America has welcomed the royals they once rejected ever since Queen Victoria’s son, the future Edward VII, visited in 1860. It was a mere 85 years after America declared independence from the British crown.
But in fact, even Queen Victoria had enjoyed friendly relations with the US – who, like Britain, seemed to see her as distinct from (and a relief after!) her ‘wicked uncles’. Edward came away with an enduring weakness for the American ‘dollar princesses’ -the glamorous and sparky women like Jennie Churchill, Winston’s mother, with whom he loved to cavort in high society. His strict and stodgy son George V, by contrast, had little use either for glamour or for the USA.
But it was George’s eldest son Edward VIII whose love for an American, Wallis Simpson, almost brought down the monarchy. Edward loved all things American – not just this one woman. Mrs Simpson was introduced to him by another American mistress, Thelma Furness. But many years before that, visiting American troops at the end of World War I, he wrote that he was ‘liking Americans more than ever . . . just longing to go to the States . . . we just must be closely allied with the USA’. His North American tour of 1919 only served to heighten his enthusiasm. He was seen surfing in Hawaii, inspecting the Panama Canal, dancing with excited shopgirls, partying on Long Island with New York society. He was so impressed by the prairie that he bought a cattle ranch in Alberta (imperial Canada being acceptable home turf for a royal heir in a way independent America was not). He even had a passionate, party-loving affair with Hollywood starlet Pinna Cruger. ‘America meant to me a country in which nothing is impossible’, he wrote in his memoirs
His father George V could and did make it impossible for him to return to the States, as Edward’s days as Prince of Wales wore on. But when he succeeded to the throne in 1936, audiences in New York cheered newsreel footage of the new king with Mrs Simpson, as he declared his intention to marry her and keep his throne. But it was not to be – and as Edward VIII abdicated to become the Duke of Windsor, his obsession with America took on a toxic quality.
The new Duke and Duchess stood accused of Nazi sympathies – and when an infamous ‘fact-finding’ mission to Hitler’s Germany was to be followed by one to America, the authorities both sides of the Atlantic put their foot down. The States became openly contested territory between Edward and the brother who had replaced him. Just as, in summer 1939, George VI and his Queen set sail on a crucial transatlantic mission to ensure America’s support in the anti-Nazi cause, the Duke of Windsor made a thunder-stealing broadcast for American NBC, calling for world peace. America was the scene of another battle, as the two faces of the Royal Family fought for the future of the British monarchy . . .
The sea voyage itself was potentially dangerous at that time of year – the more so for the little known fact that the ships escorting the King and Queen carried also the gold bullion that would be stored in Canadian banks until needed to finance Britain’s war effort. The royal couple knew moreover that they would be greeted by the ‘Friends of the Duke of Windsor in America’ organisation, and perhaps with hostility. They need not have worried. As the Royal train carried them southwards from Canada via Niagara Falls, three quarters of a million people lined the streets between Washington station and the White House. ‘The British Re-Take Washington’, American headlines declared. It was not only a victory but a huge confidence-booster for the inexperienced royal couple. ‘America made us’, declared the Queen – herself a descendant of George Washington.
By contrast, the Windsors’ wartime exile to the boredom of the Bahamas was relieved by embarrassing and self-indulgent visits to the comfort of the USA, each one hotly debated by the authorities. The Duke’s offer to broker peace between America and Nazi Germany – and the connections of his associates – had attracted the attention of the US security services, as witness many documents in the files of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. One report even declared the Duke ‘may be one of the most important Nazi agents based in the Western Hemisphere.’
The Queen’s broadcasts to the US weighed heavy in the shifting balance of influence. Her appeal to the women of America has been called one of the great speeches of the 20th century. But at the end of the War, the Duke of Windsor had by no means given up; still dreaming of a post as roving ambassador and trade envoy around the USA. As, in 1947, all eyes on both sides of the Atlantic were turned on Princess Elizabeth’s wedding to Philip Mountbatten, America was still a land to be won.
The early death of George VI in 1952 brought his daughter to the throne as Elizabeth II. And in 1954 George’s widow the ‘Queen Mother’, still struggling with her new role, visited America to accept the proceeds of a charitable fund set up in her husband’s name, and an honorary doctorate from Columbia University. To her surprise and pleasure, the crowds turning out to see her stopped traffic – and even held up a performance she attended of The Pajama Game.
It was clear which branch of the Royal Family had ultimately conquered the USA.
