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00:00More than 100 years ago, King George V would rebrand the British monarchy, using his children to help win over their public.
00:11But after years of steady constitutional rule, his death would plunge his family into turmoil.
00:18There was always going to be a question mark of how George was going to be replaced.
00:23Edward, who the family called David, inherited the throne only to abandon it for the love of a controversial American divorcee.
00:31King's business was being discussed by the man in the street. You know, it was deeply shaming.
00:36Shy spare Bertie became a reluctant king and would face the task of winning back the trust of the nation.
00:43Bertie felt he was ascending a throne that was actually crumbling.
00:48Brother Henry, a devoted military man, would be called in for backup.
00:54Alongside George, the family darling.
00:57And loyal sister Mary, the only girl in the Windsor pack, would join forces with her brothers to help stabilize the family business.
01:05Now, never before seen letters and diaries belonging to the young royals, Queen Elizabeth II's father, aunt and uncles reveal the inside story of family divisions and dramas in the years following the abdication and into war.
01:21So we have a letter from Mary to her brother George.
01:24I am too sorry to hear about David's extraordinary behavior. It is very sad. I know you must feel it very much.
01:31We never get windows like this into the royal family.
01:35And as the country braced itself for war, the family fault lines would deepen.
01:40Edward is sacrificing British interests to Hitler and simultaneously he's betraying his brother on the throne.
01:47Alliances between the ex-king and his family would be both tested and broken.
01:52What a fool he is and how badly advised. Everyone is furious. The family must close ranks behind the new occupant of the throne.
02:04The Windsors would make the ultimate sacrifice and the part each played in this family drama would shape the monarchy we know today.
02:13Monarchy has to stay relevant. There has to be a reason why it exists. Without a reason it's gone.
02:34Motored to Royal Lodge, arriving at 8.10. Bertie and Harry arrived about 8.30. Bertie became king about 2.
02:42David having signed his abdication before this.
02:46The atmosphere would have been between despair, anguish, frustration and anger.
02:54Clearly, the family did feel that Edward had let them down, not just the country down.
03:05After less than 11 months on the throne, 42-year-old Edward, known to his family as David, had chosen to abdicate.
03:14The first British monarch to voluntarily do so, to marry American divorcee Wallace Simpson.
03:20He would now go into exile.
03:22We had to say goodbye to David, all too sad as when he leaves he may not return here for some years.
03:29He did not appear upset, but does not seem to realise the situation.
03:34I 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.
03:53I now quit altogether public affairs, and I lay down my burden.
04:02Now, we all have a new king. God bless you all. God save the king.
04:12Bertie, the shy second born, was now 40, and had been wrenched from a quiet life with his wife and daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, into the full glare of the spotlight.
04:25Bertie broke down and wept on his mother's shoulder.
04:28It was as though the King of Great Britain, Emperor of India, head of the armed services, was a broken man.
04:36On his first night as king, Bertie would call on his younger brothers for backup.
04:41Henry, Duke of Gloucester, was now 36, married and a major in the British Army.
04:46And George, Duke of Kent, the former wild child and wingman for Brother Edward, was now 33 and settled down with a second baby on the way.
04:55Bertie said to George and Henry, if you two think that you two can carry on in the same old way, you're much mistaken.
05:02You two have got to pull your socks up. He was very clear that this was to be a whole family effort to change things around for the monarchy.
05:10It wasn't just going to be him alone.
05:12Their sister Mary, Princess Royal, was now 39 and mother of two growing sons.
05:18She had always been close to big brother Edward and would need to decide where her first loyalty lay.
05:23Mary is determined to support Bertie and make sure the monarchy is being presented as solid, as stable.
05:30You know, they've had a crisis, but it's over, it's passed.
05:33And those who are left behind are still absolutely committed to Britain, to making sure the country is going to get through what is now a shared crisis.
05:44In the week that followed Edward's departure, Mary made her rounds, visiting her three other brothers and their families.
05:52And you can just kind of see, she's really making sure that the family are together, that they're not left alone at this time.
06:12Mary is absolutely the glue that holds this family together.
06:17The abdication had further implications for Bertie.
06:20His ten-year-old daughter was now heir presumptive to the throne.
06:25Lilibet had actually said to Margaret, Uncle David's going away, Papa's going to be king.
06:31And Margaret said to her, does that mean you're going to be queen?
06:36And she said, well, one day.
06:40In the aftermath of Edward's abdication, the nation felt as divided as the Windsors themselves.
06:46It was a period of extraordinary storm and stress.
06:51The importance of the abdication crisis was that it revealed that monarchy was not given, it was not divine.
06:58It was something, creation of human beings, and if they could create it, they could destroy it.
07:03The country was still in a state of depression in 1936, which led to hunger marches, particularly the Jarrow March and so on,
07:12which reflected a disillusionment with the system as it stood.
07:17The day after the abdication, the value of monarchy itself was questioned in a House of Commons debate.
07:23People look upon the monarch as their guardian.
07:26Guardian of what? Guardian of their poverty? Guardian of their suffering?
07:31The abdication crisis raised the spectre of republicanism.
07:36Bertie himself felt that he was ascending a throne that was actually crumbling.
07:42Members of the political establishment may have been pleased that Edward was now out of the way,
07:47but his successor, shy Bertie, who had suffered with a crippling stammer since childhood, hardly seemed the stuff of dreams.
07:55One politician described him as a dull dog.
07:58That phrase pretty much summed up the establishment's view of Bertie.
08:03Would he be capable of doing this? Well, it was a moot point.
08:06With Bertie's coronation looming, the government swung into overdrive to support him as King George VI,
08:13to stabilize the monarchy and use the coronation to sell the new king to his people.
08:18The stage is set, the curtain is rising, and from the far ends of the earth all roads lead to London.
08:23Steamship lines report a record business as countless thousands pour in for the great day.
08:28They threw money at it. It cost about two and a half times as much as George V's coronation.
08:34So they really tried to make this a kind of a unifying celebratory event.
08:39The Duke of Kent inspects the printing of the coronation programs at Watford.
08:43It was a huge branding exercise. The image of Bertie was to be seen everywhere. Tea tiles, coal scuffles, you name it.
08:51This is Mary's diary entry for just before the coronation. Tried on my coronation dress and also tried on my purple velvet train,
09:00which went better than before. Looked at my jewels.
09:03I think there's a determination to make this a spectacular day.
09:08Because of what the monarchy had so recently gone through, this had to be a show of family unity.
09:17But for Bertie, suddenly to be thrust into the limelight in this way was an almost unbelievable shock to his system.
09:27And as the coronation loomed and he was going to have to appear in public and take the starring role,
09:34his inadequacies as far as he was concerned were absolutely palpable, crippling really.
09:41Would Bertie be able to make it through the stress of the coronation or would he crumble under pressure?
09:49On the morning of the coronation, Bertie woke up at three o'clock in the morning.
09:54Sleep was impossible. Loud speakers were being tested. It seemed right outside his window.
09:59There were cameras lining the route. And for the first time ever, cameras were going to be allowed into Westminster Abbey.
10:10Half the world seems to be here. Innumerable field glasses, cameras and periscopes are focused on the procession of members of the royal family.
10:17In the first carriage, you can just see their royal highnesses, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose with the Princess Royal.
10:31And the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent riding in their capacity as personal aids to the King.
10:37The excitement of two millions is rising to fever heat.
10:39For Bertie, this was an ordeal that had been looming for months.
10:46There'd been rumours that his stammer had worsened.
10:50Or that he had some other kind of physical or mental problem that meant he wouldn't be able to cope even with the strain of the coronation.
10:57Will you, to your power, justice, in mercy, to be executed in all your judgment?
11:05I will.
11:07For our faith to be! For our faith to be! For our faith to be! For our faith to be! For our faith to be!
11:15Public opinion mattered more than ever in the wake of the abdication.
11:20And a new organisation, Mass Observation, collected and analysed comments on the coronation.
11:27A builder said it made him feel proud to be British, it made him feel patriotic.
11:32Some people say that the coronation was out of place in this new, more modern age.
11:37And a lot of people are not that interested. As King, Bertie's got a job on his hands.
11:41Indifference is going to kill any institution.
11:48Monarchy has to stay relevant. There has to be a reason why it exists.
11:54Without a reason to exist, it's gone.
11:57Bertie had made it through the stress of the coronation.
12:00But as King, the job of winning the confidence of his public was not over yet.
12:05Not only were there divisions over issues on the home front,
12:08but also about a looming threat in Europe.
12:17Britain would adopt a policy of appeasement to avoid the horrors of war.
12:23But not everyone thought it would work.
12:25A strong and united front had never been more vital for the royal family.
12:29Now, the new king would put the loyalties of his younger siblings to the test.
12:35Almost six months after abdicating, Edward would finally marry Wallace, the woman he had given up the throne for,
12:45who would become the Duchess of Windsor, and invited his brothers and sister to attend.
12:49But there was a family ban on the former king's big day.
12:56This was particularly hard on George, the youngest brother of the pack.
13:00He had had a very, very strong bond with Edward.
13:05He had had this extremely troubled youth involved with women and men and drugs and the lot.
13:12And Edward had helped him to emerge from that.
13:16This was his brother. This was his great buddy.
13:19They'd always had this understanding that one would be the other's best man.
13:26George was torn because he knew that he'd be letting his brother down if he didn't fulfil that promise.
13:35But he also knew that he couldn't go.
13:39He had to get Fruity Metcalf, a rather disreputable Irishman, to be his best man.
13:44It was a hole in the corner affair. It was a disaster.
13:48I'm sure Edward was deeply embittered by this experience.
13:54It was more than a snub.
13:55It was an announcement that what he had hoped would be the fulfilment of his happiness
14:02was actually going to involve him in being an exile.
14:07In the autumn following Edward's wedding, there was a sighting of him in Paris by a friend of the family.
14:14So we've got a letter from Mary to her mother.
14:17My darling Mama, Portia told me she had seen him in Paris and he looked well and seemed happy.
14:23He evidently was pleased to get your letter as he mentioned it.
14:27I wrote to him a fortnight ago but have had no answer.
14:31And the former king was about to step back into the public realm.
14:37Edward decides it's time to relaunch himself as a major public personality.
14:43He's not just going to retreat into being a playboy on the Riviera.
14:50No. He is a big figure and he wants to be recognised as a big figure.
14:56So where's he going to go? Not back to England, obviously.
14:59Nazi Germany.
15:04The Duke and Duchess of Windsor visit Germany.
15:06There's a big crowd at the station to catch a glimpse of His Royal Highness and the Duchess on their arrival from Paris.
15:11Piles echo in their ears as they drive away to their hotel.
15:13In October 1937, Edward chose Nazi Germany as the place to relaunch himself as a public figure.
15:25But he said this visit was to him a complete bombshell.
15:29Edward spent 12 days in Germany touring workers' housing, a munitions factory and travelling on Hitler's personal train.
15:39The trip was paid for by the Nazis.
15:42Edward had often weighed indiscreetly into politics in contrast to his father who had styled himself as the epitome of royal neutrality.
15:50Years before he'd written to his sister Mary, expressing political views on conditions of the working classes.
15:58Please burn, as I suppose I'm not allowed any views.
16:02Now Edward was off the leash.
16:05He had flirted with fascism for a long time. He thought dictators were the coming thing.
16:11So it wasn't a huge step as far as he was concerned.
16:15As far as Hitler was concerned, it was a fantastic coup.
16:18He had an inkling that Edward could be of use to him.
16:22You could say that he was actually grooming Edward for his own purposes should it come to a war with Britain.
16:35So we have a letter from Mary to her brother George.
16:38Darling George, I am too sorry to hear about David's extraordinary behaviour.
16:43It is very sad. I know you must feel it very much.
16:46Over a year had passed since the abdication and relations between the Windsor siblings remained fractured.
16:53Youngest brother George, who had been close to Edward before the rift, had sent him an expensive Fabergé box as a gift.
17:00Edward returned it saying, the only box I've come to expect from my brother is a box round the ears.
17:07I sent him two very humble tobacco pouches, a diary and a Christmas card. So far they have not been returned, but have heard nothing. I did not want him to feel no one was thinking of him. One really does not know what to do for the best.
17:25But while Mary and George fretted over Edward, one sibling was staying well out of the family wrangle.
17:32Henry, the army man and third son, and his eldest brother Edward, had never taken much interest in each other.
17:39Edward had once told Mary in a letter.
17:41He was sporty, he was outdoorsy, he was popular with his peers, but very much in the shadow of his older two brothers.
17:59Henry enjoyed a settled life with Alice, his wife of more than two years. His wild, youthful affair with the aviatrix Beryl Markham was long behind him.
18:11While the Windsors had multiplied with Bertie and Elizabeth's Lilibet and Margaret Rose, and with George and Marina's Edward and Alexandra, Henry and Alice were childless.
18:21They very much wanted to start a family. She had had two miscarriages, and the doctors advised her to have a complete rest, and they set off to Kenya for a safari.
18:34On their return journey, Henry and Alice were dispatched to France to fulfill a royal engagement with covert aims.
18:42It seemed Edward wanted to come back to Britain.
18:45He was Bertie's mole. What Henry was trying to do was to find out what the situation was, whether Edward was continuing to pose a threat to the stability of the throne.
18:57Royal reunion. The Ducan Duchess of Gloucester land from Kenya, and in Paris they stay with the Ducan Duchess of Windsor.
19:04This meeting was significant in the sense that the palace was interested in the response of the public.
19:10After all, Edward remained very popular in Britain.
19:17On the Paris airport, the Ducan Duchess of Gloucester take off for home, in the royal family's private plane, while the Duke of Windsor watches from the centre of this group.
19:25Not everyone disliked the idea of the Duke of Windsor coming home.
19:30Police intelligence reported that British fascists would likely welcome Edward's return.
19:35The fascists, although outwardly proclaiming loyalty to King George VI, have made no real secret of their support for the Duke of Windsor.
19:44Edward and Wallace remained in France, since it was clear that Wallace would not be received at Buckingham Palace, and perhaps not by the wider British public either.
19:52My darling George, so many thanks for your letter of good wishes, how dear of you remembering my birthday.
20:00It is sad to think how unsettled the whole world is.
20:04The family rift was about to be tested by war.
20:07When Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Britain's policy of appeasing Germany was fatally undermined.
20:17The government decided that if Hitler invaded Poland, Britain would come to her aid.
20:22The Windsor siblings would become even more divided, as Edward weighed into international affairs at a time of delicate negotiations for Britain and his younger brother.
20:32Here is the start of a journey that is unique in British history.
20:38Never before has a reigning sovereign and his queen made a state visit to the U.S.
20:43Thousands cheer along the route to Waterloo Station.
20:47Braced to become a wartime king, Bertie had accepted an invitation by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to visit America, following his Canadian trip.
20:58The American trip was of enormous significance because Britain was looking across the Atlantic for support.
21:07As the crisis in Europe began to condense into really serious thunderclouds.
21:16There was the feeling for the king that his brother, as Prince of Wales, had toured America and was very popular.
21:24You know, would he be seen as a dull substitute?
21:27And waiting to receive their majesties on the platform are the Duke and Duchess of Kent and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.
21:34So goodbye and bon voyage.
21:35It was a very nerve-wracking trip for Bertie, and he wasn't sure how he could cope.
21:41Then, Edward dropped a bombshell.
21:44I break my self-imposed silence now.
21:48While the king was on his way to North America, Edward was at Verdun in France, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War,
21:56where he would make a speech that was broadcast to millions across America.
22:01The speech was implicitly critical of the steps that Britain was taking to face war.
22:05I have at least had the good fortune to travel the world and therefore to study human nature.
22:13This has left me with a profound conviction that there is no land whose people want war.
22:19This, I believe, to be as true of the German nation as of the British nation to which I belong.
22:29Will I feel confident impel all those in power to renew their endeavours to bring about a peaceful settlement?
22:37The implication of the speech was not just pacifist, it was defeatist.
22:46It appeared to be a pro-German speech. The BBC refused to broadcast it.
22:51Bertie was in favour of appeasement, just as was Edward, but he realised that what was happening was that his brother was yet again overshadowing him.
23:06The function of a monarch is to unite, and Bertie was doing his best to unite the nation around the crown.
23:14Edward was a loose cannon, a rogue royal, somebody who was actually in the business of dividing.
23:24Youngest brother George wrote to Bertie.
23:28What a fool he is, and how badly advised.
23:32Everyone is furious that he should have done it just after you left.
23:37He's clever, George. He's really quite bright.
23:40And he sees that Edward is sacrificing British interest to Hitler, and simultaneously he's betraying his brother on the throne.
23:51And so what we get is a pretty firm alliance between the three remaining brothers as against the Duke of Windsor in exile.
24:02But war, even more than abdication, would threaten to tear the family apart.
24:07Despite the turmoil spreading across Europe and the imminent outbreak of war, some of the royal family had a wedding to attend.
24:21And the cream of European royalty would be there.
24:24A cousin of George's Greek-born wife Marina was getting married in Florence.
24:29Some of the Windsor's German cousins would also be guests.
24:33George was sent on a mission.
24:34The king wants to know what the thinking is in Nazi Germany amongst the high rankers.
24:42He was a kind of undercover emissary for his brother.
24:48The German princes are his relations.
24:51He can talk to them without arousing any suspicions.
24:54During the course of the wedding, George was approached by one of his German cousins, Philip of Hesse, who was working for Hitler.
25:07George had been briefed by the Foreign Office, and we can see from the German records that George revealed enough of the British situation to give a very stark warning.
25:17He made it absolutely clear that if Germany was to make a move on Poland, then Britain would act. It would be war.
25:27George was really gaining a reputation, really proving himself.
25:31His life was transformed from the wild playboy of the 1920s, when he'd been closest to his brother Edward.
25:40He was increasingly taking his royal duties very seriously.
25:43All the Windsor siblings would throw themselves into the war effort.
25:49My darling Mary, what a mess everything is in.
25:52But war is preferable to finish Hitler once and for all.
25:55By his latest act of naked aggression, Hitler has committed a crime not only against Poland, but against the whole human race.
26:08Yesterday, it was almost a relief when the Prime Minister announced we were at war with Germany.
26:14This house is to be used as a hospital.
26:17Harry, the boys and I will remain here, as we have lots to do to get the house ready.
26:21Mary had trained as a nurse during the last war.
26:25Now she would help organize the convalescent home for officers at her home in Yorkshire,
26:30take a role in the women's branch of the British Army, and inspect hospitals and voluntary units throughout the North.
26:37She went to a lot of hospitals, making sure the public knew the monarchy cared,
26:43not just about the people that were being sent away to fight, but also those who came back.
26:47Henry was appointed Chief Liaison Officer of the British Expeditionary Force in France.
26:53George was appointed to the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty at Rosyth in Scotland.
26:59The family firm was now on a war footing.
27:02Both Henry and George were very much putting duty ahead of their personal lives.
27:07But this wasn't the case with Edward. He was still at his chateau in southern France.
27:12It's the night of the White Ball and among the visitors to Cannes are the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
27:19The Duke has lately mentioned that he still holds high rank in Britain's fighting forces.
27:25He too is ready to play his part. But tonight the Riviera is out for fun.
27:28Edward and Mary had once been close. But when he returned to Britain for the first time in nearly three years, seeking a fitting role in the war effort, it was news to his sister.
27:43One of the newspaper men calls out, it's nice to see you back, sir. And the Duke turns around with a smiling, thank you. It's nice to be back.
27:52This is a letter that Mary writes to her mother.
27:55I must say, I was rather surprised to hear David had arrived, not having heard anything about his return, except what the papers and the wireless told one.
28:02Have you seen him yet, I wonder? Ought I write to him or do you think not?
28:08She is in her forties. She's an adult. She's well respected. She's well known.
28:13And yet she still needs permission from her mother of what is the right thing to do.
28:19Queen Mary writes to her daughter and she's very clear.
28:22No, I have not seen David, as he did not ask after any member of the family when he saw Bertie. I really did not feel inclined to do so.
28:31So I did not write and I should advise you not to do so.
28:34I don't think anyone would want to cross Queen Mary. Queen Mary is a tour de force.
28:41Bertie sent Edward back to Paris.
28:44There was a certain amount of relief in the royal family once it became clear that Edward was prepared to go back to Paris.
28:50I was intrigued to find in George's private correspondence.
28:55He wrote, thank God, though, they've left the country as you never know what they're going to get up to.
29:01Bertie sent Edward back to Paris telling officials in the British Army not to show him any kind of secret document.
29:08The Duke of Windsor was not to be trusted.
29:11Henry was at last able to assist Bertie in what he knew best, the military.
29:16As Germany overran Europe, he toured with the British troops in France and reported back to Bertie.
29:24In Belgium, he was almost caught in the German advance.
29:27Their car was strafed by enemy bombers. They dived into an alleyway and they could just see from their vantage point the silhouette of their car exploding into flame.
29:37In Britain, Winston Churchill was now Prime Minister as he steeled the country against the potential threat of invasion.
29:46The government took action against suspected Nazi sympathisers.
29:50In the midst of all this crisis, Edward didn't return to Britain. He continued his journey south into fascist Spain. Eventually sending a telegram have proceeded to Madrid and very helpfully he added that he'd gone to the Ritz Hotel.
30:10For Britain and the Crown, the crisis had finally come. The Germans stepped up their bombing campaign, unleashing unrelenting raids known as the Blitz.
30:25The Blitz continues night after night. And what's really important for the royal family is that the class divides and the class resentments that are already there at the start of the war are exacerbated.
30:38We're suffering. They're not. And this feeds back into resentment at the royal family.
30:48They're booed. They're seen as figureheads of a state that's out of touch with the East End, with the poor, the working class.
30:56And you feel that they're not being protected enough and that their suffering is not being understood by the people in charge.
31:03During the Blitz, Buckingham Palace was bombed, whilst the King and Queen were at home.
31:17A delayed action bomb has fallen outside Buckingham Palace, at home of our beloved sovereign and his consort in damage.
31:23When the King told somebody in the East End that my house has been bombed too, you know, the disconcerting reply came back, which one?
31:34There may have been some cynicism, but the bombing of Buckingham Palace helped transform Bertie's image as King.
31:42Through that bombing of Buckingham Palace, he can make this claim to having suffered and to understand what people are going through.
31:48There's great approval for them not sending the two princesses away to Canada.
31:55They've stayed in Britain and they're sticking it out with everybody else.
31:59And that is really, really helpful for his individual popularity, but also for the monarchy as an institution.
32:05Mary visited bombed-out Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds and Coventry.
32:12George made frequent visits to the East End.
32:16And the King, a protective father, would allow his 14-year-old firstborn to make her very first broadcast to evacuees.
32:24In wishing you all good evening, I feel that I am speaking to friends and companions.
32:35Thousands of you in this country have had to leave your homes and be separated from your fathers and mothers.
32:44My sister and I feel so much for you.
32:48It was a huge morale boost and Bertie would have absolutely loved it. He'd been so proud of her.
32:57Bertie, George and Mary all kept their children in Britain, rather than send them to North America to safety, as many aristocratic families had done.
33:06The popularity of the aristocracy as a whole has really declined. They're not seen as pulling their weight. They're not seen as being kind of part of the nation at war.
33:17But the royal family somehow separated themselves out from their social class, from the aristocracy, to become leaders of the people, of the people's nation at war.
33:27In the wake of the First World War, George V rebranded the monarchy as family-centered and democratic.
33:36Now, during Britain's fight against fascism, Bertie became truly his heir.
33:42The royals had fought to win over their public. Now they would close ranks on threats from abroad and from within their own family.
33:50To Nassau comes the Duke of Windsor to take up his appointment as governor general of the islands.
34:00The king, Edward's little brother Bertie, had finally solved a mounting family problem by way of royal appointment, making his brother governor of the Bahamas over 4,000 miles away.
34:12It was reluctantly accepted by Edward and Wallace. He called it my Centalina 1940. In other words, he realized he was being sent into exile.
34:23I very much doubt that the British government has it in mind, at the present, that my official activities should extend beyond the confines of the Bahama Islands.
34:34He could not come back to England. There was no place for an ex-king in the monarchy of Britain, particularly the monarchy of Britain at war.
34:49Bertie had been shown intelligence, which suggested that the Germans hoped to replace him with his brother as king of Nazi-occupied Britain, the ultimate betrayal.
34:59The ultimate betrayal.
35:00I don't think he would have been an out-and-out traitor, but he might have convinced himself that he was a kind of national saviour, like Pétain in France, and that going back and occupying the throne, he would be saving Britain from the worst rigours of Nazi repression.
35:21Bertie writes to Edward, Winston and I both saw the difficulty of you coming here, and I'm sure you realized it as well. Do please write to me from the Bahamas as to your doings there.
35:42George and Henry were playing their royal part in the war effort and would tour the world reporting back to their brother, the king.
36:00To have the support was totally immeasurable. You know, it was a pulling together. It was a real kind of royal team effort.
36:10Henry and Alice finally had their longed-for first child, William, and George and Marina had just had their third, Michael.
36:18Shortly after the christening, George left from Scotland for Iceland to visit RAF troops, honouring a request from the U.S. President.
36:28He left his wife Marina on the 24th of August 1942.
36:33They take off, fly through two promontories known as the suitors, and then head off, as they were supposed to, over the coastline.
36:45Henry, now back from his foreign tour, had gone to Balmoral to see the king to report on everything that he'd witnessed.
36:53And they were at supper when the king was called to the phone, and he came back clearly very shaken, in deep distress.
37:02It just crashed into the hillside with the loss of all lives except the rear gunner.
37:12George was just 39 years old and left behind his wife Marina and their three small children.
37:26The royal family was devastated.
37:29When his coffin came in with his RAF cap on it, one observer wrote that the tears were just splashing down Bertie's face.
37:37He's normally such a reserved man, but he just couldn't contain his grief.
37:41It is a tragedy that he of all people, just when he was coming into his own, should have been taken from us.
37:51Shortly after George's death, Mary writes to her mother,
37:55My darling Mama, I felt very sad at leaving you yesterday.
38:00It has meant so much to me to share our sorrow over beloved George's death.
38:05I do know what you mean about darling George being so easy to talk to and very understanding and also reliable.
38:13It is too very sad that David, who undoubtedly had some of these gifts, is no longer able to be with you.
38:20I am thankful though that he has telegraphed, if only this can bring him a little closer, and that you could write to him from time to time.
38:28I mean, it's such a painful letter to read.
38:32You know, she's lost her brother.
38:35She's so acutely aware her mother has lost her son.
38:38And she's still trying to bring the family back together, trying to bring Edward back.
38:48There was no grand funeral. Bertie wanted a simple ceremony for his brother.
38:53It's absolutely the right thing to do because so many people are dying.
38:59There isn't the space in wartime Britain for big, elaborate funerals.
39:04And it would have seemed completely out of place to have a big, elaborate funeral for a member of the royal family
39:10when so many others are losing people that they loved.
39:16Unable to cross the Atlantic in wartime,
39:19Edward attended a memorial service for George in the Bahamas.
39:24I think Edward's whole sort of normally rather reserved emotional state was broken.
39:32Edward broke down and wept inconsolably.
39:37It's difficult not to see an element of guilt in that grief.
39:48There had been a quite serious falling out.
39:51This emphasized his apartness from the rest of his siblings.
39:59But one young Windsor was about to officially join the family business.
40:04Princess Elizabeth celebrates her 16th birthday by inspecting the Grenadier Guards with the king at her side at a special parade at Windsor Castle.
40:15The occasion also marks her entry into the official life of the nation.
40:18Elizabeth was inspired by her father.
40:22She was very close to her father and she knew what he was trying to achieve, how he was trying to atone for his brother's mistakes and bring the monarchy into the modern world.
40:33As she grew older, Bertie was increasingly aware of the role that she would have to assume it was all going to rest on Elizabeth's shoulders.
40:48We were the king! We were the king!
40:54Seven times the royal family appeared on the balcony. The crowds cheered themselves forth.
40:59It was as though people were recognizing the bravery and the heroism and the struggle of others.
41:08And the king had brought this to the role and made the monarchy a real symbol of the country's struggle.
41:14It seemed that he had restored the good name of the monarchy and was celebrated as a war leader.
41:22Bertie seemed to have stepped forward and become the king the country wanted.
41:29The plan of Bertie's father, George V, to rebrand the monarchy as stable and central to British life was complete, or so it seemed.
41:40Bertie had been a successful war leader, but it had come at a huge cost to his health.
41:46He went into a fairly rapid decline after the war, and by 1952 he'd had an operation to remove a lung for lung cancer.
41:57But nothing would stop him going to the airport to say goodbye to his daughter.
42:03It was a bitter January day when the princess left Forkina.
42:08In 1952, Elizabeth and her now husband Prince Philip would embark on a tour of the Commonwealth.
42:15When you look at the footage, it's so clear.
42:19You can see him looking back, longing for that one last look at his beloved daughter.
42:24And indeed, six days after she left, he died.
42:30Elizabeth was crowned age just 27.
42:42Edward was not invited and lived out the rest of his life in France.
42:48Henry remained a solid supporter of his niece, now Queen Elizabeth II.
42:53Mary continued active royal duties until her death in 1965.
42:59The first generation of Windsors would save the British monarchy from being swept from history,
43:05through two wars, abdication and deep family divisions, to deliver the nation Elizabeth II, Britain's longest reigning monarch.
43:15The House of Windsor has survived for over a hundred years.
43:25The period between the end of the First World War and the coming to the throne of Queen Elizabeth II was a period of extraordinary storm and stress.
43:40What it actually proved was how monarchy is able to adjust, to modernize and most importantly, to survive.
43:55The House of Windsor's