Unearthed letter reveals future Edward VIII was relieved of the death of epileptic brother Prince John

Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales

A letter written by Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales, to her mistress, Freda Dudley Ward, shows that he felt 'relieved' knowing that his epileptic brother, Prince John died.

Prince John was the youngest child of King George V and Queen Mary. He was kept away from public because of severe epilepsy and autism. He was eventually known as “Lost Prince.” He spent the rest of his life at a house on the family’s Sandringham estate until his death in 1919 at the age of 13 following relentless seizure.

Here is excerpt of the Prince’s letter to his mistress:

'I arrived yesterday to find a wire from HM [His Majesty] to say that my youngest brother had died. I wired back to say that I was returning to England at once for a few days which I thought was a good move.

'I had great and wonderful hopes of seeing toi tomorrow if the goddess of fortune had been kind to us. I'm so miserable darling as I've just got another wire from HM telling me not to return to England and just to carry on... Isn't it all too heartbreaking.

'Of course my little brother's death plunges me into mourning; don't think me very cold hearted sweethearted [sic] but I've told you all about that little brother darling and how he was an epileptic + might have gone West any day!!

'He's been practically shut up for the last 2 years anyhow no one has even seen him except the family + then only once or twice a year + his death is the greatest relief imaginable or what we've always silently prayed for.

'I was so, so happy last night at the thought of seeing toi tomorrow, just a teeny glimpse of toi.

'What does all the mourning in the world matter to toi et moi? I'm terribly sorry for my sister who was going to a lot of parties in Feb.

'Somehow I don't think this mourning will last very long as I think the funeral was to-day; it looks to me as if as little was being made of it all as possible.

'No one wld. be more cut up if any of other 3 brothers were to die than I shld be, but this poor boy had become more of an animal than anything else + was only a brother in the flesh and nothing else.'


Read the complete detail of the story here.

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  1. The tought that my grand uncle was named John and that I was named after him and that I over came epileptic seizures and that they said I died at 13 yrs old it's a repeat of the same story I am exsually very disapointed in my family way of thinking.........

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