King Edward VIII and the courtier who hated him

They were words which, had they been uttered in a different era, would have been tantamount to treason.

Senior Palace courtier Sir Alan 'Tommy' Lascelles told prime minister Stanley Baldwin in private that it would be the 'best thing' if his boss, the future King Edward VIII, were to 'break his neck'.

The astonishing statement was made in 1927 during Edward's trip to Canada with the PM.

By then, Lascelles had by then served for seven years as assistant private secretary to Edward, who was then the Prince of Wales and would go on to reign for just 11 months before he abdicated so he could marry divorcee Wallis Simpson. 

Lascelles's view of Edward began positively, to the extent that he wrote that he had 'great affection and admiration' for him.

But he resigned from the royal's service in 1928 after being left in despair at his 'unbridled pursuit of wine and women'. 

He went on to serve him briefly again as assistant private secretary after he became the King in 1936, having performed the same duty for Edward's father, George V. 

Lascelles' memoir was republished in 2020 under the title of King's Counsellor: Abdication And War, The Diaries Of Sir Alan Lascelles. 

The entry concerning his discussion with Baldwin in Government House, Ottawa, read: 'In his little sitting room I told him that, in my considered opinion, the Heir Apparent, in his unbridled pursuit of wine and women, and of whatever selfish whim occupied him at the moment, was going rapidly to the devil, and unless he mended his ways, would soon become no fit wearer of the British Crown.

'I expected to get my head bitten off but Baldwin heard me to the end, and after a pause, said he agreed with every word I had said.

'I went on: "You know, sometimes when I sit in York House waiting to get the result of some point-to-point in which he is riding, I can't help thinking that the best thing that could happen to him, and to the country, would be for him to break his neck."

'"God forgive me," said S.B. "I have often thought the same."

Whilst the famously combative Lascelles came to view his boss with disdain, the feelings were similar in the other direction.

Edward later described him as 'that evil snake', when he read John Wheeler-Bennett's 1958 official biography of his brother, King George VI.

He believed that Lascelles had influenced Wheeler-Bennett to ensure that he was presented 'in as bad a light as possible',  whilst George VI emerged with his reputation intact. 

Lascelles resigned from his role shortly after a trip to Kenya and Uganda in 1928 that Lascelles described as 'the last straw on my camel's back'.

He wrote: 'It was finally broken by his incredibly callous behaviour when we got the news of his father's grave illness.'

Lascelles went on to be appointed to serve George V and remained in the role when Edward succeeded the throne in January 1936. 

When Edward abdicated in December that year, Lascelles said he was 'like a child in the fairy stories who had been given every gift except a soul'.

Another key figure who had a dim view of Edward was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang. 

In 2012, the emergence of letters and files held in Lambeth Palace's archives revealed how Lang colluded with the then editor of The Times, Geoffrey Dawson, to threaten Edward over his affair with Mrs Simpson - telling him that the relationship would be revealed in public unless he abdicated.

At the time, relationships outside of marriage were taboo. The fact that Edward was the King and head of the Church of England made his situation all the graver.

Lang falsely alleged that the King was mentally ill, telling the Times's editor: 'My dear Dawson, I have heard from a trustworthy source that His Majesty is mentally ill and that his obsession is due not to mere obstinacy but to a deranged mind.

'More than once in the past he's shown symptoms of persecution-mania.

'This, even apart from the present matter, would lead almost inevitably to recurring quarrels with his ministers if he remained on the throne.'

In a letter sent to the then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin at the height of the abdication crisis Lang also said Edward must give up the crown immediately.

The bad blood went both ways, with Edward later writing that Lang was 'more interested in the pursuit of prestige and power than the abstractions of the human soul.'

Lascelles went on to serve as private secretary to both George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, before retiring from royal service aged 66 in 1953.