THE BRITISH MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF THE BRITISH MONARCHY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

THE BRITISH MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF THE BRITISH MONARCHY IN THE 21ST CENTURY Chế độ quân chủ nước Anh được khắc hoạ qua các phương tiện truyền thông (báo chí) trong thế kỷ 21, the Sun, the BBC News, the Daily Mail, case study: The first British Royal family’s abdication King Edward VIII rejected the crown to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorced American woman

DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM

ENGLISH FACULTY

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INTRODUCTION TO BRITISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES

MID-TERM ESSAY TOPIC:

THE BRITISH MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF THE BRITISH MONARCHY

IN THE 21 ST CENTURY

Tutor: Mrs Nguyen Minh Phuong

Student name: Le Minh Anh

Student ID: TA46C – 061 – 1923

Hanoi, April 2022

THEORETHICAL FRAMEWORK

This is a study of how King Edward VIII and his wife, Wallis Simpson, were portrayed in articles by The Sun, BBC News, and The Daily Mail, the three major UK newspapers By giving a case study, using a Critical Discourse Analysis, 1 article from the daily tabloid The Sun, 3 articles from the public service news site BBC News, and 4 articles from the daily middle-market The Daily Mail are analyzed These articles are then examined according to Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, firstly

on a textual level, secondly through a layer of discursive practice, and finally through the third dimension, social practice With the help of previous research on the British Monarchy and the British Royal Family, the results of the study are then put into context and explained

When analyzing these three famous newspapers and articles related to the love story

of Edward and Wallis, it can be seen that the authors' views have similarities, but also complete opposites Most of the articles portray Wallis as a woman who destroys the kingship with the ugliest words and blames her for bringing the king to abdication Some articles criticize the king because he was so obsessed with her that he forgot his duty to the country and his people The few remaining articles have views that are completely opposite to those above The authors who write these articles think that King Edward and Wallis are not at fault; the fault is in the circumstances at that time

TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION ……… 4

BACKGROUND ……… 5

I Introducing the British media ……… 5

1 The Sun ……… 5

2 The BBC News ……… 5

3 The Daily Mail ……… 6

II The British Monarchy under King Edward VIII’s reign ………… 6

THE BRITISH MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF THE BRITISH MONARCHY IN THE 21ST CENTURY Case study: The first British Royal family’s abdication - King Edward VIII rejected the crown to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorced American woman ………

7 1 Historical context ……… 7

2 Media attitude toward the first British king renouncing the throne 8

2.1 The Sun ……… 8

2.2 The BBC News ……… 9

2.3 The Daily Mail ……… 10

3 Viewers’ reactions to media reports about Britain’s first king's abdication ……… 12

CONCLUSION ……… 14

REFERENCES ……… 18

INTRODUCTION

‘I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.’ (King Edward VIII, 1936)1 On November 12, 1936, for the first time,

a British king, Edward VIII, voluntarily abdicated the throne in favor of his younger brother, the Duke of York

As mentioned in his quote, the real reason for his abdication was the woman, and she was an American with two husbands, Wallis Warfield Simpson This has shocked the British Royal Family, and foreign newspapers have been writing about this news since the two were dating, now even more excited when it comes to their lives

However, at the time, the British newspapers had little coverage of this news, and it was not until recent years, when Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were married, that the news of King Edward and Mrs Wallis became more widely known Famous British newspapers, such as the BBC, The Daily Mail, or The Sun newspaper, began

to dig up and write about the love story of King Edward and Mrs Wallis, later called The Dunch and Duchess, possibly for comparison with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's recent love story It's also possible to find new things they haven't discovered

in the past or to gauge the relationship between the old king and his wife

This article will cover basic information about the newspapers mentioned in this article, namely three newspapers: The Sun, The BBC, and The Daily Mail, and give

an overview of the English dynasty during the time of King Edward VIII After that, the article will focus on analyzing how the articles portray the relationship between King Edward and Wallis; providing data on reader feedback; and finally, giving out the conclusion

1 Oxford Refernce, Edward VIII, afterwards Duke of Windsor 1894–1972 British monarch, King of the United Kingdom, 1936

BACKGROUND

I Introducing the British media

1 The Sun

The tabloid the Sun was founded in 1964 when the daily Daily Herald was republished under the name the Sun Throughout the early years, the journals' primary focus was on how class identification was fading and being replaced by age or phases

of family life because people of comparable ages shared more in common than people

of the same social class (Bingham & Conboy, 2015, pp 185-186) Additionally, the Sun welcomed a more modern way of life, complete with computers and other technologies After a few difficult years, the paper was relaunched in 1969 with Rupert Murdoch at the helm, catapulting it from relative obscurity to extraordinary popularity This is because the paper began to place a greater emphasis on the working class Additionally, they began to prioritize sex, television viewing, and sports By the late 1970s, the Sun had surpassed the Daily Mirror as the most popular daily newspaper in the United Kingdom (Bingham & Conboy, 2015, pp 186-188)

2 The BBC News

The BBC was the world's first established public service broadcaster and has maintained a leading position in the UK media from its inception (Küng-Shankleman,

2000, pp 2-3) Throughout the early years of public service, the BBC and public service were "[ ] primarily oriented towards ‘higher’ goals like reflecting national culture, building national identity, enhancing democratic processes, and educating and informing" (Küng-Shankleman, 2000, p 31) The public service has evolved from a nationalized, protected market to one that has entered the free market and is influenced

by external variables such as international financial and economic factors (Küng-Shankleman, 2000, pp 31-32) When the BBC launched the news website BBC News Online in 1997, the public service and the BBC remained important, as previously

defined (Allan & Thorsen, 2011, pp 20-24) Thus, the site was based on three primary tenets: "serving democracy, generating content that has cultural value, and promoting social inclusion" (Curran & Seaton, 2018, p 500) According to Curran and Seaton, BBC News has evolved to become one of the most popular news websites in the world since its inception (2018, p 505)

3 The Daily Mail

Alfred Harmsworth, later the 1st Viscount Northcliffe, created The Daily Mail

in 1896 (See Northcliffe, Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, Viscount) Its origins date all the way back to the Hull Packet (established in 1787), which combined with the Hull Evening News in 1884 and relocated to London 12 years later to become the Daily Mail In 1902, its circulation surpassed one million, placing it alongside the New York World and the New York Journal as the city's most widely circulated newspapers Although the Mail's circulation declined in the 1970s, it remained one of the best-selling newspapers in the United Kingdom at the turn of the twentieth century The Daily Mail is currently the second most popular newspaper in the United Kingdom Published Monday through Saturday, it has an average daily circulation of 1,134,184 copies as of February 2020

II The British Monarchy under King Edward VIII’s reign

A monarchy's Head of State is a king or queen The Monarchy of the United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy This means that, while the Sovereign is the Head of State, an elected Parliament has the authority to create and pass legislation

As Head of State, the Monarch carries out constitutional and representational responsibilities that have evolved over the course of a thousand years Along with these State responsibilities, the Monarch serves in a less formal capacity as 'Head of Nation.' The Sovereign serves as a focal point for national identity, unity, and pride;

provides a sense of stability and continuity; recognizes accomplishment and excellence on an official level, and promotes the notion of voluntary service

In 1936, After Edward's father, King George, died, he ascended the throne to rule the country However, because King Edward was known as a man who preferred the nightlife and lavish parties, flirting and never paying attention to country affairs,

in addition to having affairs with divorced American women, the ruler of the neglected throne was removed Reigning for less than a year, he abdicated the throne in favor of his younger brother Albert, who became George VI

THE BRITISH MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF THE BRITISH MONARCHY IN

THE 21ST CENTURY Case study: The first British Royal family’s abdication - King Edward VIII rejected the crown to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorced American woman

1 Historical context

Edward, born in 1894, was King George V's eldest son and succeeded his father

as British ruler in 1910 As he approached his 40th birthday while still unmarried, he interacted with the sophisticated London society of the day By 1934, he had fallen in love with Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American socialite who was married to Ernest Simpson, an English-American businessman who lived with Mrs Simpson near London Wallis, a Pennsylvania native, had previously married and divorced a United States Navy pilot Although the royal family disapproved of Edward's married mistress, the prince was determined to marry Mrs Simpson by 1936 Edward was proclaimed king in January 1936, before he could share this idea with his father The new king quickly gained popularity among his subjects, and his coronation was set for May 1937 His affair with Mrs Simpson was publicized in American and continental European publications but was kept out of British newspapers due to a gentlemen's agreement between the British press and the government Mrs Simpson

got a preliminary divorce decree on October 27, 1936, ostensibly in order to marry the king, precipitating a great scandal To the Church of England and the majority of British lawmakers, an American woman who had been divorced twice was unfit to be

a future British queen Winston Churchill, a Conservative backbencher at the time, was the only prominent politician who backed Edward

Despite what appeared to be a united front against him, Edward was unconvinced He offered a morganatic marriage in which Wallis would have no rank

or property rights, but Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin rejected the proposal as impracticable on December 2 The story emerged on the front pages of British newspapers the following day and was debated openly in Parliament On December

10, with no settlement in sight, the king abdicated the throne The following day, Parliament ratified the instrument of abdication, bringing Edward VIII's reign to an end George VI, the new monarch, made his elder brother the Duke of Windsor The Duke of Windsor married Wallis Warfield on June 3, 1937, at the Château de Cande

in France's Loire Valley

2 Media attitude toward the first British king renouncing the throne

2.1 The Sun

On October 9, 2020, the newspaper "The Sun" published an article outlining eight scandals that rocked the British royal family, one of which involved King Edward VIII and his marriage to a woman named Wallis Simpson The article discusses how their romance began in 1934 and progressed until 1937 when the two married at the Château de Candé; however, none of Edward's family members were there King Edward VIII's decision to marry a woman who had been married twice compelled him to abdicate and the couple married and became Duke and Duchess of

Windsor The newspaper labeled Queen Elizabeth VIII's wife, Wallis Simpson, as

"the lady who rocked the Royals and plunged the monarchy into crisis."2

2.2 BBC

The BBC, a very famous and prestigious British newspaper, also published information about Wallis Simpson to measure Meghan and Harry's recent love affair Right in the title, the article rates the story of Wallis and King Edward VIII as a "hard lesson," and throughout the article, the author describes Simpson as "a cheap adventure," "a lesbian," "a nymphomaniac," "a Nazi spy," "a hermaphrodite," and "a sexual enchantress." These designations immediately give the reader a bad view of Simpson, and one may think of her as a worthless woman with no morals, no dignity, unworthy of a king and a human It destroyed the British monarchy and empire If Meghan is considered a successful woman, then the author of the article talks about how ugly Simpson is: "one was a socialite," "a ghastly woman," "an evil force," or

"full of animal cunning."3

In the article "Wallis Simpson's reputation gets a makeover", published in 2021 (as a documentary), different from previous articles, the speaker described Simpson

as "enormous in style," "perfectly nice woman," "funny," "elegant,"4 and concludes that she is the victim in this story, not the other way around And when choosing to support Simpson, the article blamed Edward, saying that he was the one to blame for being so obsessed with Simpson that he forced her to marry him

In 2006, an article was published for the writer to raise his opinion that King Edward's abdication due to falling in love with a woman who had two husbands was not a failure, but "an addict," and "a touching episode."5 He mirrors their story into

2 The Sun, 2020, Eight Royal scandals that shocked the world from Prince Andrew’s fall from grace to Meghan’s rocky first year as Duchess

3 BBC News, 2020, Wallis Simpson’s hard lessons for Harry and Meghan

4 BBC News, 2011, Wallis Simpson’s reputation ‘gets a makeover’

5 BBC News, 2006, A shameful failure, or just an addict?

the 21st century when people have a more psychological understanding of how far a person can go when under pressure or motivated Therefore, when thinking about the love story of King Edward and Wallis, which led to the abdication, the author advises readers to have a better and more selfless view He cited two people who shared his thoughts at the time: Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler Both of these men accepted King Edward's abdication; Churchill supported it, and Hitler was disappointed but still accepted The Duch and Duchess The author of the article did not consider the addiction of the king to be his fault, but rather the influence of his parents He not only defended the king but also mentioned the king's wife, Wallis Simpson He said that Wallis' proposal to end this love affair so that King Edward could keep his throne was sincere and that a part of her had feelings for Edward, not cold-hearted or bossy like the stereotypes she was labeled with

2.3 The Daily Mail

When looking back at the Daily Mail's writings regarding King Edward and his wife, Wallis Simpson, up until today, in 2021, it is clear that this issue has been revisited numerous times, with the primary focus on their relationship

In the article "Wallis Simpson dominated the Duke of Windsor and he actually liked it: The secrets of the couple's twisted life in exile - and how tensions between their public duty and private desires triggered the abdication," one can immediately see the newspaper's assessment of The Dunch and The Duchess of Windsor's relationship The author of the post employed the rhetorical question style "how tension" to elicit readers' excitement while also expressing their emotions The author described the two's balancing of official duties and private aspirations as "tension," inferring that it contributed to King Edward's abdication In the article, the writer quoted many negative comments about Ms Wallis Simpson, including some words such as: "bored stiff", "coldness", "irritation", "boredom", "a complicated person - cold, mean-spirited, a bully and a sadist," "harsh," "dominating," "often abominably