Royal Family: Years of Transition by Theo Aronson

Author:Theo Aronson [Aronson, Theo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thistle Publishing
Published: 2014-12-03T00:00:00+00:00

In the course of the following few days, the King finally confided in his three brothers. Because they had always been what he called 'a somewhat complicated quartet',37 the King saw them separately. Most seriously affected was the Duke of York. For several weeks previously, and in mounting anxiety, the Duke had vainly been trying to see his brother. Now, on finally hearing from the King's own lips that he might abdicate, the Duke of York was aghast. He could find nothing to say. 'His genuine concern for me,' said the King later, 'was mixed with the dread of having to assume the responsibilities of kingship.'38 To his private secretary, the Duke of York could only confess that he felt 'like the proverbial sheep being led to the slaughter.'39

The Duchess of York was equally apprehensive. She may have had more taste and talent for public life but she had no wish to become Queen. Nor did she want to see her highly-strung husband subjected to the strain of wearing the crown.

The Duke of Gloucester took the news more philosophically. The two brothers had never been close: 'apart from our mutual interests in horses and riding, we had little in common, '40 wrote the King. With three lives – those of the Duke of York and his two daughters – between him and the throne, the Duke of Gloucester had no fear of being called upon to assume kingship. But he suspected that he might have to give up his beloved soldiering in order to devote more time to royal duties.

The Duke of Kent showed more emotion than either of his brothers. He was deeply upset; not only by the King's news but by the off-hand manner in which he broke it to him. 'The Duke of Kent unburdened his heart,' wrote 'Chips' Channon a few days later, 'said he loved the King more than anyone, how the King ignored him, how he had not even seen him since the Balmoral visit . . . The King had rung him up on the telephone before dinner that evening to say that he was going to marry Wallis, and the Duke of Kent had not known whether to congratulate him or not, hence his nervousness and irritability. And he only rang him because he knew he would meet him at our dinner . . .'41

'He is besotted on the woman,' the Duke of Kent exclaimed angrily to the Prime Minister, 'one can't get a word of sense out of him.'42

Having unburdened himself to his brothers, the King went back to ignoring them. At no stage did he have a serious discussion with the Duke of York on his brother's unwillingness or fitness to take up the duties which he was about to abdicate. He conducted all his negotiations without any reference to his brother whatsoever. The dramatic breaking of the press's long silence on the subject of the King's marriage took the Duke of York by complete surprise. He expressed himself 'horrified'.43

That

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