Reader\'s Digest Australia & New Zealand - June 2018

June• 2018 | 33

READER’S DIGEST

F. Kennedy congratulates Jackie for

being rude to the Queen and inspir-

ing her Ghanaian visit, as it’s worked

out perfectly for his ends. While Jackie

was scathing about both Buckingham

Palace and the Queen, the political

balance was actually reversed be-

tween the UK and the US. Nkrumah’s

power had been wobbling before the

November royal visit and its success

served to stabilise him, with the local

press hailing the Queen “the greatest

Socialist monarch in the world”. 

After the visit, PM Harold Macmil-

lan insisted Kennedy underwrite the

dam project, saying, “I have risked my

Queen. You must risk your money.”

EDWARD, DUKE OF WINDSOR

T

he biggest flight of fancy is

The Crown’s portrayal of the

Queen asking her uncle, the

Duke of Windsor, for advice. Despite

his abdication and cruel nicknames

and letters (mostly true), she remains

fond of him until Tommy Lascelles

bitterly explains the depths of the

Duke’s Nazi connections during the

season two episode ‘Vergangenheit’

(German for ‘past’).

In reality, relations were cool. he

Queen Mother loathed him – scenes

where she accuses him of having

killed her husband by abdicating are

based on fact – and the Queen sided

with her parents, though she re-

mained courteous towards the Duke

and was kind to him in his old age.

While some details of the Duke’s

Nazi sympathies may be sketchy, the

general picture drawn is accurate.

In 1936, when King, he phoned the

German ambassador directly, and

also met with Adolf Hitler on a visit

to Germany in 1937. He revealed to

the Germans that their plans for in-

vasion were known to the French

and there is a report from 1940 by

Windsor’s friend, Don Javier Berme-

jillo, stating that Windsor encouraged

Nazi bombing of England, recounted

by Dr Karina Urbach in her book Go-

Betweens for Hitler.

While some insist the Duke was a

fool, not a traitor, there’s no reason

he wasn’t both. One thing is certain:

he was not so much a fool as to come

to Britain angling for an oicial job

with Elizabeth’s government, as he

does in episode six.

Rift with his relatives: the Duke of

Windsor, played by Alex Jennings