17. The Treasonous Royal
Edward VIII’s Nazi sympathies are not surprising, considering that he was an antisemite who blamed the Jews for the outbreak of WWII. In June of 1940, he told a Spanish diplomat that peace could be had if England was bombed effectively. Two weeks later, the Germans began bombing Britain.
British officials told Prime Minister Winston Churchill that Edward, who was living in Portugal at the time, was “well known to be pro-Nazi and may become a center of intrigue“. Churchill forced him to return to Britain with the threat of prosecution. The Prime Minister then hushed up the scandal – and preserved the treasonous former monarch’s public image – by bundling him to de facto exile, as governor of the Bahamas.