17 Carnations: The Royals, the Nazis, and the Biggest Cover-Up in History

A little bait-and-switch. Author Andrew Morton goes through all the lurid rumors about Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII: that she was intersex, that she learned exotic sex techniques in Shanghai brothels, that she slept with all and sundry. And that he was bisexual, a shoe fetishist, and a traitor. There’s nothing but hearsay for any of this. Morton repeatedly mentions a “secret file” that British intelligence scrambled to recover from Germany after VE-Day to avoid embarrassing the Royals, but there’s no clue as to what might be in it. The best Morton can come up with is that Edward (as the Duke of Windsor and a major general in the British army) was tasked with inspecting French defenses in 1940, and somehow passed information on show more to the Nazis; I can’t see the German General Staff suddenly changing their war plans based on that. The Duke does come across as a grade-A jerk; a womanizer before his encounter with Wallis, childishly naïve, more concerned about his house in France than about the Blitz on London, and cluelessly entitled – but not a traitor; frankly, he doesn’t come across as smart enough to be treasonous. The Duchess, in turn, is supposed to have passed secrets she picked up by eavesdropping on to her “lover” von Ribbentrop – that’s where the title comes from, von Ribbentrop is supposed to have gifted her with a bouquet of carnations every time they slept together. Once again, Wallis comes across as hopelessly entitled and bitchy – but not treasonous. She did not, after all, ever pose in a Stahlhelm manning a FLAKvierling. show less

This is definitely not what I learned in history. But of course, my history classes were prior to when WWII information was declassified. I guess that dates me. I was told that the reason the Duke of Windsor abdicated the throne was for purely romantic reasons. This book paints an entirely different view and that view is well substantiated by the "hidden Windsor files" among other things.
This is the story of Edward VIII and how he came to be the Duke of Windsor. His behavior prior to when he became king was certainly unbecoming. The details of that behavior are given as if in a novel and thankfully without the unnecessary psycho-analytical stuff. Wallis Simpson's behavior is also accurately described and it is easy to see why the show more British Royals referred to her as "that woman."
The first third of the book describes their backgrounds and how these two self-centered people came to be together. From the read, they probably deserved each other. Their pettiness and concern for themselves is well-depicted in the recounting of how overly concerned they were with the retrieval of their precious linens in Paris while their countrymen feared for their lives. It is appalling! And that doesn't even compare with their views of Hitler and the Nazis.
The middle third of the book is about how this feckless duo ended up in the Bahamas. They wanted the prestige of being royalty without the responsibility. They wanted the wealth of royalty but they did not want to pay taxes or use any of their own money for travel. They acted like parasites!
The last part of the book is about the actual cover-up of the pair's behavior and the struggle between historians and governments in how to deal with all the incriminating evidence against them. I found it difficult to fathom how, when confronted with actual telegrams sent before and during the war, that the Duke and the British government declared them falsifications. A point is made that the war documents were used in the Nuremburg Trials, and yet they are stated to be inaccurate when revealing unbecoming behavior of a British royal.
Reading an account of something like this makes one appreciate how history is recorded and interpreted. I now have a totally different opinion of the House of Windsor. Just for starters, it was never told in my earlier history classes that the Duchess of Windsor was not just a divorcee - she was twice divorced with 2 living husbands when she married the Duke. AND she had her affair with the Duke while she was still married to her second husband.
I have one beef with the book: the 17 carnations as part of the title is a bit lame since that seems to be based on unsubstantiated information. I expected more from this than what was written. show less

Morton's book is about the abdication and marriage to Wallis Simpson by Edward VIII. It begins by leading us through the years of Edward growing up to be a very charismatic, popular young man who was sought as a possible marriage partner by many young women. He, however, was more interested in married women as mistresses and had a few.

The real focus of the book is Edward and Wallis' fascination with Adolf Hitler and National Socialism. They honeymooned in Austria and visited Hitler. There was much evidence that Wallis was a good friend of the German Ambassador to England, Joachim Ribbentrop, and this is what the title of the book refers to. Ribbentrop use to send her 17 roses everyday and according to one German source, this was to show more acknowledge the 17 times they had made love.

After the war commenced, Edward was one of many in the British aristocracy who favoured finding a peace settlement at any cost. One idea Hitler and company had was to defeat England and put Edward back on the throne as a puppet ruler. Whether Edward was aware of this is debatable but some of his behind the scenes negotiations bordered on treason and at one point Churchill warned him that if he did not listen to British officials and obey orders from London, he would be arrested.

One thing is clear- both Wallis and Edward were self centred, selfish, privileged individuals who for the most part were only concerned about their position and possessions. They never seemed to be aware of the what the British people were suffering because of the blitz and the shortages brought on by the submarine war for they in one incident forced the British Embassy in Spain to rent an extra van to transport their 40 plus suitcases at extra cost and inconvenience to the British staff. After the war started, they communicated with German officials asking that their property in Paris and southern France be protected.

While he appeared to be a pleasant man to sit down withover a drink, almost everything he did was for his benefit. Some roles it was suggested he could play, he turned down when he found out he would have to pay income tax. No matter where he lived or at what period of his life, he had all his alcohol imported by the British Embassy so he could avoid taxes and duties show less

17 CARNATIONS is the story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor during the second world war. It examines in great detail their dealings with the Nazis. It is the view that they were pro-Nazi and as such against their own country. There are great details to prove this point and while the Royals come close to treason it doesn't look as if they ever arrived there. You do get the sense that they were useless, self-concerned supercilious people which i suspect in fact they were. Theirs was a sad story in many ways. David's childhood was loveless and unhappy. He was raised by a series of German nannies with little attention from his parents. And when he had the attention of his father, King George, it was mostly unpleasant. So he was searching show more for someone to love, someone who loved him who he could trust and he found it in the Duchess. The Royal Family had no use for her as a twice-divorced woman with both ex-husbands living. The simply refused to recognize her and David/King Edward VIII was desperate to have the Royal Family accept her which they never did. This caused great trouble for the Duke his entire life. There is more detail about correspondence and meetings with high ranking Nazis than I cared to read. Remeber the Royal Family were Germans and Edward was raised speaking German. His cousins were the Royal Family of Germany which complicated matters. He was also traumatized by the execution of the Czar Nicholas II who was his godfather. show less

This is an episode and period of history that has always fascinated me. Some of my favourite fictional works (The King's Speech, The Remains of the Day) have dealt with this, and loaned it some drama and intrigue. It turns out, the real story is almost as interesting. The reluctant playboy king, in love with someone who would never be accepted by his people (family, government, or subjects), sympathetic to one of the coldest and most vicious regimes ever to gain power in the west. That is life imitating art. This book reveals much more than this part of the story, with hidden documents, complex diplomatic maneuvering, and political intrigue adding to the romantic tension. However, as I plowed through this, I found I was really only show more interested in the romantic part, and fascinated by the incredibly terrible things the Nazi regime did. But the former is covered in the very beginning of the book, and the latter is really a whole different book. I found myself skipping through the last few chapters, interested to discover what became of the ex-king after the war, but not much more. So, it was mostly enjoyable, but got bogged down in details toward the end. Still an interesting read. show less

The story of Edward VIII giving up the British throne to marry the woman he loves is often regarded as one of the 20th Century’s great romantic stories. By focusing on the post abdication story Morton paints a very different picture of a pair of self absorbed feckless entitled people whose actions, careless talk, and dubious relationships and political views bordered on being traitorous at the time of their country’s greatest need.

I was under the impression that a lot of these royalty celebrity writers wrote sketchy speculative biographies but this one seems to be rock solid. The title doesn't measure up to that standard, however: Apparently von Ribbentrop sent that number of carnations to the Duchess of Windsor very day for several weeks because that was the number of sexual encounters they had had together. The book also doesn't go into the 1946 theft of the Duchess' jewelry nor the unsolved 1943 murder of Sir Harry Oakes when the Duke was the governor of the Bahamas. Maybe the author felt it would be too speculative to dwell on these details.
One irony the author did not comment on was the contrast between how the duke's brother and mother treated him like a show more pariah yet desperately wanted to destroy any evidence of Nazi collaboration. If they had let him stay in Britain as he wants perhaps the flirtation with the Nazis might have been avoided. show less