Philip Ziegler

Abdication: A Very British Coup is a 2006 BBC documentary that challenges the traditional "romance of the century" narrative surrounding King Edward VIII’s 1936 abdication, presenting it instead as a forced removal orchestrated by a powerful establishment coalition.

Ever since King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936, the official explanation had been simply that the government disapproved of his marriage to a twice-divorced woman. However newly-released documents, embargoed until recently, suggest that Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang, played a large part in a plan to make certain that Edward VIII abdicated, not only because of his marriage to a divorcee but also because the archbishop disapproved of the King's whole lifestyle and modern attitudes to life.