edward viii has long been known as the
british king
who gave up the throne to marry the
woman he loved
american divorcee wallace simpson
but declassified fbi files reveal a
potentially more damning legacy
that edward viii and wallace simpson
were pro-german in the heyday of the
nazi regime
that they maintained contact with
hitler's germany early in the war
and may have leaked vital secrets to the
enemy and that hitler wanted to see
edward return to england
as his puppet king these files now tell
the real story of how the british and
american governments
saw them as a potential liability to
national security
and went to extraordinary lengths to
keep watch over them
britain's at war with nazi germany
winston churchill is desperate for the
united states to join the allies
president roosevelt is sympathetic but
america needs persuading
and the most famous couple in the world
the duke and duchess of windsor
are coming to her shores but they're
suspected of being pro-german
roosevelt instructs the fbi to spy on
them as they arrive in miami
roosevelt knows that they're dangerous
and he has the fbi
follow them about and intercept their
mail and and there's a
very large security operation to the
public
they're glamorous but to the authorities
they're a security risk
he'd always admired hitler he was
frankly very pro-nazi in america there's
a powerful lobby against joining the war
churchill can't afford any negative
publicity from the windsor's visit
so he sends his pr man to miami for spin
control
and the duchess and i are actually very
glad
to set foot in america again
every move they make is monitored even
their dry cleaning is inspected
in 2002 the fbi releases the windsor's
file
under the freedom of information act it
totals 227 pages
for some time the british government has
known that the duchess of windsor was
exceedingly pro-german under sympathies
and connections
and they're a strong reason to believe
that this is the reason why she was
considered so obnoxious to the british
government
they refused to permit edward to marry
her and maintain the throne
the fbi gets some of their information
on the windsors from british
intelligence
who began trailing the couple as early
as 1935
the duke is then the prince of wales and
heir to the throne
british detectives know that wallace
simpson is a divorcee
who is remarried and is now carrying on
an affair with the prince
and maybe a few others
she was regarded as a person very fond
of the company of men
and to have had many affairs she was
with different men at these addresses
the british secret service were watching
the windsors pretty closely
and reporting on their every movement
the detectives discover another of
wallace's lovers
guy trundle a 36 year old car salesman
while under secret surveillance wallace
introduces the heir to the throne to a
range of infamous
characters
including the scandalous socialite lady
emerald cunard
the detectives describe her as a drug
addict a mother of notorious nancy cunad
who is very partial to colored men and
who scandalized society by living in a
negro district of new york
lady cunard introduces prince edward to
sir oswald mosley
leader of the british union of fascists
who had started a violent riot in london
in 1936
edward inquired as to how many
supporters mostly had for his british
union of fascists
but even more dangerous fascists are
eager to meet the prince
and especially his new lover
through lady cunard wallace is
introduced to an ambitious german
diplomat
called joachim von ribentrop hitler has
appointed riventrop as germany's special
envoy to great britain
he's tasked with building a strong
alliance between the two countries
wallace later claimed in her
autobiography that she only met ribbon
trump
twice but according to the fbi files
they had an affair
the fbi interviewed edward's distant
german relative
duke carl alexander of burtonburg about
the affair
he knew definitely that von rippentrop
while in england
sent the then wallace simpson 17
carnations
every day the 17 supposedly represented
the number of times they'd slept
together
but there were widespread rumors that
they were romantically involved and
i don't think it's possible to prove
that was the case but that was certainly
the buzz
in these circles the fbi files claim
that wallace stays in contact with
ribbon truck for many years to come
this will later prove invaluable to
hitler
when he wants to forge a link with
prince edward the heir to the british
throne
hitler was trying to develop a
relationship with edward with the goal
of ultimately
manipulating him using him to to form
this anglo-german
alliance while ribbon trump rises
quickly through the ranks to become
hitler's foreign minister
wallace's nazi sympathies and ongoing
involvement with him
ruins her reputation in the eyes of the
british establishment
an establishment that will ultimately
force prince edward to choose between
his love
and his crown
but before prince edward fell for
wallace simpson
he was the most eligible bachelor in the
world
a fearless horseman athlete and pilot
he brings a new kind of celebrity to the
monarchy
the british public is entranced
he wore these sort of rather ridiculous
clothes and he
winked awfully well and he grinned
slightly out of the side of his mouth
and
everybody rather loved it you know
he was good looking and boyish and
approachable
and charming and crowds loved him
he's at the forefront of fashion and
makes his own
windsor knot a hit he was a handsome
playboy with a lot of charm
and a wonderful contrast to his father
king george v
who never cracked a smile at all ever
and never told as far as i know a joke
if he did i bet it was a very bad one
prince edward is born june 23 1894
his childhood is harsh and disciplined
he serves in both the royal navy
and the grenadier guards i think he got
it into his head that he was a
wonder boy really and that the duties
were
something that were put upon him unlike
his father george v
prince edward likes to travel one of his
earliest trips is to germany in 1913
where he has close family ties the
family saw themselves as
german they were very comfortable
speaking german at home
and edward on several occasions referred
to german as his
mother language as his mutterspraka
in 1917 edward's father george v
changes the family name from sax cobra
gota
to windsor this was an attempt to make
the family appear more
english and of course they fabricated
the name of windsor they took it from
one of their castles and uh it's really
it's it's purely invented
prince edward tours the far-flung
corners of the globe
he's the face of the british crown
abroad and he's enormously popular
let me emphasize his overpowering
capacity when he chose to use it
to make people practically fall down in
his path and kiss his feet
the effect was remarkable
his adventures abroad are captured on
film and enthrall the british public
who are more accustomed to stuffy
formality from their royal family
he was mobbed he was treated like prince
william today times ten
he was constantly having women fling
themselves at him
and he was being cheered to the echo and
so it was a result
of course this is going to inflate his
ego
but these movies only tell part of the
story
he could charm birds off trees but it
doesn't stop him behaving badly
there are records of his many trips to
india
where he behaved disgracefully and sort
of walked out of public ceremonies and
refused to meet the people he was
required to meet
sir allen lassels his assistant private
secretary later writes
i camped and tramped with him across
central africa but by 1927 my idol had
feet of clay
when we got news from prime minister
stanley baldwin of his father's grave
illness the prince said i don't believe
a word of it it doesn't mean a thing
he went without a word and spent the
remainder of the evening
in the successful seduction of a mrs
barnes wife of the local commissioner
he told me so the next morning
stories of edward's behavior abroad
reach the ears of the prime minister
stanley baldwin he starts questioning
whether the prince is really cut out to
be king
alan lassel's diary tells of a candid
meeting he has with the prime minister
you know sometimes when i sit waiting to
hear about some point to point in which
the duke is riding
i can't help thinking that the best
thing that could happen to him and the
country
would be for him to break his neck god
forgive me replied baldwin
so do i
the adoring british public knows nothing
of edward's many affairs
especially with married women i think he
preferred the married ones it was kind
of safer and they knew what they were
about
and they wouldn't make trouble for him
his first confirmed affair begins in
1915 with marion coke
who's 12 years his senior then in 1918
frida dudley ward one of his mistresses
called mrs dudley ward
sought to improve his mind a little bit
by lending him
the novel jane eyre and sometime went
by and then he brought it back to her
handed it back to her and said i can't
get on with this at all
cock it on who are these bront people
anyway which showed the depth of his
ignorance lack of culture
edward moves on to mildred harris the
ex-wife of charlie chaplin
and in 1930 it's lady thelma fernandez
who introduces him to her friend wallace
simpson
poor thelma fernettes was really
betrayed by wallace
when thelma pronounced went abroad she
asked wallis to look after the little
man
and when she came back she found how
well wallace had looked after the little
man
while edward insists his relationship
with wallace is entirely proper
his staff reports seeing them in bed
together
edward when he told his father george v
that
mrs simpson was not his mistress and
their relations were
absolutely pure paul king had to believe
it but i think everybody knew
wallace simpson is born bessie wallace
warfield in pennsylvania in 1896.
you could say she was a girl digger i
mean she was
one of those women who can only
see that way through marriage marriages
to rich man
twice married wallace is believed to
have once had an affair
with count gulliato chiano who would
later become mussolini's son-in-law
it's rumored she became pregnant by him
and had an abortion which left her
unable to conceive
wallace is still married to her second
husband ernest simpson
when she begins her affair with edward
the king
is in despair he prefers his heir to
marry just about anyone but
wallace simpson the british royals were
extremely dismayed
by edward's relationship with wallace
simpson
they always understood that he would
have affairs and
they knew that he had a pension for
married women in fact
but but they but wallace was just you
know beyond the pale if you will
but edward's devotion to wallace isn't
suede
he showers wallace with lavish gifts
especially jewelry
costing tens of thousands of dollars
emeralds are her favorite
she did give the impression of being
terrifically tough
funny quick amusing wonderful sense of
humor
she was always said to have said you
know the height of the abdication crisis
telling you must understand you can't
abdicate and eat it
very good line
it appears that he enjoys being
dominated by her
one account describes how wallace makes
edward begged like a dog
for cigarettes
an fbi statement taken from edward's
relative father odo
recalls how wallace once told a public
party that
the duke is impotent and although he'd
tried sexual intercourse with numerous
women
they'd been unsuccessful in satisfying
his passions
the duchess had been the only woman able
to satisfactorily gratify the duke's
sexual desires
by 1935 the growing intimacy between
the american divorcee and the heir to
the throne
piques the interest of british
intelligence agents
and they are not the only ones paying
attention
hitler sees wallace and her relationship
with von ribentrop
as a path to get close to edward
he saw the heir to the throne as someone
who could potentially be
manipulated hitler really devoted
a great deal of interest and energy uh
in this regard
hitler had long seen the impressionable
prince as a potentially useful ally to
germany
now his relationship with wallace might
be the opening hitler has been looking
for
on january 20th 1936
king george v dies
the prince of wales becomes king edward
viii
he had a sense that he was more than a
figurehead certainly
and more than a constitutional monarch
he had an inflated sense of
of what a monarch should do and it was
to become a pattern later on that he
would
cross the line that has existed in the
united kingdom for
for centuries and becoming involved with
politics
in ways that his ministers at least
found very problematic
but for hitler it's music to his ears
on the day of edward's ascension the
german ambassador leopold von hirsch
writes to berlin he feels warm sympathy
for germany
i am convinced that his friendly
attitude towards germany
might in time come to exercise a certain
amount of influence on the shaping of
british foreign policy
but even von hirsch couldn't have
imagined how the new king's sympathy for
germany
would ultimately help to end his reign
so quickly
hitler wants the support of the new
british king edward viii
for years hitler's gained huge
popularity in germany
by promising to tear up the hated treaty
of versailles
which ceded the control of the rhineland
to the french and british
and now he's ready to take the land back
edward is adamant that britain should
avoid any conflict
he ignores the government and begins
talking directly to the german
ambassador
he would hold political conversation
with the german ambassador which he
never should have done
edward is overstepping his role as king
prime minister stanley baldwin grows
increasingly alarmed
baldwin recognized edward as being very
dangerous
and very disruptive and remember at this
time in march 1936
edward is a tremendously popular king
edward threatens baldwin
that he will give up the crown should he
decide to oppose germany
in one of his many calls to german
ambassador von hirsch
he supposedly says i sent for the prime
minister and gave him a piece of my mind
i told the old so-and-so that i would
abdicate if he made war
purse relays the news to berlin
the reassurances from king edward viii
that britain was going to fight
was crucial hitler had a kind of
we would say an american with american
poker and ace in the hole if you will
knowing um what he did from from from
edward at this time
on march 7th 1936
hitler's troops crossed the border and
reclaimed the rhineland for germany
england doesn't put up a fight france
and the rest of europe stand
back and watch it was a huge
coup for hitler he sent troops in
and uh the rest of the world did nothing
even though it was a
ripping up of the versailles treaty and
so really
we were then on the road the via
dolorosa
through to the disasters that took place
in 1937
and of course 1938 and 39.
six months later king edward takes his
divorcee lover
away on a cruise around the
mediterranean
john julius's parents lord and lady
cooper
have their home movie camera with them
on the boat
my father sat next to mrs simpson and
knew all about what was going on and he
wrote
in his diary i think she's probably a
nice woman
and she's an intelligent woman but she's
hard as nails and doesn't love him
jim wallace now lord dudley is also on
the cruise
my father was a great friend of the king
as he then was
so i saw quite a lot of the mom in that
trip she wasn't i thought
particularly pretty certain to me that
she didn't appear to be physically
attractive
i thought she was rather tired awesome
woman i couldn't quite see
what the attraction was
the british public back home know
nothing of the affair
reporting on the personal lives of
royalty is taboo
magazines were censored photographs
of edward and wallace were cut out of
magazines before they were allowed into
england i mean it was quite
quite heavy europe and america are
absorbed by the story of the king and
the american divorcee
but the scandal doesn't break in england
for another four months
when the media bombshell of the king's
romance does finally break in england
the conversation immediately turns to
marriage
in those days divorce was a i mean you
know if you've been divorced once you
went
out into the royal enclosure at ascot
she'd been divorced twice
but by the time the british press
exposes the story
wallace has already written to edward to
call off their affair
this is a difficult letter to write in a
few months your life will run as it did
before without my nagging
i'm sure you and i would only create
disaster together
i want you to be happy i feel sure that
i can't make you so and i honestly don't
think you can me
but edward's reply changes her mind
why do you say such hard things i'm hurt
and terribly unhappy and bursting with
love
and such longing to hold you tighter
than i ever have before
wallace returns to britain and to edward
as king edward is also head of the
church of england
for him to marry a woman twice divorced
is morally unacceptable
he would have to abdicate give up the
throne
and his birthright in order to marry her
majority of the british public hated the
idea of his abdicating
but they thought he shouldn't put this
divorced
middle-aged american woman before his
duty to his country
i think that's what they thought edward
is king but according to the british
constitution
it's the prime minister in parliament
who actually ruled britain
i think he was boxed into a bit of a
corner by bolder than the
government of the dead i think he
thought he was going to find a solution
and then
got himself in the corner which he
couldn't get out except by abdicating
the tale of edward's abdication is
always centered around his romance with
wallace
but declassified fbi files suggest that
his desire to marry wallace
may have just been a convenient
smokescreen for the government to oust
him from the throne
the british government were anxious to
get rid of the duke of windsor
first and foremost because of his
fondness for nazi ideology
if edward steps down the crown goes to
his younger brother albert
baldwin could clearly see the positive
side to this crisis
and i think baldwin thought albert
preferable to edward
undoubtedly that was the case it's the
first time in british history that the
king chooses to give up the crown
i was deeply shocked that he should have
given up a country and a great empire
for um this woman who i said
didn't figure very highly in my
estimation
wallace flees to france she left london
because after the thing came out people
threw stones
at her house and shouty so she really
fled
on december 10 1936 edward viii signs
the official instrument of abdication
he has reigned for less than a year at
long last
i am able to say a few words
of my own that i have found it
impossible
to carry the heavy burden of
responsibility
and to discharge my duties as king
as i would wish to do
without the help and support
of the woman i love
edward's younger brother and the father
of today's reigning monarch queen
elizabeth ii
takes the throne and becomes king george
vi
edward leaves the country
england may have gotten rid of a
liability
edward is no longer king
but hitler sets to work to change all
that
edward is no longer the king of england
now he's free to marry the woman he
loves
edward windsor and wallace simpson mary
at the chateau de conde
in france on june 3rd 1937.
the royal family boycotts the wedding
edward's new title is his royal highness
the duke of windsor
wallace is simply the duchess of windsor
it's decided that she can't use the
title her royal highness
it did make the duke of windsor very
bitter
he never forgave his family for this and
this was the subject
until death of the real row
between george vi the queen mother and
windsors with the windsors away from
england
the duke's outspoken views and careless
talk become more of a liability
at a party in vienna in june 1937
a young american diplomat confides
network that the americans had finally
cracked an axis intelligence code
but soon the duke's loose tongue gives
away this prized information
at a party thrown by an italian diplomat
this was a real blunder it was very
problematic
the effect that the americans are
listening to you or have cracked your
codes
and that had serious implications
the leak confirms president roosevelt's
long-held suspicions about the duke
the duke and duchess are falling into
bad company
the chateau where they were married is
unknown to them by the duke's close
friend
charles badeau an industrialist and
suspected nazi sympathizer
charles badeau is still a very
mysterious individual who
evidently was a nazi spy
who was sending reports back to the
reich in october 1937
the windsors make another controversial
move
they visit germany on the nazis dawn
british politicians were somewhere
between apprehensive and horrified
at the thought of of edward and wallace
going on this tour
berlin a huge crowd greeted the duke and
duchess of windsor and they were
specially welcomed by dr ly the reich's
organization manager
hitta rolled out every red carpet that
he
could gave them a tremendous slapper
time and buttered them up like nobody's
business later in the day the duke
attended a workers concert
he was formed on by all the nazi leaders
and thought this was fine
the windsors dine with senior nazis
goebbels writes it's a shame he is no
longer king
with him we would have entered into an
alliance
edward is even invited into guring's
home
the two men play with a toy train set up
for gerring's nephew
an airplane flies across the room on a
wire scattering wooden bombs on the
trains below
even though edward was no longer king
the germans saw him
as not just an ally but someone who
could be
effectual who had extraordinary
relationships
who was still taken seriously in certain
quarters
the highlight of the trip comes on
october 22nd
when they meet hitler at his mountain
retreat
when hitler receives the duke and
duchess of windsor
at the bear call for over salzburg
wallace is completely charmed by hitler
he addresses her as your royal highness
which thrills her
and uh and you can see that there's a
real you know the the the meeting goes
extremely well
hitler's translator recalls that the
viewer remarks
she would have made a good queen
the duke of windsor always thought that
some sort of accommodation
would be possible even when everybody
else knew that it was out of the
question
by the spring of 1939 the british
abandoned the policy of appeasing the
nazis
but the duke still records a radio
statement pleading for peace with
germany
the bbc refuses to broadcast it
a few months later on september 3rd
britain declares war on germany
the duke is stationed in france and
given the rank of major general
he's assigned the task of liaising
between the british and the french
it wasn't a real job it was a job that
any number of other people were doing
much more effectively british
authorities don't trust edward
he's kept away from any real
intelligence
the duke realizes what's happening and
he's outraged
he fires off a stream of letters to
churchill blaming the king
being merely fresh evidence of my
brother's continued efforts to humiliate
me
he taught british intelligence services
by writing on the envelope
to whomsoever steams this letter open i
hope you are as edified at the contents
of this letter
as i am over having to write them
edward's anger toward the british
government opens a door for the germans
on january 27 1940 the german minister
at the hague
count fonzeck berkus roeter writes the
duke has openly expressed
dissatisfaction about his treatment
which has given me the opportunity to
establish lines
leading directly to him
with hitler's armies now marching across
europe the stakes are raised
the duke's indiscretions could have
serious consequences
the germans are revving up to invade
france the allies predict the attack
will come from one of three possible
points
the lowlands of belgium ideal for
hitler's tanks
the heavily defended maginot line or
through the densely wooded art den
hitler plans to attack across the
lowlands and dispatches his battle plans
by plane
but it crashes in belgium
the pilot attempts to destroy these
critical papers
but the germans aren't sure whether
they've fallen into allied hands or not
so hitler is forced to stand down 50
divisions
and wait what happens next
leads some to believe that duke may have
inadvertently leaked information
that influenced hitler's strategy
in a few short days hitler does a 180
and sends his tanks through the lightly
defended ardent instead
german armies swarm into france and by
may 1940
they're at paris's doorstep it is
remarkable
that hitler and the germans attacked
just
in the right place hitler and the
germans could not have done it any
better it was absolutely spot-on
brilliant but certainly allegations have
been made
against the due conditions of windsor
that they either knowingly or
unknowingly
helped the germans in this regard
when the nazis invade france the duke of
windsor doesn't evacuate with his
regiment
he and wallace flee south to biaritz
instead
his close friend and assistant major
metcalfe returns to their quarters to
find the duke has stripped them
bare and taken all the cars he writes
he has run like two rabbits he deserted
his job in 1936
well he's deserted his country now it's
the end
but the duke isn't done yet and for
winston churchill
the chase is on
by the summer of 1940 hitler's armies
have taken the low countries
and france the windsors are still at
large in europe
and hitler wants to know if he's got an
ally in the duke
hitler believes the duke can help divide
opinion in britain
and lead a pro-german lobby
i think it's clear that hitler wanted to
maintain
the goodwill of the duke and duchess and
that the
duke of windsor could be helpful in
negotiating a piece
and and then perhaps ultimately
playing a role as the sovereign as the
monarch
of the united kingdom declassified fbi
files contend that the duchess continues
to communicate with the nazis via
foreign minister von ribentrop
even as the war escalates the duchess
was obtaining a variety of information
concerning official activities which she
was passing on to the germans
within minutes of checking in at biaritz
the location of their hotel is broadcast
on german radio
the fbi believes the duchess informed
von reventrop of their destination in
advance
berlin radio proudly announces not only
the name of their hotel
but even their room number
while france falls and thousands of
british soldiers
evacuate dunkirk wallace keeps german
officials apprised of their whereabouts
then italy declares war on france
and the duke and duchess flee south
again
the windsors had to leave the country
and instead of coming back to britain
which is what they should have done
they went to fascist spain and they fell
in with
a large number of pretty dodgy people
dodgy businessmen
fascists really the detritus of society
berlin is abuzz with news of the
windsor's arrival in madrid
with france now in german hands hitler
thinks edward can be used to urge the
british people
to accept german occupation with him
returning is their king the nazis just
need to grab him
there was a german plan to send in
paratroopers and kidnap
the duke and duchess and winston
churchill was very
keen indeed to get them back to britain
and out of harm's way
hitler's plan to use the duke as a
puppet king isn't so far-fetched
an american ambassador overhears one of
the duke's conversations
and writes to the us secretary of state
an alarm
the duke of windsor declared that the
most important thing now to be done
was to end the war before thousands more
were killed or maimed to save the faces
of a few politicians
churchill orders the duke back to
britain or face a court martial
the duke and duchess of windsor show
themselves pretty much at their worst
in this period when they are making up
any
kind of excuses for not coming home
churchill sends them to portugal to keep
them away from the nazis
there's this cat and mouse game between
both sides as they
try to secure the windsors for their own
purposes
the duke and duchess cross the
portuguese border and head for estoril
and more trouble
portugal was neutral at that time and
i think that the concern of winston was
ready
that esther wheeler was rather a
hotbed of german spies and
one another this time they're put up by
a wealthy nazi supporter
named ricardo silva
they were purchased he didn't buy that
they felt quite at home with that the
duke of windsor rather light
sort of hanging about the swimming pool
of this
rather right-wing portuguese banker
then on july 11th another controversy
around
the german ambassador in lisbon tells
berlin
the duke believes with certainty that
continued heavy bombing
would make england ready for peace
hitler had the idea that the bombing
of the united kingdom would send people
into a panic
and would induce the british people to
turn against
the rulers that there would be an
opportunity
to bring the duke of windsor back as the
sovereign
churchill must get rid of the windsors
and fast
he settles on the caribbean
on august 1 1940 the duke and duchess
sail west to the bahamas
and to exile
frank giles a young diplomat is sent to
welcome the couple when they come ashore
when we arrived at government house
after the ceremonies were over he came
into my study and said
why did no one curse it to my wife who
who ordered this
so i simply handed him a copy of the
cable that we had received from london
in which these instructions were set
forth and he looked at it and his face
darkened
and he said this is all the queen's
doing
my brother is all right the queen is
behind this
and left the room in a rage
the duke and duchess have been removed
from europe by their government
estranged from the royal family
and now they're exiled on a caribbean
island
the man who was once king of england is
now nothing but an inconsequential
governor
even so his outspoken views could still
pose a threat
to national security
it's one year into the second world war
britain's former king
is now seen as such a liability he's
been sent into exile
four thousand miles away from britain
the man who had once commanded an empire
is now governor of the bahamas if
churchill had
rated the duke of windsor highly he
would have got something really
significant like canada or australia one
of these really important jobs or vice
versa of india
instead the duke is in charge of a chain
of scattered islands
covering an area just half the size of
wales
the duchess is unimpressed with her new
home
i hate this place more each day we both
hate it
the locals are petty-minded the visitors
common
and uninteresting even in this remote
location
churchill isn't taking any chances he
warns the duke
may i venture a word of serious counsel
it will be necessary for the governor of
the bahamas to express views about the
war and the general situation
which are not out of harmony with the
british government
but edward ignores him
in december 1940 he gives an exclusive
interview to american journalist
fulton oursler editor of liberty
magazine
and friend of president roosevelt
oursler asks the duke about the rumors
of a revolution in germany
and edward replies there will be no
revolution in germany
it would be a tragic thing for the world
if hitler were overthrown
hitler is the right and logical leader
of the german people
he is a great man tell mr roosevelt that
if he will make an offer of intervention
for peace
that the duke of windsor will instantly
issue a statement supporting it
and that will start a revolution in
england that will force
peace it's considered the greatest news
story on earth
but it never sees the light of day the
interview is considered too inflammatory
to distribute
four months later the duke and duchess
visit miami
churchill and roosevelt are on high
alert
the fbi puts the windsors under 24-hour
surveillance
they closely monitor every dinner they
attend every call they make
every golf course they visit
the fbi builds a thick file on the
windsors
painting a damning picture of their
behavior and the potential threat they
pose
clearly the outlines of this history
become evident that the duke and duchess
were pro-german
uh were sympathetic to national
socialism wanted to negotiate a piece
you know wanted to come back to return
to the throne in the united kingdom
in march 1945 the duke announces his
resignation of his bahamas post
months before his term is officially
over
but before leaving the bahamas the duke
is overheard saying
after the war is over and hitler has
crushed the americans
we'll take over the british don't want
me as their king
but i'll be back as their leader
the duke and duchess now unwelcome in
england
settle in france where they live out the
rest of their lives in a lavish house
near paris
frank giles later finds the duke hasn't
given up his shocking political rants
it must have been the middle 50s when
eden had become
prime minister he said oh he
he really helped to bring the war on and
then there was a short pause
and then he added and of course
roosevelt and the jews
and i thought this was such an
outrageous thing to say that i
seriously thought of leaving the room
some members of the royal family never
forgive them
it even said that when edward did go and
see his brother george vi
at buckingham palace that the queen
mother would
disappear she didn't want to see him
they all regarded as a terrible betrayal
edward dies in 1972 he's buried at
windsor castle
wallace dies in 1986 at the age of 90.
she's buried next to him her headstone
reads simply
wallace duchess of windsor
she was never given a royal title
the romance of the handsome young king
who gave up his throne for the love of
an unsuitable woman
is just one version of the story the
official position is
that his royal highness never wavered in
his loyalty to the british cause
but edward's critics see him as a nazi
sympathizer instead
when edward gave up the crown he brought
shame to the royal family
but perhaps as his critics contend if he
remained king
the consequences for britain would have
been far worse