17 Carnations: The Windsors, The Nazis and The Cover-Up
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Swope, Herbert Bayard, ref1, ref2
Tamm, Edward, ref1, ref2
Tennant, Ernest, ref1
Thatcher, Margaret, ref1
Thaw, Ben, ref1
Thaw, Connie, ref1
Thomas, Albert E., ref1
Thomas, Godfrey, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Thomson, Robert Currie, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Thornton, Michael, ref1
Toland, John, ref1
Tolson, Clyde, ref1
Tree, Ronald, ref1
Trevoroper, Hugh, ref1
Truman, Harry, ref1, ref2
Trundle, Guy Marcus, ref1
Tuscaloosa, USS, ref1
Urbach, Karina, ref1
Vansittart, Robert, ref1
“Vicky letters,” ref1, ref2
Victoria, Queen, ref1, ref2, ref3
Vigón, Juan, ref1, ref2
Viktoria Luise of Prussia, ref1, ref2, ref3
Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy, ref1
von Hoesch, Leopold, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9
von Loesch, Carl, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
von Ribbentrop, Joachim, ref1, ref2
Ambassador to the UK, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Edward kidnapping plot, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
Foreign Minister of the Reich, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13; undermining of Versailles Treaty, ref1, ref2, ref3
Molotov pact, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Special Commissioner of Disarmament, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
Waller, John H., ref1
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor
affairs of, ref1, ref2, ref3
alleged Nazi sympathies and spying, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
American media and, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
American planned ducal visit, ref1, ref2
background of, ref1
“China dossier,” ref1
divorces, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Edward and, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10; beginning of affair, ref1; Canning report, ref1, ref2, ref3; first encounters, ref1, ref2, ref3; gifts, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4; Gulzar cruise, ref1; honeymoon, ref1; marriage intentions, ref1; Nahlin cruise, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4; wedding, ref1, ref2
English aristocracy and, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Ernest and, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
financial worries of, ref1, ref2
German ducal visit, ref1
London society and, ref1, ref2
marriages of, ref1
Mary Raffray and, ref1, ref2
postwar life, ref1
public scrutiny of, ref1, ref2
Queen Alexandra’s jewels and, ref1, ref2
Ribbentrop and, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13
royal title of, ref1, ref2, ref3
Scotland Yard’s monitoring of, ref1, ref2, ref3
sexual prowess of, ref1, ref2
Windsor file and, ref1, ref2
during World War II, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8; Bahamas, ref1, ref2, ref3
Ward, Freda Dudley, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Warfield, Alice Montague, ref1
Warfield, Teackle, ref1
Warren, Fletcher, ref1
Watson, David, ref1
Watson, Edwin “Pa,” ref1
Watson, Thomas J., ref1
Weddell, Alexander, ref1
Weil, Roger, ref1
Weinberg, Gerhard, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Weitz, John, ref1
Weizsäcker, Ernst von, ref1, ref2
Welles, Sumner, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Wells, H. G., ref1, ref2
Wenner-Gren, Axel, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
Wheeler, Douglas, ref1
Wheeler-Bennett, John, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
Wheelock, John Hall, ref1
Wiedemann, Fritz, ref1, ref2
Wigram, Clive, Lord, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, ref1, ref2
Wilhelm II, German Emperor, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Williams-Taylor, Frederick, ref1
Williams-Taylor, Jane, ref1
Wilson, Horace, ref1, ref2
Wilson, Woodrow, ref1
Winant, John, ref1, ref2
Windsor, Duchess of. See Wallis, Duchess of Windsor
Windsor, Edward, Duke of (Edward VIII)
alleged Nazi sympathies and spying, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9
American ambassadorial position, ref1, ref2
American planned ducal visit, ref1, ref2
Bedaux and, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
childhood and education, ref1
Fascist politics of, ref1, ref2, ref3
German background of, ref1
German ducal visit, ref1
personality of, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
postwar life, ref1
Prince of Wales, ref1, ref2, ref3; Albert Hall speech, ref1, ref2; imperial tours, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4; public duties, ref1; public image, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5; romances, ref1, ref2
reign as Edward VIII, ref1, ref2; abdication, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8; coronation, ref1, ref2; George V comparison, ref1; morganatic marriage considerations, ref1, ref2; Nahlin cruise, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4; post-abdication status, ref1; red boxes, ref1
Ribbentrop and, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15
von Loesch documents, ref1
Wallis and. See Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, Edward and
Windsor file, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
during World War I, ref1, ref2, ref3
during World War II, ref1; alleged intelligence leaks, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4; American visit, ref1; assessment of French defences, ref1; Bahamas governorship, ref1, ref2; Churchill spat, ref1, ref2; in France, ref1; Hitler meeting, ref1; Italian naval shells story, ref1, ref2; kidnapping plot, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6; Liberty interview, ref1, ref2; in Lisbon, ref1, ref2, ref3; New York stopover, ref1, ref2; peacemaker role, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14; perceived loyalties, ref1, ref2, ref3; return from exile, ref1; Roosevelt meeting, ref1, ref2; in Spain, ref1, ref2, ref3
Windsor file, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Winterbotham, Frederick, ref1
Wiseman, William, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Wodehouse, P. G., ref1, ref2
Wolfgang of Hesse, ref1, ref2
Wolkoff, Anna, ref1
Woodward, Ernest Llewellyn, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Wright, Peter, ref1
Wyly, Percy, ref1
Young, Robert R., ref1, ref2
Zech-Burkersroda, Julius von, ref1, ref2
Ziegler, Philip, ref1, ref2, ref3
Zoppi, Carlo Sforza, Count, ref1
List of Illustrations
1. The Prince of Wales was the matinee idol of his age, the first royal pin-up whose his face adorned magazine covers and cigarette cards the world over. Here he is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, during his 1919 Canadian tour.
2. Behind the smiling image was a morose, often depressed young man who hated the whole palaver of what Edward called “princing.” When he was at sea during his extensive tours of the British Empire after the war, he would often spend days alone in his cabin. Only his cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten could rally his spirits.
3. Edward enjoyed a chilly, distant relationship with his father, King George V, and mother, Queen Mary. The future king was, though, idolized by his brothers and his sister, Princess Mary. Here are the family at the wedding of Albert, Duke of York, later King George Vl, to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923. From left to right: Prince Edward; Princess Mary; Hen
ry, Duke of Gloucester; King George V; Albert, Duke of York; Queen Mary; and George, Duke of Kent.
4. The prince standing between Rosemary Leveson-Gower (on his left) and Diana Capel at the Duchess of Sutherland’s field hospital in Calais, France, in 1917. His parents vetoed his decision to marry Lady Leveson-Gower, Queen Mary arguing that there was a touch of madness in her mother’s family.
5. Prince Edward first met Freda Dudley Ward during an air raid on central London while he was on army leave. The wife of a Liberal Member of Parliament, Freda became his first great love and long-term mistress.
6. In the late 1920s Thelma, Viscountess Furness, the part-American second wife of a shipping company chairman, became Edward’s companion and mistress, acting as hostess at Fort Belvedere, his country home near Windsor Great Park. She first introduced the Prince of Wales to Wallis Simpson.
7. Finding a bride for the Prince of Wales became an international parlor game. Even German leader Adolf Hitler played, in 1934 suggesting Princess Friederike(far right), the daughter of Prince Ernst August and Princess Viktoria Luise, as a bride.
8. By the time Hitler became involved, the Prince of Wales was enamored with another married American, Wallis Simpson, pictured with her second husband, Ernest.
9. Wallis and her great friend Herman Rogers, who took many of the photographs seen for the first time in this volume, pictured in kimonos at his home in Peking, where Wallis stayed for a time in 1924.
10. The new king and Mrs. Simpson share an affectionate look during the famous Mediterranean cruise on board the Nahlin yacht in 1936, which confirmed to the watching world that she was the new royal mistress. Only the British were kept in the dark, thanks to the silence of the Establishment media.
11. The fact that the new king allowed himself to be photographed barechested horrified many, who considered his behavior undignified.
12. Wallis Simpson about to take a dip from the yacht Nahlin.
13. The king, pictured in snorkeling goggles, joins Mrs. Simpson on a secluded beach during the cruise.
14. The king had threatened suicide unless Wallis join him at Balmoral, the royal family’s Highland retreat. She did her best to lighten the mood, acting as his hostess.
15. Guests at Balmoral included the king’s younger brother the Duke of Kent and his wife, Princess Marina, as well as Louis and Edwina Mountbatten. They played arrow golf, a curious game imported from Austria.
16. The king takes a break to admire the scenery during a morning out stalking deer.
17. The king wearing a stalking cape, which provoked much mirth among the guests. From left to right: Lord Mountbatten, Edward Vlll, Katherine Rogers, Gladys Buist, Wallis Simpson, and Edwina Mountbatten.
18. Wallis’s affair with the king made her notorious. She was also said to have had an illicit romance with Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano (left) and his German counterpart Joachim von Ribbentrop (centre). Here Hitler (right) is entertained at von Ribbentrop’s German home.
19. According to Father Odo, the Duke of Württemberg, von Ribbentrop sent Mrs. Simpson seventeen carnations to mark the number of occasions they had slept together.
20. Car salesman Guy Trundle was said by Scotland Yard to be yet another lover of Mrs. Simpson.
21. The king’s German cousin Carl Eduard, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who was also president of the German Red Cross, was often sent to London by Hitler to pick up the latest gossip and intrigue with his royal relations.
22. The popular new king championed the plight of war veterans and the unemployed, saying famously that “something must be done” during this tour of South Wales.
23. Protests—some spontaneous, some organized by British Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley—broke out after the king’s abdication broadcast.
24. The king makes his famous abdication broadcast, which he wrote himself with help from Winston Churchill, on December 11, 1936, from Windsor Castle.
25. During his exile in Austria in December 1936, the Duke of Windsor wrote to Herman Rogers, saying what a “ghastly time” he had experienced.
26. Herman and Katherine Rogers brought the guest book from their villa in the south of France for members of the wedding party to sign in order to mark the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s marriage at the Château de Candé. Signatures include Wallis’s aunt Bessie Merryman; Fruity Metcalfe and his wife, Lady Alexandra; Walter Monckton; and the officiating cleric, R. Anderson Jardine.
27. Wallis in gay mood after she and the duke were reunited after six months apart. Here taking tea are her future husband, her aunt Bessie Merryman, Katherine Rogers and equerry Dudley Forwood.
28. The duchess poses for the camera in the days leading up to the wedding.
29. Edward and Wallis signed the wedding guest book together with members of their staff, who included the duke’s private secretary Thomas Carter and the duchess’s secretary Gertrude Bedford, as well as their florist Constance Spry.
30. A moment of reflection for the newly married couple following the short ceremony.
31. The duke and duchess celebrating their union with a cup of tea. Also seen are Dudley Forwood, Katherine Rogers, and the Rev. R. Anderson Jardine, who defied the church hierarchy to marry the exiled couple.
32. In spite of dire warnings, the duke insisted on visiting Germany in October 1937, ostensibly to review housing conditions. Here he listens with amusement to Dr. Joseph Goebbels, German propaganda minister, at a party given in honour of the duke and duchess by their host, Nazi labour minister, Dr. Robert Ley.
33. During the visit, the normally animated duchess seemed subdued, shooting a look of undisguised loathing at their host, the bibulous labour leader Robert Ley (left), during a tour of Berlin. She found his frequent drunkenness and off-colour jokes offensive.
34. The duke, in the company of Dr. Ley, inspects a Reich guard of honour. On several occasions the duke responded in kind to Nazi salutes.
35. The duke’s fifty-minute solo meeting with Adolf Hitler at the Berghof, Obersalzberg, was the highlight of the twelve-day visit. It is hard to see what they had in common; one man wanted to rule the world, the other gave up his world for the woman he loved.
36. Hitler says goodbye to the duke after their one-on-one conversation, while his translator Paul Schmidt (far left) and Dr. Ley (left) look on. During their time together, the duchess was entertained by deputy Nazi leader Rudolf Hess.
37. A Nazi soldier salutes the duke and duchess as they drive away, following, the historic meeting with Hitler.
38. In the summer of 1938, as Europe stood on the brink of war, the Windsors went sightseeing, visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa with Katherine (pictured) and Herman Rogers onboard the yacht Gulzar. The ducal couple had planned to visit the United States but faced hostile opposition from labour unions, who were furious at their trip to Nazi Germany, a nation where unions had been crushed.
39. As the couple leaves the island of Ischia, it looks like the duke is forcing the duchess either to wave to the crowd gathered on the quayside or salute a slogan that reads EUROPE WILL BE FASCIST. The ambiguity of the picture reflects the duke’s mixed public messages regarding his political beliefs and the true nature of his feelings about Hitler and fascism.
40. Controversial businessman Charles Bedaux was the focus for union hostility after he organized an extensive tour of America so that the duke and duchess could visit factories and housing projects. He aimed to promote the duke as “Edward the Peacemaker,” but widespread opposition forced an abrupt cancellation. Clockwise from left: Charles Bedaux, Katherine Rogers, the Duke of Windsor, Fern Bedaux, and the Duchess of Windsor.
41. The Windsors at war, Wallis in her French Red Cross uniform and the duke in the uniform of a major general in the Welsh Guards. The couple’s loose table talk was suspected of aiding the Nazis.
42. During their flight from France after the German invasion in May 1940, the duke and duchess stayed in Madrid and Lisbon, where they were the subject of a kidnap
plot nicknamed Operation Willi.
43. As the memo from von Ribbentrop to Hitler shows, the German leader was kept up to date with every twist and turn in the plot to kidnap the duke and duchess. In the last throw of the dice, Hitler ordered them to be taken by force.
44. The duke was made Governor of the Bahamas to keep him out of trouble. However, in late 1940 he seems to have become implicated in a freelance British plot to engineer a peace deal.
45. Also involved in the peace plot were Hitler’s favourite spy Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe and her lover, Hitler’s former adjutant Fritz Wiedemann.
46. Such was the official suspicion surrounding the ducal couple that when they visited America in early 1941, President Roosevelt ordered the FBI to place them under surveillance.
47. The duke’s friendship with Swedish businessman Axel Wenner-Gren, who was placed on an official blacklist, was also deemed suspect by the American government.
48. General Motors executive James Mooney, a long-time friend of the duke, was treated with suspicion because of his links with the Nazi hierarchy.
49. The attempt by the British first to destroy and then delay publication of the sensational Windsor file relating to the duke’s wartime behaviour placed a severe strain on relations between the Allies. King George Vl was greatly agitated by the possible consequences for the monarchy should the file be published.
50. The duke and his loyal legal advisor Walter Monckton addressed the numerous issues raised by the existence of the Windsor file, which suggested that the duke was defeatist and did not believe Britain could survive an invasion by the Nazis.
51. Within weeks of the war ending, royal courtier and Soviet spy Anthony Blunt, pictured when he was a student at Cambridge University, was sent by King George Vl to a German castle to pick up historic letters from Queen Victoria. It was thought that his short trip had an ulterior motive—to bring back to Buckingham Palace any correspondence between the Duke of Windsor and the Nazi hierarchy.
52. Foreign Office librarian and translator Lieutenant Colonel Robert Currie Thomson, pictured here with a young family friend at Thomson’s north London home, found the incriminating microfilmed royal cache buried in a wood on a German country estate.
53. American historian and wartime State Department official David Harris was the David who took on the government Goliath, warning his superiors that they would be breaking the law should they agree to British demands to destroy the Windsor file.