The Duke of Windsor, once called King Edward VIII, abdicated his throne in 1936 to marry an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson. His voluntary relinquishment of the throne, a singular instance in British history, sent shockwaves through the island nation. The Duke passed away in 1972 with a will. Sir George Baker, then-President of the Family Division of the High Court, ordered the will sealed. Sir James Munby, the current President of the Family Division of the High Court, ordered the will’s seal broken in order to provide a member of the Queen’s archivists a copy of the will. This shift in precedent is borne of a need to identify the beneficiary to the Duke’s copyrights. Writers of The Crown, a biographical drama series, want to use the Duke’s letters in their program and need to identify the current holder of the copyrighted materials to do so.
See Fiona Parker, Duke of Windor’s Will to Be Unsealed at Last, but Only So The Crown’s Writers Can Get Their Facts Straight, DailyMail.com, November 15, 2017.
Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.
