The King and the Hypnotist

With the impending abdication of Edward VIII, the British monarch, controversial information emerged regarding his contacts with Dr. Alexander Cannon, a hypnotist fascinated by the occult. A vicar from Suffolk reported the alleged hypnosis to the Archbishop of Canterbury, which was intended to help the king combat his addictions. Furthermore, the scandal surrounding Edward's marriage to Wallis Simpson raised concerns about his royal duties. These events contributed to the complex situation that led to the monarch's dethronement.

Just months before his abdication, Britain's Prince Edward VIII was hypnotized by a doctor fascinated by the occult and fascism. A report from a village vicar that Dr. Alexander Cannon was using mediums to communicate with spirits who "advised" patients on how to free themselves from alcoholism and other addictions reached the Archbishop of Canterbury on December 4, 1936. Archbishop Dr. Cosmo Lang was so taken aback by the report that he immediately questioned the Harley Street doctor to learn as much as he could about Dr. Cannon and then informed the Downing Street newspaper.

According to the BBC, news reached Lambeth Palace when a parishioner in Eye, Suffolk, told the vicar that he had heard Dr. Cannon boasting of having cured the king of alcoholism. Among Cannon's patients was George Drummond, a banker who had financed fascist activist Oswald Mosley and his British trade union movement. This information was met with criticism.

Two days earlier, during a homily, the Bishop of Bradford had announced "in public" what had been rumored for months: the King had married an American Roman Catholic divorcee, Wallis Simpson (both pictured). Both the Church and the county were unsure how the King would proceed and whether his weaknesses could cause his royal dignity to implode.

The vicar contacted the archbishop to inform him of the king's hypnosis. Dr. Lang's chaplain immediately began inquiring for details. In his letter, the chaplain wrote: "Dr. Lang found the information you provided interesting because it may provide a possible explanation for certain matters known to His Majesty. Please treat it, of course, as strictly confidential."

During this time, Lang contacted Dr. William Brown, a psychiatrist on Harley Street, to ask his opinion on the royal eccentricities. Dr. Brown replied that one of his patients had consulted Dr. Cannon and described how he had "put a medium into a trance and asked him to ask questions." Such a procedure could not have been used by Brown himself.

By the time the information reached the Archbishop on 10 December, the King had been persuaded to abdicate, but it seems likely that this information may have been part of an effort by Dr Lang and Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, to dethrone the King.

Philip Zieger, the Duke of Windsor's official biographer, recently said: "I find this very intriguing. I doubt whether Edward ever consulted this man about alcoholism: it was something even his critics never accused him of, although he certainly drank, but it was no problem."

Zieger, however, agreed that the king was being treated for sexual problems and that perhaps Dr. Cannon, a great braggart, might also have been indiscreet towards the king