CNN is reporting on another poll that purports to show that most Republicans support overturning the 2020 election. Do we need to belabor the point that most Republicans are generally anywhere from half-to-full crazed fascists? I think not.
Meanwhile, the other day “Dame” Joan Collins—they obviously give titles to anyone who is “famous” for any reason these days—refused to answer Piers Morgan’s query about claims that Meghan Markle was “lying” about being refused help concerning her mental health issues. Collins claimed that she didn’t want to be “canceled” the way Morgan was if she gave her opinion, which she didn’t deny was not a “good” opinion. This interview was given on the new British “news” show GB News, which is the British equivalent of Newsmax and OAN, and has actually offended a few Brits because of its belly-flops into the UK’s “culture wars,” mainly with a “racialist” tincture.
Of course what we are really talking about here with all this angst about Prince Harry and Meghan is the perception that it makes “The Firm” and British society look bad for chasing a mixed-race royal family member by marriage tearfully out of the country. Of course that isn’t hard to do, with the Windrush scandal still fresh and the continuing “hostile environment” policy. The “solution” to this problem seems to be to make Meghan look like the “bad guy” in all of this, at least from the British side.
The problem with all of this is that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex haven’t really done anything “wrong”; they say the British media had created a “hostile environment” for Meghan in particular, and “The Firm” did nothing to stop it. They were expected to “endure” it, and there can be little doubt that some members of “The Firm” actually enjoyed seeing it out of envy for the positive attention they received initially. The British media and others who have an “opinion” on the matter are making the apparently permanent move to the U.S. by the couple a national “scandal,” but again, this more about the way it “looks.” Harry and Meghan seem to be getting by just fine without all the bullshit, and many people in Britain just don’t like that.
But this isn’t the first time that British royals have been embroiled in “scandal,” and considerably more than the made up variety. History reminds us that King Edward VIII abdicated his throne to marry “the woman I love,” Wallace Simpson, an American not once, but twice, divorced, with the pair of them to be known as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. But what they are more infamous for was their connection with the Nazi regime—the Duke for political and heritage reasons, and supposedly by the Duchess simply because she was treated like “royalty” on their tour of Germany in 1937, in contrast to being the subject of abuse in Britain.
But in fact, while the royal family did consider the match unsuitable, the British government was more concerned about where their loyalties lie. It was rumored that Simpson had a previous affair with the former ambassador and now Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Furthermore, despite the attempt by his father to whitewash any superficial trace of the fact that the British monarchy was more German than Anglo-Saxon genetically and culturally, Edward was quite proud of his German heritage, and believed its culture “superior” to Britain’s.
This was no “accident” either. The current regime of the British royalty, the House of Windsor, was originally called The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in reference to the hereditary claims of Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. This German House had succeeded another British royal dynasty of German origin: the House of Hanover. The latter was installed over the hereditary rights of the House of Stuart (which included the beheaded Charles I). The first British king of the House of Hanover, George I, was actually 52nd in line to the throne by blood, but because of the Act of Settlement passed by Parliament in 1701, Catholics were barred from the throne, and the German George was the closest “suitable” Protestant candidate of royal birth. His grandson, George III—who presided over the American Revolution—was the first of the Hanover line to actually speak English as his first language. Thus it shouldn’t come as too surprising that the British brought over German Hessian “mercenaries” to fight for them during the revolution.
Thus the Duke of Windsor didn’t see World War I as a reason to hate Germany, but as an impetus to find ways to be “friends” again and avoid another war. Unfortunately, this required embracing fascism, which many in Britain did, like Sir Oswald Mosley of the British Union of Fascists. The excuse for support of fascism was always to oppose the threat of “Communism.” Anti-Semitism was of course part of the ideology because of the supposed connection between Jews and communism, although anti-Semitism certainly predated that political ideology, and the British royal family was hardly immune from this feeling. The Duke hardly cared if Jews were under attack in Germany, since it was only the affair of Germany, and he even went so far to suggest that the British might be supportive of a dictator “soon.”
When he was heir to the throne, Edward’s support of fascism was particularly unsettling both to the government and the public at large, and some were “concerned” that his “accessibility” and “mock Cockney” pose might be taken advantage of by unscrupulous international players. He had already begun his relationship with Simpson by the time he assumed the throne in 1936, and some suspect that at least on government side, this union had to be opposed because it was a “security risk” to have a pair of Nazi supporters as heads of state. British and American intelligence had them under surveillance and wire-tapped before and after Edward abdicated the throne.
In his subsequent tour of Germany, the new Duke of Windsor was occasionally seen returning Nazi salutes to his German guests. He praised the regime's economic "miracles," not realizing that it's foundation was of the "voodoo" variety. The Duke and Duchess visited Hitler at the Berghof, and were reportedly “awestruck” by him—perhaps only just a little more than Hitler was by them; he was certainly “flattered” to be regarded on the same social level as a real British royal. The Duke, of course, would in his later autobiography be less generous in his estimation of Hitler. But one wonders what exactly he was thinking here:
Back home, people were dumbfounded by the Duke’s foolhardy embrace of the Nazis, completely unmindful of his own reputation; after all, his Germany-embracing cousin—the former Duke of Albany—was blacklisted as a “traitor peer.” A subsequent tour of the U.S. was canceled after Jewish groups protested his presence.
The Duke and Duchess were living in France when the war broke out; the Duke was given an honorary military rank, did some “reports” about French military readiness, and then the two fled to Spain and then Portugal when the Germans invaded France. Word got around that the Windsors were still tacitly supportive of the Nazis; according to once captured German telegram, the Duke appeared to have hoped that the German bombing campaign over Britain would persuade the British to make “peace” with Germany. He also believed that if he was still king, there would be no war between their two countries.
This reached both Hitler’s and Winston Churchill’s ears. Churchill ordered the pair to take a position in the Bahamas to get them out of Europe before they got themselves into any more “trouble,” but Hitler had his own plan, called “Operation Willi,” in which the Duke and Duchess—either willingly or by force—would be “kidnapped” and held until the hoped-for success of Operation Sea Lion and the conquest of Britain, in which the Duke would be reinstalled as the figurehead king. But this never had any real chance of success, although it was reported that the Duchess was “intrigued” by the idea. Instead, the Windsors spent the rest of the war in the idyllic climes of the Caribbean beaches.
All this was subsequently excused by the Duke’s alleged lack of judgment, which was to be blamed for his giving-up his throne for a twice-divorced American, and relying on her and his friends to provide “improper” counsel. He was “naïve” and not equipped to deal with people like Hitler. But all this was “nothing” compared to the “shame” and embarrassment caused by one royal prince who has been completely written out of the British royal history narrative—the aforementioned Duke of Albany, Charles Edward.
Born in 1883, Charles Edward’s father was the favorite son of Queen Victoria, but he suffered from the family curse of haemophilia, and would die from it after falling down a stairs before his son was born. While he was growing up, Charles Edward’s mother constantly admonished him not to bring shame on his father’s memory, which only made him nervous and easily intimidated. But as a minor prince far down the line of succession, he could look forward to a life of the idle rich, with only occasional ceremonial duties, which he apparently did not like do.
But that would change when he still a school boy at Eton. One day he was the Duke of Albany and the Earl of Clarence, and the next day he was the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha—meaning its seat in Germany. The duke who had borne that title, Alfred, was left with no male heir after the death of his son, and Queen Victoria was insistent that the duchy remain “in the family,” since it was the inheritance of her late husband. Although neither of the first two candidates wanted to go, they were unlikely to have worried about going anyways. Prince Arthur, Victoria’s third son, was actually rejected by the Kaiser because he served in the British Army. His son, also named Arthur, was next in line, but the Kaiser’s demand that the boy be German-educated was not acceptable to either the boy or his father. In any case, neither had any desire to abandon their carefree lives in Britain to live amongst a people who might not like them because they were not technically German.
The Queen had enough of this, and the next “in line” was going to go whether he liked it or not. Charles Edward was the next in line, and there are stories that his cousin threatened to thrash him if he didn’t accept the post; but in any case, Queen Victoria was angry she wasn’t getting her way, and put her foot down, ignoring the pleas of Charles Edward’s mother, who insisted he was needed to remain to oversee his British holdings, since he was the only living male heir. What the new German Duke inherited was a massive estate, with a huge house on the hill overlooking Coburg, plus numerous castles and farms that brought in the equivalent of $24 million a year in today’s money.
Still a teenager, Charles Edward’s life was controlled by the Kaiser, who forced him into a Prussian military school and an arranged marriage, although it was apparently a happy one. Charles Edward tried hard to convince the locals that he was a “good German” and not some British usurper whose allegiance was doubtful. As fate would have it, World War I broke out, and the Kaiser demanded that he serve in the German military; he was not allowed to sit this one out just because he didn’t want to fight the country of his birth and heritage. Charles Edward was allowed, however, to serve on the eastern front against the Russian Tsar, who was another one of his blood relatives.
Still, Charles Edward did have a “choice.” He still had his British titles, and he could have just abandoned his German holdings and started life over again like it had been destined to be before he was forced against his will to go to Germany. But after spending half his life trying hard to be a “good German” and having grown accustomed to his position, he chose what would be the wrong road. What it cost him was being branded by an act of Parliament a “traitor peer” and stripped of all his British titles and holdings, and even his British citizenship. In a way it was certainly unfair, since Charles Edward was put in a difficult position, and he was not known to make decisions for himself, as Queen Victoria, the Kaiser and his own mother had controlled his every move.
After the war, the Kaiser was forced to abdicate, and the German nobility lost their status in society, although they were allowed to keep their property. Charles Edward found himself adrift, looking for a purpose. Unfortunately for him, making decisions was not his forte, and his next one would be one that encased his status as a persona non grata in Britain in cement, below ground where no one can see it.
One day the leader of a minor far-right fringe group known for its violence visited Coburg. The day was supposed to be a celebration of various political parties; instead, it was hijacked by this new leader and the 800 brown-shirted thugs he brought with him. Charles Edward was very much intrigued by the way this leader simply took control of the town, and invited him to his residence on the hill. Thus he became the first of the former noble class to embrace Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, and they would remain good friends to the bitter end, when even trapped in his Berlin bunker, Hitler did something he never did before, which was to express concern for another human being—writing instructions to insure that Charles Edward did not fall into enemy hands. Here they are before events got that bad:
Now with a “purpose” in life, Charles Edward would become Hitler’s chief assistant in getting on with Britain; being a representative of the German government, the British were forced to let him back in the country in that capacity. He got along swell with Germany-loving King Edward, and had high hopes for his reinstatement until Edward abdicated the throne and nobody in Britain wanted anything to do with him, save his loyal sister Princess Alice. who lived the life of idleness and luxury that he should have been living in had not fate intervened.
Charles Edward was then appointed as head of the German Red Cross, which would seal his infamy. The German version of the Red Cross was involved in the T4 euthanasia program; although Charles Edward was only a figurehead and didn’t make decisions about what was or wasn’t done, his subordinates were required to inform him of what they were doing, so even if he personally didn’t approve of the mass murder of the mentally and physically infirm—including by the first usage of poison gas—he almost certainly at least heard of what was going on. At his trial after the war, his wife, in trying to defend him, admitted that she had heard talk from those who knew about it and were uncomfortable about it, but her husband would say that either he didn’t believe their stories—or there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Since he was too old and infirm to go on the battlefield, Charles Edward spent most of the war sitting idle in his office in Berlin. He was never actually involved in making decisions (again, not his forte), and Hitler kept him around because he liked the association with a real (former) member of British royalty. With the war winding down he returned to his house on the hill, where he was arrested by the Americans and put in prison camp. His sister Princess Alice visited him to beg leniency from the Americans, after finding him starving and digging through trash bins. Charles Edward was put on trial and was found guilty mainly for the crime of being a member of the Nazi Party and supporting the regime; but he was acquitted of crimes against humanity, and probably because he was so sick and infirm he was not sentenced to additional prison time. His estates were taken from him, and the fines he paid took almost every cent he had; he and his wife would live out their final days together in a chauffeur’s cabin.
Thus we can see the hypocrisy of the “Firm” and the British media in their reaction to the moves by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle; they are hardly the worst part of the history of the royal family, and they may actually be the better part of it.
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