Duke of Windsor: The Nazi King?

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2021

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

When Edward VIII abdicated the throne in December 1936 his desire to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson was cited as the main cause but did his sympathy with Nazi Germany also play its part? Today's guest on the podcast author Andrew Lownie believes so and he goes as far as to say that Edward was actively intriguing with the Nazis to engineer his return as king should Britain be defeated. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor had made a well-publicized trip to Nazi Germany in 1937 and even met with Hitler. During the war, Edward was appointed as Governor of the Bahamas in order to keep him as far away as possible from the European theatre and to minimize the risk of him becoming a centre for Nazi intrigue. Andrew has scoured archives across the world and brings new evidence as to how deep the Duke of Windsor's ties with the Third Reich went.

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. It is a long and glorious tradition within
0:07.0	the Royal family of the English and British that you hate your siblings and your parents.
0:15.0	And if I say it, parents hate the kids. Don't blame the players, they're folks. Don't
0:18.2	blame the players. Blame the game. That's primary genitifoy. And whether you're talking
0:22.8	about those Georgians who were infamous for it, whether you're talking about Victorian
0:27.1	Albert, disapproving of their son, Edward VII, William the Conqueror's kids.
0:31.4	Eup, creepers. It runs like a golden thread through this island's history and it's something
0:36.3	to be grateful for because it's great drama. And few episodes have provided greater drama
0:41.9	than the application of Edward the Eighth. And his subsequent, I mean, so troubling
0:49.8	dalliances, shall we say, with continental despotism. On this podcast, we're Andrew Lowney.
0:55.2	He's our best selling author. And on this podcast, he goes all the way. He says he's found
0:58.8	new material that suggests that Edward the Eighth was actually behaving in a traitorous way. He was
1:04.4	committing treason with Nazi Germany. Leaving the door open to a possible accommodation which
1:10.0	would see him reinstalled on the throne of Britain and Britain becoming a kind of puppet or close
1:15.9	ally of Nazi Germany. It's powerful stuff folks, inflammatory stuff, so I've gone on the podcast
1:21.6	to talk about it. Edward the Eighth, too, obviously, abdicated from the throne after just months on
1:27.1	the throne as King Emperor because he wanted to marry his girlfriend, if you want to say,
1:32.8	Wallace Simpson, American Divorce. He was made by the British establishment to choose between
1:37.5	man, Wallace and the British Rome. What's it something else going on? What's he just a complete
1:41.0	liability who everyone was still to get rid of? Andrew Lowney will tell us.
1:45.3	If you wish to listen to other podcasts, if you wish to listen to them without the ads,
1:48.9	because I've gone on the ads, I get that, I get that. Then you can do so, historyhit.tv.
	...

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