Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is Danishwartz, host of Noble Blood. So, as you
Speaker 1: probably know if you've listened to this podcast, I wrote
Speaker 1: a book called Anatomy a Love Story. But now there
Speaker 1: is a sequel coming out, Immortality a Love Story is
Speaker 1: coming out in March, but it's available for preorder now,
Speaker 1: So if you liked Anatomy, or you just like the
Speaker 1: idea of books about spooky surgeons in the ninete century,
Speaker 1: check it out. There's links in the episode description, along
Speaker 1: with links to the show's Patreon, where I post episode
Speaker 1: scripts and a bonus episode once a month, and links
Speaker 1: to merch because we have new, amazing merch that comes
Speaker 1: out all the time. But as always, the best possible
Speaker 1: support for the show is just you listening to it.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much. M. M. October twenty second,
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty seven. Berlin, the Duke of Windsor, a newly
Speaker 1: wet at age forty three, smiles his famously attractive smile
Speaker 1: as he disembarks from a private train in the German mountains.
Speaker 1: He's greeted by a guard in uniform, with whom he
Speaker 1: shakes hands, as he did countless times on his tours
Speaker 1: of America and Canada. This time the guard is wearing
Speaker 1: a swastika arm band. The Duke's wife, twice divorced, smiles
Speaker 1: at his side. The man they're here to see is napping,
Speaker 1: they're told, so they'll have to wait. The Duke and
Speaker 1: his wife are entertained well during the wait, with music,
Speaker 1: possibly Wagner wafting through the room. They make small talk. Yes,
Speaker 1: they all agree, the fascists are strong, the British are weak,
Speaker 1: and the Jews, they may have said, with a chuckle, well,
Speaker 1: don't get us started. Finally, the man that the couple
Speaker 1: came to see is ready for them. They go into
Speaker 1: a meeting. Only ten months ago, the Duke of Windsor
Speaker 1: had another more important title, King Edward the Eighth of England.
Speaker 1: Now he smiles that attractive smile and walks into his
Speaker 1: private audience with Adolph Hitler. When the future King Edward
Speaker 1: the Eighth was born in eighteen ninety four, the heir
Speaker 1: to the British throne was christened with seven first names, Edward, Albert, Christian, George, Andrew, Patrick,
Speaker 1: David as king. We know him by the first of
Speaker 1: the seven names, Edward, but friends and family knew him
Speaker 1: by the last David, as if the distance between his
Speaker 1: public and private selves could not be further apart. When
Speaker 1: his father, King George the Fifth, was alive, he once
Speaker 1: remarked that if David were to become king that the
Speaker 1: quote boy will ruin himself in twelve months end quote.
Speaker 1: King Edward the Eighth, never officially crowned in a coronation ceremony,
Speaker 1: ruled the United Kingdom of Great Britain for just three
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty six days. Edward the Eighth is the
Speaker 1: king who rose to the throne eighteen years after World
Speaker 1: War One and scandalously abdicated before World War Two after
Speaker 1: less than one year as monarch in order to marry
Speaker 1: a twice divorced American from Baltimore. In the TV series
Speaker 1: The Crown, he is a rapscallion, a beloved uncle who
Speaker 1: ultimately horrifies the young Queen Elizabeth with the contents of
Speaker 1: a private dosier of information about him. In the pages
Speaker 1: of Menswear magazine in the interwar period, he was covered
Speaker 1: like a holly wood icon. Known for his good looks,
Speaker 1: and fashion sense. In the notations by Queen Elizabeth's stationary office,
Speaker 1: he was an ever loyal servant of the British cause.
Speaker 1: In this very podcast he has been portrayed as the
Speaker 1: former lover of a murderers, but in the heart of
Speaker 1: Adolph Hitler he was what an ally a friend upon
Speaker 1: we can't know for sure. What we do know is
Speaker 1: that recently abdicated King Edward the Eighth of England, now
Speaker 1: known as the Duke of Windsor David, brother to the
Speaker 1: then current King of England, was entertained as an honored
Speaker 1: guest on a trip to Nazi Germany in nineteen thirty seven,
Speaker 1: where he had private meetings with Hitler while Ava Braun
Speaker 1: and Rudolf Hess entertained his wife, the Duchess. The contents
Speaker 1: of this meeting are lost to history. It was a
Speaker 1: meeting just two years before the outbreak of World War Two,
Speaker 1: which would kill up to fifty million people worldwide, but
Speaker 1: a meaning after Germany had already passed the Nuremberg Laws,
Speaker 1: which stripped Jews of citizenship in Germany. Adolf Hitler was
Speaker 1: at least for an afternoon, a private confidante of the
Speaker 1: inner circle of the British royal family. I'm danishchwartz and
Speaker 1: this is noble blood. The future Duke of Windsor's early
Speaker 1: life might be best described by this anecdote. After a
Speaker 1: boyhood in which he was pinched a bit too violently
Speaker 1: by his nanny and in which he displayed some interest
Speaker 1: in German language and culture, he wound up a student
Speaker 1: at Oxford University, for which he was basically totally unprepared.
Speaker 1: At this point in his life, he was the Prince
Speaker 1: of Wales. He considered his Oxford tutor Herbert Warren quote
Speaker 1: an awful man end quote. The feeling was clearly mutual.
Speaker 1: After the Duke left Oxford without a degree in nineteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: his tutor sold him out to The Times bookish. He
Speaker 1: will never be Warren wrote, the tight lipped academic British
Speaker 1: equivalent not quite of he's a complete knit wit, but
Speaker 1: certainly of he's better suited to non academic pursuits. It's
Speaker 1: unlikely the pursuits the tutor would have meant included being king.
Speaker 1: Young David wanted to go into battle during World War One.
Speaker 1: What does it matter if I'm shot? He said? I
Speaker 1: have four brothers end quote not exactly the words of
Speaker 1: a guy desperate to live to his coronation. The Secretary
Speaker 1: of State for War replied, quote, if I was certain
Speaker 1: you would be shot, I do not know if I
Speaker 1: should be right to restrain you end quote. The big
Speaker 1: concern wasn't that the heir to the throne might be killed,
Speaker 1: but that he might be taken prisoner. It was a
Speaker 1: concern that would continue to haunt the British in the
Speaker 1: Second World War decades later. So though David wasn't allowed
Speaker 1: in battle, he did toward the trenches. He witnessed soldiers,
Speaker 1: young men his own age, who lived in constant fear
Speaker 1: of shelling. He smelled the rotting corpses of their fellow men.
Speaker 1: The experience disturbed him deeply, so deeply, in fact, that
Speaker 1: it may have planted certain ideological seeds, the idea that
Speaker 1: peace between the European nations is the single most important aim,
Speaker 1: that war in Europe can never be allowed to happen
Speaker 1: again from the horrors of the trench. This was a
Speaker 1: noble idea, but we all know what the road to
Speaker 1: Hell is paved with. And if you think a little
Speaker 1: thing like trench war fair would depress the Prince for
Speaker 1: long think again. World War One ended with the armistice
Speaker 1: on November eleven, exactly one month before David's twenty four birthday,
Speaker 1: and he was certainly celebrating. To put it bluntly, the
Speaker 1: man was considered very attractive. He had a strong jawline
Speaker 1: and dreamy eyes. He traveled to the United States and Canada,
Speaker 1: shaking hands like a modern movie star. The object of
Speaker 1: a million teenage day dreams, he was an international fashion
Speaker 1: plate who scandalously dared to use a zipper in his
Speaker 1: fly instead of a button. Unsurprisingly, all of that made
Speaker 1: him very popular with the ladies. He embarked on a
Speaker 1: long and storied career of affairs with married women, a
Speaker 1: lot of them. There's a sign fell joke, you can't
Speaker 1: just have an adultery, you commit adultery, and Dave it
Speaker 1: was committed. He had affairs on his affairs. One of
Speaker 1: his early mistresses was the future murderess Marguerite Albert, who
Speaker 1: he actually covered on this podcast. David continued on with
Speaker 1: his affairs until finally in nineteen thirty one, when, at
Speaker 1: the age of thirty six, at the home of one
Speaker 1: of these several married women he was then sleeping with
Speaker 1: he met a new woman, and already once divorced, American
Speaker 1: from Baltimore, conceived out of wedlock, who carried her father's name, dark,
Speaker 1: dramatic brows, red lipstick, with a sharp middle part in
Speaker 1: her hair. Her name was Wallace Simpson. The Prince of Wales,
Speaker 1: who had spent a decade seducing and sleeping with an
Speaker 1: endless queue of women, felt his heart thud in his chest.
Speaker 1: He looked at Wallace Simpson and fell madly in love.
Speaker 1: By all accounts, he never fell out of it. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, as you may have guessed, nobody in England
Speaker 1: was really thinking this guy is fit for the throne.
Speaker 1: David had a younger brother, Albert, affectionately called Bertie, whom
Speaker 1: every one preferred in temperament. But Bertie also had a stutter,
Speaker 1: and he seemed a shy and unlikely king in his
Speaker 1: own way. Still, their father, King George the Fifth, made
Speaker 1: his preference clear. He was quoted as saying, I pray
Speaker 1: to God that my eldest son will never marry, and
Speaker 1: nothing will come between Bertie and Lillibit and the throne. Lillibit,
Speaker 1: of course, was referencing Bertie's daughter, the current Queen Elizabeth
Speaker 1: the second. So with the parental preference so obvious, you
Speaker 1: can forgive me for assuming David probably had some daddy issues. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: death doesn't care if you lack confidence in your successor.
Speaker 1: King George the Fifth died near midnight on January nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty six. He was famously administered euthanasia so that his
Speaker 1: death could be reported in the dignified morning papers rather
Speaker 1: than the more salacious evening ones. The Prince of Wales, David,
Speaker 1: became King Edward the eight that same day. Although the
Speaker 1: king's advisers assumed Wallace was just another mistress, it quickly
Speaker 1: turned out that David really was in love. He seriously
Speaker 1: wanted to marry her, and then she started divorce proceedings
Speaker 1: from her second husband. But well, the King is the
Speaker 1: head of the Church of England and the Church doesn't
Speaker 1: allow divorce. There was some back and forth between the
Speaker 1: king and the royal family, the cabinet, Winston Churchill, and
Speaker 1: Wallace herself about all of this. Later in life. Recounting
Speaker 1: this period, Wallace will make herself out to be especially selfless.
Speaker 1: Quote I am sure there's only one solution, she says,
Speaker 1: quote that is for me to remove myself from the
Speaker 1: King's life. That is what I am doing now end quote.
Speaker 1: At least that's what she remembers herself as saying. In
Speaker 1: the end, there was no way around David's choice. It
Speaker 1: was the church and the monarchy, or it was Wallace.
Speaker 1: The King chose Wallace, just shy of one year on
Speaker 1: the throne before his own coronation, Edward the Eight abdicated.
Speaker 1: The decision may have been as much about the character
Speaker 1: mismatch between David and the throne as it was about Wallace,
Speaker 1: but to the public it was about love. To the monarchy,
Speaker 1: of course, it was disgrace to renounce family and duty
Speaker 1: for personal pleasure, even if it was framed as a
Speaker 1: great love story. Was the greatest possible failure of a Yale.
Speaker 1: The Archbishop of Canterbury told the nation that the Duke,
Speaker 1: in his quote craving for private happiness, had quote disappointed
Speaker 1: hopes so high and abandoned a trust so great end quote.
Speaker 1: David's little brother Bertie became King George the Six, which
Speaker 1: put his daughter Elizabeth next in line. David was demoted
Speaker 1: to the title Duke of Windsor, but as Duke he
Speaker 1: finally got to do what he wanted. He married Wallace
Speaker 1: Simpson on June three, ninety seven in Tour, France. David
Speaker 1: may have gotten his bride that day in France, but
Speaker 1: there was little else to celebrate. No one in the
Speaker 1: family came to the wedding. Though he explicitly asked. Wallace
Speaker 1: was denied the title her Royal Highness. That designation can
Speaker 1: never be revoked, and the royals thought, what if she
Speaker 1: goes off and Mary's a fourth guy still carrying the
Speaker 1: title British Royal Highness. It was impossible. It was all
Speaker 1: an enormous insult for the former Prince of Wales, the
Speaker 1: former king, the international fashion icon. So here David and
Speaker 1: Wallace are in seven honeymooning in a borrowed German mansion,
Speaker 1: said to be haunted, the abdicated monarch and his new wife,
Speaker 1: isolated and alone, looking for anyone to treat them as
Speaker 1: the king and Queen they felt they ought to have been.
Speaker 1: Four months after their wedding, the Duke and Duchess of
Speaker 1: Windsor arrived in Berlin. As the train pulled into the station,
Speaker 1: the former king felt a twinge of old recognition and joy,
Speaker 1: and then a fresh twinge of his newer resentment and
Speaker 1: anger when he saw the red, white and blue of
Speaker 1: his own Union jack, and he felt a chill, a
Speaker 1: fear of power, of excitement, or maybe even envy when
Speaker 1: he saw his own flag alongside the red, white and
Speaker 1: black of the Swatstika. David and Wallace were welcomed warmly
Speaker 1: on their trip to Berlin. The list of people who
Speaker 1: entertained them socially is a list of Nazi war criminals.
Speaker 1: Joseph Gebel's reich Minister of Propaganda, Herman Goring, Hitler's second
Speaker 1: in command who had been in charge of creating the Gestapo,
Speaker 1: Adolph Hitler himself. In the chummy photos of David and
Speaker 1: Wallace out in public with Hitler, the three of them
Speaker 1: are standing shoulder to shoulder. David is in the middle,
Speaker 1: long peacoat, buttoned and tie crisp, a hint of a
Speaker 1: smile on his handsome face. Hitler is half bowing to
Speaker 1: shake hands with Wallace, pulling her arm toward his chest,
Speaker 1: Swastika on his arm, both Wallace and Hitler smiling broadly,
Speaker 1: David deferential in the middle. Another picture shows David without
Speaker 1: his wife or Hitler hatless in a sea of bowlers
Speaker 1: and peaked s s caps. He's raising his right arm
Speaker 1: palm flat fingers pointed to the sky in a Nazi salute,
Speaker 1: with his elbow slightly cocked, as if some part of
Speaker 1: him knew he wasn't in the right. I'll pause here
Speaker 1: to say that the extent of David's involvement with the
Speaker 1: Nazis has been covered up over time, with heavy influence
Speaker 1: from the Royals. Some of the speculation stems from those photographs,
Speaker 1: readily accessible in a Google search, but much of the
Speaker 1: speculation comes from the Marburg Files, a trove of four
Speaker 1: hundred tons of German documents found in within these the
Speaker 1: so called Windsor Files of the Duke and Duchess were
Speaker 1: the subject of a long cover up, so long that
Speaker 1: many of the details I've recounted so far in this
Speaker 1: podcast come from a book that was only published this year,
Speaker 1: Andrew Loni's Trader King. I think it's worth quoting directly
Speaker 1: from Lonie's book on the following point, describing a day
Speaker 1: in Dusseldorf with David Wallace and their attendant Dudly Forward.
Speaker 1: The book says, quote, they toward a miner's hospital and
Speaker 1: a concentration camp. Forward later recalled, we saw this enormous
Speaker 1: concrete building, which, of course I now know contained inmates.
Speaker 1: The Duke asked, what is that? Our host replied, it
Speaker 1: is where they store the cold meat. End quote. Finally,
Speaker 1: a week and a half after their arrival in Berlin,
Speaker 1: the fateful meeting with Adolf Hitler arrived. The Duke and
Speaker 1: Duchess sat in the train car that ferried them south
Speaker 1: of Berlin, skirting Munich. The train chugged as it scaled
Speaker 1: the snow capped Bavarian Alps to the present day southern
Speaker 1: border with Austria. They disembarked in brechdes Garden and found
Speaker 1: themselves whisked away to Adolf Hitler's vacation chalet. The place
Speaker 1: was like a resort, complete with terrace, big colorful umbrellas
Speaker 1: and cactuses. In the entrance. Hitler was napping. The Duke
Speaker 1: and Duchess were told when they arrived in what honestly
Speaker 1: reads to me like a power move. Yes, we'll pull
Speaker 1: out the s S version of a red carpet for you,
Speaker 1: but Hitler can make you wait here because you aren't
Speaker 1: king any more. Won't you make yourself comfortable? They were
Speaker 1: asked there's a lovely view of the snow capped mountains
Speaker 1: out the window. Perhaps you've noted the light jade green
Speaker 1: color scheme chosen by the fureer himself. They sat in
Speaker 1: the home that Hitler her himself so loved. One year later,
Speaker 1: in fact, Homes and Gardens magazine would cover the place
Speaker 1: like it was Jennifer Aniston's mansion in the Hollywood Hills.
Speaker 1: Hitler quote has a passion about cut flowers in his home.
Speaker 1: The article said, this place is mine, Hitler said in
Speaker 1: the magazine interview, sounding like a millennial, impressed with his
Speaker 1: first job. I built it with the money that I earned.
Speaker 1: That money, of course, came from the sale of his
Speaker 1: infamous anti Semitic book Mine comp which was banned in
Speaker 1: Germany from the end of the war until twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: At last, Hitler woke up from his nap. His wife
Speaker 1: av Braun and deputy Furer Rudolph Hess told Wallace they
Speaker 1: would keep her occupied. Wallace and David nodded at each other.
Speaker 1: Perhaps David kissed his beautiful wife on the cheek, and
Speaker 1: then the former King of England walked into the private
Speaker 1: room with the then current Furer of Germany on the
Speaker 1: eve of World War Two. The two men sat together
Speaker 1: with teacups in front of them and talked about, Well,
Speaker 1: we don't know what they talked about. Perhaps someday a
Speaker 1: scandalous note about it will turn up on a scrap
Speaker 1: of napkin. Maybe we'll never know. Maybe they discussed the
Speaker 1: quote unquote Jewish question as if it were a problem
Speaker 1: of politics and not human being. Maybe they discussed the
Speaker 1: strength of fascism and the weakness of democracy. Maybe they'd
Speaker 1: discussed what they'd each seen on the front in World
Speaker 1: War One. All of this is speculation. Maybe they talked
Speaker 1: about dogs, or divorce or art. We don't know. Eventually
Speaker 1: the meeting ended. The New York Times reported that Hitler
Speaker 1: gave them a long, affectionate goodbye, holding both their hands,
Speaker 1: and that when Hitler gave his salute, David raised his
Speaker 1: arm and returned the Nazi high After the trip to Berlin,
Speaker 1: David and Wallace returned to Paris. In nineteen forty. When
Speaker 1: the Germans invaded France, David and Wallace fled southwest to
Speaker 1: neutral Spain and then Portugal. The Germans hatched a plot
Speaker 1: to kidnap him to use him to their advantage. But
Speaker 1: it didn't materialize. Churchill appointed him Governor of the Bahamas,
Speaker 1: a minor and almost embarrassing little post for any royal,
Speaker 1: especially a former king. It was clear enough that Churchill
Speaker 1: and the Crown were nervous about David's loyalties. The Bahamas
Speaker 1: were as far as they could ship him off to
Speaker 1: ensure he stayed away from Hitler. He and Wallace accepted
Speaker 1: the post unhappily and stayed in the Bahamas until the
Speaker 1: end of the war in nineteen There are a lot
Speaker 1: of rumors about this period that David knew of the
Speaker 1: Allies war planned in Belgium and leaked them to the Germans,
Speaker 1: That David wanted the Germans to bomb England his own country,
Speaker 1: That President Roosevelt ordered surveillance on him when he and
Speaker 1: Wallace visited Florida, in that the FBI had heard that
Speaker 1: Wallace was sleeping with a German ambassador. All this, of course,
Speaker 1: the Duke and the Crown have denied as misinterpretation or
Speaker 1: misquoting or hearsay. What then, can we absolutely know well
Speaker 1: that the former King of England definitely had more sympathy
Speaker 1: for the Nazis during World War Two than could possibly
Speaker 1: be comfortable for England or for us today, and that
Speaker 1: basically covers the extent of the What what remains for
Speaker 1: us to understand is the why? Was it simply naivete
Speaker 1: or lack of foresight? Was the salute just instinctual politeness?
Speaker 1: After all, in nineteen thirty nine, Roosevelt himself sent to St.
Speaker 1: Louis a ship of Jewish refugees back to Europe to
Speaker 1: be killed in the camps. Only one month after the
Speaker 1: Duke's visit to Hitler, A teenaged Prince Philip, later to
Speaker 1: become Queen Elizabeth's husband, was also photographed alongside Nazis at
Speaker 1: his sister's funeral in Germany. But maybe the source of
Speaker 1: the support was something deeper. Was it David's deep desire
Speaker 1: for peace among the nations? Maybe he genuinely thought a
Speaker 1: dictatorship was a better governing system than a democracy or
Speaker 1: a weakened constitutional monarchy after witnessing the horrors of World
Speaker 1: War One. Maybe he thought appeasing Hitler was the way
Speaker 1: toward peace, But of course the Nazis were far from peaceful.
Speaker 1: If David's noble goal was less suffering, then we have
Speaker 1: to ask for who which brings us of course to racism.
Speaker 1: David was known to make derogatory comments about Jewish people,
Speaker 1: Indigenous Australians, and who he called quote the Negro, though
Speaker 1: he and Wallace Simpson did also work to improve labor
Speaker 1: rights and infant health for the largely black population of
Speaker 1: the Bahamas, where they would spend much of the Second
Speaker 1: World War. It feels strange to even try to tease
Speaker 1: out how racist a person's individual views are when they
Speaker 1: were rubbing elbows with Hitler. But when we're trying to
Speaker 1: figure out David's motivations here, I think it's worth noting
Speaker 1: that on a personal level, David probably wasn't in full
Speaker 1: philosophical alignment with how vile and violent Hitler's ideas on
Speaker 1: racial purity were. But David was more than willing to
Speaker 1: overlook those horrific policies and socialize with an Nazi high brass.
Speaker 1: So why though David told himself a narrative about preserving peace,
Speaker 1: In my opinion, at the end of the day, it
Speaker 1: was a matter of ego and self interest. David's much
Speaker 1: loved bride was never treated well by his family or
Speaker 1: the British Royals, but over in Germany, Hitler was all
Speaker 1: too happy to flatter her. Rumor had it that David
Speaker 1: dreamed of actually being reinstated as king with Wallace as
Speaker 1: queen after Hitler's victory with the support of German troops
Speaker 1: against the British people. The two of them felt so
Speaker 1: excluded by the British monarchy that Hitler and the Germans
Speaker 1: represented a promise to be included. But before you feel
Speaker 1: even a moment of sympathy for David or pity for
Speaker 1: his naivete, remember David's very presence was serving as a
Speaker 1: support to Hitler and origin gime that would go on
Speaker 1: to slaughter six million Jews in concentration camps during the Holocaust,
Speaker 1: a regime that would methodically murder Romani people, homosexuals, political dissenters,
Speaker 1: and people with disabilities. By the time that David arrived
Speaker 1: in Germany in nineteen thirty seven, the reich Stock had
Speaker 1: already passed laws restricting citizenship to only quote racially pure Germans.
Speaker 1: They had already banned intermarriage and sexual relationships between Jewish
Speaker 1: people and those of quote German or related blood in
Speaker 1: order to protect their racial purity. By nineteen thirty seven,
Speaker 1: Jewish businesses were being quote orionized, Jewish employees dismissed, and
Speaker 1: Jewish business owners forced to sell their licenses for pennies
Speaker 1: to non Jewish Germans. Jewish lawyers had their licenses revoked,
Speaker 1: and Jewish doctors were forbidden from practicing medicine on non Jews.
Speaker 1: The very next year, all Jewish Germans with names that
Speaker 1: weren't explicitly Jewish would be forced to add either Sarah
Speaker 1: or Israel as middle names. Legally, when David arrived in Germany,
Speaker 1: he would have seen the signs across the country reading
Speaker 1: Juden sent here unevencht. Jews are not wanted here, and
Speaker 1: still David smiled for the cameras. Whether or not David
Speaker 1: was thinking about the horrors that were currently happening in
Speaker 1: Germany at the time, or simply permitting himself not to
Speaker 1: think about them, those horrors were absolutely already present, and
Speaker 1: David was willing to happily turn the other cheek in
Speaker 1: order to serve his own personal interests. Perhaps he would
Speaker 1: be reinstated king one day, seated next to his beloved
Speaker 1: twice divorced Queen, even if he had to be put
Speaker 1: there by force. After the war, David did not retake
Speaker 1: the throne, he settled in France with Wallace. After all
Speaker 1: his many affairs, he likely wound up faithful and ever
Speaker 1: adoring towards Wallace, even as the rumors of her philandering
Speaker 1: never stopped. His brother Bertie died in nineteen fifty two,
Speaker 1: and Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne, the unlikely monarch
Speaker 1: queen only because of David's abdication, which would also pave
Speaker 1: the way for Charles and Diana and William and Harry
Speaker 1: and all of the tabloid royals we know today. Queen
Speaker 1: Elizabeth did have some small relationship with her uncle David,
Speaker 1: but he was never admitted back into the royal fold.
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty one, David wrote a memoir of his
Speaker 1: early life, The King's Story, which was absolutely torn to
Speaker 1: shreds critically descriptions like inconceivable anality and monumental artificiality pepper
Speaker 1: the reviews, but the audience score was certified fresh and
Speaker 1: the book was a best seller. Not to be outdone,
Speaker 1: Wallace wrote her own teller, The Heart Has Its Reasons,
Speaker 1: which went through multiple ghost writers who accused her of
Speaker 1: dishonesty before the book sold terribly. Finally, following one last
Speaker 1: bedside visit from Queen Elizabeth in Paris. The Duke of Windsor,
Speaker 1: David died of throat cancer on May seventy two. He
Speaker 1: was seventy seven years old. He was buried in the
Speaker 1: Royal Burial Ground in England. Wallace outlived him by fifteen
Speaker 1: years before being buried beside him. As of only seven
Speaker 1: years before his death, they had been planning to be
Speaker 1: buried at the Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, final resting
Speaker 1: place of famous American trader John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin,
Speaker 1: and those photos of the Duke with Hitler, which live
Speaker 1: on more than anything. There a vision of an alternate
Speaker 1: path that history could have taken, the sheer unlikelihood of
Speaker 1: the path we did take. To think, had Wallace's earlier
Speaker 1: marriage been happy, perhaps we would have had a King
Speaker 1: of England who supported the Nazis. Perhaps the world order
Speaker 1: would look unrecognizable to us today. Hitler himself said so
Speaker 1: quote if he had stayed meaning on the throne, everything
Speaker 1: would have been different end quote. But also, as David
Speaker 1: said on CBS while promoting those tell Alls, quote, we
Speaker 1: both feel that there is no more wasteful or foolish
Speaker 1: or frustrating exercise than trying to penetrate the fiction of
Speaker 1: what might have been end quote. As for the most
Speaker 1: scandalous of those photos, the image of David raising his
Speaker 1: arm in the Nazi salute in when that photo went
Speaker 1: up for sale at auction, nobody bought it. That's the
Speaker 1: story of the short reign of England Nazi king. But
Speaker 1: stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear a
Speaker 1: little bit more about the wild history of the Marburg Files.
Speaker 1: As I was researching this episode, something kept sticking out
Speaker 1: to me the speed at which people do conflate a
Speaker 1: Nazi sympathizer king with the possibility of a Nazi England.
Speaker 1: And yes, those photos of Edward the eight are shocking.
Speaker 1: But I'm an American and I'm here thinking was an
Speaker 1: England even then meant to be a representative democracy? Isn't
Speaker 1: it the Prime Minister Chamberlain and then Churchill who made
Speaker 1: the political decisions while the monarchy was just a figurehead.
Speaker 1: I mean, the parliament serves the people right. Well, nothing
Speaker 1: shows the clash of the American versus the British government's
Speaker 1: approach to monarchy quite like the history of the Marburg Files.
Speaker 1: These were the four hundred tons of Nazi Germany's Foreign
Speaker 1: ministry archives discovered in and assembled in Marburg Castle. This
Speaker 1: is not the castle that inspired Disney. That honor belongs
Speaker 1: to a different German castle covered in this podcast, but
Speaker 1: it looks like a cousin. Within this massive trove of
Speaker 1: archives were the Windsor Files, documents pertaining to David's activities
Speaker 1: during the war. Unsurprisingly, these files suggested Nazi sympathy on
Speaker 1: the part of the former king. Unsurprisingly, the British royal
Speaker 1: family wanted the files suppressed. Perhaps more surprisingly, though, the
Speaker 1: Royals weren't alone. The people and entities pushing American historians
Speaker 1: not to publish the documents ranged from Winston Churchill to
Speaker 1: Dwight D. Eisenhower. The U. S. State Department got word
Speaker 1: that the British government would simply inform the American editors
Speaker 1: which documents to leave out in deference to the feelings
Speaker 1: of the widowed queen mother David Mom. Churchill himself told
Speaker 1: Eisenhower the quote historical importance of the document was quote negligible,
Speaker 1: while publishing them would cause the Duke quote distress and injury. Essentially,
Speaker 1: U S editors and academics were treated as though they
Speaker 1: were operating at the pleasure of the hurt feelings of
Speaker 1: the British monarchy. Didn't we fight a revolution about this?
Speaker 1: Were American historians really meant to defer to the English
Speaker 1: royal sense of embarrassment? Parliament, the Crown, the White House.
Speaker 1: They all cited a duty to the grievance and pain
Speaker 1: of the powerful royal family. I would argue, what about
Speaker 1: a duty to history and the many, many victims of
Speaker 1: World War two wartime? Ally ship can only go so far.
Speaker 1: The Windsor files were finally published in nineteen fifty seven.
Speaker 1: As far as we know, editor Paul R. Sweet says
Speaker 1: they're intact. He also notes that they were published with
Speaker 1: a statement from the Queen's Stationary Office quote, the German
Speaker 1: records are necessarily a much tainted source. This is undoubtedly correct.
Speaker 1: They are German wartime documents. They likely have an agenda,
Speaker 1: but it is odd to spend so much energy on
Speaker 1: covering up a thing that isn't true. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danishwartz.
Speaker 1: Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,
Speaker 1: Mira Hayward, Courtney Sunder and Laurie Goodman. The show is
Speaker 1: produced by rema Il Kayali, with supervising producer Josh Thane
Speaker 1: and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.