An alternative history of Britain

When King George V died in early1936 he was succeeded by his playboy eldest son Edward, who became King Edward VIII. In real life he abdicated that December, so he could marry Wallis Simpson. In this alternative timeline he refused to abdicate, and in May 1937 he married her. This flew in the face of advice from both church and state, and the stand-off between the king and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin only came to an end in 1937, when the government resigned. Parliament was eventually dissolved – ripped apart by the ensuing constitutional crisis. Edward was an admirer of Herr Hitler and other extreme right-wingers, and so in January 1938 he invited Oswald Mosley of the British Union of Fascists to become his Prime Minister. For many this was a step too far. Opposition formed around the Anglican League – a confederation of churchmen, disgruntled parliamentarians and left-of-centre political groups. When striking and rioting ensued the king ordered the army to restore order, assisted by Moseley’s Facist auxiliaries. The Anglican League took up arms to defend itself, as did a whole assortment of politically-inspired militias, local defence volunteers and other militant groups. The Scots (or most of them) seceded from the Union, and formed their own Republic. Similar nationalist stirrings were taking place in Wales, Cornwall and Northern Ireland. By the spring of 1938 the British people found themselves at war with each other – the first time the country had degenerated into Civil War for 300 years http://www.edinburghwargames.com/VBCW.htm