30 years after the Abdication Crisis, Wallis and Edward, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, pictured in 1966 – then aged 73 and 71 respectively
In 2021 the dramas surrounding Prince Andrew’s scandalous association with the operations of Jeffrey Epstein, and the ongoing difficulties surrounding Harry and Meghan’s departure from “The Firm,” reveal our continual fascination with the British Royal Family. What is true and what is false? What is real and what is fake? How do we distinguish between what is actually going on in the corridors of power and what we have been spun by a PR machine that is centuries old? This fascination is the reason why the series of posts you are now reading is my most visited series of posts 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 expressed 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 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)
