Censorship, deleted files and espionage: the secrets of the British royal family begin to be revealed

Harry and Meghan, the Dukes of Sussex, have produced the most watched Netflix series to tell their story, the secrets of negotiations with “the institution” and their distance from the British Royal Family due to racism and popularity.

Princess Diana appealed to send tapes to Andrew Morton, a British journalist, to disclose his sufferings in the Royal Household. And the book became his best sellerwith her bulimia, her suicide attempt, her husband’s infidelities.

Prince William screamed and bullied his brother Harry because his departure would reveal what he had as a mission to preserve: the mystery of the British monarchy.

To deny it, William issued a joint statement, without consulting his brother. Queen Elizabeth II has officially died of old age. Apparently he died of bone cancer. But how many years will it take to really find out?

These are examples of how the House of Windsor seeks to curb its own dissenting voices to maintain a monarchy that has, until now, withstood the worst crises, led by its own members, under the reign of several monarchs.

Censorship is the rule and access to thousands of real documents, mission impossible. We must preserve the mystery, the basis of the royal family and its permanence.

“The royal family are ruthlessly rewriting history for their own benefit,” according to a new campaign to end censorship of royal documents in official archives.

open files

Censorship Indexa British free speech magazine is publishing a report calling for historical archives real open to public scrutiny.

“The results of our investigation are revealing,” said Jemimah Steinfeld, managing editor.

“The amount, and in some cases absurd, of historical archives on the royal family that are not available is staggering. As a result, many historians and journalists fail to do their job fully,” she explained in Times.

“In one case,” he said, “an entire book on Prince George, Duke of Kent was deleted due to lack of access.” George, the younger brother of Edward VIII and George VI, died in an air crash in Scotland in 1942 while serving in the RAF.

The Argentine lover

George, son of a king and brother of Edward, the king who abdicated for love of Wallys Sympson, married his cousin, a Danish duchess. But rumors of the time tie him to long relationships with Noël Coward, with Graham Payn, when he was married to Margaret Campbell. Also included is a “ménage a trois” with Kiki Preston and José Uriburu, the bisexual son of Argentine ambassador to London, José Uriburu Tezanos. Those were the “crazy years” in Europe.

The author, who wishes to remain anonymous to maintain good relations with Buckingham Palace, believes there has been “a cover-up over the prince’s death”.

The author said he was denied access to the Royal Archives at Windsor. The Prince’s chapter in the Kent National Archives had “obviously been removed”.

“I believe that a family which depends on public support to maintain its primacy in British social life has a duty to act responsibly when it comes to breaking the law, especially in times of war. The actions of the Royal Archives, in denying me access to the Kent archives, amount to nothing less than censorship.”

“I think everyone is entitled to some privacy. But there is no doubt that the royal family and those around them are ruthlessly trying to rewrite history for their own benefit”, denounced the writer and historian.

The ghost of abdication

King Edward’s abdication for the sake of an American traumatizes the royal family to this day. A concern that Queen Mary and Queen Mother of Elizabeth II embodied. But this is an ongoing drama within the Windsor family so far.

They call it “the abdication syndrome” and the fear of Americanization. Hence the brutality of the reaction to Harry’s departure with Meghan, an American actress. For the “working class” royal family, the institution is above love and filial ties.

The author said that during the abdication crisis there was concern that Prince Albert, the future George VI, would not be up to the job of replacing Edward VIII. He was stammering. Government documents revealed that the idea had been floated for Queen Mary, the mother of the two brothers, to become regent with the crown eventually passing to Prince George.

“How the royal family runs its affairs under such circumstances is of great importance to historians and, arguably, to the nation. But without access to the documents of the Palace, no precise record of this event has been written and it has been completely overlooked by historians,” explained the historian.

Obstacles to investigations

In a survey conducted by Index on Censorship of two dozen journalists and historians working in the area, all but one, Andrew Roberts, said their research was hampered by the archives’ refusal to grant access to key materials.

Amendments to the Freedom of Information Act in 2010 prevent official correspondence relating to the monarch, heir to the throne and second in line from being revealed, even if its disclosure is in the public interest.

in his book The real secretshistorians Rory Cormac and Richard Aldrich compare the secrecy of the intelligence services to that of the royal family.

“They both check and ‘edit’ their stories with care. Both are exempt from the freedom to request information. Historians have to wait a long time for intelligence files to reach the National Archives, but at least some eventually do.

The members of the royal family, on the other hand, are the real enemies of the story. There is no area where the restrictions and endorsements are so severe,” they explain.

In the summer of 1940, the Duke of Windsor had been sacked as governor of the Bahamas, where it was hoped the former King Edward VIII could do less damage with his pro-fascist sympathies.

Espionage

During the war, the Windsors were widely spied on by the kingdom where Edward had been king. Their conversations have been intercepted, his letters and those of his entourage and friends, intercepted. The spymaster was Edward’s bodyguard. The Windsors were well aware they were under surveillance.

In his exile in the Caribbean, Edward met some unsavory characters, including the Swedish billionaire owner of Electrolux, Axel Wenner-Gren, a friend of the Nazi Hermann Goering. Churchill repeatedly warned the duke that Wenner-Gren was “in communication with the enemy”. But Edward demanded proof. And so, after a long debate, the head of MI6 decided to show him the confidential files on the Swedish entrepreneur.

This was a strange situation: the Windsors were being spied on, while at the same time reading secret intelligence material gathered as a result of that espionage, including their own conversations.

The moment is emblematic of the complex, contradictory and often tense relationship between the British royal family and the world of espionage. For centuries, the royal family has spied and was spied on: they have consumed the secret intelligence, harvested it, meddled with it, and been subject to it.

One benefit of being a British monarch is selective access to official intelligence. This monumental book called The real secrets it is truly a story of the British Secret Service, focusing on the fascinating moments where it intersects with real history.

In many ways, royalty and ghosts are strikingly similar: small, tight-knit, intensely guarded organizations with their own rules and mythology, determined to preserve the mystique, while keeping their secrets.

Queen Elizabeth I deployed a large and ruthless intelligence service (although often amateurish), largely devoted to keeping her alive and harvesting the harmful secrets of her enemies, particularly Mary, Queen of Scots, to finish them off.

Queen Victoria deployed her family as informants, gleaning massive amounts of intelligence from her network of kin deployed, through marriage, to virtually every royal house in Europe.

The culture of secrecy

Jemimah Steinfeld, managing editor of Indexhe stated that the secrecy was part of “a larger culture to protect and curry favor with the royal family”.

“We need to know what our heads of state are doing. This is vital for any democratic society,” she asked.

“This is not just Hello! .Gossipy gossip, which we’re begging to see. We ask to see things that tell us who we are as a nation and how well our business is conducted,” she said.

“The role of the monarchy in the end of the British Empire is of great interest to historians. But many documents in the National Archives relating to royal visits to the former colonies during this period are still closed,” historian Rory Cormac explained.

Lord Mountbatten’s Secrets

The writer Andrew Lownie fought for years for the publication of the diaries and correspondence of Lord Mountbatten, uncle of the late Duke of Edinburgh, mentor of the current King Charles.

The University of Southampton, which owns the documents, blocked it, supported by the Cabinet Office. The Information Commissioner spoke. The files were released last year but cost Lownie more than £300,000 of his own money.

Melbourne historian Jenny Hocking successfully challenged the National Archives of Australia to release documents on the 1975 ousting of Gough Whitlam, then Prime Minister, by Governor-General Sir John Kerr.

Hocking said Queen Elizabeth did not emerge “unscathed” from the scandal because the letters showed she had been involved in planning to resolve the crisis.

Paris, correspondent

B. C