Quotes from Andrew Lownie

The problem was that the Duke wanted status not a job, to be recognised rather than to contribute.

Our Father which art in Hendon Harrow be thy name Thy Kingston come, Thy Wimbledon, In Erith as it is in Hendon. Give us this day our Leatherhead And forgive us our bypasses As we forgive those who bypass against us. Lead us not into Thames Ditton But deliver us from Ewell For thine is the Kingston, the Purley and Crawley For Esher and Esher, Crouch End.791

Edward is 'going the dictator way, and is pro-German,

Some 70–100 intelligence staff were attached to the German embassy sending, as Hoare later wrote, 'worthless reports to Berlin. And worst of all, Hitler believed what they sent him rather than the careful reports from the Abwehr that did not always suit the Fuhrer's wishful thinking.'6

He throws all the blame on the Jews and the Reds and Eden with his people in the Foreign Office and other politicians, all of whom he would have liked to put up against a wall… if (the Germans) bombed England effectively this could bring peace. He (the Duke of Windsor) seemed very much to hope that this would occur. He wants peace at any price.

Windsors genuinely believe that they will be restored to the throne under German influence: he will become a sort of Gauleiter and Wallis a queen.

The new Duke of Windsor, on the other hand, felt liberated. His obsession with Wallis had given him an excuse to renounce the role of king, which he had increasingly not wanted. It had also allowed the government, concerned about his political views, especially towards Germany, and whether he had the qualities needed to be monarch, to force him to abdicate.

The argument of this book is that there is plenty of evidence, as demonstrated in the previous pages, that the Windsors were not foolish and naïve, but actively engaged with the German intrigues.

The Duke was strongly pro-German, indeed considered himself almost German, telling Diana Mosley, 'Every drop of blood in my veins is German.'15 He spoke German fluently and sometimes referred to it as his mother tongue and had spent most of his summers before the First World War visiting German relatives. The murder of his Russian relations in 1918 had had a profound influence on him and he always considered communism as the real threat to Britain's interests and empire.