An Unnerving Movie at Sandringham

The night the royal family watched a film about a mysterious murder/suicide of an Austrian crown prince and his mistress

A recent visit to the environs of Sandringham, the British monarch’s estate in Norfolk, called to mind a macabre postscript to the abdication of King Edward VIII in December 1936. As the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Edward and Wallis Simpson were essentially banished from Britain, and his younger brother, Prince Albert, had taken the throne as King George VI and his wife became Queen Elizabeth. Edward was gone but not forgotten, which made the screening of Mayerling at Sandringham all the more disturbing.

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth with their daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, walking to church at Sandringham on Christmas morning in 1936

As it was, the King was dealing with unpleasant discoveries about his older brother, who had brazenly lied about his wealth: he had over £1 million—the equivalent of more than $100 million today—rather than the £90,000 (around $9 million today) that he claimed. He had also secretly attempted to sell two large tracts of land on the Sandringham estate to a farming family in Lincolnshire. Fortunately, George VI’s land agent, William Fellowes, was able to intervene and stop the sale. The King, Queen, and the monarch’s widowed mother Queen Mary could barely contain their anger at the Duke of Windsor.

A poster for the film Mayerling, released in 1936 and shown at Sandringham early in 1937

Against that backdrop, the new King’s preoccupation with Edward and his inamorata Wallis Simpson took a surreal turn in late January 1937. On many nights at Sandringham, the family screened recently released movies. One such offering was Mayerling, shown to an audience of neighbors and courtiers, along with the King, Queen, and Queen Mary.