson months into his reign, despite then-British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and his cabinet opposing the move.

He abdicated on December 10th 1936, and married Mrs Simpson in June 1937, while his younger brother became King George VI.

Confidential documents released as part of the annual publication of the National Archives in Dublin show the Irish side considering how the Irish Free State could leverage the situation before the abdication.

“Just as the British have used political divisions here for their political advantage, we are entitled and are bound to turn their present difficulty into our own account,” a detailed briefing said.

A hand-written addition indicated that the note was exchanged between Eamon de Valera, then head of the Irish government as the president of the executive council, and his finance minister Sean McEntee.

“If this proposed marriage takes place, whether by special legislation or otherwise, it will undoubtedly – (a) weaken the British monarchy as an institution and (b) weaken the constitutional position in Great Britain of the British cabinet,” the note said.

Winston Churchill, the deadly enemy of Baldwin, venal and unscrupulous and whose house was founded by a man who betrayed his first patron, James, Duke of York, and who allowed his wife to pander to an erotic Queen

It said that if the monarch remained “steadfast”, his ability to maintain his position depended on whether he could find a politician to form an alternative government and whether they could succeed in forming a government.

“As to the politician – there is Winston Churchill, the deadly enemy of Baldwin, venal and unscrupulous and whose house was founded by a man who betrayed his first patron, James, Duke of York, and who allowed his wife to pander to an erotic Queen,” it stated.

“He (Churchill) is a figure of great potentialities and of overweening ambition.

“He has already given indications of a desire to challenge the cabinet’s attitude on the proposed marriage.

“His whole political life has been a gamble and as an inducement to risk whatever future remains to him by taking the King’s side there is the fact that if the King were to win, his new prime minister would exercise a personal domination that has not been known in Britain since the days of Walpole.”

“However, the crisis may be resolved, it will occasion a serious cleavage in Great Britain which will persist for a very long time,” the Irish note added.

British monarchs were no longer the head of state in Ireland when it became a Republic in 1949.

The archive files also include a note from the British ambassador in 1967 asking Irish authorities to honour a policy that documents about Britain’s royal family were “withheld indefinitely”.

– This article is based on documents in the file labelled 2025/115/994 at the National Archives of Ireland.