Source Notes
Chapter One: The Peter Pan Prince
to dance with him: Hugo Vickers, The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (London: Michael Joseph, 1995), 133.
innate decency of mankind: Duke of Windsor, A King’s Story: The Memoirs of H. R. H. The Duke of Windsor (London: Cassell, 1951), 131.
Senators’ daughters than by talking to Senators: Frank Prochaska, “Edward VIII: A Prince in the Promised Land,” History Today 58, no. 12 (2008).
tremendous curtain call: Duke of Windsor, A King’s Story, 151.
pleasing point about him: Frank Prochaska, “Edward VIII,” History Today.
They murdered him with kindness: J. Bryan III and John Murphy, The Windsor Story (London: Granada, 1979), 46.
things they most believe: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII (New York: Knopf, 1991).
their press-made national hero: Ibid., 143.
boring people and conventions: Ibid., 163.
long and long to die: Ibid., 107.
lonely person, lonely and sad: Bryan and Murphy, The Windsor Story, 47.
never wanted to become King: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 17.
miserableness I had to keep to myself: Bryan and Murphy, The Windsor Story, xvi.
like any other boy of my age: John Parker, King of Fools (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988), 15.
a lost lamb: Neil Balfour and Sally Mackay, Paul of Yugoslavia: Britain’s Maligned Friend (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1980), 28.
what does it matter if I am killed?: Hugo Vickers, The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (London: Harrods Publishing, 1995), 68.
impressed me most enormously: Duke of Windsor, A King’s Story, 117–18.
drowned in shell holes: Ibid., 128.
he could keep him out of it: R. G. Casey to Stanley Bruce, February 23, 1928, www.dfat.gov.au/publications/historical/volume-18/historical-document-18-105.html.
go to church on Sunday mornings: Frank Prochaska, “Edward VIII,” History Today; also papers of Sir Esme Howard, Cumbria Archive Centre, Carlisle, Cumbria.
you are a cad: John Parker, King of Fools, 23.
I have often thought the same: Duff Hart-Davis, ed., King’s Counsellor: Abdication and War; The Diaries of “Tommy” Lascelles (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006), 104.
wrong sort of person to be Prince of Wales: Ibid., 105.
Chapter Two: Adolf Hitler, Royal Matchmaker
Very nice but terribly young: Alan Palmer, Crowned Cousins: The Anglo-German Royal Connection (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985), 201.
far from being a pacifist: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 38.
it would have been brought off: Ibid., 39.
’cos it’ll destroy me: Ibid., 151.
fundamentally afraid of women: Christopher Wilson, “The Night that Edward Confronted Wallis over Her Gay Lover,” Mail on Sunday, September 20, 2014.
never out of a woman’s legs: Hugo Vickers, Behind Closed Doors: The Tragic, Untold Story of the Duchess of Windsor (London: Hutchinson, 2011), 276.
every mother’s heart beats high: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 83.
bad blood: “The Earl of Dudley” (obituary), Daily Telegraph, November 26, 2013.
the prince might have been his father: Ibid.
his love is so obvious and undisguisable: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 89.
to what the world is saying: John Parker, King of Fools, 24.
just DIPPY to die with YOU: Anne Sebba, That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012), 78.
no party was complete without us: William Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography (London: Macmillan, 2009), 114.
maintenance of the Empire: R. G. Casey to Stanley Bruce, February 16, 1928, http://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/historical/volume-18/historical-document-18-100.html.
we were not prepared to put pressure on our daughter: Jonathan Petropoulos, Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 162.
doubtful whether World War II could have occurred: Charles Higham, The Duchess of Windsor, The Secret Life (New York: John Wiley, 2004), 77.
heedless of where the voyage would end: John Parker, King of Fools, 47–48.
I can see nothing but disaster ahead: Hugo Vickers, The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, 109.
more original from the Prince of Wales: Duke of Windsor, A King’s Story, 257.
most attractive personalities I have ever met: Bryan and Murphy, The Windsor Story, 67.
Chapter 3: Sex, Drugs, and Royal Blackmail
career than Edward VIII had: Bryan and Murphy, The Windsor Story, 20.
stole my husband while I was ill: Charles Higham, The Duchess of Windsor, 44.
wardrobes in Paris for the visit: George S. Messersmith papers, MSS 109 2017-00, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, DE.
I thought you said we all looked ghastly: Anne Sebba, That Woman, 88.
her conversation deft and amusing: Duke of Windsor, A King’s Story, 257.
I was unaware of his interest: Anne Sebba, That Woman, 94.
too much of a bad thing: William Shawcross, Counting One’s Blessings: The Selected Letters of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (London: Macmillan, 2012), 198–99.
looked after him exceedingly well: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 198.
No letter, no nothing. Just silence: Paul Vallely, “Royal Albums: The King’s Favourite: Mrs Simpson; Moves to the Heart of Edward’s Life,” Independent, February 14, 1998.
religious, almost holy: Bryan and Murphy, The Windsor Story, 59.
good sense of fashion. Nothing more: Hugo Vickers, Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1979), 220.
decrease as one sees them more often: Anne Sebba, That Woman, 100.
Business foul: Michael Bloch, ed., Wallis and Edward: Letters, 1931–1937 (New York: Summit Books, 1986), 59.
I can see no happy outcome to such a situation: Ibid., 126.
boundary between friendship and love: Anne Sebba, That Woman, 101.
the day the clocks stopped: Ibid., 97.
charming, cultivated woman: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 202.
hypnotized by the American adventuress: Ibid., 205.
intimate relations take place: Anne Sebba, That Woman, cited June 25, 1935, marked “Secret,” MEPO 10/35 NA PRO.
getting all they could out of HRH: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 207.
blackmail upon an extravagant basis: Anne Sebba, That Woman, 126.
the only woman who can exercise any influence on him: Jim Wilson, Nazi Princess: Hitler, Lord Rothermere and Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe (Stroud, Gloucs.: History Press, 2011), 34.
a huge portrait of Hitler: Ibid., 97.
Chapter Four: Seduced by von Ribbentrop’s Dimple
I don’t want to be mixed up with Asiatics: David Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990), 354.
Mrs Simpson and gave parties for her: Anne Sebba, That Woman, 121.
she speaks favourably of the present regime in Germany: Jim Wilson, Nazi Princess, 96.
Charlie Chaplin’s moustache: Christopher Sykes, Nancy: The Life of Lady Astor (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 377.
why does Herr Hitler dislike the Jews?: Bryan and Murphy, The Windsor Story, 105.
Herr Ribbentrop through Mrs Simpson: Jim Wilson, Nazi Princess, 97.
Gratify the duke’s sexual desires: Rob Evans and David Hencke, “Wallis Simpson, the Nazi Minister, the Telltale Monk and an FBI Plot,” Guardian, June 29, 2002, http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jun/29/research.monarchy.
often tragically misleading: Martha Schad, Hitler’s Spy Princess: The Extraordinary Life of Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe (Stroud, Gloucs.: Sutton, 2004), 51.
echoes with work and song: Duke of Winds
or, A King’s Story, 103.
the winning side, and that will be German, not the French: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 179.
victors of the contest will be the Soviets: Edward VIII to Herman Rogers, from the estate of Lucy Livingston Rogers.
the savour of high diplomacy: HRH the Duke of Windsor, The Crown and the People 1902–1953 (London: Cassell, 1953), 41.
Dictator of the Empire: Jim Wilson, Nazi Princess, 96.
difficult enough task for an English King: Ibid.
we might want one in England before long: Charles Higham, The Duchess of Windsor, 64.
Ferdinand would no doubt have agreed: Ibid., 65.
the German people grasp most eagerly the hand: Ibid., 100.
peace-loving conciliatory Britain: Dr. Paul Schwarz, This Man Ribbentrop: His Life and Times (New York: Julian Messner, 1943), 134.
that’s a good sport: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 182.
where foreign affairs are concerned: Duke of Windsor, A King’s Story, 254.
the German protagonist: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 181.
British foreign policy seemed paralyzed: Duke of Windsor, A King’s Story, 254.
goose stepping around the living room: Bryan and Murphy, The Windsor Story, 112.
wave a red flag myself: William Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 364.
at loggerheads with his eldest son: Alan Palmer, Crowned Cousins, 217.
the Führer was insane: Jonathan Petropoulos, Royals and the Reich, 173.
no differences to my feelings for you: Ibid., 199.
My sympathies for your people: Martha Schad, Hitler’s Spy Princess, Appendix III.
to discuss drawing closer to the English royal house: Jonathan Petropoulos, Royals and the Reich, 160.
His wife is equally anti-French: Ibid., 201.
fascination of London society for aristocratic Fascism: John Costello, Mask of Treachery: The Dossier on Blunt, Buckingham Palace, MI5 and Soviet Subversion (London: Pan Books, 1989), 283.
family relations in Germany have been used to spy: Jonathan Petropoulos, Royals and the Reich, 190–91.
Chapter Five: Courting the New King
much joy and relaxation: Ben Urwand, “Hitlerwood: Yes, Hitler was Obsessed by Movies—But Did He Really Persuade Hollywood to Collaborate with the Nazis?” Daily Mail, November 16, 2013.
American’s figure was “not bad”: Charles Higham, The Duchess of Windsor, 229.
encourage pro-German feeling: Author interview.
might well help to bring about an understanding: Greg King, The Duchess of Windsor: The Uncommon Life of Wallis Simpson (New York: Citadel, 2003), 147.
I myself wish to talk to Hitler: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 231.
good relations established between Germany and Britain: Ibid., 231.
personal influence did much to retard British policy: George S. Messersmith papers, MSS 109 0809-00.
in the pocket of Ribbentrop: William Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 366.
undesirable reflection upon their king: Paul Schwarz, This Man Ribbentrop, 132.
any question of marriage: Keith Middlemas and John Barnes, Baldwin: A Biography (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969).
Ribbentrop used Mrs. Simpson: N. A. Rose, ed., Baffy: The Diaries of Blanche Dugdale 1936–1947 (Edgware, Middlesex: Vallentine Mitchell, 1973), 34.
German pay. I think this is unlikely: William E. Ellis, Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern Mystique: From the Old South to the New South and Beyond (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1997), 183.
in no circumstances to be allowed to develop: Greg King, The Duchess of Windsor, 149.
He is keeping his promise: Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970).
I must inform Berlin immediately: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 234.
natural and unaffected good manners: Diana Mitford, The Duchess of Windsor: A Memoir (London: Gibson Square, 2011), 77.
less spectacular role by Edward VIII: Author interview.
a nice way to start my reign: Charles Higham, The Duchess of Windsor, 120.
a new trick pulled out of the hat: Ronald Tree to Nancy Tree, April 1, 1936, Langhorne Papers, MSS 1 L2653 B281-362.
under orders to let the Germans win: Christopher Sykes, Nancy, 241.
regimentation of opinion: Jacques Poitras, Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy (Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane, 2007), 41.
Lord Rothermere . . . “a traitor”: John Vincent, ed., The Crawford Papers: The Journals of David Lindsay, the Twenty-Seventh Earl of Crawford and Tenth Earl of Balcarres, 1871–1940, during the Years 1892 to 1940 (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1984), 557.
It has never entered our head: N. J. Crowson, ed., Fleet Street, Press Barons and Politics: The Journals of Collin Brooks, 1932–1940 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 113.
Adolf the Great: Jim Wilson, Nazi Princess, 85.
George Washington of Germany: Jonathan Petropoulos, Royals and the Reich, 202.
War with Britain at any time: Martha Schad, Hitler’s Spy Princess, 52.
hated Wallis for it: Charles Higham, The Duchess of Windsor, 120.
glorious flowers: Anne Sebba, That Woman, 126.
archives that might shed more light on them remain closed: Chris Hastings and Stephanie Plentl, “Mrs Simpson Not Worthy of Blue Plaque,” Daily Telegraph, June 7, 2008.
Chapter Six: Edward on a Knife Edge
his hat, which was discovered by the maid: Bryan and Murphy, The Windsor Story, 136.
Are you sincere? Do you intend to marry her?: Ibid., 136.
she hadn’t any intention of divorcing Simpson: Greg King, The Duchess of Windsor, 153.
access to all Secret and Cabinet papers: Anne Sebba, That Woman, 125.
infatuations usually wear off: Mabell, Countess of Airlie, Thatched with Gold: The Memoirs of Mabell, Countess of Airlie (London: Hutchinson, 1962), 198.
supplanted by some younger rival: John Vincent, ed., The Crawford Papers, diary entry, February 2, 1936.
robustly maintained for nearly twenty years: Duff Hart-Davis, ed., King’s Counsellor, 113.
my prime minister must meet my future wife: Anne Sebba, That Woman, 130.
charm or a kind of beauty: Anne Morrow Lindbergh, The Flower and the Nettle: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976), 51, 62–63.
Very convenient: “The Earl of Dudley” (obituary), Daily Telegraph, November 26, 2013.
the flatterers, the sycophants, and the malice: Michael Bloch, The Duchess of Windsor (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996), 82.
no wish of hers: Sarah Bradford, King George VI (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989), 176.
Aird . . . “despised” him as a king: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 247.
I honestly don’t think you can me: Michael Bloch, The Duchess of Windsor, 88.
I came to dine with the king: Sarah Bradford, King George VI, 172.
immediately to expunge his memory: Nigel Nicolson, ed., Leave the Letters Till We’re Dead: The Letters of Virginia Woolf, 1936–41 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1980), 10–11.
hurt your popularity in the country: Michael Bloch, The Duchess of Windsor, 89.
silence all this weird conspiracy: Ian Kershaw, Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry and Britain’s Road to War (London: Penguin, 2005), 188.
I doubt if he will ever regret it: Herman Rogers to Endicott Peabody, October 23, 1937, from the estate of Lucy Livingston Rogers.
damaging scandal would erupt: Sara Delano Roosevelt to Herman Rogers, from the estate of Lucy Livingston Rogers.
tragedy for him and catastrophe for me: Michael Bloch, The Duchess of Windsor, 99.
horrible position for us naturally: William Shawcross, Counting One’s Blessings, 225.
battle against the plotters: Christopher Andrew, Defend The Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (New York: Alfre
d Knopf, 2009), 199.
recipient of endless pin pricks: Diana Mitford, The Duchess of Windsor, 107.
ambassador of that foreign government: Jonathan Petropoulos, Royals and the Reich, 210; Martha Schad, Hitler’s Spy Princess, 65.
then terrible things began to happen: John Colville, Footprints in Time: Memories (Norwich, Norfolk: Michael Russell, 1984), 203.
every possible rumour, however absurd: John Vincent, ed., The Crawford Papers, 573.
signed two abdications and torn them up: Miranda Seymour, Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993), 365.
Did you hear what he has said?: Hugo Vickers, The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, 36.
The drawbridges were going up behind me: Duke of Windsor, A King’s Story, 413.
Chapter Seven: Love in a Cold Climate
dangerous adventuress: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 203.
she believed had hypnotized him: Hugo Vickers, The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, 160.
painting Wallis’s toenails: Paul Vallely, “Royal Albums: The King’s Favourite,” Independent, February 14, 1988.
arch adventuress of the worst type: Adrian Fort, Nancy: The Story of Lady Astor (London: Jonathan Cape, 2012), 248.
ambitious, scheming and dangerous: Stephen Bates and Owen Bowcott, “Papers Bring Deeper Insight, but No Change,” Guardian, January 30, 2003.
a respectable whore: Philip Ziegler, King Edward VIII, 215.
I am here today: George S. Messersmith papers, MSS 109 2017-00.
Mrs. Simpson “intended to flit”: Owen Bowcott and Stephen Bates, “Fear that Windsors Would ‘Flit’ to Germany,” Guardian, January 30, 2003.
I must remain hidden: Michael Bloch, The Secret File of the Duke of Windsor: The Private Papers 1937–1972 (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 18.
Make no mistake he can’t live without her: Mabell, Countess of Airlie, Thatched with Gold, 201.
17 Carnations: The Windsors, The Nazis and The Cover-Up Page 34