--- title: Downton Abbey Season 4 Season Finale: The Real Royal Love Letter description: Lady Mary is fictional, but the future King's missives to Freda Dudley Ward aren't canonical: https://time.com/9576/downton-abbey-season-finale-love-letter/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-24T17:25:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:28:54.488Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Downton Abbey Season 4 Season Finale: The Real Royal Love Letter og:description: Lady Mary is fictional, but the future King's missives to Freda Dudley Ward aren't og:url: https://time.com/9576/downton-abbey-season-finale-love-letter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt388af038ca01cf5f/6986830413c79f60bb190c39/140224-edward-viii.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Edward VIII og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Downton Abbey Season 4 Season Finale: The Real Royal Love Letter twitter:description: Lady Mary is fictional, but the future King's missives to Freda Dudley Ward aren't twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt388af038ca01cf5f/6986830413c79f60bb190c39/140224-edward-viii.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The True Story Behind Downton Abbey's Scandalous Royal Love Letter > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 24, 2014 5:25 PM UTC  King Edward VIII in March 1936, at the microphone as he makes his Accession broadcast to the Empire King Edward VIII in March 1936, at the microphone as he makes his Accession broadcast to the Empire Popperfoto/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 24, 2014 5:25 PM UTC **Warning: minor spoilers for the Season 4 finale of** **_Downton Abbey_** As Season 4 drew to a close, _Downton Abbey_ continued its grand tradition of having its fictional characters run into real history. In this case, that history involved the very highest level of English society: the royal family. (**MORE**: [Catch up with TIME’s recap of the _Downton Abbey_ season finale](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/23/downton-abbey-season-finale-recap/)) On the show, Lady Rose has the opportunity to rub elbows with the Prince of Wales — the future King Edward VIII, who eventually came to the throne in 1936 — and his lover, Mrs. Freda Dudley Ward. The story’s main arc is set into motion when a letter from the Prince to Freda is stolen by a no-good card sharp hanging around the Crawleys. If he leaks the letter to the international press, it could cause a scandal, which sends Rose and Robert into detective mode. As it turns out, there was correspondence between the Prince and Freda — as described in the book [_Letters from a Prince: Edward, Prince of Wales, to Mrs. Freda Dudley Ward_](http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Prince-Edward-Wales-Dudley/dp/0751525901)_. T_he socialite daughter of a rich businessman, she was already married when she met the Prince, but her marriage wasn’t in good shape. In 1918, the Prince began to send her the first of what would be many letters. Though their romance ended abruptly in 1934 when the Prince began his relationship with Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom he would eventually give up the throne, the Prince of Wales didn’t exactly [hide his feelings](http://healthland.time.com/2014/02/24/why-men-hide-their-feelings-behind-social-media/?hpt=hp%5Ft3). Take, for example, [one missive from June of 1919](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1368914/Edward-VIII-incurable-romantic-Letter-mistress-Mrs-Simpson-reveals-loving-nature.html): “Darling darling beloved little Fredie,” he begins, “This is only just a teeny weeny little scrawl to catch the last post sweetheart and to tell you how fearfully madly I’m loving you this afternoon angel and looking forward to 4:30 tomorrow. Although I only said all this about 12 hrs ago I can’t help saying it all again this afternoon only I mean it even more sweetheart!!” His affections are certainly potent. The letters _also_ make clear the weakness of his knowledge of comma-usage standards (and his occasional tendency to refer to himself in the third person, which, ick) — but that didn’t diminish their value. Far from it: [in 2003](http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/style/fractured-fairy-tale-an-archive-of-a-royal-romance.html), more than 300 of those letters were offered at auction with an estimated value of up to $150,000; another single letter, [sold last November](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/king-edward-viii-foul-mouthed-handwritten-2851508), fetched a value worth more than $8,000. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/9576/downton-abbey-season-finale-love-letter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/9576/downton-abbey-season-finale-love-letter/"},"headline":"The True Story Behind Downton Abbey's Scandalous Royal Love Letter","datePublished":"2014-02-24T17:25:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:28:54.488Z","description":"Lady Mary is fictional, but the future King's missives to Freda Dudley Ward aren't","url":"https://time.com/9576/downton-abbey-season-finale-love-letter/","keywords":["Television","downton abbey","Love","england","royal","Royalty"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt388af038ca01cf5f/6986830413c79f60bb190c39/140224-edward-viii.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt388af038ca01cf5f/6986830413c79f60bb190c39/140224-edward-viii.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Edward VIII","caption":"Edward VIII","creditText":"Popperfoto/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/9576/downton-abbey-season-finale-love-letter/","name":"The True Story Behind Downton Abbey's Scandalous Royal Love Letter"}}]}] ```