For Sir Clive Wigram, private secretary to King George V, handling the king's correspondence was all in a day's work. Even for Sir Clive, the strange-looking envelope that crossed his desk on February 1, 1931 was definitely out of the ordinary, though. Not only did the envelope bear the official-looking seal of the long-defunct House of Tudor, but the words: "By Royal Command" were embossed in gold on one corner. But it was how the envelope was addressed that really caught Sir Clive's attention. There, in curious medieval script, was written "George Frederick Albert Ernest Windsor, Esquire, Buckingham, Palace" (which was hardly the proper way to refer to a sitting monarch).
When Sir Clive broke open the envelope, the message inside, written on fine parchment, was certainly succinct enough. Not only did the letter's author refer to himself as "King Anthony I" but he also claimed that he was the rightful king of England and that the present occupant of the throne was a "usurper, not of the Blood Royal". Not only did "King Anthony" demand the crown, but also insisted that King George step down "on pain of transportation" (to Australia, presumably).
And so began a bizarre campaign by an otherwise-unknownformer police inspector named Anthony William Hall that would last for decades and confound Buckingham Palace, the House of Commons, the judiciary, and Hall's own family.
But who was Anthony William Hall and why did he claim to be the true king?
According to census records, Hall was born in Cheswick, Middlesex in 1898 and his early childhood seemed completely unremarkable for a supposed king. There was an older brother, Humphrey, but his being "feeble-minded" (as it was called in those days) likely meant that it was Anthony who was considered the oldest son as far as his younger brothers and sisters were concerned. After serving in World War I, Anthony returned home to England though he seemed decidedly restless on the family farm. By all accounts, the broad-shouldered and sturdy Anthony decided that he wanted a more adventurous life and, after getting married in 1923, soon joined the Shropshire police force in which he reportedly had a stellar career. For a while, at least.
In 1926, Anthony received a small inheritance and, though accounts vary as to why, abruptly quit his police job before taking his wife, Ethel, and daughter to Canada to start a new life. Soon after settling in Quebec, he founded an export business and quickly established himself as a prosperous businessman with dozens of employees and a big house in Montreal. But people who knew Hall noticed a disturbing change in his behaviour as he became more preoccupied with his family tree. Along with spending hours locked in his study while he pored over genealogy and history books, Anthony also spent a small fortune on frequent letters to Somerset House in London (then home to the Registrar General of Births, Marriages and Deaths) for information about his family history.
Based on his research, Anthony concluded that he was a direct descendant of King Henry VIII by his second wife, Anne Boleyn. This apparent ancestor had been born prior to Henry's divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Since this made him illegitimate, the unnamed child's claim to the throne was passed over in favour of Henry's legitimate children, including John's younger sister, Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I). To avoid problems, the child was sent to be raised in Sussex by one of Henry's old retainers, John Hall. This was the presumed beginning of the Hall family name and, given his descent from Tudor kings, Anthony concluded that he was the rightful king of England.
While the reasoning may have been convoluted, it was apparently enough for Anthony Hall to insist on being called either "Your Majesty" or "King Anthony" by everyone who knew him. This was something that poor Hall's poor wife had difficulty handling. After she became convinced that her husband was truly insane, Ethel returned to England with their daughter.
As for King Anthony, he apparently took his new bachelor status in stride and returned to England himself where he could launch his campaign to overthrow the "usurper" King George V. As for the hapless king, he seemed amused at first by this claim and as he reportedly said to Sir Clive Wigram, "I doubt King Anthony would want the job if he had it."
Anthony was furious when George didn't bother with a reply to that first imperious demand sent on February 1. Having set himself up in a house in Hereford, he sent a second letter ordering King George to leave the realm or face the consequences. This one got ignored as well, along with the next eight letters that followed.
Realizing that King George would never respond to his demands, Anthony decided to escalate things by holding a reception at one of London's most expensive hotels. It was there that he formally announced his campaign to be king with all the eagerness of a politician. Anthony followed up this announcement by hitting what could be charitably described as a campaign trail. Along with frequent rallies in London, he traveled from one end of the United Kingdom to another, appearing in his familiar trench coat, and declaring the changes he would make once he took over Buckingham Palace.
Sadly enough, King Anthony didn't get a lot of respect at these public appearances. Along with frequent jeering, verbal abuse, and the inevitable pelting with rotten fruit and vegetables, he was also subjected to a mock crowning ceremony in Oxford and physically attacked on several occasions (followed up by an overnight stay in a police lockup).
In the meantime, Anthony's wife, the long-suffering Ethel, filed for divorce on the grounds that he had effectively deserted his family (presumably, she wasn't particularly interested in becoming Queen). Though Hall defended himself in court ably enough, including a six-hour cross-examination of his wife, the judge agreed with Ethel and granted the divorce decree. In granting the divorce, the judge denounced Anthony as being "tempestuous, undisciplined, and [of] erratic disposition." Stung by the judge's words, he told reporters afterward that "I take a primitive view of marriage: I do not recognize divorce." An ironic statement considering his presumed ancestry.
With the (non) divorce out of the way, Anthony Hall was able to throw himself into his campaign to be king with greater enthusiasm than ever. In 1935, the "Royal Tudor Manifesto" he registered at the Royal College of Arms gained him international publicity. . Along with restating his claim to the throne, he also described the various changes he would make to the laws once he became king. This included abolishing income tax, death duties, municipal rates, etc., none of which had been in effect during Tudor times and which, according to Hall, were blatantly illegal. He also promised to establish a Ministry of Pleasure, to hold regular public picnics at Windsor Castle, to greatly expand London, and to redeem that National Debt (which had recently passed the £7 billion mark). Exactly how he was planning to do all of this after abolishing income taxes was left to the imagination. Thousands of copies of the Manifesto were distributed across the U.K. , all at Anthony's expense, to ensure as many readers as possible.
When few people seemed to take him seriously, Anthony decided to relocate to London and a three-story mansion outside of Finsbury Park. He also commissioned a jeweler on Bond Street to make him an official crown and a ceremonial mace. And he didn't spare any expense, either. The crown was lined with velvet and made up of thousands of semi-precious stones while the mace bore the formal inscription: "Anthony I, King of England and Scotland, Prince of Wales" (the jeweler's bill for making these items was over £20,000 in case you were wondering).
Dressed in his royal regalia, including a "coronation robe", King Anthony had himself photographed and distributed thousands of copies, all signed, to various peers, diplomats, politicians, etc. He also bombarded the Prime Minister's office, and just about every other elected politician in the House of Commons, with formal letters outlining his royal claim. Since all the letters were on parchment, formally embossed with the Tudor coat of arms, the London firm that was supplying the parchment needed to re-establish their parchment-making department just to accommodate King Anthony.
If it had just been Anthony Hall alone, the British government might have just dismissed him as a lone crank. Unfortunately, Anthony's claims were being supported by a growing number of malcontents, most of whom simply wanted to stir up trouble or get the would-be monarch's support for their own pet causes. Though most of the people who came to King Anthony's public meetings dismissed him as deluded, they were still turning out in record numbers.
After King George V's death in 1936, Anthony Hall became even more unhinged (if that seems possible). Not only did he move his headquarters to an even bigger mansion, but he also purchased a printing press that he kept in the basement. While the actual details of how he managed it aren't clear, King Anthony used the press to start printing his own legal currency. Not only were his one-pound notes larger than when the Bank of England was turning out, but also bore his signature as "Master of the Mint". He then sold the notes at his various rallies for one shilling each (and promised that they would be redeemed at their full value once he became king). When a South End court tried to fine Anthony for distributing his bogus notes, he simply declared that he would confiscate all privately-owned banks and reopen them as branches of the Royal Mint once he assumed power.
But it was his attempt at holding up the coronation of King George Vi that really marked the end for King Anthony. When his letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl Marshall of England were ignored, he then issued a formal coronation challenge to the King's Champion. Unused since 1821, the challenge would have allowed him to claim the throne by besting the Champion in a formal duel of arms, though two constables sent from Scotland Yard persuaded him to drop the challenge and stay away from the coronation ceremony.
In the years that followed, King Anthony generated headlines repeatedly with other, equally grandiose claims. In 1939, he claimed to be true king of Ireland on the grounds that his mother's maiden name was "Eire." That claim, along with his claim to the throne of Germany (don't ask), was put on hold with the outbreak of World War II when the Home Office rather forcefully told him that any activities deemed disruptive to public order would get him detained. As a result, Anthony and his entourage retreated to a house in Herefordshire to wait out the end of hostilities.
Not that this put the end to Anthony's legal troubles. The house where he was staying had belonged to his mother and his sister, Mary, went to court to evict him. Despite threatening to take the case to the House of Lords, the judge eventually ruled against the would-be monarch and ordered his eviction. He and his sister were still fighting over the house when Anthony William Hall, one-time claimant to the throne of England, died in December 1947 and the age of fifty-three. Since he had never had a son and his younger siblings were disinclined to pursue the throne, his curious campaign died with him and he was buried in the family plot near Little Dewchurch was plain old "Anthony Hall."
While hardly the only pretender to the throne, AnthonyWilliam Hall was certainly the most flamboyant. As for his supposed lineage, no legitimate historian has ever supported Hall's claim and the general consensus is that he invented much of it. But what could have made a hard-headed businessman throw away a marriage and a thriving business to dedicate his life to a fantasy? It's easy to dismiss him as mentally ill though he didn't show any other symptoms that could be used to diagnosis what was happening with him. In the end, he was simply a man with an obsession that cost him his family and his fortune.
And there's never been a shortage of people like that.
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