In 2017, National Archive papers even revealed details of how Churchill attempted to suppress secret Second World War documents detailing a Nazi plot to offer the throne to the Duke in the event of Britain’s defeat. The Duke’s memory has long been tainted by his association with the Nazis, with photographs of him making a “heil Hitler” salute and letters revealing he wanted “the closest cooperation” with Adolf Hitler’s Germany in 1936. Lascelles’s letter shows that the question of the Duke’s future after his abdication to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson weighed heavily on the King’s mind, with suggestions of a move to the United States as most suitable.Īt Churchill’s invitation, Edward had served as governor of the Bahamas during the war, but he did not enjoy the experience and famously referred to the country as a “third-class British colony”.Īt the time, the prime minister told the US president that the decision was made to send him to the Caribbean due to fears for the Duke’s safety and as part of “strenuous efforts to get him away from Europe beyond the reach of the enemy”. Through access to “rare and never-before published letters, diaries and memoranda” Mr Larman claims to examine the relationship between “the man who struggled to be king and the man who had given it all up for a woman”. In it, Mr Larman explores the “fascinating psychodrama of the uneasy relationship” following Edward VIII’s abdication in December 1936 to the end of the Second World War.
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