Potential royal embarrassment over the abdication of Edward VIII was averted yesterday, as it was announced that key papers from the archive of the former king's lawyer will remain closed until 2037.
The decision to withhold a small number of letters in line with Public Record Office policy fuelled speculation among academics and journalists that their disclosure might have been particularly embarrassing to the Queen Mother.
Ten boxes of papers from the collection of Walter Monckton, the former king's lawyer and confidant, and father of Lady Goulding, were made available for scrutiny for the first time yesterday at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
However, an historian and specialist in the royal abdication, Mr Andrew Roberts, said he suspected "the crown jewels" were missing.
In particular, Mr Roberts referred to a letter from the then queen to Monckton in August 1940 - more than three years after the abdication - which might have thrown light on the developing feud between Buckingham Palace and the then Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
"By the time the duke was on his way to the Bahamas it became evident that there were people at the palace, though we do not know whom, who were trying to ensure that the duchess did not get royal treatment. This letter may have told us something about this," said Mr Roberts.
Having determined to marry the twice-divorced, Mrs Wallis Simpson, Edward gave up the throne in 1936 and later became the Duke of Windsor.
However, the professor of politics and government at Oxford, Dr Vernon Bogdanor, said of the archive: "This is part of history and of the British constitution, but it is also a personal family matter and a personal family wound, and I don't believe the royal family want that wound constantly exposed."
Prof Bogdanor said the collection showed that the abdication was always inevitable and that the former king had been determined "to act constitutionally throughout". He also said it was also clear that the present monarch, Queen Elizabeth, would not abdicate as there would be no role for her to maintain.
Referring to telegrams sent between Hitler and the Duke of Windsor during 1939, the professor said: "There is no evidence whatsoever that he was ever involved in any treasonable activity against his country. There is a telegram to Hitler just before the war urging a peaceful solution and there is a reply from Hitler saying peace depends on England and not Germany."
In an apparent turnaround, Oxford University last night insisted it did, after all, know the whereabouts of the missing letter.