First Audiences With Key Polticians

On 22nd January 1936 Edward VIII had his first audiences as King with two politicians who were to play major parts in the abdication crisis: Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, and Sir John Simon, the Home Secretary. Baldwin already knew Edward well from his visit to Canada in 1927, when he had accompanied the Royal party. He was the most important Conservative politician of the inter-war years. Between 1923 and 1937 he was either Prime Minister, de facto deputy Prime Minister or the leader of the opposition.Simon was the archetype of the successful lawyer in politics. Nominally he was a Liberal.