Brits: If Edward VIII had not abdicated . . .

[AK84]

England never had a King George right uptil the time the Kingdom of England was abolished in 1707. Now Great Britain and later the United Kingdom have had a whole spate of Georges.

[APB]

@Argent_Towers

From what I have read, Hitler was very much a fan of Edward VIII, and he hoped that Britain could be persuaded to side with Germany and install Edward as the King. I think that Hitler and the Nazis actually felt a real kinship with England because they believed the English to be ultimately of the same blood as the Germans - Saxons and Anglo-Saxons. And also keep in mind that the German and English royal families were VERY close. I mean, England had several kings (the first two Georges) who spoke German as their first language, and I think I recall reading somewhere that George I didn’t even know how to speak ANY English. The royal family name was changed from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor during World War I, unsurprisingly.

So Hitler hoped that England and Germany would join forces in World War II, initially. (I have heard that he did not feel the same way about the Irish and the Scots, being that they were of supposedly inferior Celtic blood.)

That Hitler saw the Duke of Windsor as a potential puppet ruler is well-documented. But then Hitler always did have a lousy grasp of how British politics actually worked and so he consistently misunderstood the powers of the monarchy, the reasons for the Abdication and Edward’s actual political views. He was hardly the most informed commentator on the subject.

This has a bearing on ‘the most dangerous woman in Europe’ comment. Hitler thought that because he greatly overestimated George VI’s power. (In any case, the comment predated the war - if it was made at all, it seems to have been prompted by the visit of George VI and Queen Elizabeth to Paris in July 1938.)

[alphaboi867]

@APB

…But then Hitler always did have a lousy grasp of how British politics actually worked and so he consistently misunderstood the powers of the monarchy…

He probally assumed it worked along the lines of the former German and Austro-Hungarian monarchies he was familier with. Apparently Stalin never quite understood that Holland and the Netherlands were the same country (or that the former was really part of the latter). Hitler also thought Mussolini was a fool for not getting rid of the Italian monarchy as the King could dismiss him. Of course it turned out that Hitler was right. :smack: