Edward VIII: I can’t be king

EDWARD VIII expressed doubts that he was fit to be king 17 years before his abdication, a letter reveals.

The Queen’s uncle had a major loss of confidence about having to take on the ‘biggest job in the world’ while he was Prince of Wales in 1919.

During a royal tour of Canada, Edward, 25, wrote to his mistress Freda Dudley Ward, that he had taken a ‘hopelessly despondent view of life’ and could take no more of ‘playing to the gallery’.

He was crowned in January 1936 following the death of his father George V. He abdicated later that year so he could marry divorced socialite Wallis Simpson. The letter is to be auctioned in Nottingham with a pre-sale estimate of £1,200.