"You chose dishonor and you will have war." The man who would succeed Chamberlain as prime minister and lead the United Kingdom through the darkest years of World War II to eventual victory, Winston Churchill, castigated his predecessor's act of appeasement upon his return from Germany: "You were given the choice between war and dishonor," Churchill said. However, Chamberlain's decision of what he called " peace with honor" and "peace for our time" would ultimately be his downfall, even before Hitler broke the Munich Agreement by invading the rest of Czechoslovakia and then Poland in 1939.
Extrapolating from the Spanish Civil War, it was estimated that the first few weeks of a German air assault would bring half a million casualties: Britain was defenseless in the face of the bomber." Expert opinion predicted that any future war would be even worse: to the slaughter of the battlefield would be added unspeakable destruction from the air. By this time, he may have had another decade to get over the events WWI, but even 20 years after the Armistice, a world war repeat wasn't high on Chamberlain's priority list.Īccording to historian David Dutton, the author of Reputations: Neville Chamberlain, in a 2009 piece for The Telegraph, the Prime Minister "had been deeply scarred by the memory of the First World War. In Chamberlain's opinion, this diplomatic decision would assure peace within Europe, and prevent any further atrocities of war. The resulting plan handed over the area of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland to Germany. With German aggression looming, and war becoming even more of a foregone conclusion, Chamberlain met with Hitler, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and French Premier Édouard Daladier in September 1938. Neville Chamberlain became prime minister in 1937, participating in what would become his most notorious act as leader of the British people one year later: the Munich Agreement. This is why one of the most substantial arguments that has been made for the appeasement decision is that Chamberlain was willing to do whatever was necessary to evade a repeat of the First World War. Chamberlain’s godfather.Īt the time the Downton episode takes place, the idea of another world war wasn’t even a glimmer in Chamberlain’s eye, probably because the wounds from the Great War were still so fresh in everyone's minds. According to Violet, her late husband was Mrs. In order to avoid giving the Downton Abbey characters too close of a connection to the man who would one day favor appeasement with Nazi chancellor Adolf Hitler- and be photographed shaking the murderous dictator's hand-the family link was made through Chamberlain’s real-life wife, Anne de Vere Cole. Patmore’s ever-so-prescient suggestion that he “may be prime minister one day”-would make several diplomatic decisions that would leave him in an unfavorable light as the United Kingdom edged closer into the Second World War.
Since Downton Abbey's final season takes place in 1925, the then-minister of health could appear as an innocuous dinner guest whose most interesting characteristic was that his brother-in-law was a notorious British prankster (he and Tom discuss this fact toward the end of the episode).īut just over a decade later, Chamberlain-having proved Downton cook Mrs. While Chamberlain’s presence wasn’t vital to the episode’s plot (he was brought in by Maggie Smith's character, Violet, the Dowager Countess, as hired muscle in this season's ongoing hospital-takeover debate), his subsequent, pivotal role in British history makes this a good time to take a look at his background a little more closely. But to use the words of Tom Branson, the meal “delivered more than bargained for.” (SPOILER ALERT: In a deeply upsetting scene, Lord Grantham suffers a burst ulcer and proceeds to projectile-vomit blood all over the table and his guests). This time around, it was the eventual British prime minister Neville Chamberlain (portrayed by actor Rupert Frazer) who came to dine at the grand estate. Tonight’s episode of Downton Abbey once again found the fictional Crawley family members rubbing elbows with real historical figures (previous familiar faces to interact with Lord and Lady Grantham include Dame Nellie Melba, as well as future king Edward, the Prince of Wales and his then-mistress, Freda Dudley Ward).
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