The biography of King George VI of England (1895-1952) contains some unusual information. It is based on events that occurred after the end of the Second World War, when two of his courtiers, one of whom was later discovered to be a Soviet spy, rushed to a German castle in order to obtain a bundle of letters which, among other things, allegedly concerned correspondence between the Duke of Windsor and his German cousin, Philipp, Prince of Hesse. They were looking for a battered tin box, wrapped in a cheap raincoat, which had been dug up by Allied troops in the castle garden. It was said to contain important information on German foreign policy, including on the Duchess and Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII of England, whose pro-Nazi views had been a cause of suspicion among the Allies during the war.
When the Americans examined the documents, they realised that their contents were so explosive that they, together with the British, had to do everything in their power to prevent them from being leaked to the public. Many years later, even in Moscow, in a special archive closed to the public, they discovered in a paper wrapper entitled Herzog von Windsor, dusty documents that the Russians were supposed to have discovered in the German Foreign Office after the end of the war. Could they have contained evidence of the Duke’s treason? The story is quite complicated, so it is necessary to go back to the beginning.
The darling of the empire
He was the first royal sex symbol of the modern era. The lusty features of the Prince of Wales, later King, adorned the nightstands of thousands of schoolgirls and young women in Britain and around the world. His father, King George V, may have despaired, but his son was the darling of the Empire. Even republican America could not resist his charm. “It was every American girl’s dream to dance with him,” wrote a famous journalist.
In the 1920s, only the silent film star Rudolph Valentino warmed the hearts of young girls so much. His face could be seen everywhere, on cigarette packets, on the pages of the yellow press, men wanted to dress like him and when he appeared in a new sweater, the textile factories worked night and day in three shifts.
Unlike his ancestors, the serious Queen Victoria, the haughty Edward VII and his stern father King George V, the Prince of Wales was kinder, more human, one could almost say vulnerable. He was a human bridge between the war-weary millions still clinging to the departing permanence of the pre-1914 world and an uncertain future in which nationalism was on the rise, labour on the march and the aristocracy in retreat.
After the end of the First World War, with the departure of five tsars, eight kings and four dynasties, it was time for the newly renamed English dynasty of Windsor – King George V changed the family name from the German Saxe Coburg and Gotha to Windsor in 1917 – to prove the most solid rock of an empire in which the sun never sets. In 1920, the Prince of Wales visited almost 45 countries, a difficult task for a 25-year-old and still naive prince. His arrival was accompanied by a hysteria of excitement everywhere.
Finally, he visited the USA, which he found fascinating. Here there was no strict court etiquette, he could dance with any woman until the early hours of the morning, drink excessively and avoid formal receptions. “Being human is what is so gratifying about him”, wrote a local journalist, adding that the Prince was as “American” as any other young man. But the real truth was that the Prince of Wales was a melancholy man who doubted himself. He shuddered at the thought of one day becoming king. His bouts of brooding depression were particularly persistent and intense on his long journeys around the world. He was lonely and sad.
At the outbreak of the First World War, he realised that whatever he tried to do or did, he was different from his friends and comrades as Prince of Wales. After persistent lobbying, he was given a position in the Grenadiers, but when they went to the front in France, he had to stay at home. At that time he despised himself and despaired of his fate. He was convinced that incompetent politicians had instigated a war between Britain and Germany, two nations that had much in common.
When the war ended, life in the royal family went on as if the war had never happened. The fact that his father treated him like a small island and did not allow him to have any insight into the affairs of state added to his frustrations.
In 1924, he travelled to the USA again, dancing, drinking and playing polo, often late for and bored at official receptions, and the English ambassador wrote home to his superiors, “The Prince should avoid dancing on Saturday night and go to church on Sunday morning.” All this upset the King so much that on his return he called him to his side and barked, “You dress like a fool. You are dressing like a fool. You are an impostor. Get out!” And people liked him all the more for it.
Marriages were a serious matter in the ruling dynasties. There was no room for love, passion or romance. Those who succumbed to this and married below their status were immediately relegated to the social darkness. When Queen Victoria’s grandson and heir to the throne died suddenly and before his marriage to Princess Victoria Mary von Tek of Germany, she immediately ordered his younger brother George to marry the princess and prepare for the succession.
Of course, he did not object. The wedding took place in 1893 and a year later the couple had a son, Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, Prince of Wales. He, too, was to marry a German princess when he grew up. But the First World War interrupted those plans, sweeping away many dynasties and reducing the choice. The Royal Warrant of 1917 not only changed the name of the dynasty to Windsor, but also turned the rules of marriage on their head. His descendants and successors could now marry into English families.
Prince Edward of Wales was initially shy towards the opposite sex. His secretary thought he was insecure about his sexual orientation. He described the half-naked prostitutes in Calais, France, as dirty and repulsive. Later, when he met them in Paris, he changed his opinion, or as one lady wrote: “He was more and more often between women’s legs, often married”. This made the King and Queen uncomfortable, as they had more family problems. Edward’s brother John died young, being autistic and epileptic, and another younger brother became involved in the world of drugs and had wild sex with partners of different sexes.
King George V was ill and thought Edward should marry as soon as possible and ensure the succession to the dynasty. The court drew up a list of seventeen European princesses worthy of marriage. But someone else was involved in the English court’s wedding plans. After becoming Chancellor of Germany, Hitler supported the marriages of German aristocrats to European aristocratic families. Thus he was pleased to hear of the marriage of Prince Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld to the daughter of Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands. He then worked hard to bring Princess Frederika, whose mother was the only daughter of the former German Emperor Wilhelm II, closer to Prince Edward of Wales.
Frederika, of course, had an excellent pedigree, and her family was fully committed to the Nazi regime. But it is not just about ideas. Her family met Hitler on several occasions, but had misgivings about the great difference in age ( Frederika was only 17 at the time), but this was not an obstacle in principle. In any case, nothing came of these plans of Hitler’s. However, this was only the first attempt to land Prince Edward of Wales in the German orbit, and a prelude to many other similar attempts that lasted as long as the Third Reich.
But Hitler did not know – and neither did the rest of Europe – that the Prince of Wales had his eyes on America. Already in 1929, at an agricultural show, he met Viscountess Thelma Furness, the daughter of an American diplomat who was about to marry for the second time. This did not stop him from winning her over, and a rather long-lasting love affair was born out of it. The Furnesses often visited the couple at their country estate, Borough Court, and it was there that he met Wallis Warfield Simpson and her husband.
The Simpsons were invited to dinner only because another couple could not attend. Edward recalled that they talked about central heating, which Americans missed so much in cold England, and Wallis, who sat next to Edward at dinner, later recounted that he was “truly the most attractive person she had ever met”. Thus began an acquaintance that would shake the English throne within five years.
Twice married
Bessie Wallis Warfield was born in 1896, the offspring of two proud, warrior families, one from the North and one from the South. Her parents met at a mountain resort where they were being treated for tuberculosis. Their acquaintance was brief and ended quickly in marriage. Their families immediately separated the young couple, not because they disagreed with the marriage, but for health reasons. Indeed, her father died five months after Wallis was born, forcing her mother to depend on the mercy of relatives. Since then, Wallis has always feared hunger, but also darkness and thunder.
She was described by her classmates as a well-groomed, well-dressed but not pretty girl. While on holiday in Florida, she met Air Lieutenant Spencer Jr, fell in love with his uniform and married him in 1916. Her husband, who was a public pleaser, was capricious in private life, violently jealous and an alcoholic with sadistic habits. When he went out, he tied her to the bed or locked her in the bathroom. The couple divorced in 1921 and Wallis moved to Washington.
In 1924, she went to China, where her now ex-husband was transferred, but the attempt at reconciliation failed. She continued her journey in China. She is said to have observed various sexual techniques in Shanghai brothels, got pregnant by an Italian diplomat, Count Ciano, who later became Mussolini’s Foreign Minister, and also had an abortion. The so-called infamous “China dossier”, which was prepared a few years later by diligent Foreign Office officials for British Prime Minister Baldwin and King George V, also contained a list of these sexual adventures.
She then returned to America and met the married Ernest Simpson at a Christmas party in 1926. Simpson started divorce proceedings as soon as he began an affair with her. His wife was ill and in hospital, but later stated: “Wallis is very shrewd. She stole my husband while I was in hospital.”
Simpson was the opposite of her first husband. He was polite, intelligent, witty and able to recite the Greek classics in the original. Wallis was initially hesitant to get married, because she was happiest when she was alone and independent and could travel the world and have fun at will. She finally agreed and the couple married in 1928 and moved to London.
The financial crisis of 1929, which broke many people, did not harm the Simpsons very much, so they had a reasonably large flat in London, a table for 14 in the drawing room so that they could entertain acquaintances from the upper echelons of society, and four servants to make sure that everything was done as it should be in England. It was here that they met Thelma Furness, the busiest woman in London, not only because of her beauty but because of her love affair with the Prince of Wales. It was at her estate that they met the Prince again in 1931, when he was returning from a trip to South America.
Soon, the Simpsons began to move from the periphery of Prince’s life to the centre of it. In June 1931, an extremely proud Simpson was presented to the Queen at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. As Wallis walked past, she heard Prince Edward mutter that “all women look dreadful”. When they met later at a party in Thelma Furness’s suite and the Prince complimented her on her dress, she said to him, “But sir, I think you said we all look awful.”
The Prince was undoubtedly attracted by her cutting speech and soon became a regular at the Simpsons’ afternoon tea parties, which sometimes went late into the night. They would discuss the new things that were stirring the world at the time, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and the New Deal, and Wallis was always well informed. Soon afterwards, the Simpsons began to visit Fort Belvedere regularly, helping with the gardening and walking the Prince’s dogs, and in winter they would all go ice-skating with the Prince on the nearby frozen lake.
If Wallis pretended to be unaware of the Prince’s affection, King George V was disturbed by it. The King’s daughter-in-law, the Duchess of York, wrote to him scornfully that there was a “certain lady” at the Fort, implying that the Prince was showing off his mistress to the royal family. At a dinner party, Wallis gently slapped the Prince on the arm as he picked up a piece of lettuce with his hand and looked at him reproachfully, saying, “That’s not the way to do it. Thelma Furness knew that she was now an ex-lover and had to accept that.
Soon all London was full of rumours. But even the high aristocracy was blowing their noses: “She’s just an average second-class American. She’s fun and she knows fashion, but nothing more. She has no title of nobility, little money and no real estate.”
The closer the bond between the Prince and Wallis became, the more financial difficulties she faced. The latest waves of the financial crisis have now hit the shipping and shipping industry. The couple had to lay off their chauffeur, give up holidays abroad, expensive parties at home and opera performances from prestigious boxes. When her husband was away on business, the Prince gallantly took care of her expenses, gave her diamonds and necklaces, and invited the couple on cruises. Wallis later admitted: “We have crossed the line between friendship and love.”
The English court was, of course, horrified. King George V hand-wrote the Simpsons’ names out of all the invitations to all receptions and had a falling out with his son, the Prince of Wales. At the same time, he demanded of Prime Minister Baldwin that Scotland Yard start monitoring them. The 1935 report was alarming, as it suggested that Wallis was cheating on both the Prince and her husband with a third party. This third party, one M. Trundle, was also married, a lightweight and a classic gigolo. Moreover, it was inferred from observations that the Simpsons were also seeing Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the Fascist Party in Britain, and a drug addict from the highest circles.
Sex, money and fascist politics – what is the heir to the throne getting up to, the court wondered. Somehow, they had got used to the fact that the Prince was a man without responsibility, full of childish whims, persistent in inappropriate relationships, regardless of the damage he was doing to the Crown. But his involvement in a new society of dubious values could have serious consequences for the reputation of the monarchy. What if the Simpsons are working hand in hand to blackmail the Prince? Could their apartment be a Nazi nest? There were many questions, but few answers.
But the Simpsons were not the only ones in that Fairy Quarter to be controlled by Scotland Yard. Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg, a personal acquaintance of Hitler’s who was suspected of having been sent to London to agitate for Hitler’s policies in the highest circles, also lived there. British aristocrats who were friendly to Germany gathered in her flat.
If the King, the Court and the landlords looked down on Wallis, she soon had many admirers. Her arrival in London coincided with the arrival in England of a new generation of rich Americans, and they were now the stars of many a party at which good taste was carried beyond the pale. While the Prince of Wales enjoyed these parties, the King, the Court and the noble landlords no doubt shared the opinion of Lord Crawford, who angrily bellowed: “Personally, I try to distance myself from rich Jews and Americans and refuse to associate with Asiatics.”
In 1935, Hitler’s special envoy Joachim von Ribbentrop found himself in this motley crew, which revolved around Wallis and whose sole purpose was to entertain the Prince of Wales. He met Wallis at a reception at the German embassy. Naturally, his courtship of the American immediately sparked rumours in London and Berlin, especially as he sent her 17 roses to her apartment every day of his stay in London. No one could explain why seventeen. Of course, the main purpose of Ribbentrop’s visit was to persuade the Prince of Wales, as the future King, to accept the hand of friendship from the new German regime. “After all, he is half German and most of his relatives live in Germany,” Ribbentrop reported to Hitler.
The Prince of Wales held Germany in high esteem. “Every drop of blood in my veins is German”, he once told Diana Mitford, a Hitler fan, recalling the German origins of the House of Windsor. He recalled with joy and melancholy his student wanderings in Germany, thought with horror that a new war might break out in Europe, stressed his distrust of France, which he saw as a degenerate country, and hated the Soviet Communists for what they had done to his godfather, Tsar Nicholas II, and his family. He admired Hitler’s successes in providing work, ending unemployment and building housing for workers.
It is hard to say how serious he was about the idea of his role as king-dictator, but everyone knew where his political sympathies lay. On the Jewish question, like most British aristocrats, he was suspicious and for a long time, until the reign of the present Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace did not employ Jews or Catholics in important positions in its household. It is not surprising, therefore, that von Ribbentrop, in his meeting with the Prince, should have found him sympathetic to Germany. These were times when there was hardly a prominent German aristocrat and Nazi sympathiser who did not visit London seeking the company of the Prince of Wales, who naively saw nothing wrong in this, since, after all, in many cases it was his more or less distant relatives.
She doesn’t have a bad figure at all
Sometime in January 1936, Hitler was reclining in his leather armchair, and for a change he was not watching American cartoons, but Goebbels showed him a film of the new King Edward VIII of England overseeing the preparations for the funeral ceremonies for his father George V, who had been ill for a long time and died too soon. A new king, a new era and a golden opportunity for Hitler to win the young king to his mad ideas. Hitler hoped that the new king would become a friend and ally of Germany.
Wallis Simpson also appeared in this film, but discreetly in the background. This unattractive American not only charmed the King, but also his special envoy von Ribbentrop. The next film showed Edward VIII in a bathing suit on a Mediterranean cruise. “The American hasn’t got a bad figure at all,” Hitler grumbled. But who to send to the funeral of a dead king? Hitler decided that it should be the new King’s cousin, Carl Eduard, Duke von Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He appeared at the funeral dressed in Nazi uniform with an iron military helmet on his head. Incidentally, Carl Eduard visited London no less than ten times in a short space of time, visiting his cousin Edward VIII on several occasions and attending numerous receptions.
The pro-Nazi German-English Friendship Society, founded in 1935 and supported by 50 members of the British Parliament, also became very active. Edward VIII decided to take an active role in foreign policy, which caused constant headaches for the Foreign Office. “Who is the King here? Baldwin or me? If I want to talk to Hitler, I will, and I will do it here or in Germany,” grumbled the new king. At this, the Prime Minister, Labour’s Baldwin, just sighed deeply.
Rumours began to circulate in London that the young King was discussing affairs of state with Wallis, that he was handling secret documents carelessly and recklessly, and that he was returning them to the Foreign Office spiked with booze. And the American ambassador reported to Roosevelt: “Many people here think Simpson is a German spy. I myself think it unlikely.” However, the British intelligence service MI5 began to monitor some people in Simpson’s circle of friends.
The British Conservative MP Ronald Tree, also a friend of Churchill, described the atmosphere in Britain at the time best: ‘A strong wave of pro-German feeling has swept over a country whose government foolishly does little or nothing to oppose it. This is pure pacifism and a rejection of fact which is terribly dangerous. People here think that Hitler and his men are ordinary people who can be trusted, instead of seeing that they are a gang of gangsters….” How divided opinions were about Hitler is shown by the statement of former Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who even said after a visit to Hitler: “Hitler is the greatest living German, in fact the German George Washington.”
The road that led to the abdication of the throne and Edward VIII’s famous speech that he could not live without Wallis had been paved some time before, when Edward was still Prince of Wales, by none other than Wallis Simpson’s husband, the inconspicuous Ernest. He left England several times a year for New York, ostensibly on business, but in reality with his mistress Mary Raffray. Now Ernest was in a bind. Business was not going well, he had to pay alimony to his first wife, support his under-age daughter, and Wallis was in London, spending relentlessly on new clothes and jewellery and throwing expensive parties. He saw that she was only interested in the Prince of Wales and the social status he could give her, and he was planning to marry Mary Raffray. But after the divorce he would have to support Wallis, and he could not do so financially.
He decides that it is best to discuss everything with the Prince of Wales, suggests that he is willing to divorce Wallis and leave her to him, but that he must undertake to look after her upkeep. But no one expected the Prince of Wales to become King so soon. But this did not change Ernest’s plans.
The opportunity arose when Wallis went to Paris on one of her shopping trips. In February 1936, King Edward VIII and Ernest arranged a dinner at York House. Ernest brought along his friend the director of the Reuter agency as a witness. At the end of the dinner he could stand it no longer, forgetting protocol and who he was talking to, and asked the King point blank if he wanted to marry his wife. “Are you serious? Are you planning to marry her?”
The King rose from his chair and said dramatically, “Do you really think I am going to be crowned with Wallis at my side?” What the two men finally agreed was not told later by the director of Reuter, but Ernest immediately travelled to Paris to inform Wallis of the bargain. She was furious that the two men had spoken of her in such a way and made it clear to her husband that she would not divorce him and that she had no intention of marrying the King.
She found the proposal unbelievable and impractical. She enjoyed being the Queen’s companion and mistress, but she had no illusions. She knew that sooner or later the King would get tired of her and choose a younger and more beautiful one. Since nothing remains hidden, Prime Minister Baldwin found out about the meeting and immediately called a meeting of his closest associates. Some said that the Simpsons were blackmailers of the first order who should be deported, others calmed their passions and believed that the King’s passion would only slowly cool. But the King has already made up his mind.
Meanwhile, Wallis finds out about her husband’s New York mistress and makes a decision. She filed for divorce, paving the way for her marriage to the King. Under English law at the time, such a divorce was only possible if the husband was caught in an “embarrassing situation”. Everything was carefully orchestrated. Ernest’s mistress came to England and they both checked into a hotel, where they were “discovered” by a detective. As a result of this discovery, Wallis’s lawyer filed for divorce.
The following months were difficult for Wallis. The British press discreetly kept quiet about its King’s love affair, the American media gave a hard time and this put Wallis off her track. She cried while deciding whether to return to her husband, Edward VIII threatened to slit her throat and she slept with a gun under her head. The British aristocracy more or less ignored her. When the Duchess of York came to Balmoral for a visit, she walked past Wallis, the hostess, as if she did not see her, and declared, “I have come to dine with the King.”
A few months later, Edward VIII welcomed Prime Minister Baldwin, saying, “Marriage to Mrs Simpson is a prerequisite of my existence, both as King and husband.” He then politely presented him with three choices; he could forgo the marriage because the British people could not imagine their King marrying a woman whose two former spouses were still alive. But if he chose to marry, he would cause a constitutional crisis and the government would resign. The last option was to abdicate the throne.
The King immediately replied that he would resign and informed his mother and three brothers. They were all stunned and horrified, convinced that he had lost his mind. Some suggested that he could have opted for a morganatic marriage, whereby Wallis would have been considered the Queen’s companion, but would not have the title of Queen of Great Britain and would have lost all the benefits, both protocol and financial. But this would require a special law to be passed by Parliament and the support of all the lands of the British Empire. The idea was therefore soon abandoned.
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The woman I love
Now the British press was no longer holding back either, and the newspapers were full of articles about the “affair”.Wallis began to receive threatening letters, stones were thrown at the windows of her villa and, terrified, she travelled to her friends in France. But Edward VIII did not relent and on 10 December 1937 he spoke on the radio, telling the world that “I cannot do my duty as King and Emperor without the help and support of the woman I love”.
Meanwhile, 500 black-shirted British fascist Mosley marched in front of Buckingham Palace, holding out his hand in a fascist salute and shouting, “We want Edward!” Edward VIII reigned for only 325 days, and when he was no longer King, he had only the title of Duke of Windsor. He took a yacht across the Channel and then to Austria, where the Rothschild family put Enzesfeld Castle at his disposal. He left the English behind in shock, if not in mourning.
As expected, the abdication was now blamed on the American who had brought them the “golden boy”. Wallis Simpson was spoken of with contempt and derision. The only other talk at court was of “that woman”, the dangerous adventuress, the villainess who had bewitched the King with sex, using unknown techniques she had learned in Shanghai. The former king was to be her slave, her sex slave, there could be nothing else. There could now be no doubt that Wallis was a potential spy, blackmailer and friend of the Nazis. Scotland Yard was convinced that she would escape to Germany.
But she was alone in a villa in the south of France, guarded by three British agents and six French policemen, with a crowd of photojournalists everywhere, so she was nervous in the end. Germany was also very disappointed by the King’s abdication. Von Ribbentrop fantasised that the British government would fall and a new government would be formed by the fascist Oswald Mosley, and that the fascist-leaning ex-King would return. It was all a conspiracy of Jews, Freemasons and, of course, later Churchill.
Before Wallis’s divorce became final in April 1937, the couple spent almost six months apart, she in France, he in Austria. This was particularly painful for him because he had to accept that he no longer had the same benefits at his disposal as when he was still King. He was confident that he could still play a significant role – albeit a diminished role – in British public life. He soon realised how wrong he was, as Buckingham Palace would not even take all his many telephone calls.
What’s more, he was now seen as a serious threat to the monarchy and it was believed that the ambitious Wallis would set up her own parallel court, funded by money from the British budget. So they immediately cut the Duke of Windsor’s income drastically. After much deliberation, he was told that his financial support was £25 000 a year and could be significantly reduced if he set foot on British soil again without permission. In anger, the Duke wrote a seven-page letter to the British Prime Minister, but nothing changed.
So he had to accept reality and give up his desire to make his marriage an official event, attended by representatives of the various European courts, and to receive the blessing of the Church of England. He was aware that he was surrounded by enemies. He and Wallis also listened bitterly to the radio broadcast of the coronation of the new King George VI of England. On the day of their wedding, only seven Englishmen were present at the short ceremony, all the others were French and American. They honeymooned at Wasserleonburg Castle, where they arrived with 266 pieces of luggage.
But the Duke was not content with golf and evening chats with acquaintances over glasses of brandy. He wanted to show the world and his wife that he was still making a difference. It was the conflicting reports from Germany that prompted him to ask acquaintances, most of them sympathetic to the Nazi regime, to organise a visit to the land of his former ancestors so that he could see for himself what it was like to be an ordinary German.
Although the arrangements for the German visit were secret, Buckingham Palace was informed and shocked, and immediately informed its diplomatic missions that it was not an official visit and not to pay too much attention to it. They were convinced that the Duke was trying to return to public life with the help of Nazi Germany with a twelve-day visit.
In Berlin, however, the visit was seen as a great propaganda victory. When the duo arrived in Berlin on the morning of 11 October 1937, they were met at the railway station only by the Third Secretary of the British Embassy, who informed them that the Ambassador had unfortunately had to leave. The Nazis, of course, provided the ceremonial reception, decorating the station with British and Nazi flags, a brass band played God Save the King, the leader of the German Labour Front, Dr Robert Ley, greeted them, and a crowd of curious onlookers shouted enthusiastically. At the Kaiserhof Hotel, they were enthusiastically greeted by a select group of Nazis. Shortly afterwards, a motorcade sped off to a reception at Hermann Göring’s estate, Carinhall. After tea, Emma Göring declared that Wallis would be “a fit person for the English throne”.
The visit to Germany was a long one, with visits to Nuremberg, Munich, Dresden and Stuttgart. The duo also visited a concentration camp, and the Duke asked what was in an apparently empty large concrete building and was told, “This is where we store the meat.” Wallis, however, complained to the Duke about Dr Ley, who was always watching them. “A drunkard, a bigot, a brawler and a braggart. And his mouth stinks of alcohol.”
During the visit, the duo also met Himmler, Hess and the Goebbels couple. The highlight of the visit was a visit to Hitler at his residence in Berchtesgaden and a 50-minute meeting with him. According to the interpreter’s account, no political issues were discussed and the Duke made no indication of his approval of the Nazi regime. At the end of the visit, Hitler escorted them to the car and greeted them with the Nazi salute. The Duke replied in the same way.
Wallis was struck by Hitler’s pallor and his eyes, which glowed with a “strange fire”. Of course, the Nazi propaganda exploited this visit to the extreme, although it must be admitted that ordinary people greeted the ducal couple with unadulterated enthusiasm. Later, the Duke admitted that Hitler had deceived him: “I believed him when he said he did not want war with England.”
The Duke and Wallis were then due to make a five-week visit to America and attend a reception at the White House. The British Court was outraged, seeing the visit not as a curiosity on the part of the Duke to learn about the country and the way of life of its people, but as an attempt by the former King to present himself to the public as an ambassador of the world peace movement, and as throwing a spanner in the works of the new King of England. The White House became wary, the press was so disgusted that the visit was eventually cancelled. The British court was undoubtedly worried, because the Duke of Windsor had a charisma that his brother and the new King George VI did not have. Goebbels seized the opportunity and in October 1939 spread the rumour that George VI had already abdicated and that the new King would be the Duke of Windsor, who would make sure that the war would end.
War as a chess game
The war, which officially began on 3 September 1939, took the ducal couple to the south of France. The British government offered to fly them home, but Wallis was afraid of flying, so a British bomber came to Cherbourg to look for them. They arrived in Porthmouth during a blackout, were greeted by a brass band and played only part of the anthem, as the full anthem was only meant to be played for the King. The Court completely ignored their arrival. The Queen also made sure that she was not at Buckingham Palace when the Duke of Windsor arrived to discuss his future duties with his brother the King. The conversation between the brothers was friendly, and the Duke of Windsor was assigned to a British military mission near Paris.
But the Duke was still not trusted, because in January 1940 intelligence intercepted a conversation between the German ambassador in The Hague and Berlin: “Because of my personal acquaintance, I have the opportunity to facilitate a contact which may lead to the Duke of Windsor.” The Ambassador went on to explain that the Duke was not entirely satisfied with his role in the British military mission. “It also seems to me that there is a group gathering around him which does not have influence at the moment, but which could get influence in favourable circumstances.”
Indeed, the Duke’s personal friend Charles Bedaux often travelled to The Hague, and the German ambassador in The Hague mentioned the Duke as an indirect source of his information. It is more likely, however, that there was a German agent in the Duke’s entourage who was listening in on the babbling Duke’s speech. The question is, of course, whether the Duke knew what this man was doing.
Some of the Duke’s biographers later even claimed that the Duke had written to Hitler on 4 November 1939, when the war was already raging, under the pseudonym EP (Edward Prince), and that he had passed military information to the Germans through his friend Charles Bedaux. Wallis is also said to have discussed military matters she had heard from her husband at the many dinners she gave for her friends. All this is consistent with the persistent rumours circulating among the British elite at the time, which were accepted as fact after the end of the war.
The former King and his wife were seen as, at the very least, petty and not to be trusted. Wallis in particular was rumoured to be pro-German and to have contacts with leading Nazis. A number of documents held in the National Archives in London purported to prove that the Duke had passed secret information to the Germans, but were later proved to be forgeries. Who produced them and how they came to be in the archives is still unclear. In any case, in June and July 1940, when Britain was struggling to survive and looking bad after the defeat at Dunkirk, many Englishmen were convinced that they were going to lose the war. The Duke’s mistake, however, was to say so publicly.
He was soon transferred to the Armée des Alpes in the south of France, near the Italian border. This was close to the villa the couple had rented in Cap d’ Antibes. When Italy declared war on France, the Duke naturally had to be transported to England for safety. He asked to be evacuated from Nice by a British warship, which was refused in London, saying that they had no ship at their disposal and suggesting that they both get in the car and drive to neutral Spain. And so, on 19 June, a convoy of four cars, one of which was a lorry carrying the luggage of the ducal couple, set off for Barcelona. During his stay in the south of France, the Duke and his wife were virtually quarantined, isolated from British troops and “under surveillance”. When he visited military posts, they made sure that he did not see too much and that he had no contact with his commanders.
After arriving in Spain, the wildest speculations began to circulate and the most extraordinary story of the Second World War began to unfold, a story that was hidden from the public and only partially revealed fifteen years after the end of the war. Franco’s Spain, officially neutral but firmly on the German side, immediately asked Berlin whether it should keep the ducal couple in Spain long enough for Berlin to enter into secret talks with the duke on a peace agreement. The Italian newspapers had already reported that the English army had mutinied and put the former King back on the throne. The ex-King was therefore to become a kind of British Petain.
At that time, things were looking really bad for Britain, and a few weeks later Prince Max von Hohenlore reported that he had met the British representative in Switzerland and started discussing preparations for peace talks. With the ducal duo in Madrid and von Ribbentrop considering what to do, a message, or rather an order, came from London that the duo should go immediately to Lisbon, where a British plane would be waiting for them. The Duke wanted to know what position he would be offered when he arrived in England, because when he and his wife arrived there in September 1939, they had been treated in a most humiliating way.
The Duke of Windsor’s demands, at a time when England was struggling to survive, were seen in London as unsavoury, and everything he demanded distanced him from the few people who still sympathised with him. And they would have resented him even more if they had known that he had asked the German and Italian embassies, through his Spanish friends, to protect, if possible, the two villas he had in Paris and Antibes. Were these just hooks thrown in to start diplomatic talks about a possible peace, or was it just the Duke’s clumsiness?
In any case, the answer was positive. In public, the Duke gave the impression that he was confident of ultimate victory, but in private it was a different story. He was convinced that Britain would be defeated and that peace had to be made with Germany. Those who heard this and who were friends of Germany – and there were many of them among the Spanish at that time – were quick to tell Berlin. The Duke and his wife did go to Lisbon, but he had not yet thought of returning to England.
But Churchill’s telegram was already waiting for him in Lisbon, informing him that the Duke was an active military man and that refusing orders could have serious consequences for him. This almost accused him of being a deserter. A few days later, he merely offered him the insignificant post of Governor of the Bahamas, where he would be far removed from all the action and influence. The Duke accepted. Only Wallis grumbled that this was the equivalent of Napoleon’s exile to St Helena.
Meanwhile, in Berlin, the duke and his wife were plotting how to lure the duo back to Spain and hatched a plan to lure the duke and his wife to Spain on the pretext that they were threatened with assassination in Lisbon. Once safe in Spain, the Duke will have to be told that the only obstacle to peace is Churchill’s clique. Once the peace agreement is signed, the Duke is to return to the English throne. If the Duke does not agree to return to Spain, he will be kidnapped.
British Intelligence had got wind that something was up, especially as Berlin had sent its top operative, Chief of Intelligence Walter Schellenberg, to Lisbon and instructed him to use force if necessary. Soon, as many as 18 German agents had taken up residence unnoticed in the vicinity of the villa where the Duke was staying.
First, a German messenger came to the Duke and told him that Churchill wanted to assassinate him either here or in the Bahamas. The Duke listened with his mouth open. No sooner had the German messenger left than Churchill’s envoy came and told him that the Germans wanted to kidnap him and use him for their own political ends. The Duke listened with his mouth even more open. Finally, he decided to just go to the Bahamas, accompanied by his security guards. He told the German envoy that he could serve in peace in the Bahamas. He sailed there on 1 August 1940.
Holidays in the Bahamas
Once in the tropical heat of the Bahamas, Wallis found the Governor’s villa unsuitable for the former King and undertook an extensive and expensive renovation. She pushed local politicians to add some money. Of course, she refused to give up her hairdresser, who regularly came to Nassau from as far away as New York. But they were both struggling to get used to life in the Bahamas. Publicly, they were the image of dedicated local leaders, Wallis took on the local Red Cross, and the Duke was keen to tackle local problems that needed radical reform.
Privately, they were desperate to escape the hot climate and inappropriate society. He tried to resort to drink, but Wallis would not allow him a single cocktail before 7 pm. Of course, the Duke had enough to drink, as he had hundreds of bottles temporarily stowed away in the basement of the British Embassy in Washington, labelled “diplomatic baggage”. He had cleverly evaded US customs. Occasionally, much to the annoyance of London, he was visited by some of his acquaintances, known for their Nazi tendencies.
Both were subject to strict but undetectable surveillance during their stay in the Bahamas. Even Wallis’s parents were allowed to visit them in America only on condition that they behaved properly. Wallis used her visit to New York to make extensive purchases, including 34 hats. They did not return to the Bahamas until a month later. Throughout her stay there, Wallis was very ill, suffering from headaches and stomachaches, and in August 1944 she underwent successful surgery for cancer.
In London, they were scratching their heads about what to do with the unpopular couple after the war. They could settle permanently in America and that would solve the problem. The Duke was allowed to relinquish his governorship of the Bahamas and he and Wallis left the archipelago on 3 May 1945 and settled in New York. The discovery of some documents from the German Foreign Office prolonged their agony. Their content was allegedly unpatriotic, even treacherous. Thus began a story that lasted twice as long as the Second World War.
What is written is written and cannot be erased, and if it is written, it is best to have it written. So the Allies thought towards the end of the war, and went on a hunt for German Foreign Office documents. A team called Target Force, numbering 287 officers and nearly 900 soldiers, split into smaller groups and went to work. They went around Germany, asking questions, interrogating, threatening, breaking into cellars, searching castles and digging in gardens. And she found a lot of documents, so many that they were trucked to a collection centre and then to London. It took months and years to get at least some of them examined and catalogued.
The investigators had something to see. But they were horrified to discover, during their examination, German documents dealing with the Duke of Windsor’s inter-war activities. It showed a man who was dissatisfied with his position, disloyal to his family and unpatriotic towards his country. This led Churchill to threaten him with a court martial if he did not obey orders during the war. The Duke made outright treasonous statements during his stay in Madrid and Lisbon, and German, Spanish and Portuguese agents took careful notes of them. Not only did he oppose Churchill and the war, he was convinced that there would have been no war if he had remained on the throne.
If the documents were genuine, they showed that he did not believe in the Fatherland and that he supported Hitler’s crazy plans for peace. All this was tantamount to treason. The Royal Family, Churchill and the Prime Ministers who succeeded him were unanimous that these documents must never be seen by the public. The Duke of Windsor then repeatedly asked to be given a diplomatic post at the embassy in Washington, but always fell on deaf ears. Eventually, he and Wallis decided to move into a rented villa in the south of France. The Duke’s relations with the British royal family were increasingly strained. This did not change even when King George VI died in 1952 and was succeeded by Queen Elizabeth II. The doors of Buckingham Palace remained closed to him.
The existence of the “Windsor Dossier” came to the public’s attention in 1949 at a conference of historians. Churchill opposed publication, but the Americans, the French and finally the Germans were all in favour. When it was finally published, the world did not collapse, Queen Elizabeth II continued to reign safely, and the Duke and Duchess continued to live their social lives uninterrupted.
They lived in France, accompanied by an entourage of 22 people. Only when they died, he in 1972 and she in 1986, were they admitted to the Royal Family. They lay side by side in the Royal Cemetery at Frogmore, in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
