How Queen Mother Got Revenge After Betrayal From This Royal Family Member

The royal family was reportedly humiliated when King Edward VIII abdicated his throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson back in 1936, but his sister-in-law, the Queen Mother, reportedly found a way to make sure that the rest of the family didn’t suffer because of his decision.

According to the documentary “The Queen Mother: The Reluctant Queen,” Elizabeth became enraged by Edward’s actions because it forced her husband, King George VI to take on the important role as the country’s monarch, something he was unprepared for. As a result, her anger towards Edward and his American actress wife led to the pair becoming virtually shunned by the family.

The documentary (via Express UK), even claims that the couple’s civil wedding ceremony was poorly attended because “Elizabeth had made sure of that.”

“When the Duke of Windsor married Wallis Simpson, he expected that the entire Royal Family would turn up—but they didn’t,” biographer Jane Ridley said. “This was a massive humiliation for him and very much, I think, the idea of Queen Elizabeth’s. She thought it would be quite wrong for the King to extend his sort of approval, if you like, to the marriage.”

However, her actions were deemed as justifiable because of how much anger and fury she felt over what she considered a “betrayal” to the royal family.

“She felt a fury about what her brother-in-law had done, the way he had betrayed the monarchy,” royal biographer Robert Lacey said in the documentary. “She felt anger at what it meant for her husband, her shy husband, but I think she also sensed the opportunity of doing a job very well indeed and stepping forward.”

In order to give her husband a hand, Historian Philip Ziegler stated that she took it upon herself to guide him in his new role, one he never expected to have and was actually terrified of.

“She realized that it was going to be exceptionally difficult for her husband, to take on this terrifyingly public role, but she saw herself as responsible for guiding this somewhat ungainly and ill-qualified man.”