Page "Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother" Paragraph 18

Nevertheless, Nazi aggression continued, and the government prepared for war.

After the Munich Agreement of 1938 appeared to forestall the advent of armed conflict, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was invited onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the King and Queen to receive acclamation from a crowd of well-wishers.

While broadly popular among the general public, Chamberlain's policy towards Hitler was the subject of some opposition in the House of Commons, which led historian John Grigg to describe the King's behaviour in associating himself so prominently with a politician as " the most unconstitutional act by a British sovereign in the present century ".

However, historians have also argued that the King only ever followed ministerial advice and acted as he was constitutionally bound to do.