Original subtitles

female narrator: The latest in a long line of brides

prepares to join

the most celebrated royal family on Earth.

[dramatic music]

Actress Meghan Markle will marry into a world

of grand tradition and vast wealth.

♪ ♪

- My whole life shall be devoted to your service.

narrator: But all that glitters is not gold.

For 100 years, this royal house

has faced scandal,

war...

- A bomb fell only a few feet from the palace building.

narrator: Adultery...

- It would have been far easier to have had two wives.

narrator: And tragedy.

- Diana, the Princess of Wales,

has died at the age of 36.

narrator: A family that will do

whatever it takes to survive.

- This vast crowd here to celebrate

six decades of the queen's reign.

narrator: Duty, power, and sacrifice.

"The Windsors."

♪ ♪

1911.

The future of the British monarchy

rests on the shoulders of a teenage boy:

Prince Edward.

He is the eldest son of King George V

and his wife, Queen Mary.

On his father's death,

Edward will reign over Britain and her vast empire.

♪ ♪

- Edward is only 17 when his father,

King George V,

forces him to go through this special ceremony

declaring him Prince of Wales and heir to the throne.

- The whole ceremony is all planned

by his father King George,

and everything about it is one giant symbol

of what George thinks monarchy should be.

narrator: King George V is the 38th monarch in a line

that stretches back nearly a thousand years

through eight royal houses

all the way to William the Conqueror.

Though George holds no direct political power,

as Head of State

and Supreme Governor of the Church of England,

many regard the king as the ultimate symbol

of Britain's national identity.

♪ ♪

Today, Edward will be publicly presented as king in waiting

when he is crowned Prince of Wales.

- King George designs this wonderful medieval outfit

for him to wear.

- Edward absolutely hates it,

and he can't wait to get out of the ceremonial robes.

- He must have looked to the future

with absolute horror.

It was a foretaste of a life of formality and ceremony

which he absolutely hated.

[crowd cheering]

- Edward is part of a new generation,

and he wants to do things differently from his father,

and his father, King George V,

is very much part of the old guard.

narrator: The upbringing of the royal children

has been purposefully shaped

to protect a thousand years of tradition.

- George V is particularly strict on his children

because he believes

that they should be sort of virtuous role models

that his people should then look up to and emulate.

- There were precise rules for everything.

The children could be punished for something so slight

as wearing the wrong kilt with the wrong jacket.

- George V had a ruthless temper.

When the boys were summoned to their father's study

they were absolutely terrified because he was the king,

and you didn't argue with the king.

- There is almost nothing

of the natural sort of fun and affection

that you would expect to see in most families.

narrator: As a child, Edward is closest

to his younger brother, Prince Albert,

known in the family as "Bertie."

- Bertie is shy.

He suffers from a serious stammer.

His father is very unsympathetic.

- Edward and Bertie are both really oppressed

by their father's tough regime,

and they do gain some solace

from the fact that they are in it together.

narrator: But the two brothers find an escape route

from their father's strict household...

war.

♪ ♪

- Germany is threatening to become

the dominant power on the European continent,

and there comes a point when Britain has to intervene.

narrator: More than 30 countries,

including the United States,

will be dragged into the first truly global conflict:

World War I.

- 20-year-old Edward,

like other 20-year-old young men in Britain

want to go out and fight for their country.

- George is advised that it would be good for him

and for the monarchy

if his sons are seen to take part.

narrator: But if the king allows his sons to go to war,

they will be fighting against their own family.

Germany's ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm,

is George's first cousin.

- In fact, the British royal family is related

to most of the royal houses of Europe.

They're all intermarried,

and they're all cousins of one another.

narrator: George V and Kaiser Wilhelm

are both grandsons of the late Queen Victoria.

Known as the Grandmother of Europe,

she sat at the center of a vast network

of royal families connected by blood and marriage.

Victoria was married to a German, Prince Albert.

- So the name of the British royal family

is the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty.

- George's German roots are a PR disaster waiting to happen.

His people are at war with Germany,

but how can the king command their loyalty

if they're questioning his British origins

in the first place?

- The British public becomes very much aware and critical

of the German origins of the king,

and at this point

George makes a really radical change.

- They have to change the family name.

- The question is, what name?

And all sorts of names were thought of,

and eventually they come up with the brilliant idea

of calling the new dynasty the House of Windsor.

[grand orchestral music]

narrator: The name comes from Windsor Castle,

one of the official residences of British monarchs.

- Windsor Castle, been there for a thousand years,

it's absolutely quintessential Britain.

- They change their name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor,

and with that they say to the nation,

"We're not German; we're English.

We're English, just like you."

narrator: It works.

The PR maneuver increases the king's popularity.

One crisis has been averted,

but the war will soon force

an impossible decision on the king.

[dramatic music]

announcer: 1917.

The First World War rages on.

Prince Edward is now an officer in the British army.

- But he's not allowed to fight.

He's not allowed near the front line.

- He says to his father, King George,

"Look, I've got to be doing my bit."

And his father said,

"No, no, you can't risk being killed or captured."

- And that's an experience that he finds extremely humiliating.

narrator: His father insists that the Prince of Wales

is protected at all times,

but Edward defies his father's orders.

- At one point he escaped from his minders

and stole a motorbike and headed off for the front line.

[motorcycle engine chugs]

And he hears the stories of ordinary men,

and he sees the sacrifices that they're making.

- It's at this time that Edward realizes

that he is able to make contact and connection

with ordinary people outside the bubble of the court.

- He was extremely popular.

He represented a new generation.

♪ ♪

narrator: Edward's personal popularity may be on the rise,

but King George faces another wave

of public dissatisfaction with the monarchy.

- The carnage of the First World War

makes people question the old, traditional social order.

They're supposed to be fighting for king and country

but really, what is it all about?

- The working classes in particular

are questioning the decisions taken

by their social superiors, people like the monarchs.

- Particularly worrying is what's going on in Russia

with George's cousin, Tsar Nicholas II.

[crowd clamoring]

narrator: In March 1917,

revolutionaries depose the Tsar

and place the Russian royal family under house arrest.

- Tsar Nicholas needs asylum.

He wants to come to England.

- King George is very close to his cousin Nicky.

They were actually very good friends,

and they looked almost identical.

The problem with the Tsar is that

he is incredibly unpopular amongst some people in Britain.

- He is seen as a blood-stained tyrant,

brutally quashing any kind of uprising prior to 1917.

narrator: The fall of the Tsar is celebrated

by a growing number of the British working class.

- George is afraid that if he brings in Nicholas

we'll have a sort of flaming of communist revolution

in this country as well.

- If the Russian royal family can be toppled,

what's to say that the British royal family aren't next?

- George will do everything he can

to preserve his own dynasty and his own family.

narrator: The king makes a cold-hearted choice.

He refuses asylum to his cousin,

his wife, and their five children.

One year later,

King George learns the fate of his Russian family.

- A group of Bolshevik soldiers just opened fire on them.

[gunshots]

The Tsar died straightaway,

but it took a long time to kill his son,

the tsarina, and the princesses.

They all had jewels, diamonds, sewn into their underwear,

which acted as a kind of armor

and so their death was more agonizing

than it might otherwise have been.

- George writes in his diary of his shock and his misery,

but he never speaks of it publicly

because he knows he didn't save them.

He didn't offer them asylum.

- Ultimately,

the survival of the British monarchy comes first.

[soldiers cheering]

narrator: In November 1918, after four long years of war,

Germany surrenders.

Prince Edward, heir to the throne,

is welcomed home as a war hero.

- But at this point,

a whole new set of challenges emerges

and the biggest of those, perhaps,

is the survival of the British Empire,

which is starting to fray at the edges.

♪ ♪

narrator: King George's empire

extends from Canada to Australia,

covering a fifth of the world's population.

♪ ♪

Nearly 3 million of George's subjects

from across the empire fought in World War I,

and hundreds of thousands lost their lives.

Many now question their sacrifice.

♪ ♪

- There is lots of discontent and rebellion

in different parts of the empire.

- There are nationalist uprisings

and a lot of violence

in Egypt, Ireland, and in India.

- King George realizes

that his son Edward's wartime popularity

is something that he can use

to shore up the loyalty of the British Empire.

- In the fall of 1919, Edward is sent off

on his first major overseas tour to Canada.

- Edward embarks on these tours

as an ambassador on behalf of his father

to broker good relations

between Britain and the representative figures

who he meets in these different countries.

- The program that's been set for him

is a very old-fashioned, formal one

with carriage rides and formal lunches and receptions.

- Edward is the very antithesis of his parents,

King George and Queen Mary,

who were enormously correct and very, very stuffy.

- The first thing that Edward does when he gets to Canada

is to fire the organizer for the tour.

That's the same man

has organized his father's tour a few years before.

- He begins to practice

the more informal style of monarchy

which he had begun to develop during the First World War.

- He wants to have mass receptions

where he can meet as many people as possible.

- He shook so many hands that his right hand became unusable.

It was too bruised, and he had to start shaking hands

with people using his left hand.

- Of course, the Prince of Wales

was a very dynamic character,

and the fact that he was so good-looking,

he got mobbed wherever he went.

- At the end of his Canadian tour,

Edward decides to tack on

a visit to America

where President Woodrow Wilson has invited him.

- He's given a ticker tape parade in Manhattan,

and people are just delighted to see him.

[crowd cheering]

- He falls in love with the U.S. and American way of life.

♪ ♪

- For him, the wide-open spaces

represent a life of freedom,

somewhere where he can be his own man

in charge of his own destiny.

- Edward loves North America so much

that he buys a cattle ranch, and he has this fantasy

that one day he will be able to retire from public life

and go and live out a private existence on this ranch.

- He's got all of these responsibilities,

he's representing the British throne,

and then at the same time there are things that he wants to do.

He loves the social life; he loves to go dancing.

He really is a kind of Jazz Age prince.

narrator: The prince's flirtation with America

will set him on a collision course

not only with his father,

but also with the entire House of Windsor.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

announcer: Throughout the 1920s,

Prince Edward crisscrosses the British Empire

as ambassador for his father, King George.

- George V really understands that

for the monarchy to survive, it has to be useful.

Edward travels around the world

on behalf of the British Empire

on endless goodwill tours.

- What an amazing constitution the Prince of Wales must have.

Here he is arriving at a garden party in Buenos Aires

where he shook hands with over 500 people.

- Edward works really hard as Prince of Wales.

He goes on all these tours,

much more than George had done when he was Prince of Wales.

Prince Edward is Britain's answer

to Hollywood celebrity.

- Whatever he wears is adopted as a fashion.

- I suppose we shall all be wearing boaters now.

narrator: Despite Edward's huge popularity,

his father, King George,

is irritated by his modern approach.

- From George's point of view, Edward can do nothing right.

George is constantly picking, criticizing,

silly little things about, you know,

how he shakes too many hands, or he wears the wrong clothes.

You know, constant carping.

narrator: In 1924,

Edward takes a break from his royal duties

and is drawn back to his beloved America.

♪ ♪

- The USA is one of the few places in the world

that Edward visits that's not part of the British Empire,

so he feels much greater freedom in America.

[jaunty music]

♪ ♪

- Edward falls in with the kind of

high-living, socializing set of Long Island,

and he spends three weeks living it up.

♪ ♪

- One of the first people he meets in America

is Pinna Cruger, a Hollywood starlet.

She is married to a New York millionaire,

and they embark on a passionate affair.

♪ ♪

- It was fun, probably, for everybody,

except for the Prince of Wales's father

who back in England is thinking, "Good Lord,

this isn't possibly the tour that we had anticipated."

- When Edward returns from his trip to America in 1924,

his father is apoplectic.

[dramatic music]

- The king has a pile of news clippings on his desk

with such headlines as,

"Prince gets in with the milkman."

- George V expects his son to behave properly,

with decorum, with etiquette,

to project a certain moral virtuosity,

to maintain the image worthy of the future king.

In George's mind, Edward is letting the side down.

- George is furious at this public exposure,

and he is so annoyed

that he refuses to let Edward ever go back

to the United States again.

♪ ♪

narrator: But America's influence

has transformed Edward's vision

of the kind of royal he wants to be.

♪ ♪

- Edward believes that America is more democratic,

that if he could dispense with pomp and pageantry

that perhaps the monarchy will have a relevance.

- Britain is going through very difficult times economically

with the Depression.

He is out there meeting the people,

going into ordinary houses,

finding out about working conditions

on a much more direct and immediate level

than royalty has ever done before.

- Edward is enormously popular.

Suddenly here was somebody

who was willing to talk to you like a normal human being,

and people were just overwhelmed by that.

♪ ♪

- He speaks out about

the dreadful living conditions

and housing in Britain.

- And this shocked the government

because it was an implicit criticism of them.

- It was crossing a line, if you like,

that here was the Prince of Wales

actually getting involved with politics,

and this was something that the monarchy of George V

was certainly very against.

- Usually the monarchy should stay out of politics,

and Edward is breaking all the rules.

- King George worries desperately about the future,

and he is reported to say,

"After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in 12 months."

narrator: But the king is delighd

with the man his second son Bertie is promising to become.

- Edward and Bertie are very different characters.

Edward's very glamorous, outgoing,

and Bertie is terribly shy and rather nervous.

- Bertie marries Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

who is from a very grand, ancient,

Scottish aristocratic family.

- In 1926, she has Elizabeth.

In 1930, she has Margaret Rose.

- Bertie, in living his life the way he is,

is pleasing his father

and doing exactly what George V would want him to do.

- Bertie has become very close to his father,

and that's because he lives a virtuous family life.

And on the other hand you have Edward, the bad boy.

He is unmarried, single,

and his father thinks his eldest son

is woefully underprepared for becoming king.

- So as Edward approaches 40, he's really at a low ebb.

He feels lonely.

His brothers are all settling down,

making marriages, and having children.

- And that's when he meets the woman

who will throw the entire monarchy into crisis.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

announcer: London, spring 1934.

Prince Edward hosts a party at the Dorchester Hotel.

Among the guests are an American couple,

Ernest and Wallis Simpson.

♪ ♪

Wallis is a socialite from Baltimore.

Ernest, her second husband.

- Wallis exudes charm.

♪ ♪

She's got very strong features.

Of course, elegantly dressed.

Tiny skinny.

I mean, "You can never be too rich or too thin,"

I think she might have said. [laughs]

♪ ♪

- They're sitting together, other people are dancing,

and Edward suddenly opens up about his work,

the visits that he's making to the coal mining areas.

And Wallis listens attentively.

- And he talks to her about the burdens that he faces

and all the difficulties of his daily job,

and Wallis is not only deeply sympathetic,

she's very knowledgeable.

- And he says,

"Wallis, you're the first woman

who has ever been interested in my job."

♪ ♪

- Wallis very quickly realizes

that beneath that confident veneer,

the Prince is actually

lacking in self-confidence to some extent.

- In Wallis, he finds someone with whom he can really discuss

all these matters that are preying on his mind.

- Wallis doesn't defer to him in a slavish kind of way

as the English tended to do.

He was subjected to the most arrant,

appalling flattery by the English.

She didn't do that.

She'd talk to him as woman to man,

and he liked this.

narrator: Edward and Wallis become secret lovers.

Before long, she is a regular guest at Fort Belvedere,

his private retreat.

- Fort Belvedere meant everything to Edward.

He can be there

with no royal protocol going on around him.

- Fort Belvedere was his sort of getaway

from the rigors of court life.

- What he loves doing

is having the cocktails before dinner

and rolling up the carpet after dinner

and putting on gramophone records.

All of those sort of things that

Queen Mary up the road in Windsor Castle

and King George would abhor.

♪ ♪

- It's amazing how quickly

the relationship between Wallis and Edward develops.

- Edward falls head over heels for Wallis,

I think precisely because

she offers him the love and support

that he wasn't necessarily getting

particularly from his father but also his mother.

It's also the case that

Edward has a great affection for all things American.

- There was something about an American woman

that he found spirited and different and sparky

that is key to any relationship as far as Edward is concerned.

- She had this ability to make you feel

that you were the most important person in the room,

and the rest of the world had just sort of vanished

and she was completely focused on you.

- Wallis establishes herself very quickly

as the unofficial wife at Fort Belvedere.

- But Wallis presents a number of problems,

not least the fact

that she is married and has been divorced.

Divorce is simply not done.

I mean, it's taboo not just in Britain

but also in the United States.

- Divorced people in England at this point have no status.

They're almost viewed as pariahs.

- So, for him to have a relationship

with a woman who has been divorced

is completely unheard of.

- Divorced people can't be presented at court,

so they can't meet the royal family officially.

- However, Edward is so besotted with her

that he wants her to accompany him

to the pre-wedding ball of his younger brother,

Prince George.

- Edward is absolutely determined

he is going to bring Wallis to this party

to meet his father against all advice and protocol.

♪ ♪

- Edward's younger brother Bertie and his wife Elizabeth

are horrified.

They think that this unscrupulous woman,

this woman of low morals,

should not be in the company either of themselves

or for that matter, the Prince of Wales.

- Wallis is finally introduced to Edward's father,

King George V,

and she feels the icy stare almost burning through her.

♪ ♪

- George really explodes with rage and says, you know,

"She must not darken my doors again."

And there is a real serious bust-up

between father and son.

- King George and Queen Mary

are terribly worried about the degree

to which he is completely under Wallis's spell.

narrator: His parents are fearful

of what this could mean for the future of the monarchy.

♪ ♪

But before they can intervene,

King George's health suddenly declines.

- King George becomes seriously ill.

It's clear that he's on his death bed,

and that means that Edward will become king,

and that will change

everything about his relationship with Wallis.

[dramatic music]

narrator: At Sandringham House in January 1936,

King George V dies from heart failure

at the age of 70.

- When George breathes his last,

Mary, the queen--

one of her first acts is to bow before her son Edward

and to kiss his hand, because in that moment

he's gone from being Edward

to King Edward VIII.

♪ ♪

- Two days after he becomes king,

there is a ceremony at St. James's Palace

when his accession is proclaimed.

[fanfare]

- Prince Edward Albert Christian

George Andrew Patrick David.

[cannon blasts]

- My grandmother was at the proclamation.

She's there in the courtyard,

and looking up, she sees at a window

the new king, Edward,

with Wallis by his side,

and she's very shocked by this.

- We have the new king standing next to his American mistress

laughing, enjoying himself,

when they should have been in mourning,

and it should have been

a much more somber, dignified occasion.

- The king's only just died.

To appear at a window

with your mistress as you're proclaimed king?

Well, what more can I say?

♪ ♪

- The gravity of his role as the new constitutional king

seems to pass Edward completely by.

- And you get the feeling that really

he is kind of liberated.

Now, his father is gone.

He can do exactly what he wants.

- He spends most of every week planning luncheons and dinners

and weekends at Fort Belvedere,

or buying costly presents and jewels for Wallis.

A playboy king.

- Edward's reliance on Mrs. Simpson grows.

He neglects his official duties.

He doesn't do the things that he's supposed to be doing.

He doesn't do his job.

narrator: So far, his affair with Mrs. Simpson

has been successfully kept from the public,

but Edward's passion for Wallis

is becoming all-consuming.

- Edward should be meeting and greeting his ministers,

looking through state papers and signing off laws,

and yet, he very quickly lets things slide.

♪ ♪

- Edward charters a yacht

to go round the Mediterranean for a few days.

- Edward thinks that he's sort of off-duty.

He can behave as anybody might behave in those circumstances.

You know, they sail round Greece.

He's photographed without his shirt on.

This would have made poor George V turn in his grave.

- Up to then, in public at least,

he's been relatively discreet about meeting Wallis,

but on holiday he throws caution to the winds,

and there are dozens of photographers

following Edward and Wallis on this tour.

♪ ♪

- The American press print so many photographs

of Mrs. Simpson with the king

that it starts a conversation

about whether or not they will marry.

♪ ♪

- And there's one particularly compromising photograph

which shows Wallis Simpson resting her hand

in a very sort of comfortable way on his arm.

- The king's body is reverent and dignified.

You're not meant to touch the king's body,

certainly not in public.

It's not the done thing.

- That is the moment when it's pretty obvious they are close

and have been for some time.

- The trip is very much a turning point

for Wallis and Edward,

because their relationship becomes known globally.

narrator: While the entire world learns

of Edward and Mrs. Simpson's affair,

in Britain, the story is censored.

- You could buy American newspapers in England,

but if there was a story about Wallis

it would be cut out with scissors.

The newsagents had to remove it

before they were allowed to sell it.

- Now, this is as a result of a gentleman's agreement

whereby the press is very deferential to the monarchy.

- So after Mrs. Simpson and Edward

return from their cruise,

her Aunt Bessie from Baltimore

sends her a pile of newspaper clippings.

- Wallis is furious that she's become public property.

Wallis says to the king,

"We have to break this off now."

- He's besotted by her.

He's absolutely at her mercy.

- He threatens, wherever she goes

he will come and find her, and if he doesn't find her,

having searched the four corners of the Earth,

he will kill himself.

♪ ♪

narrator: Finally, Wallis and Ernest Simpson

decide their marriage is over

and initiate divorce proceedings.

- A crisis is now imminent.

- Members of the government, members of the palace,

all become very concerned

that within six months, she will be divorced

and she will then be free to marry him.

- For the royal family to marry a divorced woman

is the most appalling,

scandalous, unthinkable thing.

♪ ♪

- As king,

Edward is Supreme Governor of the Church of England

and defender of the faith, and as such,

he simply could not marry a divorced woman

because this was outlawed

by the faith which he was trying to defend.

- And King Edward realizes

that he's going to have to make a choice.

[fanfare]

- Today, the American press

is filled with rumors of royal romance,

and in this topsy-turvy world, it may be time

for an American woman to marry a British king.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

narrator: King Edward has been on the throne

for just nine months.

Until now, he's managed to keep his two-year affair

with Wallis secret from the British public.

- The world knows all about this relationship,

but in Britain, they're still in the dark.

- Expatriates in America are writing home to Britain

saying, "What is happening?"

♪ ♪

- Finally, Edward has a meeting

with the Prime Minister, Baldwin.

♪ ♪

- Edward declares his hand.

He says that he is determined to marry Wallis.

♪ ♪

- This is a bombshell.

- The prime minister tells him that he has three options.

He can give up his relationship

with Mrs. Simpson,

he can marry Mrs. Simpson

against the express wishes of his ministers

who will then resign,

or he can abdicate.

♪ ♪

- There is no precedence for abdication.

There is no blueprint of what a king

or indeed a prime minister or a parliament should do.

- It's the throne or it's Mrs. Simpson.

It's one or the other. He can't have both.

- However, before Edward has made a decision,

the story breaks in the press.

♪ ♪

- Ultimately, the British newspapers realize

that they simply can't hold off any longer.

This story is too big.

They break the gentleman's agreement

and decide to publish it.

- The British Empire faces an extraordinary crisis.

Not for centuries have these houses of parliament witnessed

so dangerous a political struggle.

Shall King Edward VIII marry Mrs. Simpson?

No, say the ministers of the cabinet

supported by the Church of England

and the upper classes.

They are bitter in opposition to the king

marrying the American woman twice divorced.

♪ ♪

- There's a great division among the public

between those people who see this as a great love story,

and then there are a great many people who see this

as an absolute dereliction of duty

because he wants to marry a American socialite.

- Wallis becomes immensely unpopular

as the woman who threatens to take away the king,

and her house is surrounded.

Stones are thrown through the window.

- She's the center of this attention,

and you know,

that would be hard for any woman.

- So Wallis is quite panicked now

and she thinks the time is right to flee London,

and she drives off to the south of France

and she's chased by a press pack

desperate for more details.

- Edward is desolate when she leaves.

She has been his support,

his confidant, and obviously, his lover,

and without her he is completely bereft.

♪ ♪

- Edward finds himself faced with a huge dilemma.

He's having to choose between

doing the job that he had trained his entire life for

and Wallis Simpson.

[distant bells clanging]

narrator: Eight days after the crisis breaks,

Edward finally addresses the nation.

♪ ♪

- This is Windsor Castle.

His royal highness, Prince Edward.

- I was in bed.

I think I was half asleep,

'cause I remember somebody coming in

and saying that the king's coming on,

so there was going to be an announcement.

- I mean, everybody tuned in.

It was an extraordinary moment.

- Until now,

it has not been constitutionally possible

for me to speak.

A few hours ago,

I discharged my last duty

as king and emperor.

But you must believe me when I tell you

that I have found it impossible

to carry the heavy burden of responsibility

and to discharge my duties as king

as I would wish to do

without the help and support of the woman I love.

- When the British public finally learns what's happened,

they feel absolutely shocked and betrayed.

How could a king give up his throne and empire?

♪ ♪

- I thought it was a doomsday.

I thought it was the end of the world.

[chuckling] We hadn't got a king anymore.

♪ ♪

- Edward sits down with his brothers around him

as witnesses to this momentous, unprecedented event

and signs that fateful decree,

abdicating the throne of England.

- Bertie, who will become king, feels nothing but dread

at the prospect of succeeding.

Edward himself feels a sense, finally, of freedom.

[engine turns over]

narrator: In the early hours of December the 12th,

Edward leaves the country and goes into exile.

- No king has ever abdicated like this before.

It's completely unprecedented.

- Edward leaves after just over 300 days on the throne...

♪ ♪

And in doing so, he throws the monarchy into chaos.

narrator: Next on "The Windsors"...

- Bertie has been tasked with this incredibly difficult job.

- He'd always been the moon to his brother's sun.

- His brother Edward is, if you like,

cavorting with the Nazis.

- And all of this was undermining Bertie.

- Edward hasn't yet adjusted to the fact

that he is not the king.

This is a big problem.