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Thursday, 10 December, it was all over; that morning the King signed the Instrument of
Abdication in the presence of his three brothers and the lawyers who were to hammer
out the financial arrangements between the past and future Kings. Prince Albert
returned to No. 145 to find a large crowd ‘cheering madly’. ‘I was overwhelmed,’ he
wrote simply in his diary. At 1.52 p.m. the following day, Friday, 11 December 1936, he
was formally proclaimed King George VI of Great Britain, Ireland and the Dominions
beyond the Seas. That night, after a farewell family dinner-party, the former Edward
VIII, now HRH Prince Edward of Windsor, made his famous Abdication broadcast: ‘I
have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my
duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I
love…’ Later he said goodbye to his mother, sister and brothers and left England in a
naval destroyer. From that moment he became a non-person as far as the royal family
was concerned, an unmentionable skeleton in the family cupboard. Elizabeth was never
to hear her parents mention him in her presence.
Whether they talked about him or not, the sense of shock and shame in the family was
palpable. Lord Harewood recalled a ‘hangdog’ expedition to London from Yorkshire to
witness the proclamation of the new King at St James’s Palace. ‘We all felt miserable,’
Queen Mary wrote in her diary that day, after watching the ceremony from
Marlborough House with the King and her two granddaughters. Her niece, the Duchess
of Beaufort, later told her biographer, James Pope-Hennessy, that the Abdication was
the worst experience of Queen Mary’s life. The new King wrote apologetically to the
Prime Minister: ‘I hope that time will be allowed me to make amends for what has
happened.’ Then he with the Queen, their children and Queen Mary left for Christmas at
Sandringham on 22 December. For Elizabeth, it can hardly have been a happy Christmas
in the big house full of memories of her beloved grandfather. Queen Mary retired to her
room, ill with the shock and strain of the last months; the new Queen was still
recovering from a serious bout of ‘flu and the King seemed on the verge of a nervous
breakdown. The cause of all this unhappiness was Uncle David’s irresponsibility. The
Abdication had been a traumatic experience for the royal family which was never to be
forgotten. There can have been no doubt in Elizabeth’s mind that the Duke of Windsor,
as he had now become, had let the side down.