Archives reveal how Churchill covered up Nazi plot to install new king
Germans intended to re-crown abdicated Edward VIII following a successful invasion of Britain
LONDON — Britain’s National Archives released records Thursday showing then prime minister Winston Churchill’s attempts to cover up a Nazi plot to collaborate with members of the British royal family.
The elaborate plan to install the Duke of Windsor as king, should the Nazis successfully invade Britain, involved luring the abdicated king out of neutral Portugal to Spain to offer him a deal.
Former king Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 over his marriage to US divorcee Wallis Simpson. He was known to have Nazi sympathies.
Nazi telegrams detailing the plot were found after the war in German archives. American researchers wanted to include the material in the official US record of the war, to Churchill’s dismay.
Top secret documents, made available Thursday by the National Archives at Kew, showed how Churchill tried to stall the publication of the plot after World War II as he was worried about how the royal couple would be perceived. Churchill even asked US president Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 to delay publication of the memos. The British wartime leader wanted to push off their publication for 20 years.
The Nazi plot failed, and the memos detailing it were eventually published in 1957 when Churchill was no longer prime minister.
The documents published Thursday detail how Churchill tried to suppress the plot, not the plot itself which has long been public.
After the war Churchill tried to have the dossier about the Nazi attempts to court Edward destroyed and wrote to Eisenhower in 1953 saying ‘If they were to be included in an official publication they might leave the impression that the Duke was in close touch with German agents and was listening to suggestions that were disloyal,” the Daily Mail reported.
The telegrams that Churchill tried to keep hidden show the Nazis kept a close eye the duke and duchess and put into action a plan to try and convince them to stay in Spain in 1940 until Britain could be conquered after which Edward would be installed as a puppet king.
Churchill was informed of the plan and took measures to have the duke and duchess first returned to neighboring Portugal and then sent to the Bahamas, where Edward was set up as governor.
