ROYALTY - ABDICATION OF EDWARD VIII

Papers from the collection of Sir Albert George Allen (1888-1956), solicitor to the Duke of Windsor during the abdication,

Footnotes

'THE ONLY CONDITIONS ON WHICH I CAN STAY HERE, ARE IF I RENOUNCE YOU FOR ALL TIME': THE NOTE THAT CHANGED THE MONARCHY - PAPERS FROM THE KING'S SOLICITOR AT THE HEART OF THE ABDICATION CRISIS.

Through these recently discovered notes and memoranda from the papers of King Edward VIII's solicitor, Albert George Allen, an intimate, almost hour by hour picture of the last nine days of the abdication crisis is revealed. During this time, described by one biographer as the 'Nine Days' Wonder' (Inglis, Brian, St John, Abdication, London, 1966), the press finally broke the story that he wished to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson and days later, after frantic negotiations on both sides, the King informed the government of his decision to abdicate on 9 December 1936. The Instrument of Abdication, drawn up by his close friend and advisor Sir Walter Monckton, and witnessed by Allen, was formally signed the following day. Allen's notes reveal a busy round of meetings and details of private conversations as he liaised between the King at The Fort and Whitehall '...like a battle headquarters, with telephones ringing continuously, and despatch riders... bringing State papers from London...' (Windsor, Edward, Duke of, A King's Story: The Memoirs of H.R.H. the Duke of Windsor K.G., London, 1951, p.380), important decisions of state pared down to their barest facts, personalities involved in the negotiations referred to only by their initials.

Amongst them, one small note in Allen's hand represents the pivotal moment when Edward VIII persuaded Wallis Simpson to accept that he could not be King without her. When the scrutiny of the press became too much, she had travelled to friends in France under cover of darkness, accompanied by Perry Brownlow who, unbeknownst to the King was charged by Allen and Beaverbrook with the task of persuading her to withdraw from the marriage, at least until after the Coronation, after which the issue could have been quietly revived. At this point she was willing to renounce their marriage plans to allow him to remain King, and had gone so far as to draft a public statement to that effect. The King, on the other hand, felt that he had run out of options and that abdication was the only way forward. He had failed to get permission from prime minister Stanley Baldwin to make a broadcast to the nation, which he hoped would garner the sympathy and support of the British public. Baldwin argued that, as the monarch is bound to accept the advice of his ministers, such a broadcast against their wishes would be constitutionally impossible. Baldwin had also quashed his hopes of a morganatic marriage whereby they could marry but Wallis would not be Queen, on the grounds that it would not be accepted by either the British government or those of the Dominions. The King therefore telephoned Wallis to tell her of his decision: '...Finally I summoned George Allen into the room while she talked... George Allen took a piece of paper off the desk, and wrote upon it a single sentence: "The only conditions on which I can stay here are if I renounce you for all time". I read it to Wallis first and then handing the telephone to Mr Allen, I asked him to repeat it. Her answer to me was worthy of the occasion. The void between us disappeared. The truth, of course, is that she tried throughout to make me turn back, and she would have succeeded had I not loved her so desperately and therefore been so determined...' (Windsor, p.405). The prospect of renouncing each other 'for ever', without hope of marriage in the future was too much to ask. With these few well-chosen words, penned by his solicitor, the King won over Wallis Simpson's doubts and paved the way for the abdication. But it was not a simple case of choosing between love and duty: '...When Mr Baldwin had talked to me about the Monarchy, it had become a dry and lifeless thing. But when Mr Churchill spoke, it grew, it became suffused with light... I abdicated because I chose the path of duty... I valued [the Crown] so deeply that I surrendered it, rather than risk any impairment of its prestige...' (Windsor, p.382, 386).

Sir Albert George Allen, D.S.O., M.C., (1888-1956) and Thomas Overy founded the City law firm Allen & Overy in 1930. Described by his contemporaries as a 'thrustful, driving man', his role as advisor to the King during the abdication crisis of 1936 established the firm's reputation and his own personal fortune. The Duke of Windsor described him in glowing terms: '...he and Walter Monckton were old friends: they had served together in the trenches in France... a gallant and much decorated officer in the First World War, he had a fine reputation in the legal world... To describe George as a man of few words would be an overstatement... Nature had further endowed him with a poker face that provided a formidable frame for his sage counsel. During our worst hours together he stood like a stone wall... at the end was George Allen's calm pronouncement, at a time of extreme tension, "I won't be stampeded". Nor was he ever...'. He goes on to speak of Allen's consideration, care and loyalty: '...Never was a Monarch better served...' (Windsor, p.371-2). Indeed, the Duke of Windsor rewarded this loyalty with the gift of a top-of-the-range Rolls Royce Phantom III Sedanca De Ville, and a knighthood in the June 1952 Queen's Birthday Honours for his 'personal services as solicitor to members of the Royal family' followed. The papers are held in a buff folder entitled 'Sir George Allen/ Confidential Notes/ Re Abdication' in blue pencil and are accompanied by a photograph of the then Prince of Wales in action on Budleigh Salterton golf course dated 16 May 1921.