Read The Duchess Of Windsor Online
Authors: Greg King
The Duchess Of Windsor (31 page)
During the two days the King was away, events moved quickly. A week earlier, Helen Hardinge had noted ominously in her diary, “Government are not prepared to carry on.”
16
She could have only received such a serious piece of news from her husband, the King’s private secretary. The inescapable conclusion, therefore, is that on November 6, Alexander Hardinge had private information that the British government, led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, was willing to resign if the issue of the King’s affair with Mrs. Simpson was not resolved to its satisfaction.
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She could have only received such a serious piece of news from her husband, the King’s private secretary. The inescapable conclusion, therefore, is that on November 6, Alexander Hardinge had private information that the British government, led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, was willing to resign if the issue of the King’s affair with Mrs. Simpson was not resolved to its satisfaction.
Rather than immediately inform his master of this vital piece of news, however, Hardinge would wait a week, during which time he conducted numerous meetings with the very same officials who apparently had proclaimed their willingness to force the issue of the King’s private life. On November 12 he dined with Baldwin to discuss the situation and what could be done next.
For several months, certain Conservative politicians, clerics, and members of the court had been trying to convince Baldwin to take a more aggressive stance where the King’s affair with Mrs. Simpson was concerned. Until now, the prime minister had always been loath to interfere in the private affairs of the King. He had no wish to stir up trouble. And yet he himself was greatly worried over the liaison.
Now, Hardinge warned Baldwin, the situation was fast becoming a crisis, and the private secretary felt he could no longer maintain his silence. He showed the prime minister the draft of a letter he intended to send to the King informing him that his relationship with Mrs. Simpson was about to lead to a confrontation with the government. It was written on Buckingham Palace stationery and was dated November 13:
Sir,With my humble dutyAs Your Majesty’s Private Secretary, I feel it is my duty to bring to your notice the following facts which have come to my knowledge, and which I know to be accurate:(1) The silence of the British Press on the subject of your majesty’s friendship with Mrs. Simpson is
not
going to be maintained. It is probably only a matter of days before the outburst begins. Judging by the letters from British subjects living in foreign countries where the Press has been outspoken, the effect will be calamitous.(2) The Prime Minister and senior members of the Government are meeting to-day to discuss what action should be taken to deal with the serious situation which is developing. As Your Majesty no doubt knows, the resignation of the government—an eventuality which can by no means be excluded—would result in Your Majesty having to find someone else capable of forming a government which would receive the support of the present House of Commons. I have reason to know that, in view of the feeling prevalent among members of the House of Commons of all parties, this is hardly within the bounds of possibility. The only alternative remaining is a dissolution and a general election, in which Your Majesty’s personal affairs would be the chief issue—and I cannot help feeling that even those who sympathize with Your Majesty as an individual would deeply resent the damage which would inevitably be done to the Crown, the corner-stone on which the whole Empire rests.If Your Majesty will permit me to say so, there is only one step which holds out any prospect of avoiding this dangerous situation, and that is for Mrs. Simpson to go abroad
without further delay
, and I would
beg
Your Majesty to give this proposal your earnest consideration before the position has become irretrievable. Owing to the changing attitude of the press, the matter has become one of great urgency.I have the honour etc. etc.Alexander Hardinge.
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Baldwin read through the letter and did nothing to stop Hardinge, although he—like the private secretary himself—must have known that the King’s reaction to this intrusion into his relationship with Wallis was likely to be immediate and unfavorable.
The following day, Friday, November 13, Hardinge asked Geoffrey Dawson, to come to Buckingham Palace. Dawson was a conservative man of traditional views. He took a dim view of Edward VIII; personally, he was highly critical of both the King’s passion for modernization as well as his relationship with Mrs. Simpson, and the
Times
was not shy in subtly pointing out what Dawson perceived to be the King’s weaknesses.
Times
was not shy in subtly pointing out what Dawson perceived to be the King’s weaknesses.
Dawson had previously confided his doubts about the King to Hardinge. In his position as editor of the
Times,
Dawson had received several letters expressing displeasure with the King; none of these letters was ever printed, and Dawson himself paid little attention until one day in October 1936 when a letter arrived from America. Signed “Britannicus,” the letter consisted of nine pages in which were delineated “a perfect avalanche of muck and slime” in the American press about the King.
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According to the writer, the King’s relationship with Mrs. Simpson had made England appear to be “a dizzy Balkan musical comedy. . . .”
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“Britannicus” repeated stories he claimed were prevelant in the American media: that Queen Mary had been forcibly evicted from Buckingham Palace to make room for the King’s mistress; that Wallis was being used to act as an official agent to help collect the outstanding war debt Britain still owed to the United States; and that the King had screamed and ranted at Baldwin for trying to interfere in his relationship. “I cannot refrain,” the writer concluded, “from saying that nothing would please me more than to hear that Edward VIII had abdicated his rights in favour of the heir presumptive. In my view, it would be well to have such a change take place while it is still a matter of individuals, and before the disquiet has progressed to the point of calling in question the institution of monarchy itself.”
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Times,
Dawson had received several letters expressing displeasure with the King; none of these letters was ever printed, and Dawson himself paid little attention until one day in October 1936 when a letter arrived from America. Signed “Britannicus,” the letter consisted of nine pages in which were delineated “a perfect avalanche of muck and slime” in the American press about the King.
18
According to the writer, the King’s relationship with Mrs. Simpson had made England appear to be “a dizzy Balkan musical comedy. . . .”
19
“Britannicus” repeated stories he claimed were prevelant in the American media: that Queen Mary had been forcibly evicted from Buckingham Palace to make room for the King’s mistress; that Wallis was being used to act as an official agent to help collect the outstanding war debt Britain still owed to the United States; and that the King had screamed and ranted at Baldwin for trying to interfere in his relationship. “I cannot refrain,” the writer concluded, “from saying that nothing would please me more than to hear that Edward VIII had abdicated his rights in favour of the heir presumptive. In my view, it would be well to have such a change take place while it is still a matter of individuals, and before the disquiet has progressed to the point of calling in question the institution of monarchy itself.”
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This letter represented no more than the view of one expatriate living in the United States and subject to a stream of demonstrably false allegations about the King. Nevertheless, Dawson trumpeted it as evidence that the public mood was about to turn against the King. Not only did he show the letter to the prime minister; he also took a copy to Buckingham Palace and gave it to Alexander Hardinge. To the private secretary, of course—already prejudiced against his master—this was simply further proof that the monarch was causing untold damage to the prestige of the British throne.
Now it was Hardinge’s turn to confide in Dawson. On that Friday afternoon, he showed him the draft of his letter to the King. Although it is arguable that Hardinge was within his rights to consult the prime minister, such reasoning cannot be successfully advanced in his decision to consult the King’s most vocal critic in the press. “The King’s Private Secretary is a solitary figure,” Hardinge weakly tried to explain in his own defense. “At this moment of anxiety and distress I desperately needed an outside opinion as to the general wisdom and propriety of my letter, as well as its accuracy; and, it seemed to me, no one could help me more over this than a man with the discretion, experience and integrity of Geoffrey Dawson, who was at the same time ‘very much in the know.’ . . .”
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“What,” Lord Beaverbrook would later ask, “can be said of a Private Secretary who discussed his master’s affairs with the editor of an opposition newspaper and even disclosed the contents of a letter of severe criticism that he meant to send to his employer? Bad. Worse still when the master is a King, and the servant is a public official.”
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But Hardinge, driven by his conservatism and his dislike of the King, was determined to do everything within his power to break the relationship between his master and Mrs. Simpson.
22
But Hardinge, driven by his conservatism and his dislike of the King, was determined to do everything within his power to break the relationship between his master and Mrs. Simpson.
On the morning of Friday, November 13, Baldwin met with several senior politicians, including former Labour Party prime minister Ramsay MacDonald and Neville Chamberlain of the Conservative Party. Chamberlain produced two letters which he proposed that Baldwin should send to the King. The first, written by Chamberlain for Baldwin, read:
I have before me an official communication in which the advice of Your Majesty’s Government is formally tendered, to the effect that in view of the grave dangers to which, in their opinion, this country is being exposed, your association with Mrs. Simpson should be terminated forthwith. It is hardly necessary for me to point out that should this advice he tendered and refused by Your Majesty, only one result could follow in accordance with the requirements of constitutional monarchy, that is, resignation of myself and the National Government. If Mrs. Simpson left the country forthwith, this distasteful matter could be settled in a less formal manner.
The second letter had been drafted a week earlier by a group of senior civil servants led by Warren Fisher, permanent secretary to the treasury:
Unless steps are promptly taken to allay the widespread and growing misgivings among the people, the feelings of respect, esteem and affection which Your Majesty has evoked among them, will disappear in a revulsion of so grave and perilous a character as possibly to threaten the stability of the nation and of the Empire. The dangers to the people of this country of such a shock, the disunity and loss of confidence which would ensue at a time when so much of the world is looking to the United Kingdom for guidance and leadership, through a sea of troubles, cannot but be obvious to Your Majesty. In Mr. Baldwin’s opinion there is but one course which he can advise you to take, namely to put an end to Your Majesty’s association with Mrs. Simpson.
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Baldwin had not read either letter until that morning. According to his biographers, Middlemas and Barnes, he “was deeply shocked by their tone. He knew he could not send either to the King; if they were made public, they would inevitably rally the country in the cause of a popular monarch, whom the Government were apparently blackmailing.”
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The prime minister, however, agreed to take the letters with him to Chequers, his country estate, for consideration over the weekend. On Sunday, the Australian high commissioner in London lunched with Baldwin at Chequers, during which time the prime minister informed him of the King’s relationship with Mrs. Simpson. Whether Baldwin was seeking counsel or not, what he had done was, in effect, to place himself in the position where he was subject to the advice of empire officials. There can only be two explanations for this behavior: Either Baldwin was seriously inept and did not realize that in raising official objection to the King’s relationship he was likely to force the monarch’s abdication; or he did so precisely for those reasons. When he returned to London, the commissioner wrote to Baldwin: “I think you have to advise the King ... that the people of this country and of the Dominions would not accept this woman as Queen . . . and that because of the perils both to the Throne and the Empire the King’s conduct has created, there would be a demand for his abdication that you would find impossible to resist.... You would have to tell him that unless he was prepared to abandon any idea of marriage . . . you would be compelled to advise him to abdicate, and unless he accepted such advice you would be unable to continue as his adviser and would tender the resignation of Government.”
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Late Friday afternoon, David returned to Fort Belvedere from his tour of the home fleet. Wallis and Aunt Bessie had already gone out to the Fort and were waiting to welcome him. He greeted them warmly, but hurried away to take a long, hot bath; waiting for him were the usual red-leather dispatch boxes from Whitehall. In one, he found an envelope marked “Urgent and Confidential.” He opened it and found inside the letter from Alexander Hardinge, which he read. David himself was shocked at the letter; he felt that Hardinge had betrayed him and perceived the letter as a challenge to both himself and to his continued relationship with Wallis. For the moment, he did nothing. Within an hour, David reappeared in the drawing room at the Fort for drinks with Wallis and her aunt. Wallis noticed that he seemed distant and preoccupied, but when she tried to ask him if anything was wrong, he simply replied that he was tired. She thought that the trip to review the home fleet must have worn him out.
Saturday passed quietly at the Fort, but on Sunday, Sibyl Colefax, who had come for lunch, managed to corner Wallis and speak to her frankly about the growing controversy over her relationship with the King. Harold Nicolson wrote that Sibyl had found Wallis “really miserable. All sorts of people had come to her reminding her of her duty and begging her to leave the country. ‘They do not understand,’ she said, ‘that if I did so, the King would come after me regardless of anything. They would then get their scandal in a far worse form than they are getting it now.’ “
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Wallis went as far as to tell Sibyl that she “wanted to leave him and clear out, but the King threatened to quit, to follow her, even to commit suicide.”
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Wallis went as far as to tell Sibyl that she “wanted to leave him and clear out, but the King threatened to quit, to follow her, even to commit suicide.”
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Sibyl asked Wallis bluntly if the King and she planned to marry; Wallis, taken aback, quickly answered, “Of course not.” If this was true, Sibyl told her, then it might be a good idea for certain restless members of the cabinet to be informed that there was no danger. Wallis agreed and even authorized Sibyl to see Neville Chamberlain and deny that marriage was in the works.
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