A letter by controversial monarch Edward VIII in which he moans at being 'fed up and bored' with a 'ghastly' Royal tour of Devon and Cornwall has come to light. Then as David, Prince of Wales, he described how he had to force himself to 'look happy and pleased' upon stepping off the train at Newton Abbot to be met by a 'loyal reception' of wellwishers.
He also delivered a withering critique of the Bishop of Exeter, who he had just met, calling him 'mad and revolting'. And looking ahead at his 'depressing prospect' of one day being King, he wrote: "This life of mine is a sordid one and no mistake and it's never going to improve."
The letter was written 17 years before he became King and is an early demonstration of how he was never cut out for the job. David famously went on to cause a constitutional crisis by abdicating the throne after less than a year so he could marry divorcee Wallis Simpson.
