The Exiled Windsors (2023) - FULL DOCUMENTARY - HD

foreign [Music] until now it has not been constitutionally possible for me to speak the year 1936 behind the doors of 10 Downing Street controversy suspicion prime minister Stanley Baldwin has a difficult decision to make the king of England and of Great Britain is infatuated with divorced American socialite Wallace Simpson the King has been showering his mistress with extravagant gifts a warning to the security services of possible blackmail a time of great International unrest the last thing that Britain needed was a king whose personal and indeed political motives are seen a suspect Wallace was rumored to have had Liaisons with foreign government officials that was of concern there was a lot of a lot of questions regarding whether she was possibly an agent working for some foreign power fears grow two of his association with fascist sympathizers and the possibility the king could attempt to overthrow the government to keep his seat of power on the throne even before Edward became king there was a general sense that he was a security risk and the main reason why he was seen as a security risk whether his links with a Nazi party a close relationship with the Nazis raised questions over whether Edward and Wallace were themselves possessed of fascist sympathy at the very least would the affair trigger civil unrest and turmoil in an already unstable country the court was so Des perately worried about the influence of this American woman about whom they knew very little on Edward one of the courts you said you know does the king no good that all these rumors are fed to Buckingham Palace the Prime Minister must make that difficult decision to spy on the head of state the Monarch is an extraordinarily controversial and intrusive act but Baldwin finally gives the order the British intelligence service began to spy on the king it's an astonishing story because you see the level to which Edward was loathed and mistrusted by the security services and by those who are in the high restaurants of government and so began one of the greatest constitutional crises in centuries when Mrs Simpson came along their prayers were answered because suddenly here was somebody who could take the blame for the fact that the Unholy Trinity of Palace Parliament and church did not want Edward the eighth on the throne the 1930s was a dark and difficult time inside Downing Street the Wall Street crash of 1929 caused a cataclysmic chain of events and the Great Depression touched every corner of the globe Britain faced the devil's decade experiencing high unemployment and an enormous decline in the economy by the time prime minister Stanley Baldwin came into office in 1935 things still looked Bleak everyday life in the early 20th century was very Dynamic the the 19th century the 100 year period before the Advent of the 20th century was marked by great social political economic change Britain became an industrial society after the first world war Britain falls into a depression as a result of the Wall Street Crash which emanates from New York this plunges many Ordinary People into dire poverty again they turn to the extremes they look to Communism fascism for answers this is a moment of grave Peril for the British Monarchy there was a general feeling of depression both in terms of economic depression but also social depression because lots of young men had died the country was impoverished but there was a general sense also but Britain was no longer great there was a sense of the days of Empire the days that people could be certain a Britain's place of the world had rather elapsed and so when George V became king there was a real sense that rebirth was needed and that there was a new kind of monarchy that people were looking for there was a much stronger moral code a far greater respect and reverence for the monarchy and a sense that people led a much more ordinary and disciplined life in a way there was greater sense of poverty a greater sense of reverence for authority and a greater respect for the church King George V had been Gravely ill and as the new year was welcomed in the king held on for a few more weeks George V was a king who had to deal with a series of crises that colored his Reign ranging from the first world war to the rise of Communism and fascism the Great Depression and laterally the fragmentation of the empire George V was a very good King in the sense that everything that was integral to his being was about responsibility and Duty and dignity and he took his role very seriously he was somebody who essentially saw himself almost like Queen Victoria again somebody who's going to come in and take this institution that was beginning to fall into disrepute and essentially make it great again but what he was was he wasn't a dynamic figure he's often been called the most boring King ever to have ruled England he was a king who had to move with the times he did so by presenting himself as a figure of Duty who took his responsibilities as king very seriously who put the nation ahead of his own desires because he wasn't this Dynamic figure he was in his own way somebody who did bring about change but the change was out of stability so I think from that point of view the country the people felt very safe with their Monarch and so we could say he was a diligent dutiful King then as London's clocks near midnight the word came by radio from England's famous BBC that the king had died Dawn finds London with all flags at half must the busy theater districts are deserted with even the cinemas closed and in many cases houses of business as well [Music] at Buckingham Palace thousands stand sightedly and token of their grief there is no disorder but from time to time the Mounted Police find it necessary to push back the first lines with crepe from their colors the gods follow the ancient military formalism to The Last Detail he died on the 20th of January in 1936 the Prince of Wales automatically ascended to the throne and became King Edward VII or when his father died he he greeted his father's death of absolute hysteria and he was throwing things around and shouting and unable to respond to it and I think a lot of people thought this was a very bad Omen of what was to come and they were proved right the tragedy of Edward VII is actually he was incredibly popular as a king with his people and I think that very much like Princess Diana he had this ability to engage with the people um and although he came from tremendous privilege he was able to touch people there was a great deal of affection for him among the British public because he had this this special intimate relationship with them this continued when he was King however in terms of the the business of government he was he was less dutiful he wasn't as exacting as his father he wasn't as committed to to going through the government papers to signing those off he didn't have a great sense of responsibility I mean he used to drive his courtiers mad with the constant repost can I get away with it which probably meant can I get away with not fulfilling my duties and I think that what he tried to do to the monarchy if he had stayed on the train any longer would have systematically ruined it as an institution so we look at a very few positive achievements that he had in his Reign which I think have to be he has to be given some small credit at acts of innovation set against the fact that he was the least suited man ever to have been king and the fact that people were desperately not to be king suggested it was well known way way in advance of his accession that he was not the right person to ever become a king Edward the eighth God saved the king [Music] years before becoming King Edward began his relationship with a married American socialite Wallace Simpson already once divorced and remarried Edward's deep infatuation grew into an obsession Wallace was a woman who did not want or need him Prince Edward had everything the world at his feet and a Charmed Life and The Pick of the crop of aristocratic English women Wallace was beguiling and enchanting a strong and capable woman he craved her love and attention and as their romance developed he found it impossible to be without her unfortunately for Edward as his father died and he became king the traditions and moral standards of the constitutional monarchy meant his relationship with Wallace could not culminate in marriage the government and courtiers grew anxious and suspicious as Edward was adamant he would continue his relationship with Wallace why could he not find a suitable aristocratic lady to marry what made Wallace so exceptional is to risk his popularity and his ability to rule as king from the first meeting it was very much Wallace and Earnest and they were in the Royal milieur and then Edward uh was very intrigued by Wallace clearly and would start dropping in for potluck suppers at Hua with the three of them at their London flat Edward was utterly obsessed by Wallace Simpson he was obsessed by her in a way that I think we'd look at today and see it as a form of stalking Edward really liked the fact that Wallace was sharp tongued quick-witted she had a great sense of humor and she didn't suffer fools she always spoke to him as an equal she didn't treat him as a kind of Superior and I think he liked the fact that she would hold into account in terms of his behavior something that he didn't get from from the other women that he'd spent time with I think there was so much to like about Wallace Which history has conveniently eroded she was witty she was fun she was in incredibly kind she was loyal she was dignified so I think she was very stoic and I think she had tremendous tremendous reserves and depths of character actually Baldwin was faced with a controversial and unprecedented decision should he instruct MI5 to spy on Edward the catastrophic Fallout of the public knew about Edward and Wallace would be too great a risk to Baldwin's government he must do everything to keep peace and stability Baldwin gave the command and the intelligence Services began spying on Edward who became king the very man to whom they had pledged their loyalty and devotion the surveillance operation began with investigations into Wallace Simpson who was this woman what was it about her that attracted the eye of royalty what did she have to offer him agents were assigned to follow her to track her movements and take note of who she would meet spies would then interview those who had interactions with Wallace attempting to discover the truth of her relationship with the Prince of Wales British spies were monitoring Edward Wallace because the court was so desperately worried about the influence of this American woman about who they knew very little on Edward Wallace was rumored to have had Liaisons with foreign government officials that was of concern there was a lot of a lot of questions regarding whether she was possibly an agent working for some foreign power it's an astonishing story because you see the level to which Edward was loathed and mistrusted by the security services and by those who were in The High restaurants of government a time of great International unrest the last thing that Britain needed was a king whose personal and indeed political motives are seen a suspect both Edward and Wallace had personal bodyguards from the special branch and it was later revealed the officers would report back on private conversations between the couple a great intrusion on their privacy Thomas Argyle Robertson a new recruit to MI5 was tasked with performing a wiretap on the couple's private phone calls later during the second world war Robertson became involved in one of the greatest intelligence operations of all time known as the double cross but in these pre-war days his task to spy on the king involved Robertson placing the wiretap in one of the telephone junction boxes in Green Park where he was able to listen to the calls [Music] Baldwin unimpressed with Edward's approach to kingship was looking for leverage to enable him to negotiate either the end of their Affair or to come to an agreement for Edward to abdicate Edward's emotional state was rapidly declining and it was obvious he could not fulfill his role as king without Wallace by his side Robertson overheard him talking to his brother Bertie he spoke of how he could no longer go on Baldwin's government was delighted this was their chance to strike a deal [Music] foreign it was well known in high society that this affair between Wallace and Edward had been going on over the course of 1936 the British government also increasingly came to learn about the relationship however it was hidden from the British public and this is because the great press Barons Lord Beaver Brook and Lord rothermere had conspired together to basically say to to other Fleet Street editors of newspapers that they mustn't publish the story about Wallace and Edward that this must be kept a closely guarded secret I think what was terribly difficult for the British public was of course they knew nothing about Wallace and Edwards relationship they just saw their beloved king um you know with his flax and hair going about his duties whereas within the establishment and within Society everybody knew about their relationship and I think that one of the cruelest aspects of history in this respect is that everybody in the Prince of Wales and Mrs Simpson Circle who met Mrs Simpson really liked her and really admired her and could see what a good influence she was on the king however it was the Unholy Trinity as I call them of Palace Parliament and church who did not want Edward on the throne and in my opinion uh Mrs Simpson became the suitable scapegoat for that and I think what's interesting is that the wider public knew nothing about this even though Edward was quite happy to flaunt her in public and was always seen around with her very much as His official companion this was because there was real concern about what the public response would be and ultimately they were very successful Beaver Brook and Rotherham in keeping this a closely guarded secret right through until the end of 1936. So within that Society Circle there was a sense of acceptance that this was the woman that the Prince of Wales had Chosen and they could see a beneficial influence the public were kept out of the picture they knew nothing because there was a press moratorium press blackout on it and there was this absolute rage and sense of Revolt in the palace and partly in Parliament and certainly within the church foreign was accompanying the king regularly on official functions though her husband's name was left off the court circular the King's holiday in the Mediterranean with Wallace was heavily covered in the European and American Press but not by the British media as their intention to marry one another was made clear to the government and courtiers Wallace began divorce proceedings prime minister Baldwin was invited to Buckingham Palace by the King on Monday the 16th of November where Edward affirmed his determination to marry Wallace Simpson Baldwin was outraged it was simply unacceptable parliamentarians agreed entirely expressing deepest concerns at the possibility of the marriage the British press were still silent the public had no idea of the crisis they were about to face [Music] it was said by Tommy lassells before Edward became king that I hope that he would fall off his horse while racing and break his neck and Baldwin replied God forgive me so do I now this proves that in 1927 already the church and the palace did not think that Edward was going to be a good King and wanted somehow to remove him from the throne the idea was was that in the highest echelons of society whether it was social whether it was political ecclesiastical or anything else nobody wanted him to become king because they saw him as a complete liability but also and I think this is crucial somebody who could not be governed because up to that point and I suppose subsequently as well has always been the tacit understanding that the king governs by consent the king is a constitutional Monarch who rules within the boundaries set down of a British constitution he does what he's told in other words who'd had no interest in doing what he was told he wants to be a reforming Monarch he wants to be somebody who was going to tear up for the certainties for his father and grandfather and great great grandmother had governed by and because of this he was seen as somebody who was incredibly dangerous but of course what do you do with a Troublesome King you can't just kill them after all there were some doubts about Edward's Fitness for the role as king certainly among government circles and in religious circles the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was quite critical of Edward and that's because Edward earlier on in 1936 had gone to a South Wales mining Village and on seeing the deprivation and poverty there he announced quite indiscreetly that something had to be done this was interpreted by journalists that were there accompanying him of as an implicit criticism of the British government and the British government didn't like the fact that Edward was outspoken as a monarch in this way certainly within religious circles it was also the case that church ministers and notably the Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang he thought that Edward was unsuited to the role of King because as king he was Supreme governor of the Church of England and as Supreme governor of the Church of England he was meant to set a good Christian example to his people this meant going to church on Sundays it also meant that he should look for a good Christian marriage with a good Christian woman for the Archbishop of Canterbury Wallace Simpson was not a good Christian woman when Mrs Simpson came along their prayers were answered because suddenly here was somebody who could take the blame for the fact that as I say the Unholy Trinity of Palace Parliament and church did not want Edward the eighth on the throne well it's fair to say that Edward didn't listen to very many people but he did listen to Winston Churchill Because by the time he became key in 1936 Winston Churchill was having this we we now see it as quite anomalous period in his life where he was a backbench MP he believed that most of the country believed His Glory Days were behind him that he would never become Prime Minister he would never be somebody of significant National or International repute so what Churchill did and I think it's fair to say there was an element of Mischief making here was he like to take up causes one of the causes that he took up was essentially Edward VA because he knew that Baldwin despised him and Churchill despise Baldwin he thought Baldwin was a little man who was unsuited to being prime minister and I think there was some admiration on Churchill's part of this this young king who had always been this very dashing figure and when it came to the abdication Churchill was very supportive of Edward Church who went so far as to try and build a movement behind Edward within Parliament to support his desire to remain King and also to marry Wallace Simpson Churchill absolutely saw the benefit of Wallace in Edward's life he talked about this love being you know essential to Edward almost as a way of breathing she was his oxygen and he also said that there was nothing um depraved or unnatural about their relationship and he was very fond of Edward and you know at the time of the abdication he very much was pushing for the king to stay on his throne for the possibility of a Morgan attic marriage he was a tremendous champion of the Windsors I think during the second world war when he wanted Edward and Wallace to come back to England and then Edward was you know haggling over his title uh that Churchill lost patience but essentially he saw the man for who he was he saw the relationship and he also saw the Spite and vitriol meted out to him from the palace and Parliament so Churchill I think partly for Mischief making partly out of a desire to see fair play done would very much put himself on an Edward's side and he would offer him advice I mean the day of the McMahon assassination attempt for instance Edward was making a speech at horse guards parade and Churchill had written that speech which I think shows you the way in which there was this very strong almost pervasive influence that Churchill had on the younger man and if we look at the idea of Edward and in fact George both searching for father figures all their lives I think Churchill became to both of them a father figure and I think that's something that's very interesting when you look at the idea of Churchill who though whose own Sons there's huge disappointment to him in many regards finding himself closer to these Kings it was the bishop of Bedford who inadvertently revealed the significance of this constitutional matter when in a public speech he referenced a notable person in crisis this then triggered the floodgates to open and the Press began to discuss the king's romance with Mrs Simpson the major news story of the day but the king of England was involved in a relationship with a married American woman was just simply not talked about it was all over papers in America it's a lot of papers in Europe and in Britain it simply was not mentioned at all but all of the newspapers knew this was a massive story and so the editors and Proprietors were faced with his tension between do we keep the story off the papers like we're supposed to or do we run it and do we sell papers that way all of them are waiting essentially for a sign and the sign came on the first to December 1936. the sermon by the bishop of Bradford was so cataclysmic in the whole run-up to the abdication because it was the first time that the royal family were really tainted by Scandal the sermon by the bishop of Bradford changed things this was because the the bishop of Bradford stood up on a Sunday morning and criticized the king for behaving in an unchristian way what he actually was talking about was the fact that Edward didn't go to church very much on Sundays but what the the London newspapers interpreted this comment as was a an implicit criticism of Edward's affair with Wallace and they used this as an opportunity to announce the news to the public that this affair had been going on and there was a sense that how could the king uh possibly remain as head of the Church of England if he was having a relationship with a married woman and it was this sermon that really broke the dam on the Press moratorium and um the editor of the time said I can't possibly remain silent so the sermon had a devastating effect on the on the course of history and the next 10 days and what unraveled so I think that Bishop blunt has gone down in history and where he really rather wouldn't have done simply because of this accidentally intendiary sermon that he preached within days Wallace fled to France attempting to escape the Press devastated the king vowed he would not live without Wallace there was immediate and overwhelming support from the public for the king to be able to marry the love of his life and to continue in his role as their monarch however the gray suits of the upper classes and Senior civil servants and clergy would have none of it The public's reaction to the announcement of this this news of the affair was one of shock and surprise how could this news have been kept from them for so long they were in in some quarters supportive of their King they thought that he should be able to marry the woman he loved and stay on the throne the public just could not believe that their beloved King was going to forsake them I mean it was like Harry and megsit times a million they adored this man they put their faith in him they all wanted him to marry and such was the Public's affection for Edward that in fact there were many discussions especially with Wallace well could he give an address to the people and if the people could understand that he loved this woman and he genuinely he felt he could not be a good king without her then they would understand there was an enormously mixed reaction you could essentially summarize it like this the middle classes were horrified and disgusted because they saw that the king having this relationship with a married woman and a divorced woman so it was completely unacceptable certainly in more middle class and in more conservative circles there were concerns that Edward was not putting Duty ahead of his his personal gratification and that he should be be playing a a better role as a Christian King the working classes didn't think anything of this they thought it was absolutely fair enough that they loved the king but once seemed to be happy and they were very very keen that he remained on the throne so it really split the country down the middle and of course the upper classes were faced with this completely different idea whereby they didn't condemn him from a moral perspective they condemned him more from a perspective of being selfish enough to having put the country in this constitutional crisis as Arguments for and against them marriage began to unfold The Establishment became increasingly stubborn they felt as though Edward had a blatant disregard for traditions and social norms and they distrusted his desire to modernize the monarchy for social moral religious and political reasons they could not accept an American divorcee as Queen Baldwin could only see three options firstly Edward and Wallace marry and she would become Queen but that was simply not acceptable a middle ground could be for Edward and Wallace to marry but for her not to become Queen instead receiving a courtesy title the final solution and one which Baldwin favored was for Edward to abdicate after lengthy discussion amongst parliamentarians and Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth most agreed options 1 and 2 would simply not work except for Winston Churchill though he pledged to support the government he was one of the few voices of support for Edward devastated and worn down by the wall of determination by the government Edward decided to abdicate Edward always knew that abdication was a possibility if we go and look at the Diaries of his friends and Associates earlier on in 1936 when they're talking about the affair before it's become public news we know that Edward was already considering this idea that he might have to abdicate in order to marry the woman he loved however this was not plan a he would have preferred to stay as king this was a role he cared about deeply that he wanted to play and he wanted to marry the woman he loved in one sense it wasn't a difficult decision at all because the thing that he was most clear about was that he could not be an effective king without the support of the woman he loved however for a man like that who'd been brought up in that household obviously to abdicate was the most seismic devastating event and I think he genuinely felt terrible at letting people who loved him down I don't think it was a question of uh he felt guilt at betraying the palace or Parliament because I think he felt they had betrayed him actually on the cold gray morning of 10th of December 1936 he signed his abdication notice which came into effect the following day foreign [Music] [Music] his younger brother Bertie was one of the witnesses but he watched as the burden of the crown fell to his shoulders and changed the course of British history forever he loved his brother and he knew the strain he was then going to be putting on to his brother but as he said Bertie was a better mold of King he was going to be more dutiful he had a more stoic traditional wife in Elizabeth lion um and in fact Edward didn't cause collapse in the country it was better for the country that he wasn't King Edward made a speech immediately after he abdicated to the British people via the BBC Radio Airwaves he took this opportunity to explain to them his reasoning stressing that he could not carry out his duties in the way he wanted to do so without the woman he loved by his side this was significant because he was emphasizing that true love was extremely important to him that he aspired to personal fulfillment and ultimately he he couldn't do without her and that he wouldn't be the king he wanted to be without Wallace from Windsor Castle introduced as his Royal Highness Prince Edward in a speech Polished by Churchill Edward broadcast to the nation A Reign of only 327 days he was a king never crowned the following day he left Britain and traveled to Austria I am able to say a few words I have never wanted to withhold anything until now it has not been constitutional I need to speak but you must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the headed burden of responsibility came to discharge my thinking of King as I would wish to be nice to help and support of the world I love and now we all have a new king I wish him and you his people happiness and prosperity with all my heart God bless you all God Save the King now Duke of Windsor traveled to France eventually uh in May 1937 Edward and Wallace are finally reunited uh in France the British press go wild they've they followed this story they've waited they've waited for this moment of of reunion uh and they're our front page uh photographs and headlines uh celebrating the fact that these two lovers uh are back together again they were so tender at that stage because it really was them against the world I mean we have to remember that at the time of the abdication um Wallace was getting death threats in the terms of letters on her breakfast tray and she actually said you know every morning um when I received these letters uh I know that the world has turned against me that the world hates me she had become the most hated woman in the world um and the only person who could really be bombed to that wound was Edward so the separation was incredibly difficult for them one month later they would be married at the Chateau de Conde in South France and again this was a big moment for the uh for the couple and also the the press and media were fascinated by uh this event partly because it had come just in the in the in the wake of the the coronation of George VI and really it was it was seen as a as a moment where that story the scandal of the abdication had finally come to a happy end the wedding day was a Bittersweet Affair prior to the wedding Edward had been delivered to visceral blows one he was told that his wife would never get the hrh title A Royal Highness and it is no exaggeration to say that he received this news like a sort of fatal gunshot wound from which he never ever recovered um and the second was to be told that no member of his family would be attending the wedding Walter Moncton who has been an advisor of Edwards during and after the abdication crisis attended for wedding and he was one of the very few people who did and what Monkton said the wedding that it was a very strange very sad wedding somebody had previously been King Emperor the reason why it was so strange and so small was that it wasn't a royal wedding in any conventional sense there were a handful of guests priest who was conducting it was this Renegade priest from Darlington who'd come down and stop himself the king's vicar the wedding was um was actually quite a sad Affair and they only had 12 guests and those that were present um you know could see that this was a massive uh come down for the former King of England though Wallace was made Duchess of Windsor she was not given the style her Royal Highness Edward was outraged Edward wrote to his family uh prolifically especially his brother after he'd abdicated for uh for many years on two particular topics the first of those was a demand that his wife be given the style her Royal Highness Edward was really frustrated that George VI did not consent to give Wallace the style her Royal Highness hrh this was a real bug bear of his he would bring it up constantly in letters to to his brother to his brother George for six he brings up in letters to the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain he'd bring it up at every conceivable opportunity but the problem was that in British Society there was such contempt and disdain for Wallace but nobody wants to give her any kind of honorific title nobody wants to give her I mean even calling her The Duchess of Windsor was seen as a bit of a step too far so the idea that she referred to as her Royal Highness people would have to bow to her that was never going to happen he was angry because he thought that this was something that should have naturally been extended to her once uh Wallace became his wife it was an ongoing problem and it was something that was never resolved during their Exile they visited Germany in 1937 against the advice of the British government the Duke and Duchess gave the full Nazi salute as they met with Hitler with the dawn of the second world war fast approaching this association with the Nazi leader became a less than ideal situation for the Royal Family the Duke of Windsor as both Prince of Wales and then as as King Edward VII had taken a real interest in in anglo-german relations throughout the 20s he had sponsored schemes to try and and encourage reconciliation between the two countries given that they'd gone to war against one another in uh in the first world war of course one of the slurs that has never left the Windsors is the fact that in 1937 they went to meet Hitler and they visited Nazi Germany and Edward presented this as a kind of fact-finding trip and this was an act of either extraordinary naivety given that Germany was this very dangerous country which was growing in power and stature by the day he took a particular interest in the Nazi regime because he saw Hitler as a as a dynamic charismatic leader much like himself when he'd been Prince of Wales and then King he'd also been very impressed with what the Nazi party had done is in resolving Germany's unemployment crisis in the mid-1930s Edward saw Germany almost as being of his great reforming country because he saw that after World War One Germany had been Medusa's absolute state of depression which he believed the Hitler by being this vigorous reforming character had taken from out of this was to almost willfully ignore what Hitler was actually doing with sister willfully ignore the anti-Semitism of a discrimination was taking place in the country he and Wallace traveled to Nazi Germany in 1937 and met with Adolf Hitler and and leading Nazis as part of a short tour which encompassed uh visits to factories to Industrial sites and again Edward was very interested in looking at how it was that Germany had become this up and coming country once again under the auspices of the Nazi regime now the reason for that visit was not because they were Nazi sympathizers it was because Edward felt this tremendous seam of guilt that he had promised Wallace in a way the world and had been able to deliver very little of it so when the Germans cleverly seeing how weak he was said will you come on a tour of it was actually housing conditions uh in Germany um to see and Edward thought he was going to see how he could possibly suggest an improvement in England and Edward said will you treat this like a royal tour will you give my wife the Pomp and pageantry she deserves and they said yes so of course he went thinking at last he could show Wallace what it would be like to be a royal Queen a consort on a royal tour it was a massive PR disaster but in my opinion that stemmed from naivety and the deeper wound that he carried for the rest of his life which is all he wanted was recognition for his wife and the status that she deserved following the outbreak of the second world war Edward was assigned to the British military Mission when Germany invaded France Edward and Wallace fled to Lisbon Edward turned up in Britain again in late 1939 just after the war had started and Royal courtiers George VI and the British government are quite anxious that he'd be given some kind of official role outside of Britain so that he's not overshadowing uh Georgia VI um he sent to France and there his role is to to join uh with the with British military operatives inspecting France's military preparations for war so he goes out to the magino line and he's looking at French defenses the idea was was that if you have a Duke of Windsor with you he's such a high profile figure you can't really say no to him going anywhere so the people accompanying him were able to glean intelligence about whether the French actually had the ability to withstand the German Advance which of course they didn't so you could argue although Edward had no direct role in this no direct part he was still doing something of mine a worth but that's to think about a generous interpretation of what he was actually doing Nazi agents plotted to persuade the Duke to leave Lisbon and to kidnap him though they were unsuccessful there was much speculation of plans to make Edward King once more in Spring 1940 there's growing concern um about uh possible Nazi plots involving Edward and Wallace there's this idea that he might be kidnapped for example by the Nazi State and that they might use him to put pressure on the British government to sue for peace there is another rumor that is is making the rounds and that is that Edward would like to be put back on the throne as a kind of puppet King of the Nazi State and I think but if that had come to pass I mean it came close to succeeding but never actually managed to succeed but there was never any point which Edward himself was actually in danger what I think is very interesting is the idea that it was felt that he was somebody who could work with the Nazis and work the Nazi regime and whoever his brothers certainly couldn't and George VI certainly wouldn't have done a sort of conspiracy seems to encircle them about whether Edward would in fact like Germany to defeat Britain by bombing it into submission uh and then put him back in charge of the the British Monarchy bombs landed sufficiently close to George VI and to Queen Elizabeth and their private secretary Alec Harding but if it hadn't been for a couple of minor bits of chance it almost certainly would have been killed and it's very interesting to see this because whoever bombed Buckingham Palace knew exactly what they were doing we knew exactly which parts of the palace the king queen would have been in we knew exactly where to hit it so there was clearly somebody working off some kind of intelligence which was not intelligence of the general public would have had and it's certainly not intelligence for Nazi Germany would have had and the question we have to ask is how would you have got that intelligence were it not for fact there was somebody who was at loose in Portugal at the time who would have been able to tell people exactly if you wanted to bomb Buckingham Palace and kill my family this is how you do it so there are all these plot conspiracies rumors involving Edward possibly returning to Britain as a kind of puppet monarch and it's decided by George VI his private secretary and Winston Churchill now a British prime minister that Edward needs to be sent away that he needs to be out of the public eye and they decide that he would be best place as governor of the Bahamas across the the Atlantic Sea where he can do no harm Edward felt very slighted to have been given this role of governor of the Bahamas I mean you can absolutely understand that you have been King of England King Emperor you know you've ruled over this Empire of 500 million people and you're now going to this tiny island in the Bahamas to be the governor um he he felt insulted because after the abdication he always wanted to have a suitable role a job within England and he really did fight for that but you know that was not going to be granted by the Queen Mother and Tommy lassells Edwards and Wallace's time in the Palmas has been completely shrouded in both mystery and controversy because essentially they were sent to the Bahamas by Churchill very very fast because it was believed that Edward had at this stage very strong artsy sympathies I mean he would be actively conniving with the Germans so you have the idea that Edward was somebody who was so out of control and so ungovernable but he couldn't be left anywhere in Europe so the Bahamas of this stage was a minor British protectorate but it was in need of a governor and Edward and Wallace was sent to there very fast and they were told more or less if you don't go over you'll be charged with trees so it wasn't as if he had much of a choice of a matter what's really interesting I think about his time in the Bahamas is of course said Wallace was too extravagant at doing up Governor's house and spending all this money but I spoke to people whose children who whose parents knew the Windsors in the Bahamas and they were incredibly liked um they did a lot for local people for Charities they really threw themselves into the role and Wallace was a very good Governor's wife she absolutely wanted Edward to do well and she was much more disciplined than him and could see the bigger picture and I think that it was a humiliation for him it was a demotion for him because it was something that to have gone from King to that it was placed for a few years it's not what anybody could have imagined and I mean today we see the Bahamas is this glamorous exciting place but back then it was hot it was a real tension between this small ruling strata and of course for people who are actually living there are these the Han Islands to which I've been appointed governor I've always had very good relations with America and I sincerely hope that Americans will continue to find rest and pleasure here despite some change conditions imposed by hostages following the end of the war the couple moved back to France the couple enjoyed a lazy Cafe culture lifestyle they would frequently indulge in hosting extravagant dinner parties and entertaining guests but Edward found it a frivolous Venture and longed for something meaningful Edward wished to work and contribute to something but this proved impossible and he spent his time in Exile building a deep resentment of the meaningless situation in which he found himself after the war Edward and Wallace lived this sort of peripatetic life of moving between various homes in France traveling to America they lived the life of the Gilded jet set but with a laminated form of grief it wasn't really the life that either of them wanted he spent much of his time on the golf course in a kind of unhappy in a kind of unhappy position never really getting to fulfill the Ambitions he'd once had for himself and for Britain there were only a handful of occasions when Edward was allowed to return to England on the occasion of his brother's death in 1952 and his mother's death in 1953. the course of true love never runs smooth as the saying goes young Edward feckless and lazy according to his critics but caring and loyal according to his many admirers made an enormous sacrifice simply to be with the love of his life Against All Odds he remained with her living in Exile until the end of his days I hope that Wallace's Legacy is changing here was a woman who did her utmost to try and fulfill this difficult King I mean I think her Legacy is a woman who was misunderstood mistreated by The Establishment and has never really been recognized for the woman she was and until recently I don't think her qualities have been fully celebrated before Queen Elizabeth II without doubt the most popular monarch of probably the last 200 300 years was King Edward VII he had come to the throne on a wave of optimism and great expectation about what this new reign of a of a young dashing uh glamorous King what that would do for the country and the Empire of course it ended in tragedy um I think his great legacy is that he demonstrated really for the rest of the 20th century how monarchy could not behave the fact that demonics that had come after him George VI Elizabeth II had to put Duty and and service and sacrifice ahead of personal fulfillment Wallace was very well aware that she now had this man who had been King of England and that they there was no role for them really so it was a sad empty existence however what I will say is people often ask well was this a great love affair or was it a tragedy and my answer would be both but towards the end of their life the more it became us against the rest of the world it then became a genuine love affair and they relied on each other and what I think is so touching is that towards the end of his life Edward said that he did not have one breath of regret about what had happened because every day he was so happy to be with Wallace there is a sense of a Shakespearean tragedy unfolding in what happened to the Windsors Edward died in 1972 leaving Wallace alone until her death in 1986. the couple lived out their lives in Exile but they were buried side by side had Frogmore in the grounds of Windsor Castle returning once more to the place they had always hoped to be home the Legacy was love that his legacy was he gave up everything for the woman that he loved and that's what we remember him most for I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility without the help and support of the women I love

Channel: Royalty TV

Views: 286,891

Keywords: diana, princess diana, prince harry, prince william, king charles, charles and diana, kristin stewart, princess of wales, people's princess, royal family, british royal family, history, british history, queen elizabeth ii, queen elizabeth, king charles iii, camilla, queen camilla, duke of sussex, duchess of sussex, meghan markle, duchess meghan, prince andrew, sarah ferguson, prince edward, kate middleton, princess kate, prince of wales, princess margaret, the crown

Id: sxUOs0pDZ7s

Length: 54min 4sec (3244 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 07 2023