The Leader (novel)
The Leader is a 2003 alternative history of World War II by Guy Walters.
The book's premise is that King Edward VIII does not abdicate but reigns as King with Wallis Simpson as Queen, eventually appointing Oswald Mosley as a dictatorial Prime Minister. The resulting fascist Britain is allied with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
The book is distinguished from some other alternate histories - like Robert Harris's Fatherland - which reach a similar result from a military defeat and conquest of Britain, with the Nazis restoring an already abdicated King Edward VIII to the throne of the occupied country. The Leader takes place in 1937, well before the Second World War and deals with point of departure entirely contained within British politics of the time.
Plot
The point of departure occurs in November 1936 when King Edward VIII refuses to abdicate and refuses to end his relationship with Wallis Simpson, instead notifying Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin that he will marry Mrs. Simpson and continue to reign as the Sovereign. Baldwin finds this unacceptable and advises the King that he and his government will resign if the King carries on with his plans. Baldwin also negotiates an agreement with Labour Party leader Clement Attlee and Liberal Party leader Archibald Sinclair, whereby none of them will agree to form a government under these circumstances.
The King calls what he thinks is Baldwin’s bluff, and in January 1937 Baldwin and his government resign. Neither Attlee nor Sinclair will form a government. As a consequence the British economy suffers from a serve lack of confidence, which translates into economic uncertainty and social instability for the British people. Political extremists groups such as Mosley’s British Union of Fascists and the British Communist Party use the resulting chaos to recruit members. There is also violence as supporters from the extreme left and the extreme right clash openly in the streets, adding to an overall sense of national disorder and growing anarchy.
Winston Churchill, Lord Beaverbrook, Samuel Hoare and Duff Cooper then meet with the King and offer to form a King’s Party in his support, to be led by Churchill. Convinced that he has the support of the people in this, Churchill leads his party in an election whose conclusion leads to a hung parliament. Reluctantly Churchill has to admit to the King that he cannot form a government as planned.
The new parliament does include fifty new MPs from Mosley BUF (renamed the British Union for purposes of the election) and Mosley becomes the most vocal in his support of the King. As such, the King (noted as having pro-fascist sympathies), encouraged by Wallis Simpson who is a close personal friend of Mosley’s wife Lady Diana Mosley, calls on Mosley to form a government.
Mosley’s government has little support in parliament, but he manages to gain emergency powers which allow him to rule directly without parliament in the King’s name. The BU government quickly creates a fascist state which curtails civil liberties in the form of His Majesty’s Secret Security Police, modeled on Heinrich Himmler’s Gestapo, and introduces an anti-Jewish policy.
By May 1937 the King has married Mrs. Simpson and is looking forward to his coronation, which will be attended by Adolf Hitler personally. During the state visit the King and Hitler will also sign a Treaty of Friendship between the New Britain and the Third Reich.
This regime is opposed by the hero of the book, Captain James Armstrong. A World War I hero and the Chief Whip of the Conservative Party, Armstrong was at the meeting at which Churchill proposed his King’s Party government. He later comes to see the rise of Mosley as a bad thing, and begins to plot against the regime. Like many dissidents, including a rueful Churchill himself, Armstrong is interned by the Mosley regime in a concentration camp on the Isle of Man. There he mingles with other opponents of the regime, including left wing radicals, people he once looked down upon but for whom Armstrong now gains a grudging respect for their willingness to oppose Mosley no matter what, on the principle that fascism is wrong. This is in contrast to many of Armstrong’s Conservative friends shown earlier in the novel who tolerate Mosley and even being to accept some of his political ideas, especially the regime's anti-semitic propaganda, which disturbs Armstrong.
With the help of another prisoner, a radical member of the labour movement, Armstrong escapes from their prison, and manages to bring Mosley’s regime down.
The ending of the novel implies, but does not explicitly state, that "normal" history is restored. The Duke of York succeeds a disgraced King Edward VIII, and the ending implies that Neville Chamberlain will succeed Mosley as Prime Minister.
See also
Sources
- Walters, Guy, The Leader, Headline Books 2004