What was recounted as the romantic and tragic saga of English King Edward VIII, who gave up his throne for American divorcee Wallis Simpson, the woman he loved, was much more complex than believed by the world at large for years after the drama unfolded.

Award-winning historian and author Andrew Morton writes in a meticulously researched biography about the efforts of international world leaders to cover up the potentially treasonous connections between the couple and Adolf Hitler and his closest confidants. Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, King George VI and Supreme Allied Forces Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower were rumored to have gone to great lengths to obstruct and even destroy evidence that the former king and his wife held suspicious contacts with German ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop and Hitler, as well as prominent British leaders who were suspected Fifth Columnists.

"A riveting and sometimes juicy portrayal of the intrigue involved in finding and spiriting documents from post-war Allied occupancy that had been liberated under extreme circumstances from defeated Germany is a saga worthy of a clandestine operations novel."

King Edward VIII occupied the throne for less than one year and was named Duke of Windsor immediately following his abdication. His lover, Mrs. Simpson, still married to her second husband, was romping around Europe with prominent Nazis and other Fifth Column subversives. Once the marriage was announced, the couple was banished from England and forbidden to set foot on British soil --- a punishment far more painful than would seem possible in “the Empire on which the sun never sets.” This exile led them to establish lavish residences in France and Spain, and while they held property in the United States, they were often snubbed by society during infrequent visits.

Further deterioration in relationships with the Royal Family continued throughout the war years as internecine battles between the couple and Buckingham Palace raged on. It was suspected that the Duke had let slip important troop movements and other war secrets during social gatherings with their questionable cohorts. This and the Duke’s proclivity for alcohol during social encounters set his requests on deaf ears with his estranged brother, the King. They were denied until George VI relented and appointed him to Ambassador of the Bahamas, regarded as the lowliest and least important colony in the domain. 

Morton provides authoritative references to documents recovered from Germany after World War II that irrevocably disclose telegrams, cables, letters and notes from conversations between the Duke and/or his wife with highly placed Nazis. A plot to kidnap the Duke and Duchess, or at least hold them under house arrest until Germany defeated Britain, was foiled when the tide turned as America entered the War after Pearl Harbor. Hitler had deceptively dangled the prospect of restoring the Duke to his “rightful place” on the throne, crowning the Duchess her rightful role as Queen.  

A riveting and sometimes juicy portrayal of the intrigue involved in finding and spiriting documents from post-war Allied occupancy that had been liberated under extreme circumstances from defeated Germany is a saga worthy of a clandestine operations novel. But Morton, a graduate of the University of Sussex, England, one of Britain’s top research universities, sticks strictly to the facts. His award-winning biography of Princess Diana, DIANA: Her True Story, met with international acclaim as “the closest we will ever come to her autobiography.” 

For World War II and Royal Family buffs, 17 CARNATIONS is said to represent the number of trysts between Wallis Simpson and Ambassador von Ribbentrop, who supposedly showered her with bouquets of the 17 carnations before their clandestine visits to Paris. The title adds to the spicy account of this fascinating and important slice of 20th-century history.