He is obstinate, in love and rather more than a little mad

SATURDAY 28TH NOVEMBER [1936]

I am bewildered, no, I am convinced. The battle for the throne has begun. On Wednesday evening (I know all that follows to be true; not six people in the Kingdom are so informed), Mr [Stanley] Baldwin spent 1 hr 40 minutes at Buckingham Palace with the King [Edward VIII] and gave him information that the govt would resign, and that the press could no longer be restrained from attacking the King, if he did not abandon all idea of marrying Mrs [Wallis] Simpson. Mr Baldwin hoped and thought to frighten the monarch; but he is obstinate, in love and rather more than a little mad, and he refused point-blank and asked for time to consult his friends. "Who are they?' Mr Baldwin demanded... the audience was not acrimonious but polite, sad, even affectionate, I am told... 'Lord Beaverbrook,' the King retorted. The Prime Minister gasped and departed. On Thursday Beaverbrook arrived back from America and spent the evening with the King... yesterday morning the Cabinet again met, an emergency meeting, and the situation in Spain was given out as the pretext.... The PM told the Cabinet of the King's determination. I hope he mentioned my suggestion to make her Duchess of Lancaster, and in ten years, when the country is used to her, she could be declared Queen. The King saw Beaverbrook Wednesday, and last night Beaverbrook went to see Wallis, and thus our dinner party chez elle was postponed. Now no one knows what will happen but the atmosphere vibrates with nerves and the storm may break any monarch. 

- Henry 'Chips' Channon, in The Diaries 1918-38, Simon Heffer (ed.), London, 2021, p.597