As King Edward VIII Assumes the Kingship Upon the Death of His Father, King George V, He Pledges to the Archbishop of Canterbury to Serve His People

An extraordinary rarity, the only letter of Edward VIII on his responsibilities and intentions as King that we have seen, or can find. Eight months later he would famously abdicate the throne for the woman he loved, with the Archbishop of Canterbury one of his chief opponents.

King George V died on January 20, 1936, and his son and successor, Edward VIII, was proclaimed King the next day. The period of mourning for the dead King followed, and the new monarch’s Coronation was set for May 13, after mourning would be concluded. The Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England, traditionally officiates at coronations, and Edward was to be crowned and invested with the regalia of Kingship by Cosmo Gordon Lang, the holder of that office. Intelligent and charismatic, Lang had baptized the Queen and was a close friend of the Queen Mother. He was outspoken and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury to broadcast to the nation. After Edward VIII acceded to the throne in January 1936, Lang felt hopeful about the new reign and wrote the King giving his best wishes and stating his confidence in him.

Edward responded, just weeks before the coronation, with a pledge to serve his people. Letter signed, on his rare embossed King’s letterhead, London, April 2, 1936, to Lang. “I thank Your Grace most sincerely for the loyal and dutiful address of the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury. I am deeply touched by the warmth of your sympathy with Queen Mary and myself in our sorrow for the loss of my dear Father and by the moving words which you have expressed your regard and affection for King George. I appreciate the assurance of your confidence in me. It will be my constant endeavor to follow in King George’s footsteps. All that affects the Church will be my close concern, and I will join with you in the prayer that Divine Providence may guide and sustain me in my labour for the welfare of my people.” The letter, with provenance of Hinda Rose at Maggs in London, is apparently unpublished, as we cannot find record of it anywhere.

This is an extraordinary rarity, unique really, as we cannot recall ever before seeing a letter of a crowned head of Great Britain to his Archbishop of Canterbury reach the market, no less one this important. A search of public sale records going back forty years fails to disclose even one. In fact, we find no more than half a dozen letters of Edward as King on any topic, and none of these related to his responsibilities and intentions as King.

Edward never hid his relationship with divorcee Wallis Simpson, but he started flaunting that relationship the day he was proclaimed King. When he took her to the Mediterranean that August, acting before the world as if she were already Queen, Lang was horrified. With Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and Geoffrey Dawson, the editor of the Times of London, he began a campaign to remove the King from office unless he gave up Wallis. The pressure on the new King escalated, and he abdicated on December 13.