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

In these posts you will find a selection of glimpses into a fascinating moment in twentieth century British history. A king – hugely popular with the people, whom Prime Minister Winston Churchill worked assiduously to retain on the throne – yet one who his official biographer reveals – had expressed a desire to abdicate the throne more than a decade before he met the love of his life. And the love of his life, an American socialite – whose family lines descended from Charlemagne and King Edward I – who, having courted a king’s attention, found herself cornered by his passionate, life-long love and adulation.

Yet all this time later there’s still mystery to the story. Sifting through the pieces of an aggressive decades’ long smear-campaign to separate reality from disinformation is not a simple exercise. Absent of the hysteria, what was the truth of it?

 In later life as the Duke of Windsor

Enjoy the 9 posts below. In them you will find 4 videos and some rare interviews 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

 

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)