Secret Royal papers released

Dramatic new papers on the 1936 Abdication Crisis, which nearly brought down the monarchy, are released today. Astonishingly they reveal that the future king's beloved Wallis Simpson was having a secret affair with a car dealer. The papers also reveal:

* A king thinking only of Mrs Simpson, and incapable of appreciating the irrevocable step he was about to take.

* The abdication speech Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin refused Edward permission to broadcast.

* Winston Churchill's alleged role in backing the king against Baldwin's government.

* Wallis's husband Ernest Simpson was reputedly bribed to give her grounds for a divorce so she could marry Edward VIII.

It has taken 66 years for these papers to be released from the Public Record Office, and in the intervening period they have lost none of their drama and significance. The eye- catcher inevitably is the news that Wallis Simpson was two-timing the King of England with a motor mechanic - a secret that Special Branch spies went to their deaths without revealing.

In all the files of the Public Record Office, there could have been few more delectable secrets than the fact Mrs Simpson was having an affair, behind the future king's back, with Guy Marcus Trundle, a motor engineer and Ford car salesman, in 1935.

Trundle was said to be "a charming adventurer, very good looking, well-bred and an excellent dancer". Another Special Branch report characterises him as a "bounder" type who used to boast that every woman fell for him. It is tempting to speculate on whether, had Edward known about this liaison, he might have broken off relations with Mrs Simpson - but by that time he may have already been under her spell.

The sexual relationship between Wallis and Edward has always been puzzling, but what is certain is that it played a significant role in the dominance which Mrs. Simpson established over the Prince of Wales and future King. Wallis was more highly sexed than Edward, and this was not the last occasion that she took a lover. In the late 1940s, Wallis had an affair with a New York playboy, Jimmy Donahue, which lasted for several years, much to the Duke's distress. But certainly by that time it was simply another means by which the Duchess of Windsor kept her husband on the leash which she tied so effectively around his neck in the early 1930s.

Of more historical significance is documentary evidence to back up a suspicion held by many historians that Edward VIII, to the very end, failed to comprehend that by abdicating he could never again be king.

The evidence emerges in the key file to be released today by the PRO: the text of the abdication speech Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin refused to let Edward broadcast to the nation. The date was 10 December 1936 - the day before Edward renounced the throne in favour of his younger brother Bertie, the future George VI. The king was in a state of high nervous excitement, veering between bitterness at the way he had been treated and elation at the thought he would soon be with the woman he loved.

Until today, it was thought the abdication speech he finally gave to a mesmerised audience was the second draft, largely composed by Winston Churchill (who was said to have thrown the king's first attempt into the fire). Now it appears his broadcast was actually the third attempt - Mr Baldwin having refused to allow Churchill's version to be aired. That draft, unseen until now, shows Churchill at his most mischievous, and explains Baldwin's profound suspicions of his motives.

It is full of self-pity and regret that Mrs Simpson could not have been his queen in all but name. The intended address to the nation then goes on with these extraordinary words: "Now that I have at last been able to take you so fully into my confidence, I feel it is best to go away for a while, so that you may reflect calmly and quietly, but without undue delay, on what I have said.

"Nothing is nearer to my heart than that I should return; but whatever may befall, I shall always have a deep affection for my country."

The ingenuous optimism of the king's belief, even at this late stage, that the British people might understand his motives better than Baldwin's government and call him back to his kingdom, is nothing short of astounding - quite apart from the contempt it shows for his younger brother Bertie, who only the day before had broken down and sobbed in the arms of his mother, Queen Mary, at the thought of the responsibilities about to fall on his shoulders. No wonder Baldwin put his foot down, declaring the speech amounted to a grave breach of constitutional principles.

In the days leading up to the abdication - in which Edward, smoking incessantly, was said to have slept with a loaded pistol under his pillow, and Mrs Simpson, bundled off to friends in Cannes, was a nervous wreck - the Government seriously believed there was a danger Churchill would help form a King's Party and divide the country between supporters of the court and supporters of the government.

This undelivered abdication speech gives the impression that hope was still being given to Edward that he might regain the throne, particularly if Bertie proved to be not up to the job.

That Edward, now Duke of Windsor, was still thinking in these terms a year later is demonstrated by an apoplectic letter dated 22 December 1937, responding to a warning that George VI might stop his elder brother's allowance if he returned to England without official approval.

The Duke, in what, pathetically, is intended as a threat, writes: "I regard the petty injustices that have been heaped upon us as the only element that could possibly revive in those that might resent them [his supporters in Britain] the very emotions which I was fortunate enough to be able to suppress a year ago."

Oddly, there is almost nothing in these documents that might have embarrassed the Queen Mother - except for the enthusiastic support for Edward remaining on the throne from Commonwealth heads, in particular the prime ministers of Canada and New Zealand. New Zealand's Governor-General wrote to Baldwin: "The attitude of my Prime Minister is based on the great popularity achieved by the king [then the Prince of Wales] among all classes in 1920. His personality was inspiring and greatly exceeded that of [Bertie] the Duke of York's."