30 years after the Abdication Crisis, Wallis and Edward, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, pictured in 1966  – then aged 73 and 71 respectively

Today’s dramas surrounding Harry and Meghan’s departure from the Royal Family reveal people’s continuing fascination with the British Royal Family. The propaganda war rallies each polarised side in its chosen opinion, but how do we distinguish between what is fact and what is feeling in the Sussexes’ and Wales’ respective perspectives? As the late Queen famously observed, “Our recollections may vary.” But how do we discern what is true and what is disinformation? The question of reality vs royal spin is probably the reason why, outside of my work in paleocontact and ancestral narratives, this series sof posts is the most visited section of my website over the last decade…..

1936 was a fragile moment for the British monarchy and the turning point for a king who was wildly popular in Great Britain and the Commonwealth, a king who Prime Minister Winston Churchill worked assiduously to retain on the British throne. Yet, as his official biographer reveals, this was a monarch who had clearly expressed to his family a desire to abdicate the throne more than a decade before he met the love of his life. The love of his life was a woman whose family lines descended from Charlemagne and King Edward I – an American socialite who, having courted a king’s attention, found herself then cornered by his passionate, life-long love and adulation.

All this time later, eighty-six years after the abdication, there is still a mystery to the story. To sift through the pieces of an aggressive and decades’ long smear-campaign and then separate reality from disinformation is not a simple exercise. Absent of the hysteria, what was the truth of it? If you read the posts, and watch the videos that follow I wonder if your views will be confirmed or changed. Share this journey with me and make up your own mind.

 In later life as the Duke of Windsor

Enjoy the 10 POSTS below. In them you will find 8 VIDEOS including Rare Interview footage with the Duke and Duchess, all reflecting different facets of this fascinating story. Enjoy…

The 1936 Abdication Crisis – Part 1: Popularity and Misgivings

The 1936 Abdication Crisis – Part 2: Finding a Reason

The 1936 Abdication Crisis – Part 3: Letters from A Corner

The 1936 Abdication Crisis – Part 4: Managing Popularity

The 1936 Abdication Crisis – Part 5: Varying the Succession

The 1936 Abdication Crisis – Part 6: Preparations in Advance

The 1936 Abdication Crisis – Part 7: The Last Straw

The 1936 Abdication Crisis – Part 8: Family Ties & Nazi Sympathies

The 1936 Abdication Crisis – Part 9: Goodwill and Infamy

The 1936 Abdication Crisis – Part 10: Four Rare Videos with Interview Footage

Sources:

The Heart has its Reasons – The Duchess of Windsor (D.McKay)

King Edward VIII – The Official Biography – Philip Ziegler (Harper Collins)

That Woman – Anne Sebba (St Martin’s Press)

Go-Betweens for Hitler – Dr Karina Urbach, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London .(Oxford University Press)