The Theme of Forgiveness in The Crown
The Theme of Forgiveness in The Crown
Bishop Barron has done two videos on The Crown and Christian themes in the show's first several seasons. But he has not done a video on the theme of forgiveness, which is prevalent in a Season 2 episode.
Queen Elizabeth II (Claire Foy) has been Queen of the United Kingdom for a little over ten years when this episode begins. Historians in Germany work at an archive and find the Marburg Files, which contain details about the former King Edward VIII's relationship with Nazi high command. By this episode, the former King has been known for a while as His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor.
The Americans manage to get their hands on copies of the Marburg Files, and threaten to publish them. Publishing the files would publically disgrace the Duke of Windsor.
As this is happening, the Duke of Windsor is tired of his life of luxury and pleasure in the suburbs of Paris and wants to serve the UK. He returns to the UK under the excuse that he's writing a book. A group of his friends band together to find jobs for him within the British government. After being told about three jobs that he was interested in, he gets permission from the government and travels to Buckingham Palace to get permission from his niece, the Queen.
But by this point, Queen Elizabeth has been made aware of the existence of the Marburg Files and has even read them.
"I hope you have a strong stomach," Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother says as she slides the folder containing the Marburg Files towards her eldest daughter.
So when the late Queen and her uncle, the Duke of Windsor, meet, the dialogue goes as follows:
Queen Elizabeth II: So, to what do we owe the pleasure? I assume it's about this new book that you're writing.
The Duke of Windsor: Oh, actually, I've come here today on another matter. A job. That while I'm clearly no longer a young man, I'm also not yet an old one and might be able to usefully serve the Crown.
Queen Elizabeth II: You had a chance to serve this country, the greatest chance. You gave it up.
The Duke of Windsor: Well, I gave it up because of the way my wife was treated, not because I no longer wished to serve this country. Anyway, one or two ideas came up. For jobs, which would require the blessing both of government and Crown. Of course, before coming here and bothering you, I made sure the support would be given by government and I've been assured of that support.
Queen Elizabeth II: Support for what jobs?
The Duke of Windsor: Well, three possibilities came up. The first is the ambassadorship to France. The PM and Foreign Secretary aren't keen on the incumbent, Gladwyn Jebb.
Queen Elizabeth II: And the second option?
The Duke of Windsor: Oh, uh, as a special liaison to the Board of Trade.
Queen Elizabeth II: And the third?
The Duke of Windsor: As, uh, High Commissioner, working with the Commonwealth Relations Office to protect and promote British interests throughout the world. This would suit me, I think, uh, as it specializes in the practical side of diplomatic work. Entertaining.
Queen Elizabeth II: Well, I'm sure that you'd do all three jobs very well indeed. But in light of what I've recently learned about...
The Duke of Windsor: (stutters) About what?
Queen Elizabeth II: About events that took place, while you were in Lisbon during the war.
The Duke of Windsor: From whom?
Queen Elizabeth II: From state papers.
The Duke of Windsor: Which state papers?
Queen Elizabeth II: German state papers... which American historians, supported by the French and the British, are now threatening to publish.
The Duke of Windsor: And what exactly is in these papers?
Queen Elizabeth II: Letters. And telegrams. Communications detailing your relationship with Nazi high command.
The Duke of Windsor: Well, it's utter nonsense.
Blogger's Note: I have not read the Marburg Files, but when I saw this episode and the Duke said that, I was like, "Yeah, right."
Queen Elizabeth II: In one telegram, from 1940, it states that you were considering
publicly going against the government and pledging your support for peace with Germany,
thereby breaking with my father, the King. In another, it says that, in return for your support, the German government offered you a home in Spain, where you could wait out the rest of the war in peace and safety while your countrymen gave their lives.
The Duke of Windsor: I went to the Bahamas as the British government instructed.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, you were instructed to go to the Bahamas because of your views. In these papers, you're quoted as saying that the Führer's desire for peace was in complete agreement with your own point of view.
The Duke of Windsor: (Inhales, exhales) You were too young to remember. I, alas, not. Hitler and his henchmen were once our friends. As King, I was committed to the idea, passionately committed, that England and Germany should never be enemies again after the horrors of the Great War. People forget, there was no indication of who Hitler would become. You could argue that we were the ones that made a monster of him, by refusing to be his allies. This is the point. People make stands. They grandstand to pat themselves on the back for their great virtue. And what is the consequence? Another grotesque war. Millions more dead. When peace was all that mattered to me. In that spirit, I am asking you to make peace with me today. Elizabeth, the British are a sensible people; they will never believe these claims against me. They will dismiss these papers for what they are: baseless rumors and German propaganda.
Blogger's Note: No, Your Royal Highness, they won't because when the Americans publish those papers, everyone will know about your beyond despicable actions.
Later, when Elizabeth is seriously considering letting her uncle stay in the UK and return to public life, her husband, the late Prince Phillip (Matt Smith), he says it's not a good idea and tells her to go see her former private secretary, Sir Tommy Lascelles, to hear what he knows about the Duke of Windsor's relationship with Nazi high command.
She does so, and the info that Sir Tommy divulges to the Queen is chilling. This is what he says (and I've put the worst parts in bold): "The Duke of Windsor made his loyalties clear as soon as he became King. Surrounded himself with a new breed of courtier, men such as Carl, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, a renowned Nazi. He also shared classified Allied documents with the Duchess of Windsor, who was herself, we believe, sharing a bed...
forgive me, ma'am... with the German ambassador, Herr Ribbentrop. It became so bad that the government had to stop putting secret and sensitive papers in his red box. But we needn't have worried, because then we had the abdication. Having promised to retire from public life, we now know that he had no such intention. Why else would the pair of them decide to visit Hitler in Germany?
The Führer labeled the trip an unofficial state visit, so it is unsurprising that it was on that same trip, at the home of Herr Hess, that the plan was hatched. A plan to reinstate the Duke of Windsor as King of England... effectively betraying and dethroning your dear late father, in return for German forces being given free rein across Europe. German troops were even promised to quell a colonial rebellion, if necessary. And there were visits to SS training schools and early versions of the concentration camps. Now, of course, the full horrors were yet to come. Nonetheless, he visited.
When a German aircraft crashed in Belgium carrying Hitler's entire military plan for the invasion of France, the Duke wasted no time in letting his Nazi friends know that Allied forces had, indeed, recovered this priceless information, which gave Germany time to change its plans. And, in less than a month, Paris fell to German occupation. But perhaps worst of all, the Duke told the German government that resolve in the United Kingdom in the face of the German aerial bombardment was weakening and that continued bombing... that is, the continued slaughter of his fellow countrymen and former subjects, would, I quote, "soon make Britain ready for peace."
After hearing all this and having read the Marburg Files, the Queen summons her treacherous uncle back to Buckingham Palace and tells him that she cannot allow him to stay in the UK and return to public life. Here is how the scene goes:
Queen Elizabeth II: I've had a chance to think about your request to serve your country. I was keen to help you and, weighing it all up... the amount of time that has passed and my affection for you, personally, all spoke in its favor.
The Duke of Windsor: But?
Queen Elizabeth II: But, on balance... I think not. And I'm sure you don't need reminding that under the terms of the agreement reached after the abdication, you are permitted to return to the United Kingdom only at the pleasure and invitation of the Sovereign.
The Duke of Windsor: Yes?
Queen Elizabeth II: I find myself unable to grant that permission.
The Duke of Windsor: And who has fed you this poison? Your mother?
Queen Elizabeth II: No.
The Duke of Windsor: Tommy Lascelles:
Queen Elizabeth II: I came to my own mind.
The Duke of Windsor: But you have no mind of your own. That's why everyone's so thrilled with you. The last royal to have a mind of his own was me and that's why they threw me out. Fine. I will go. But let me ask you this. Who has done more damage to the monarchy? Me, with my willfulness, or you lot, with your inhumanity?
Queen Elizabeth II: (stands up) We all closed our eyes, our ears, to what was being said about you. We dismissed it as fabrications, as cruel chatter, in light of your decision to give up the throne. But when the truth finally came out... The truth! It makes a mockery of even the central tenets of Christianity. There is no possibility of my forgiving you. The question is: how on earth can you forgive yourself?
There are quite few occasions in which I've found myself wanting to smack characters in The Crown upside the head. This is one of them and I think you already know who it is that I wanted smack upside the head this time.
After this scene, the Queen asks the Reverend Billy Graham to come and see her. The scene goes as follows:
Queen Elizabeth II: Reverend Graham, uh... I asked you here today because... there's something that I'd very much like to hear your views on.
Reverend Graham: Ma'am?
Queen Elizabeth II: Forgiveness. Are there any circumstances, do you feel, where one can be a good Christian and yet not forgive?
Reverend Graham: Christian teaching's very clear on this. No one is beneath forgiveness. Dying on the cross, Jesus Himself asked the Lord to forgive those that killed Him.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes. But... we must remember his words. "They know not what they do." That forgiveness, it was conditional.
Reverend Graham: True, but He still forgave. God Himself forgives us all. Who are we to reject the example of God?
Queen Elizabeth II: Mere mortals.
Reverend Graham: We are all mortals, that is our fate, but we need not be un-Christian ones.
(Queen Elizabeth sighs)
Reverend Graham: The solution for being unable to forgive: one asks for forgiveness oneself. Humbly and sincerely, and one prays for those that one cannot forgive.
My mom and I recently rewatched this episode and I said, "That's some sound advice."
And The Queen, ever the pious Christian, followed it.
Honestly, who can blame her for not being able to forgive her uncle? His actions were beyond despicable and he tried to deny he ever did those things, which is repugnant.
Despite the fact that she prays for her treacherous uncle and feels like she's failed as a Christian, the episode ends with real-life pictures of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor's "unofficial state visit" to Nazi Germany. Among them is a picture of the Duke of Windsor standing right next to Hitler.
But we can still take Reverend Graham's advice to the late Queen for those times when we are unable to forgive someone.