foreign [Music] there are some who would argue that in the 21st century a monarchy of any description is an outdated institution but paradoxically it only takes the nearest hint of a royal Scandal or conspiracy for the world press to be in Hot Pursuit of the story [Music] what's more any newspaper or magazine fortunate enough to get a royal exclusive Even in our Modern Age is guaranteed to increase circulation dramatically suggesting that there is as much interest in the monarchy as there's ever been so how did it all begin well for the British the answer to that question is quite simply when the first kings and queens emerged from the warring tribes of ancient times to wear a crown and sit upon a throne however they had to do a great deal more than that Kings or Queens for that matter had to be fierce Warriors not only to seize power but also to withstand challenges from their fellow countrymen and foreign Invaders and the term hostile takeover back then meant precisely that [Music] in today's Multicultural Society we can all claim very different ancestries and whether black-haired dark-eyed Celts blonde haired blue-eyed Anglo-Saxons or in more recent times of Asian and African extraction The Melting Pot of diverse peoples that make up the British Isles creates an ever-changing anthropological landscape [Music] the first Invaders to really make an impact were the Romans who arrived in force in 43 A. D the ancient britons fought hard to resist the most remembered being the mighty warrior Queen Boudicca who certainly gave the Romans a very tough time even though it was to no avail but there was little conspiracy or scandal at play these were brutal times where rising to power was a dangerous business if someone was plotting against you little was done to hide it [Music] oh nevertheless the Romans were an altogether more sophisticated Bunch than the ancient britons and you only have to look at their legacy of long straight roads fine architecture and beautiful baths to appreciate this and when it came to conspiracies they were centuries ahead of their time as we all know Julius Caesar who first set foot in Britain before the main Roman Invasion crying I came I saw I conquered in point of fact came to nothing more than a very sorry end stabbed to death on the steps of the Forum in Rome by those he thought were his closest friends eventually the scandals and conspiracies in the Roman Empire which were as lethal as they were legendary proved to be a major factor in Rome's downfall and as they departed Britain's Shores in the 5th Century A. D there were other Invaders ready to take their place Saxons took them just over two centuries to force the native Celts out of England into Scotland and Wales before splitting the nation further into Seven Kingdoms this was still a bloodthirsty age and each successive King fought for dominance over his neighbors until finally Egbert of Wessex became the first acknowledged king of all England in 829.
[Music] when Egbert died he was succeeded by his sons and grandsons rather than the Seven Kingdoms once again going into Battle Force Supremacy and the concept of a line of succession has been an integral part of the monarchy ever since but naturally because there were plenty of would-be Kings who were not The Heir Apparent or even the air presumptive the motivation for some of the greatest scandals and conspiracies in the history books took shape alongside the notion of a hereditary monarchy after the centuries passed the Anglo-Saxon kings were toppled by marauding Vikings only to be restored to the throne again some monarchs proved excellent While others were worse than useless however the next big change came when King Edward the Confessor died in 1066. now although you might not know much about this King the date will be very familiar as the year of the Battle of Hastings which came about because Edward who died childless allegedly promised the English Throne to two different people his brother-in-law Harold who the conspiracy theorists believe the Old King disliked intensely and his distant cousin William Duke of Normandy quickly Harold stormed to power but when William brought an invasion force from France to dispute the succession he defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquests changed the face of Britain and the aristocracy beyond recognition [Music] William the first or the Conqueror as he's better known surrounded himself with Norman Nobles but subduing the English was no easy task and he still had his lands in Normandy to oversee in fact he died in France while attacking the city of Nantes [Music] now as you might guess tact and diplomacy didn't play a huge part in the Norman conquests but William the first like all of his predecessors had a big problem he couldn't live forever unlike Edward the Confessor though he had an heir and a number of other Sons but he thought the eldest wasn't tough enough to rule England so he chose William his third son to succeed him a recipe for conspiracy if ever there was one William II died in very suspicious circumstances and was succeeded very speedily by his brother Henry the first whose Reign ended when he died of food poisoning it's believed Henry may have been involved in Williams death but this early history proves Beyond doubt that when the succession isn't clearly defined there's always going to be trouble [Music] for most people the best known example of Royal Brothers conspiring and fighting amongst themselves to decide who should become king is that of Richard the lionheart and his brother John at least because of their appearance in the legend of Robin Hood part of the problem in this instance was the refusal of their father King Henry II to name his Heir Setting Sun against Sun as conspiracy became as important a part of the line of succession as Birthright matters were further aggravated because the mother of both Richard and John Eleanor of Aquitaine wasn't averse to taking sides and as her marriage to their father had deteriorated into a veritable war zone she actively encouraged Richard her favorite to take up arms against his father when Henry II died at the French castle of shinon in 1189 he'd finally named Richard his third son as his heir so began a period of History dominated by Crusader Knights holy quests and ubiquitous damsels in distress the legend of Robin Hood tells the story of the noble Robin of Loxley a supporter of King Richard the lionheart and his Crusades to the Holy Land when Robin returned from the Crusades he found that King Richard's brother John had taken charge of the country raising taxes to fill his own Pockets leaving the English people facing extreme poverty and starvation and to make matters worse Prince John and his greedy Nobles had confiscated the lands of those away fighting the Crusades with King Richard including of course the property of Robin of Loxley [Music] Robin turned Outlaw to wreak revenge on John 's together with other like-minded Outlaws in Sherwood Forest plotting to remove the usurping prince from power and restore King Richard's throne Robin his band of merry men and the fair made Marion stole from the rich namely Prince John and his cronies to give to the poor the wronged citizens of the nation [Music] eventually just in the nick of time King Richard returned to send his wicked brother packing and Richard's grateful subjects rejoiced at their Liberation from Prince John's tyranny It's a Wonderful story and has become so much a part of popular culture that Richard the lionheart has gone down in history as one of the greatest Kings of all time while his brother John who did actually succeed Richard after his death in 1199 is often referred to as bad King John however delve a little deeper and you'll find a very different version of events [Music] Richard the lionheart ruled England for 10 years it was only ever actually in the country for a total of seven months it was Richard and not John who raised most of the taxes to fund the Crusades and pay for his Ransom when he managed to get himself captured by the Emperor of Germany whether Prince John as he then was played any part in the Abduction of his brother is frequently speculated about but has never been proved and as Richard failed to produce an heir no doubt as a direct result of always being away fighting or in prison the crown eventually passed to John anyway if John did conspire against his brother Richard when he came to the throne he suddenly got a taste of his own medicine and the nobility rebelled against him forcing the signing of Magna Carta which prohibited any abuse of royal power by King John or future monarchs and in the real history books rather than the tales of Robin Hood this is what he's most remembered for to say that Richard the lionheart wasn't all good and King John wasn't all bad is probably the fairest assessment of these two kings [Music] however as we all love a courageous handsome hero and a deliciously evil villain chances are that the legend As Told in Robin Hood will live on because inevitably the truth will never be allowed to get in the way of this particularly good story foreign having explored the Scandal and conspiracy of sibling rivalry we move on in time to the grandson of King John and a family history with far too many skeletons in the cupboard [Music] Our Story begins with the father of this unhappy Dynasty Edward the first who became king in 1272. at two meters tall he was nicknamed long Shanks as he stood Head and Shoulders above the majority of his countrymen and was without doubt a warrior king [Music] dear neighbors Scotland and Wales certainly discovered this to their cost [Music] and Edward's deviousness and brutality have become legendary in part due to the success of the Blockbuster movie Braveheart which tells the story of William Wallace and his Valiant attempt to liberate Scotland from English rule [Music] but yet again when we come to the question of the succession the son who long Shanks created Prince of Wales in 1301 had always been something of a disappointment to his confrontational father with the second couldn't have been more different from Edward the first and with the benefit of hindsight his homosexuality was a major factor in the troubles that beset him [Music] warring with Scotland was of little interest to him and after his father's death when the Scots took on the English at the Battle of Bannockburn Edward's Army was beaten and the independence of Scotland assured [Music] foreign and so we come to Barclay Castle in gloucestershire where Edward II was brutally murdered in the most horrific circumstances expected to do his duty Edward married Isabella of France and despite his obvious preference for Mail company the union produced four children [Music] thank you however Isabella has gone down in history as a woman scorned and when she took her revenge on Edward II The Fury of hell would have been mild by comparison [Music] when Isabella fell in love with Roger Mortimer a sworn enemy of the king the trouble really started the pair deposed Edward and had him imprisoned in this cell at Barclay castle and seized power in the name of The Heir Apparent who would later become Edward III [Music] the king's closest male friends were murdered and when Edward II failed to die quietly as a result of the noxious fumes from the rubbish pit below his prison cell he was traditionally disemboweled on the orders of his wife the conventional and gruesome death preserved for homosexuals back in the 14th century foreign ically when Edward III was old enough to seize power back from his mother he went on to become a very good King but when it comes to Scandal and conspiracy it's another Edward this time the fifth who's at the heart of a mystery still unsolved to this day [Music] thank you a visit to the Tower of London will reveal the sad tale of the Two Princes one of whom was destined to be Edward V who with his younger brother was in the care of their Uncle Richard the Duke of Gloucester on his deathbed King Edward IV appointed Richard England's protector and the evidence suggests this wood to use a Biblical analogy have been like entrusting the care of the newborn baby Jesus to King Herod [Music] the two princes were last seen in September 1483 at the Tower and the Finger of Suspicion pointed accusingly at their Uncle the Duke of Gloucester who in the absence of the Two Princes became King Richard III [Music] foreign that history has unfairly maligned Richard III and William Shakespeare's play on the subject did little for the king's PR but for those who believe in Divine Justice his Reign lasted just two years before he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
foreign the man responsible for the demise of Richard took the empty Throne of England and began a new Royal house as Henry VII the first of the Tudor Kings however although more than capable of scheming and conniving in his own right it was his second son Henry who turned Royal Scandal and conspiracy into an art form [Music] although looking at the history books it appears that Henry VII was obsessed with women it was in fact the old problem of the succession and producing a healthy male Heir that preoccupied him most [Music] when Henry became king he inherited the Widow of his older brother Arthur Catherine of Aragon and a special dispensation from the Pope in Rome allowed them to marry sadly for Henry Catherine failed to produce a son and despite numerous pregnancies her only child to survive was a girl Mary by this time Henry realized that Catherine's child-bearing days were over and turned his attention to the young and bewitching Anne Boleyn Henry now wanted the pope to overturn his agreement to the marriage with Catherine so there could be an annulment and the king would be able to marry Anne the pope however refused so Henry decided to break from Rome become head of a new Protestant Church of England and Grant himself a divorce after which he married Anne who was already pregnant [Music] but after all that effort and child was a girl Elizabeth and despite Henry hoping future pregnancies would result in a son nature didn't oblige and Anne was swiftly dispatched accused of adultery and beheaded [Music] Henry's next choice of wife did produce a son but as she died as a result of the achievement Henry continued to marry and divorce or behead at will having an incredible Six Wives in all before his own death in 1547. [Music] with a new church and boy King Henry's hopes of a secure succession were left unrealized when Edward VI died in 1553 at the age of 15. [Music] and the Catholics who'd constantly plotted to restore England to Rome were ready to support Henry's eldest daughter Mary a devout Catholic in her bit for the throne [Music] the Protestants however fought back manipulating the 16 year old lady Jane gray onto the Throne of England but the unfortunate girl merely a porn in an elaborate conspiracy was deposed by Mary after just nine days and sent to the Tower of London as a traitor where she was later executed [Music] thank you foreign for the Protestants Bloody Mary as the new Queen became known lived up to her name executing as Heretics those who refused to convert back to Rome [Music] [Music] plots and conspiracies sprung up everywhere and as Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain failed to produce any issue the Catholics feared that their power would die with Mary [Music] while Mary was still alive the Catholics had urged the queen to execute her half-sister Elizabeth the Protestant daughter of Anne Boleyn and the younger girl had shown courage Beyond her years when she was imprisoned in the Tower of London nevertheless Mary died before any death warrant could be signed and Queen Elizabeth the first began her reign in 1558 declaring religious tolerance [Music] foreign [Music] conspiracies grew ever Bolder fear for her throne made Elizabeth Outlaw Catholicism a and just as in Mary's Reign many lost their lives for their beliefs so Catholic priests still traveled in secret around the country and many of the large houses where family stayed true to Rome constructed priest holes where a man could be concealed if they were raided when Mass was being said here at harvington Hall there are priest holes in almost every room and many priests were hidden here during this period of Catholic persecution Elizabeth's greatest fear was that the Catholic Queen of Scots her cousin Mary who'd been crowned while still a babe in arms would make an attempt on the English Throne as another Pawn in the hands of powerful conspirators didn't help but when she grew up Mary was prone to making disastrous marriages something that Elizabeth avoided altogether sadly though when Mary threw herself on Elizabeth's Mercy the Catholic conspirators were still waiting in the wings and after years spent moving the Scottish Queen from Castle to Castle Elizabeth ordered Mary's execution convinced she was guilty of treason Elizabeth as the Virgin Queen ruled England for an incredible 45 years but the downside of self-inflicted spinsterhood was the distinct lack of an heir [Music] onically the son of Mary Queen of Scots became James the first uniting England and Scotland as the first Stuart King in 1603 [Music] and still the conspiracies over religion continued as in 1605 the Catholic Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the houses of Parliament with the King inside however as we all celebrate burning guy Forks on the bonfire every November the 5th the Gunpowder Plot didn't succeed [Music] as the century progressed and James the first was succeeded by his son Charles the first England was plunged into Civil War when Oliver Cromwell and his parliamentarians challenged the divine right of kings the upshot was that Charles was beheaded and Cromwell made himself Lord protector until Charles II was restored to the throne returning in 1660 from Exile in France during cromwell's Puritan years there was little opportunity for scandalous Behavior he even canceled Christmas foreign [Music] but Charles II certainly put the Mary back into Monarch as this is how he became known they were scandals of Plenty which were at times controversial but his love for his favorite mistress the actress Nell Gwynn only endeared him to his people Charles's dying words were allegedly let not poor Nelly starve and as he set a precedent for very public Royal Affairs the stage was set for a new era [Music] the Stuart line came to an end in 1714 by which time the act of settlement had been passed ensuring the succession remained Protestant and as the German House of Hanover provided the nearest relations to fit the bill George the first arrived from Germany to take the throne unable to even speak English [Music] for many people in the newly United Kingdom this was not a popular choice and a Jacobite rising in Scotland fueled by the Catholic members of the Stuart line unhappy about their exclusion from the line of succession served notice that more trouble was ahead [Music] it was actually in George II's Reign that the Stuart Bonnie Prince Charlie marched an army of fierce Scots South towards London only to turn back on the advice of turncoat spies to face defeat on the bloody battlefield of Culloden the next George III was without doubt the best of the bunch but sadly ill health has meant he's gone down in history as having been mad however in a program about Scandal and conspiracy it's his eldest son George who proved to be something of an expert thank you as a Young Man the Prince of Wales was handsome and dashing but his father despaired of his behavior he ran up colossal debts gambling and entertaining and he regularly featured in the newspapers of the day because of his scandalous affairs with a succession of Mistresses in fact in 1785 after failing to seduce a Catholic lady who'd taken his fancy he actually married her quite illegally in order to win her over the lady in question Maria fitzherbert is perhaps the best known of Georgie's Mistresses not least because of the property he bought in the seaside resort of Brighton to house his secret bride just as the Georgians flopped to the spas of bath and Cheltenham to take the health-giving waters they also believed sea bathing to be equally efficacious and Seaside Resorts were developing at a rapid pace George III had a fondness for Weymouth but his son chose Brighton as far away from his father as possible whether at the seaside or at court in London however when the Prince of Wales called on the services of architect John Nash the man responsible for many of Bath's beautiful buildings to renovate the secret Hideaway it became anything but inconspicuous the Exotic Palace complete with onion domes and spiers took 35 years to create and today visitors to Brighton Pavilion can still Marvel at the opulence and extravagance of this spectacularly spendthrift Prince of Wales [Music] interestingly architect John Nash also transformed Buckingham Palace when the prince became King George IV in 1820 George III had bought Buckingham house with a view to creating an alternative Royal residence to Saint James's Palace which he described as a dust trap but became ill before he could begin renovations [Music] foreign [Music] John Nash took almost 20 years to complete the project the amount of time he was kept busy at both Brighton Pavilion and Buckingham Palace fueled considerable gossip as it's been suggested that George IV had a great fondness for the gentleman's wife the only reason that George Weil still Prince and Wales was prevailed upon to marry a suitable bride was the fact that Parliament agreed to pay off his enormous debts if he did so his marriage to Mr fitzherbert 10 years earlier as we know was illegal so nothing stood in the way but when he met his new bride-to-be Caroline of Brunswick he evidently wished that someone would come up with just cause why they should not be lawfully joined together at the wedding ceremony the couple hated each other on site and although the marriage was consummated producing a daughter they were unable to live together and over the years the infidelity is of both parties were sensationally reported in the Press we know that public opinion turned against the future George IV because of his treatment of his wife and when Caroline actually wrote to the newspapers to give her version of events the novelist Jane Austen commented upon the situation in one of her letters saying I suppose all the world is sitting in judgment on the Princess of Wales letter poor woman I shall support her as long as I can because she is a woman and because I hate her husband Stern words indeed and as George IV turned from a handsome youth into a grossly overweight dissolute man as a consequence of overindulgence his health deteriorated as his only legitimate daughter princess Charlotte pre-deceased him when he died the throne passed to his younger but not by much brother thank you when it came to Scandal William IV had led equally as colorful at life as George IV as duke of Clarence William had lived with the actress Dorothea Jordan for 22 years they had 10 children all of whom were of course illegitimate like his older brother his financial troubles led him to marry a suitable bride and as Princess Charlotte George IV's Heir had died in childbirth the race was on between the Lesser Royals to come up with a legitimate offspring but well into his 50s despite his younger bride there was no surviving issue William became king 30 he was 64 and with the nickname silly Billy you can immediately work out how his public perceived him and when he died in 1837 the British people must have wondered what manner of Monarch the house of Hanover would produce next [Music] from The Madness of the much-loved George III and the much hated reprobate George IV right through to Silly Billy William IV the prospect was far from promising however waiting in the wings was a young girl just 18 years of age about to turn around the reputation of this Royal House foreign [Music] we are of course talking about Queen Victoria possibly the most respectable of all British monarchs foreign [Music] with the restoration of moral Behavior Victoria led by example marrying her beloved Prince Albert in 1840 and producing a secure succession of nine children including four Sons [Music] now you may be wondering how Queen Victoria's exemplary good name could possibly be associated with either Scandal or conspiracy but travel back in time to the Autumn of 1888 and the London slums of White Chapel and you'll uncover an intriguing Royal conspiracy that is still a source of frenzied speculation to this very day [Music] get me [Music] when a woman's body was discovered on the 7th of August 1888 in gunthorpe street that back then was known as George yard nobody really paid much attention attack on Martha tabram had been brutal she'd been stabbed 39 times in the throat chest and abdomen but this was one of the most deprived districts of the City murder was commonplace and an occupational hazard for prostitutes Martha's unfortunate profession then on August 31st in Buck's row now durward Street another woman's body was discovered Polly Nichols was also a prostitute and although the cause of death was most likely strangulation her throat had been slashed from ear to ear and her body horribly mutilated only when Annie Chapman's body was discovered on September the 8th in Hanbury Street did alarm Bell start to ring Annie too had been a prostitute and with her throat cut and intestines ripped out fears that a brutal serial killer was on the loose became widespread the police did what they could but progress was slow and when a letter arrived on the 27th of September Written in Blood by someone claiming to be the culprit signed Jack the Ripper an evil killer became a press sensation and a household name weeks passed and all went relatively quiet until the night of the 30th of September when two prostitutes were found murdered quite literally within hours of each other the first known as long Liz had had her throat cut but the second Catherine eddos found in miter Square was horribly mutilated with body parts including a kidney removed the murders were becoming more and more horrendous and when the body of Mary Kelly was discovered on the 9th of November her mutilated body was unrecognizable the scene of crime images are as truly appalling to look at today as they were back in 1888 and the police searched for Jack the Ripper intensified Mary Kelly's death is officially the last of the Jack the Ripper murders and the true identity of the killer has never been uncovered although many theories have been put forward over the years and this quite incredibly is where Queen Victoria has become a part of the Ripper Legend to such a degree that there have even been those who have suggested that Jack the Ripper was none other than the queen herself in all the many thousands of books written on the subject of Jack the Ripper since that fateful Autumn of 1888 little Credence has been given to the theory that the Royal grandmother was stalking the streets of Whitechapel killing and mutilating prostitutes however the conspiracy theorists have a much more believable version of events that puts Queen Victoria and members of her household under the spotlight most significantly the Royal Physician Sir William Gull Queen Victoria's grandson Prince Albert Victor was destined to become The Heir Apparent as the eldest male child of her firstborn son the future Edward VII many in the family including Queen Victoria and the boy's father seem to have thought him to be but that didn't prevent him from being connected to a number of scandals including fathering an illegitimate son and involvement in the Cleveland Street Scandal where police uncovered a male brothel however the most publicized story about him came to prominence in the 1960s and 70s which connected the Royal grandson to the Ripper murders Prince Albert Victor also The Story Goes was sent to the White Chapel Studios of artist Walter sickert to learn how to paint while there he fell in love with one of sickert's models a common shop girl who he married in secret and had a child with the hypothesis was that one of the witnesses at the wedding was Mary Kelly a friend of the Bride who upon recognizing the Royal bridegroom attempted to Blackmail the government as a trusted Royal servant Sir William Gull was dispatched to murder Kelly and although she shared the information with namely the other Ripper victims and make it look like the work of a Madman the explanation for the night of the double murder was mistaken identity which is why long Liz wasn't mutilated but the whole Ripper and the Royal story is frequently put down to Urban Legend and of course has provided the plot for any number of Jack the Ripper movies [Music] Prince Albert Victor actually died quite unexpectedly just four years after the Ripper murders at the age of 28 with the cause of death given as flu but this is perhaps where the real Royal conspiracy lies there are three other Alternatives given for what might have happened to the unfortunate Prince the first being that he died of syphilis as a result of his dissipated Lifestyle the second option is rather more Sinister as rumors spread that he'd been given an overdose of morphine to avoid an unsuitable air succeeding to the throne and lastly the most bizarre option suggesting that the death story was a cover-up for the prince's Madness with the young man being dispatched to an asylum on the Isle of Wight where he allegedly lived unseen until his death in the 1920s whatever the truth behind all these conspiracy theories their association with Queen Victoria is absolutely fascinating and even if nothing more than over imaginative flights of fantasy the stories show a very dark side of Victorian London not so far removed from the Magnificent facade of Buckingham Palace [Music] as we've now traveled at great speed through history a pattern has emerged when a monarch is on the throne for a very long time and a prince of Wales is kept in waiting it was true in George IV's case and as Queen Victoria ruled Britannia for an incredible 63 years and seven months her eldest son had to wait until he was 59 to take on the role he'd been preparing for all his life after the stern morality were on the surface at least of the Victorian age the dawn of the Edwardian era which began when the queen died in 1901 couldn't have been more different the new king who greatly enjoyed his country estate at Sandringham was nevertheless at the heart of every Grand glittering Society occasion and just had been the case when he was Prince of Wales wherever Edward VII was to be found Scandal was never too far away in the early days to try and curb the wild behavior of the Prince of Wales Queen Victoria decided he should be married as quickly as possible to a suitable princess and Alexandra of Denmark was selected fortunately for the prince Alexandra was beautiful and affectionate but unable to control her young husband's wild ways especially with the ladies and she tolerated his Affairs when asked in later years about this she always replied that he loved her best and the truth is he probably did even so throughout his entire married life Edward VII kept numerous mistresses actresses like Lily Langtry and Sarah Bernhardt along with various socialites including the famous American Beauty Jenny Jerome later lady Randolph Churchill and mother of Britain's World War II prime minister Winston were great favorites in fact his last mistress Alice keppel was even admitted by Queen Alexandra to Buckingham Palace to be at the king's deathbed in 1910.
now as we already know King Edward's eldest son Prince Albert Victor died at the age of 28. shortly after the Ripper murders and the throne passed to Edward's second son who became King George V the people of Britain felt a great sense of loss at the old King's passing despite all the scandals there's the new king enjoyed a contented married life with Queen Mary the princess who'd been his older brother's fiancee at the time of his death the years between 1910 and 1936 were characterized by dignified Royal stability foreign but with World War II looming large when George V died the Prince of Wales in Waiting had an even greater bombshell to drop on the people of Britain like other monarchs before him George V was well aware of his eldest son's shortcomings and even warned prime minister Stanley Baldwin that after becoming King the boy would ruin himself in 12 months this was a prophecy that proved to be truer that he could possibly have known Edward VII became King on the 20th of January 1936 and the Scandal even bigger than the Affairs of Edward VII rocked the nation the king announced his intention to marry his American mistress the already twice married divorcee Wallace Simpson provoking a constitutional crisis that was only resolved by Edward's abdication on the 11th of December just as his father had predicted Edward VII had lasted as king slightly less than 12 months but as his brother stepped forward to become King George VI at least the monarchy although seriously shaken by the abdication was able to survive [Music] through the hard years of World War II George VI and his family stood shoulder to shoulder with their fellow londoners as Hitler's luftwaffe blitzed the city with nightly bombing rates the enemy when the war was over the royal family celebrated with their people as a new age of Hope adorned George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth had restored the nation's faith in the monarchy and when the king died as a result of ill health in 1952 his eldest daughter as Elizabeth II came to the throne equipped with a sense of Duty and willingness to serve Beyond her 25 years so we come right up to date but in the final years of the 20th century with Millennium celebrations on the horizon a royal tragedy occurred that once again through the monarchy into disarray resulting in conspiracy theories threatening far-reaching consequences for the constitutional monarchy [Music] when Queen Elizabeth attended the wedding of her eldest son Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer at Saint Paul's Cathedral in 1981 it must have been with a degree of relief but the succession was going to be safe like so many princes of Wales to have gone before him Charles had been involved with a number of young ladies some of whom had been a great deal more suitable than others at the age of 33 it seemed Charles had at last found his very own fairy tale princess to be a mother to his children and eventually become his Queen but sadly this is one fairy tale without a happy ending and by the 1990s the delightful family snapshots of the whaleses with their two sons princes William and Harry were nothing more than a facade the very public separation and then divorce of The Prince and Princess of Wales in 1996 meant that the couple's Private Affairs was splashed right across the media and the people of Britain's Adoration of Diana Princess of Wales resulted in a significant downturn in the popularity of the royal family firm news that the Prince of Wales had conducted a long-term affair with Mr Camilla Parker Bowles turned public opinion further against him and Diana continued to be the most popular Royal even though her hrh status had been taken from her ironically the situation was far more complex there were faults on both sides but for the die-hard conspiracists the fact that Camilla also happens to be the great granddaughter of Alice keppel the Royal mistress allowed to be at the deathbed of Edward VII history has indeed repeated itself whatever the wrongs or rights of the much publicized breakup of Diana and Charles when news came through that Diana had been killed as the result of a car crash in a Paris tunnel in the early hours of the 31st of August 1997.
