Lucy Worsley TV - King George and Queen Mary: The Royals Who Rescued the Monarchy TV - FBI Papers - Conspiracy: The Nazi King TV - Royal Babylon - The King’s Speech 2011 - Edward VIII’s Murderous Mistress TV - George V - Wallis Simpson: The Secret Letters TV - Edward VIII: The Traitor King TV - Days that Shook the World TV - Abdication: A Very British Coup TV - Edward VIII: The Plot to Topple a King TV - Susan Williams - Cosmo Gordon Lang - Queen Mary - Keir Hardie - Lord Beaverbrook - Stanley Baldwin - Alan Lescelles - Wallis & Edward 2005 - Edward VIII - Reputations: George VI: The Reluctant King TV - Bertie & Elizabeth 2002 - Wallis Simpson: Loved and Lost TV - Michael Portillo TV - Spying on the Royals TV - Wallis: The Queen that Never Was TV - Wallis & Edward: Victims of Love TV - Edward & Mrs Simpson TV - The Queen Mother: The Reluctant Queen TV - Wallis Simpson: Femme Fatale TV - The Windsors: Inside the Royal Dynasty TV - Elizabeth II & The Traitor King TV - Edward & Wallis: The Bahamas Scandal Revealed TV -
Edward VIII: he was declaring himself unfit to rule. He wasn’t a monarch, he was just a man. Dr Lucy Worsley, Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changes History: Happy Families III, BBC 2013
David found comfort in the arms of a series of married women. King George and Queen Mary: The Royals Who Rescued the Monarchy I, BBC 2012
Wallis Simpson was brash, American and dripping with emeralds; worst still she was twice married. ibid.
Wallis Simpson couldn’t have been more alarming. King George and Queen Mary: The Royals Who Rescued the Monarchy II, BBC 2012
Queen Mary later confided that the new king [Bertie] sobbed on her shoulder for a whole hour. ibid.
On 3rd June 1937 the Duke of Windsor married his twice-divorced American at a rented chateau in France. ibid.
For some time the British government has known the Duchess of Windsor was exceedingly pro-German in her sympathies and connections. And there is 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. FBI papers released under Freedom of Information Act, cited Edward VIII: The Nazi King, PBS 2009
The Duchess was obtaining a variety of information concerning official activities which she was passing on to the Germans. ibid.
How deep does that ruthless streak run? Conspiracy s1e2: The Nazi King, re Royal Family, Channel 5 2015
Edward passed on critical military intelligence to the Germans. ibid.
Mrs Simpson was a suspected Nazi sympathiser ... It was claimed she was having an affair with a key Nazi. ibid.
Just like his older brother Edward, the Duke of Kent saw Germany as a natural ally ... It’s believed he was in regular contact with the Nazis. ibid.
His [Edward VIII’s] successor, George VI, was also keen on appeasement. Royal Babylon *****
The embittered Edward was urging the bombing of his own people. ibid.
But you must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossibility 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. The King’s Speech 2011 starring Colin Firth & Geoffrey Rush & Guy Pearce & Helena Bonham Carter & Timothy Spall & Derek Jacobi & Jennifer Ehle & Anthony Andrews & Claire Bloom & Eve Best & Freya Wilson & Tim Downie & Roger Hammond & Michael Gambon et al, director Tom Hooper, Edward VIII
3Her name was the Princess Fahmy Bey. Two months before at the Savoy Hotel she had shot dead her husband, an Egyptian prince, with three bullets in cold blood. But six years before, she’d had a secret affair with another prince – the future Edward VIII ... This reckless episode from Edward’s past threatened to expose the heir to the British and imperial throne to disgrace. Edward VIII’s Murderous Mistress, Channel 4 2013
Behind the trial lies a long-buried story of royal infatuation and royal scandal. Maggie Meller was Edward's first mistress ... An affair that exploded in a toxic cocktail of sex, blackmail, murder and a secret cache of vanished letters. ibid.
She offered excitement like no other before. Maggie ignited Edward’s sex drive. ibid.
Edward was also writing letters to Maggie ... Maggie had a hold over Edward – his letters. ibid.
It took the jury just one hour to find her not guilty. ibid.
After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months. George V
This is a love story. But it is not the love story we’ve always thought it was. Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, was a sensation ... Hidden away in an English attic an extraordinary and revelatory cache of secret letters and diaries has been discovered. Wallis Simpson: The Secret Letters, TVPG 2011
Just before Edward’s abdication, Wallis Simpson was desperate to avoid marrying him and planned to escape ... Wallis ended up spending her life with the wrong man and cast adrift from the man she truly loved. ibid.
For her the abdication was a disaster. She was facing a life sentence with Edward. ibid.
The one man she truly did love was the man she was divorcing – her husband Ernest. How on earth had Wallis made such a monumental error? ibid.
Edward was showing an intensity of passion that was alarming. ibid.
Wallis lived on to the age of eighty-nine. ibid.
As Edward VIII he reigned for just three hundred and twenty-six days before abdicating in disgrace. Best known for his affair and subsequent marriage to Wallis Simpson. Edward VIII: The Traitor King, Channel 4 1995
Evidence has now emerged that he passed national secrets to foreign governments. And of his complicity with Adolf Hitler. And of his financial dealings. ibid.
Edward had an abiding love for all things German. ibid.
And frequently dodged his duties to have affairs usually with married women. ibid.
He soon gathered a new breed of courtier around him. ibid.
Increasingly, Edward was seen as a security risk. ibid.
Not one word of his affair had been reported to the British press. ibid.
In October 1936 the Simpson divorce came through. ibid.
She was to be the public excuse. ibid.
The truth is that Edward’s unacceptable political beliefs and wilful actions were the key reasons for his removal. ibid.
The Duke and Duchess finally set off to meet their host Adolf Hitler at his mountain retreat. ibid.
His treachery is proved by a detailed inspection of the German foreign policy documents of the Second World War. ibid.
They were warmly welcomed by Franco and his government. ibid.
Edward was still convinced that appeasing Hitler was the answer, and the war was a mistake. ibid.
Edward died in 1972 with most of his secrets intact. ibid.
Edward VIII 8 December 1936: He is seen as the modern monarch England needs to lead the country out of depression. Days that Shook the World s2e10: Affairs of the Crown, BBC 2004
The British press initially steered clear of the story. ibid.
They are shunned by the Royal Family and forced to live in permanent exile. ibid.
There is another story: seventy years ago King Edward VIII was pushed off the throne. It was a coup engineered by a powerful conspiracy of court, church and government. Abdication: A Very British Coup BBC 2009
Many members in the government fear Edward’s mass appeal and apparent disregard for the established order. ibid.
Edward was as popular as ever with his subjects. ibid.
The future Queen Mother detested everything about Wallis Simpson. ibid.
The King had played straight into Baldwin’s hands. ibid.
Four days later Baldwin drove to Fort Belvedere and told the King that the Empire was unanimous in its opposition to the Morganatic marriage. But he was not telling the full truth. ibid.
Not a word of the crisis had yet appeared in the British press. ibid.
‘The storm is best; the fat is now properly in the fire.’ ibid. Henry Chips Channon
Parliament and country were divided over the crisis … a groundswell of popular support. ibid.
Baldwin was delighted and relieved. ibid.
He had been king for 326 days. ibid.