March 22, 2024 • 47 mins
Exactly Right presents The Butterfly King, a historical true crime limited series produced in partnership with Blanchard House. Join multi-award-winning journalist Becky Milligan as she unravels eighty years of lies, deceit and cover-ups to answer one question: Who killed the Butterfly King?
You’re about to hear “The Mender of Broken Dishes,” episode one of The Butterfly King. It’s 1943 during a critical point in the Second World War. Caught in the crossfire, King Boris III of Bulgaria has a crucial meeting with a key ally. Someone resents his influence and wants him out of the way for good. The second episode, “Lies, Lies, Lies,” is available now in The Butterfly King podcast feed.
Follow, rate and review The Butterfly King wherever you get your podcasts. See historical photos by going to @exactlyright on Instagram.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, We'd like to introduce you to Exactly Wright's newest
historical true crime limited series, The Butterfly King.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
The premiere episode you're about to hear is called The
Mender of Broken Dishes, which takes place during a crucial
turning point in World War Two.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Join journalist Becky Milligan as she unravels eighty years of history,
lies and deceit to answer the question who killed the
Butterfly King.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Please enjoy this premiere episode of The Butterfly King, and
then when you're done, go to The Butterfly King feed
in your podcast app and listen to the second.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Episode, and don't forget to follow, rate and review to
show your support for our newest limited series, The Butterfly King.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Goodbye Europe.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
August nineteen forty three, location classified across the globe. The
Second World's War, the deadliest war in history, is raging.
This summer is a crucial turning point in the Southwest Pacific.
The US has just overcome the Japanese on the Eastern Front.
(01:07):
The Soviets have inflicted huge losses on Nazi Germany. Mussolini
has fallen, and Italy is about to defect to the Allies.
The balance of power is wavery Could we possibly cut
the typewriter effects?
Speaker 5 (01:23):
Please?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Thanks. I think it's just a bit of a cliche,
so as I was saying, this location's classified, it's a
military complex. But what I can tell you is there's
a plane coming into land on a narrow air strip,
a military plane in the middle of dense woodland. It's
(01:47):
baking hot, the grass is scorched. There's a pungent smell
of pine. And this place is top secret. Almost no
one knows it exists. The bunker walls are seven meters thick.
They're surrounded by ten kilometers of minds. I'm Becky Milligan
and I reported and broke stories for the BBC for
(02:10):
almost thirty years. You can trust me to report the facts,
the truth. It's what I do. But I warn you
to be on your guard because where I'm about to
take you, the truth is extremely hard to find.
Speaker 6 (02:25):
War is a terrible thing. You never know who your
enemy or your friend is. You just don't know who
is who.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Millions have already died in this war, and millions more
lives are now at stake. Trust is fraying between the
conflict's key players, as countries U turn and switch sides.
The passenger in the plane has just landed in the
midst of it. He knows this place, He's been here before.
(02:54):
He's sweating, but not just because of the heat. He's nervous,
really nervous. Tomorrow morning he has the most crucial meeting
of his life. For him, pretty much everything's riding on it.
Speaker 7 (03:10):
Could you imagine what kind of pressure during a war
and you are alone on the top of the power pyramid,
what kind of pressure you have?
Speaker 4 (03:20):
The man is his majesty, King Boris, the third of Bulgaria.
Look on the map and you'll see Bulgaria's a small
country in southeastern Europe, in the Balkans, squashed between Romania
to the north and Greece and Turkey to the south,
and at this moment in the conflict, Bulgaria finds itself
in a very tight spot. This meeting is crucial to
(03:43):
the direction of the war. The reception seems cordial enough,
but only a fool would take a man at his word.
Here this is the last place on earth the king
wants to be. That night, he sleeps in a concrete bunker.
It's airless, stifling. The king tosses and turns next morning,
(04:12):
the meeting takes place. It lasts eight hours, eight long
and very difficult hours, and it all takes place behind
closed doors with no witnesses. There are just two men
in that room, the Bulgarian King and actually, no, let's
(04:36):
not go into that room quite yet, because that meeting
was ugly. The king returns home to Bulgaria, but after
a day or so he starts to feel a bit unwell.
He's usually fit and sporty, but soon he's so sick
(04:56):
he has to take to his bed. He goes seriously downhill,
until after six days of agony as a continent, the
(05:17):
forty nine year old monarch is dead. The news reports
tell us he died suddenly of a heart attack. That
was the official line, and it's been the official line
ever since.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Does he may science?
Speaker 8 (05:36):
But hang on a minute.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
This is where my journalistic instincts kick in suddenly, since
when does a sudden death span six days? And here's
another thing that strikes me as odd. King Boris's skin
was covered with spots. Now, I'm no doctor, but that
does not sound like a heart attack to me. And
(06:00):
I'm not the only one. Plenty of people think the
official cause of death was a complete lie.
Speaker 9 (06:06):
The blotches do sound like a hypersensitive reaction to me
to something they do.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Maybe a poison poison.
Speaker 7 (06:13):
The king was poisoned.
Speaker 10 (06:14):
I think it's a poisoning.
Speaker 8 (06:17):
Poison, a cocktail of dog sins.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
I'm convinced that something was put into his soup.
Speaker 7 (06:24):
This blameless king has fallen victim to most vulgar murder.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
In the middle of a global war and with Bulgaria's
future hanging in the balance. The king is dead? Who
killed him? And why? From Blanchard House and exactly right, media,
(06:56):
this is the Butterfly King.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
I'm Becky Milligan.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Chapter one, The Mender of Broken Dishes. Let me tell
you a little bit about me. I'm Becky Milligan, and
I covered stories all over the world for the BBC
Walls in Afghanistan, arm scandals in Sierra Leone, and I've
uncovered a whole raft of abuse and misconduct in the
(08:01):
British Parliament. But I've never investigated a story quite like
this one before because regicide, the killing of a king,
that's a big brief to take on. But once my
curiosity is peaked, I just can't walk away because for years,
people across Bulgaria. People in the know have been saying
(08:24):
that someone silenced Boris, the Third of Bulgaria, the last
crowned King of Bulgaria, and I'm determined to find out
who that was. I start all my investigations by interviewing
every witness I can find. And although this story has
(08:44):
its roots in the nineteen forties, I've tracked down two
people who lived through it. They're in their eighties now,
but they're rather important leads in more ways than one,
because they're actually members of the royal family. King Boris's children,
his son and his daughter, and they've invited me and
(09:05):
my producer EJ to visit them at their home. It's
just outside Sofia, Bulgaria's capital. Good morning, are you okay
to take us to Rana Palace?
Speaker 11 (09:19):
You know here?
Speaker 9 (09:20):
It is on the Mapana Palace.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Imagine jumping into a cab in London telling the driver
to take you to Buckingham Palace, only to have him
turn around and ask you for the address. Well, that's
exactly what happens in Bulgaria.
Speaker 11 (09:37):
King Simeon his home.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
To be fair, the whole royal thing here is a
bit confusing these days, Bulgaria's a republic. It no longer
has a monarchy that was all scrapped under the Communists
who arrived at.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
The end of the war.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Except Bulgaria does still have a sort of king, and
that sort of king is Simeon. Simeon was forced into
exile after the war, but he never actually abdicated, so
technically he is still king, if only in name. But actually,
(10:18):
let's save some of the more complex constitutional details for later,
because if it's confusing for a Bulgarian, do you see
where it is? So this is it's like a big park.
I'm clearly getting nowhere here, so I call for back
(10:40):
up from the receptionist at our hotel.
Speaker 9 (10:49):
He'll drag a.
Speaker 8 (10:50):
Brilliant thank you so much, thank you for your health.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Right half an hour later.
Speaker 8 (10:57):
And can't quite see the panel at the moment, but
I think this is the part. It looks quite barren.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Let's just say this is not the Palace of Versailles.
Speaker 8 (11:08):
It's a bit like a scrap metal yard. In fact,
it looks a bit like a dumping brow in a way.
I hope this is the right place at the moment.
It doesn't feel like it.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Too, despite appearances. It is the right place. Rana Palace
was where King Boris lived too. It was his country pad.
Speaker 11 (11:30):
Yeah, the next one.
Speaker 8 (11:32):
So I think we go up here? This is more
like it's relief. Didn't fancy getting out where that dog
was looking at us like that. Still very desolately dilapidated, though,
Is that it really is? I think this is where
we are, Yes, I think so. I think I think
(11:53):
we've we're being.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Dumped in its heyday. Rana must have been a dyllic.
It's surrounded by mixed woodlands and long tree lined avenues.
Some of the trees were planted by Boris himself and
by Ferdinand, Boris's father. They weren't just weekend gardeners. They
(12:18):
were both serious botanists.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Shut the gate quickly.
Speaker 11 (12:29):
So there are signposts here, it says in English, as
well as Bulgarian pallace. So are we gonna set off
up here?
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Rana was really Boris's go to place. He was a
country by at heart, and he loved the great outdoors
to be in nature, peace and quiet, and.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
He liked mounting butterflies.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Yes, she said mounting butterflies. She's Tessa Dunlop, a historian
and an expert on both royal and Eastern European history.
You might find her a little blunt. She certainly likes
to tell.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
It how it is.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
They caught them, and he mounted them, and he spent
hours working out which kind of butterfly they was. I mean,
he was a geek.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Well, he certainly knew his insects. Back to front Entomology
was his great passion, and his knowledge was second to none.
He was well respected in the natural history world. Boris
was at his happiest pottering around his grounds with his
old floppy hat and butterfly nets. He was a gentle soul,
(13:38):
the kind of king who wouldn't hurt to fly. Well,
actually he probably would hurt to fly if it was
a rare one and he wanted it for his scrapbook.
But you can see where I'm coming from. He was inoffensive.
All that pomp and splendor, it just wasn't him.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
He found himself really pretty unexceptional. He got terribly anxious
about sort of standing up in Pult, especially early on.
He said, little do they know that I have to
go to the loo five times before I confront them.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
I think what she's trying to say is that King
Boris was not at all what you might expect in
a king.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
You know, he was not a man who was imbued
with huge amounts of confidence, And I expect part of
that was his physical appearance and his size. It helps
if you're a big man.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Why does history always demand handsome heroes. I'm starting to
feel rather sorry for Boris.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
He was small to look at, eminently unremarkable. You wouldn't
notice him in a room, diminutive, aggressive building, early on,
watery gray eyes, the long protruding Habsburg knows. I mean,
the only afrodisiac attached to Boris was the fact he
was a monarch. And that does some things for some women,
(14:50):
doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Well, I wouldn't know Tessa anyway. Back to Varana Palace.
Speaker 8 (14:56):
These lookers, though they might be the sort of more
modern quarters where Simeon lives, actually.
Speaker 9 (15:03):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 12 (15:03):
Oh, there's another guard dog. Let's go and find a
doorbell somewhere. Goodness knows where you find a doorbell on
a palace. Maybe it's up here.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I suppose when most of us think of a palace,
we'd think of something we see in the crown, or
down to an abbey, towering turrets, Gothic windows, colonnades. Well,
Rana's a little more down at heel. The architecture's charming,
a sort of hotch potch of styles, but it could
do with a lick of paint. Simeon's doing it up
(15:38):
bit by bit, but he has to do that from
his own pocket. As he's only a sort of king,
he can't really ask the Bulgarian taxpayers to foot the bill.
So while parts of it are lovely, the rest is,
let's say, shabby chic.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
I know.
Speaker 11 (15:58):
Early, I know what.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yes, that's the King's aid, Jarville meeting us, and he's
precisely how you'd imagine a king's aid, sharp suited, charming
and perfectly poised, even when the palace guard dog gets
a little frisky.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
I have a dog, so yes, but she's too lovely, lovely,
good dog.
Speaker 8 (16:23):
She is worth.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Sometimes Chica is too lovely, She's not your typical guard dog.
Meeting a monic is a nerve wrecking experience. Luckily, Jarville
tells us we don't have to curtsy to Simeon, but
there are certain royal protocols which we need to stick to,
(16:47):
such as not touching the ornaments and royal bric a
brac in the drawing room.
Speaker 8 (16:52):
But there are so.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Many fascinating bits and pieces it's really hard not to,
including a rather fine filigree box, which was a birthday
gift to Simeon from a fellow king or something, and
which I very nearly break.
Speaker 12 (17:07):
Yes, I love that sort of thing. That's really very.
Speaker 8 (17:10):
Good, difficult, Please don't break the palace.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Anyway, that's lovely. I'm sure he's insured.
Speaker 8 (17:23):
Are kings insured?
Speaker 4 (17:25):
His Majesty's drawing room is light and airy and is
everything you'd imagine in a stately home. The herringbone wooden
floor is scattered with plush persian rugs, The walls are
plastered with icons and oil portraits, and the elegant chairs
on which we're invited to sit are painted gold and
(17:45):
bricaded in dusky pink silks. And just like in most
people's houses, the mantlepiece is crowded with photos.
Speaker 8 (17:53):
This is someone I recognize.
Speaker 9 (17:55):
Of course.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Two years ago, the Pope visit Bulgaria and he wants
a private visit to the royal family.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Simeon's family is not exactly ordinary. He's descended from the
Saxe Coburg Gotha dynasty. That basically means he's connected to
pretty much every royal clan in Europe, including the Windsors.
King Charles is a kind of distant cousin. In fact,
back in the days before the war, King Boris even
(18:23):
used to take his holidays with the British Royals. Shooting
in Scotland.
Speaker 8 (18:29):
There's a huge.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Portrait of Boris hanging on the drawing room wall and
looking at it you get a strange sense of deja vu.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yeah, they do all look like each other. I mean
you can see quite a strong trace of our current
British royal family I think in Boris, and that strong
some would say aristocratic, others inbred profile that he has.
I won't name names, but take a look at him
and then well, yes, peru's the current royal landscape. Prince
William a little bit. I mean, poor Prince William. It's
(18:58):
not his fault. As Harry said, he does have aggressive
premity or bolding.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Well, it's true. There's definitely more William than Harry in Boris.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Anyway, moving on.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Yes, I think we probably should because it's time to
meet the king.
Speaker 13 (19:26):
To see you. Thank you so much for making the time.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
I'm Becky, this is Emma j and we're delighted that
we're able to talk to you and really appreciated. King
Simeon wears a dark suit and tie. He's got a
thin white mustache that's anchored by a chin strap beard
and okay, yes he's completely bald. He's one of those
people who seem taller than they really are. He might
(19:54):
be eighty six, but he still knows how to carry himself.
He's very charming. He's also very much an old school
sort of king.
Speaker 10 (20:02):
I'm not the type of person who communicates easily, and
I like to keep my feelings to myself.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
So if you're expecting him to get all confessional and
Prince Harry on you, you might be disappointed. But having
said that, once you get to know him, he's quite
the tease.
Speaker 10 (20:23):
Not to ram him.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
It's important to laugh where we can, because I'm afraid
this story is a dark one. For a child to
lose a parent is always desperately sad, and Simon was
just six years old when his father died so mysteriously,
a mystery which still haunts him.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
To this day.
Speaker 10 (20:47):
It's still we cannot really either blame anybody or point
our fingers at anybody, and yet we have this, I
would say, ghastly suspicion that something was wrong.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Now, remember that military plane which Boris had taken to
his secret meeting. Simeon got taken to see it after
it landed back in Bulgaria.
Speaker 10 (21:09):
We went to the airport to greet my father when
he came back from this meeting. We were fascinated. My
mother drove us to the airport to see this huge
plane that had landed there.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Little did Simeon know that his father had just flown
home to meet his death. It all seemed like harmless
fun to a little boy. Poor King Boris had a
very difficult relationship with his father. Ferdinand was fiery, and
(21:45):
Boris was frightened of him. Boris had lost his mother
as a very young boy, and that meant he lost
her gentle protection too. He felt he never quite measured
up to his father's exacting expectations. Ferdinand was certainly a
force to be reckoned with. Boris was determined not to
make the same mistakes with his own children, so he
(22:08):
was her hands on dad. Whenever he got a day off,
he'd head to the hills with the family.
Speaker 10 (22:15):
Oh on the hike. It was always fun because he
would teach us all sorts of things and btaneer or
on nature or on wildlife and so forth. So to
ask this was a great treat.
Speaker 8 (22:27):
I will say.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Now, I'm not just here to speak to Simeon, because
behind every great king is a bossy big sister.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
So you don't know. How do I get in touch
with you?
Speaker 13 (22:41):
In half an hour?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Scom Her Royal Highness Maria Louisa is four years senior
to Simeon. She's a plain speaking kind of princess.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
That was a lot of bs.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Excuse me if Simeon's wary about speaking his mind, Maria
Louisa gives it to you straight, no matter who you are.
Just before the war, King Boris invited British King Edward
the Eighth to the palace. He's the king who abdicated
so he could marry American divorcee Wallace Simpson. Boris proudly
(23:16):
presented his little daughter to Edward, but Maria Louisa refused
to perform.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
I was I think four or what? And I got
bored and I said, now I have to go and play.
And King Edwin an.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
In her black trousers and trainers. Her raw Highness is
more casual than her brother, but still stylish. She broke
her leg last year, so she's walking with a stick.
It's a glittery burgundy red one, and it matches her
polar neck sweater. Occasionally she flashes her cane a look
of contempt. You can see she hates being dependent. She's
(23:55):
as sharp as attack, basically the kind of ninety year
old we all have hoped to be. Maria Louisa was
exceptionally close to her father, King Boris. In the next room,
there's a tear jerkingly beautiful black and white photo of
them together. She's wearing a string of pearls and she's
(24:15):
drawing or coloring something while Boris looks on dotingly. In
the photo, she's about eight, maybe nine years old. She's
concentrating hard, but her free arm is sloped around her
father's neck, just keeping him with her. She was ten
when he died.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
He was always there for us, and it was always
at feet when he came and told us stories. And
he would take us sometimes for a little walk in
the forest and tell us stories about gnomes that lived
under mushrooms and came out at night, and you know,
wonderful children's stories that we cherished enormously.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
When Maria, Louisa and Simeon talk about King Boris, they
both often look away or stare at the floor for
a second or two while they composed themselves.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Ah, it's it's very difficult to sort of empty one soul.
A very loving father were time for his children, definitely
for us. He was just loving Papa.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
And there wasn't even a proper goodbye. He disappeared so suddenly, and.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
The Monday morning he came into a room where Sian
and I were playing, and it just said I'm going
to Sofia for work, you know, kissed us and said
I'll see you tonight, and we never saw him again.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
They were such a close knit family, but someone out
there clearly didn't care for King Boris at all. Once
on his deathbed, the King didn't just slip peacefully away.
As we know, his so called cardiac arrest spanned six
long days and nights. He fought to stay alive that summer.
(25:58):
He really battled against his failing heart.
Speaker 9 (26:02):
Crushing chest pain as if there's a metal band around
your chest, feelings of sweatiness and nausea, the feeling of
impending doom.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
That's Dr Stewart Hamilton. More from him later, but he's
bang on the money with the prediction of doom. Simeon
seen the medical reports from his father's doctors.
Speaker 10 (26:27):
He was feeling sick. Then his liver eventually didn't function,
and there was also pneumonia, and he lasted for so
long from Monday to Saturday, he lost his conscience.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
The king wasn't short of doctors in that sick room.
The palace was crawling with them. But it was nineteen
forty three. What did they have to offer Paul Boris
accept a bit of oxygen and sedation. Well, here's one
thing they didn't offer him, the comfort of his wife.
The queen was on holiday in the mountains with the
royal children. She wasn't even told her husband was ill
(27:09):
until it was pretty much over. Now that seems deeply odd,
and not just to me.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
My mother was. I should was convinced he was done
in by somebody.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
And here's another thing that makes me suspicious. Once the
king was bedbound, no one was allowed to leave the palace.
Speaker 8 (27:31):
They were literally locked.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
In for the first few days. Even Boris's government was
kept in the dark. Whatever happened in that sickroom, stayed
in that sickroom.
Speaker 10 (27:41):
Finally, the doctors who came in all that kept everything
very i'd say confidential or secret, and that was also
one of the reasons that people thought there was foul playing.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
In the final stage of his illness, King Boris developed
a high fever. When the doctors couldn't control his temperature,
he began convulsing, and on the twenty eighth of August
it was all over. The King's casket was carried to
(28:33):
its final resting place by train drivers. His enthusiasm for
engines and locomotives was legendary. The railway workers even made
him an honorary member of their guild. He was a
skilled engineer. He once joked that if everything's went badly
for him and he lost his throne, he'd just head
off to America and get a job as a mechanic.
Speaker 10 (28:54):
He remember once took us along a railroad because she
was very fond of trains.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
He was desperate to pass on his passion to his children,
so he took little Simeon into a tunnel. A train
appeared suddenly and roared past them in the dark.
Speaker 10 (29:16):
The conductor reported the next station, there were some lunatics
who had been walking in the track just when the
train came by, and so forth, and of course it
was great fun after when they realized that it was
my father who had induced us to take this walk.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Maria Louisa remembers other times when her father's enthusiasm almost
got the better of him.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
We would go horseby riding, and not too far from
here was a railroad crossing, and we would stop because
the barriers were down, the trains were coming, and since
my father loved driving trains, we were standing with the
horses there and the train would pass, and if the
machine is recognized my father, of course it would blow
(30:06):
the whistle and that was catastrophic for the horses and
for US.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Historian Tessa Dunlop, you know the hours he spent pulling
the levers of locomotives, so much so that the engine
drivers of the Orient Express were told watch out for
Boris because he literally will steal into your engine and
drive off with it. That was the level of his obsession.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Boris was a royal who had the common touch. He
fitted in everywhere. Think of the late Queen Elizabeth the
iond the second longest reigning monarch in history, Yet somehow
most Brits thought of her as their own granny. Think
of Princess Diana, who instinctively knew how to charm a crowd.
Unlike his father Ferdinand, Boris was popular, and whatever you
(30:59):
think about training, being a committed railway enthusiast is hardly
a motive for murder. And this is where some red
flags are popping up for me, because I feel like
I'm getting a somewhat filtered version of the truth here.
So far, we've only really heard from Boris's children, and
I mean, is anyone objective about their own parents? Affectionate
(31:27):
stories about Boris are threaded through Bulgarian folklore. There are
countless tales of the king picking up hitchhikers in his
car incognito. He'd drive them around for miles, chatting away.
Simeon told me about one time when Boris pulled his
bet you can't guess who I am prank on a
hapless young soldier.
Speaker 10 (31:47):
My father thought of those hilarious, which it really was?
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Would he roar with laughter?
Speaker 10 (31:52):
Well, yes, and I suppose a soldier almost fainted. Not
because but she says it's the king it's the king.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
And some of the legends sound like they're straight out
of a fairy tale, like when King Boris was caught
in a rainstorm when he was out butterfly hunting in
the mountains. Apparently, he'd often pitch up at a villager's
door in the hope of a hot bowl of broth
and some shelter. Once home, he'd always thank the villager
(32:22):
for their hospitality by sending on parcels and gifts.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Do we believe that? Do we actually believe that?
Speaker 4 (32:28):
I don't think so well, Tessa. From what I've read,
at least some of these accounts really are true. There's
evidence to back them all up. But like Tessa, the
skeptical journalist in me is starting to smell a rat
because my research shows me that we're getting a very
sanitized version of history here. This is not Disney. It's
(32:51):
a real life story rooted in war, and wars always
a dirty business, and if I dig around a bit
in Boris's past, it's not hard to unearth a less
polished reality.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Without wishing to denigrate Bulgaria in any way.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
I get the feeling she's about to denigrate Bulgaria in
some way.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
It was a nation of peasants, told you, I mean,
we love our peasants. Now it's quite diregard to be
a peasant, isn't it, But back then less so. It's
kind of weirdly lonely for Boris. He was known as
the lonely King, actually, because who'd you hang out with
if your new country doesn't have any proper posh landowners.
There was not much between Boris and the peasants. So
when we say, oh, Boris really got on with the peasants,
(33:32):
I'm like, yeah, who else did he have to play with?
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Really, Boris's bloodline was undeniably blue, but it wasn't so
undeniably Bulgarian. Let me explain with a whistle stop tour
of the country's history. Established in the seventh century, Bulgaria
is one of the oldest countries in Europe, but at
the end of the fourteenth century it fell into the
(33:55):
hands of the Turks of the Ottoman Empire, and that's
where it stayed in eighteen seventy eight until Russia went
to war with Turkey and liberated Bulgaria.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Again.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Delighted with their newfound independence, the Bulgarians set about reinstating
the monarchy The problem was it had been so long
since they'd had a king they couldn't trace back the bloodline.
They hadn't got a clue who their real royals were.
The solution simple, import a new royal family.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Where's the obvious place to import a royal from Germany?
It's got an abundance of slightly pointless. The little dukes
and princes of the man are born without quite enough
to do so. Ideally, you want someone who's been gifted
to you with international approval.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Their first attempt at importing a royal was German Prince
Alexander Battenberg, but he proved so unpopular that they were
soon back to the rowing board. The next bit sounds surreal,
but I promise you it's true. The Bulgarians went shopping
for a king. Three royal headhunters trailed around all the
(35:15):
royal courts of Europe, but to no avail. They just
couldn't find a suitable or willing candidate. Downcast, they decided
to cheer themselves up with a trip to the opera
in Vienna, and sitting right under their noses in the
royal box was the perfect man for the job. They
(35:36):
intercepted him at intermission sh it's intermission. Anyway, he was
a suave German prince by the name of Ferdinand. He
had away with the ladies and with the men. Actually
he lived for pleasure.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Yes, he did swing both ways. I think all bisexual
and of course, if you're a king you can really
do what the hell you like. Is a grand signeur
to the point of decadence. He loved fine clothes, he
loved fine wine. He liked jewels. He wore many jewels
on his fingers. He was not the most quote comfortable
of husbands. No, I shouldn't think he was if he
was boning the local No, I mean, I can't say that.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
On the radio, of course, he was known as Foxy Ferdinand,
and not in a good way. His cousin, the British
Queen Victoria, hated him. She described him as eccentric, effeminate
and totally unfit. Other relators wrote him off as weird
and ridiculous. But he got the job anyway. There weren't
really any other applicants. Bulgaria's love affair with Foxy didn't
(36:41):
last long. He got a reputation for being sly and untrustworthy,
and crucially, during the first World War, he joined the
wrong side, the losing side. His alliance with Germany cost
the lives of one hundred thousand Bulgarian soldiers, and in
the peace treaty that ended the war, Bulgaria was severely punished.
(37:04):
The country lost huge swathes of territory, including the strategically
important Thrace, a region bordering Greece and the AEGNC and Macedonia,
which was given to Yugoslavia. Do remember the names Thrace
and Macedonia, as they're going to be quite important. A
little further on in our story, Ferdinand had cost his
(37:27):
country dearly. He was forced to abdicate and was exiled,
and his throne, still warm, was handed to his son,
twenty four year old Boris. Was Boris's murder a simple
case of payback for the sins of the father. Ferdinand
might have made some bad choices, but they weren't Boris's choices.
(37:48):
In fact, the two could not have been more different.
While Ferdinand loved a good row king, Boris hated conflict
of any kind, especially war. He jokingly nicknamed himself the
mender of broken dishes. That's perhaps a tiny bit lost
in translation, but you get the sense. Boris was a diplomat,
(38:10):
the kind of king who picked up the pieces and
glued them back together, not the kind of king who
threw tantrums and smashed things. And he never aspired to be.
Speaker 8 (38:21):
On the throne.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
But unfortunately that's precisely where he found himself as the
world went to war again in nineteen thirty nine, and
it was in the darkest part of the middle of
that war that Boris died, a brutal and baffling death.
Why murder a peace lover? It was wartime, his daughter
(38:46):
Maria Louisa.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
There were many, many people who would have been happy
to get rid.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Of him, as I suspected. The king had several known enemies,
but as far as the identity of his assassin goes,
the clues a few and far between. Boris's son Simeon,
has tried to crack this case himself in the past,
but his slewing has proved fruitless.
Speaker 10 (39:09):
It's amazing. I mean, so many years, so many archives, investigations,
questions or what have you, and there still hasn't been
any proof. And I mus siven, I mean as a sun.
It's disturbing and.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
There's no nice way to put this. Time's running out
for Simeon and Maria Louisa to find answers to the
question that haunts them.
Speaker 5 (39:38):
Never forget it still, you know, you go to a
funeral and it all comes back.
Speaker 10 (39:44):
Not that one looks for the revenge or anything like it,
but simply to know.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
And I want to know too, So I'm going to
pick up this case where Simeon left off. Time to
recap and to fill you in on one of Boris's
dirty little secrets. Remember its wartime, and in war, difficult
choices have.
Speaker 8 (40:10):
To be made.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
We know Boris hated bloodshed, so at the start of
the war, Bulgaria opted for neutrality. But Bulgaria has an
unfortunate geographical position. Rumania, on its northern border, had joined
sides with Hitler. That meant very quickly there were German
troops breathing right down Bulgaria's neck. Meanwhile, on Bulgaria's southern border,
(40:38):
the Italian army invaded Greece. They needed back up, and
Hitler was itching to help. Little Bulgaria was sandwiched between
hostile players. She found herself backed into a corner. And
when you're backed into a corner, you have to pick
a side and in nineteen forty one, King Boris did
(41:00):
pick a side.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
We know that Boris was a political survivor and then
he died. But he was, and he'd survived for a
very long time. Now what do you do if you're
a survivor, You work out which way the wind's blowing
and you travel with it.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
So let's go back to that top secret bunker once again,
the one where Boris is about to walk into the
most important meeting of his life. It's now August nineteen
forty three. In the stifling bunker, Boris has been trying
to get his head straight, but he's played all his
(41:36):
cards and he knows it.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
This man is eminently reasonable relative to what's going on
around him, and he's also got a very good political brain.
For Bulgaria, they need to survive.
Speaker 7 (41:49):
That's the game.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
But the game's up. Boris is out of time. It's
time to meet Adolf Hitler. Yes, Boris, the so called
Mender of Broken Dishes, is an ally of the most
(42:11):
evil man in history. He has been for eighteen months
and this military hideway it's the Wolf's Layer, the secret
Nazi headquarters in what is now Poland, And just like Germany,
King Boris, the third of Bulgaria, has declared war on
Britain and America.
Speaker 9 (42:34):
Now.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
So far, in the time they've been allies with Germany,
Bulgaria's involvement has been pretty passive. While thousands of men
across Europe are losing their lives on the battlefields, not
a single Bulgarian soldier has been involved in active combat,
and as yet not a single Bulgarian Jew has been deported.
(42:57):
But now Hitler wants that to change. To up the ante,
he's demanding, Boris's troops must help the Germans on the
front line, and he's determined to send each one of
Bulgaria's fifty thousand Jews to the gas chambers. This is
(43:17):
not what King Boris signed up for, and this is
why he's here. He's about to disobey Hitler's orders to
tell him he won't do as Hitler commands. You don't
need to know much about history to know what happens
to people who anger Hitler. Less than two weeks after
leaving the Wolf's Layer, King Boris will be dead.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Given the hand he was served, Boris did bloody well
to squeeze almost half a century out of this planet.
Speaker 4 (43:49):
So was it Hitler, who personally ordered his murder. He
had a motive, he had the opportunity. But I gave
my word that I would tell this story of objectively,
and that means telling you all the facts I know,
even those which don't quite fit the narrative. And there's
something here that doesn't quite square with me. Because things
(44:11):
weren't shaping up well for Hitler by the summer of
nineteen forty three, with heavy losses on the Eastern Front
and Italy on the verge of surrender, Hitler needed all
the friends he could get. Would he really kill one
of his only allies? Or did his need for revenge
overcome his reason? Eighty years on from Boris's death, I'm
(44:33):
determined to get to the truth.
Speaker 10 (44:36):
Who would want to cover up after so many.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
Years coming up this season in the Butterfly.
Speaker 10 (44:48):
Came everybody started suspecting everybody else.
Speaker 7 (44:51):
A Russian special services, Starting's special services killed King Boris.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
I mean it would make sense to be the Germans, right,
because it would be safer for the Germans if he
was out of the picture.
Speaker 8 (45:07):
Could have paint the Bulgariats an inside job.
Speaker 7 (45:11):
It was a typical Balkan death.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
What do you mean by a typical broken death.
Speaker 7 (45:19):
I mean in the Bocles there were more political murders
than in the rest of Europe for this period.
Speaker 6 (45:25):
This does not have the whole box of British or
American intelligence, but these sort of things have happened in
the past.
Speaker 4 (45:35):
It's a long list of suspects. There's just one other
tricky problem I need to share with you. For Simeon
and Maria Louisa King Boris was just dear, sweet Papa,
but others, well they saw him very differently.
Speaker 8 (45:53):
I really don't care how he died.
Speaker 9 (45:57):
For me, He's a great.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
The Butterfly King is a production of Blanchard House and
Exactly Right Media, hosted by me Becky Milligan. It's written
and produced by Emma Jane Kirby. Original music is by
Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis nank Manell and Toby Mattamong. Sound
(46:41):
design and engineering by Toby Mattamong and Daniel Lloyd Evans.
Artwork by Vanessa Lilac. The managing producer is a Mika
Schortino Nolan. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye.
The executive producer and the head of Content at Blanchard
House is Lawrence Grizzell for Exactly Right Media. The executive
(47:06):
producers are Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hardstark, and Danielle Kramer, with
consulting producer Kyle Ryan. The Butterfly King is inspired by
the book Hitler and the King by John Hall Spencer
Hello, We'd like to introduce you to Exactly Wright's newest
historical true crime limited series, The Butterfly King.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
The premiere episode you're about to hear is called The
Mender of Broken Dishes, which takes place during a crucial
turning point in World War Two.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Join journalist Becky Milligan as she unravels eighty years of history,
lies and deceit to answer the question who killed the
Butterfly King.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Please enjoy this premiere episode of The Butterfly King, and
then when you're done, go to The Butterfly King feed
in your podcast app and listen to the second.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Episode, and don't forget to follow, rate and review to
show your support for our newest limited series, The Butterfly King.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Goodbye Europe.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
August nineteen forty three, location classified across the globe. The
Second World's War, the deadliest war in history, is raging.
This summer is a crucial turning point in the Southwest Pacific.
The US has just overcome the Japanese on the Eastern Front.
(01:07):
The Soviets have inflicted huge losses on Nazi Germany. Mussolini
has fallen, and Italy is about to defect to the Allies.
The balance of power is wavery Could we possibly cut
the typewriter effects?
Speaker 5 (01:23):
Please?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Thanks. I think it's just a bit of a cliche,
so as I was saying, this location's classified, it's a
military complex. But what I can tell you is there's
a plane coming into land on a narrow air strip,
a military plane in the middle of dense woodland. It's
(01:47):
baking hot, the grass is scorched. There's a pungent smell
of pine. And this place is top secret. Almost no
one knows it exists. The bunker walls are seven meters thick.
They're surrounded by ten kilometers of minds. I'm Becky Milligan
and I reported and broke stories for the BBC for
(02:10):
almost thirty years. You can trust me to report the facts,
the truth. It's what I do. But I warn you
to be on your guard because where I'm about to
take you, the truth is extremely hard to find.
Speaker 6 (02:25):
War is a terrible thing. You never know who your
enemy or your friend is. You just don't know who
is who.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Millions have already died in this war, and millions more
lives are now at stake. Trust is fraying between the
conflict's key players, as countries U turn and switch sides.
The passenger in the plane has just landed in the
midst of it. He knows this place, He's been here before.
(02:54):
He's sweating, but not just because of the heat. He's nervous,
really nervous. Tomorrow morning he has the most crucial meeting
of his life. For him, pretty much everything's riding on it.
Speaker 7 (03:10):
Could you imagine what kind of pressure during a war
and you are alone on the top of the power pyramid,
what kind of pressure you have?
Speaker 4 (03:20):
The man is his majesty, King Boris, the third of Bulgaria.
Look on the map and you'll see Bulgaria's a small
country in southeastern Europe, in the Balkans, squashed between Romania
to the north and Greece and Turkey to the south,
and at this moment in the conflict, Bulgaria finds itself
in a very tight spot. This meeting is crucial to
(03:43):
the direction of the war. The reception seems cordial enough,
but only a fool would take a man at his word.
Here this is the last place on earth the king
wants to be. That night, he sleeps in a concrete bunker.
It's airless, stifling. The king tosses and turns next morning,
(04:12):
the meeting takes place. It lasts eight hours, eight long
and very difficult hours, and it all takes place behind
closed doors with no witnesses. There are just two men
in that room, the Bulgarian King and actually, no, let's
(04:36):
not go into that room quite yet, because that meeting
was ugly. The king returns home to Bulgaria, but after
a day or so he starts to feel a bit unwell.
He's usually fit and sporty, but soon he's so sick
(04:56):
he has to take to his bed. He goes seriously downhill,
until after six days of agony as a continent, the
(05:17):
forty nine year old monarch is dead. The news reports
tell us he died suddenly of a heart attack. That
was the official line, and it's been the official line
ever since.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Does he may science?
Speaker 8 (05:36):
But hang on a minute.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
This is where my journalistic instincts kick in suddenly, since
when does a sudden death span six days? And here's
another thing that strikes me as odd. King Boris's skin
was covered with spots. Now, I'm no doctor, but that
does not sound like a heart attack to me. And
(06:00):
I'm not the only one. Plenty of people think the
official cause of death was a complete lie.
Speaker 9 (06:06):
The blotches do sound like a hypersensitive reaction to me
to something they do.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Maybe a poison poison.
Speaker 7 (06:13):
The king was poisoned.
Speaker 10 (06:14):
I think it's a poisoning.
Speaker 8 (06:17):
Poison, a cocktail of dog sins.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
I'm convinced that something was put into his soup.
Speaker 7 (06:24):
This blameless king has fallen victim to most vulgar murder.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
In the middle of a global war and with Bulgaria's
future hanging in the balance. The king is dead? Who
killed him? And why? From Blanchard House and exactly right, media,
(06:56):
this is the Butterfly King.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
I'm Becky Milligan.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Chapter one, The Mender of Broken Dishes. Let me tell
you a little bit about me. I'm Becky Milligan, and
I covered stories all over the world for the BBC
Walls in Afghanistan, arm scandals in Sierra Leone, and I've
uncovered a whole raft of abuse and misconduct in the
(08:01):
British Parliament. But I've never investigated a story quite like
this one before because regicide, the killing of a king,
that's a big brief to take on. But once my
curiosity is peaked, I just can't walk away because for years,
people across Bulgaria. People in the know have been saying
(08:24):
that someone silenced Boris, the Third of Bulgaria, the last
crowned King of Bulgaria, and I'm determined to find out
who that was. I start all my investigations by interviewing
every witness I can find. And although this story has
(08:44):
its roots in the nineteen forties, I've tracked down two
people who lived through it. They're in their eighties now,
but they're rather important leads in more ways than one,
because they're actually members of the royal family. King Boris's children,
his son and his daughter, and they've invited me and
(09:05):
my producer EJ to visit them at their home. It's
just outside Sofia, Bulgaria's capital. Good morning, are you okay
to take us to Rana Palace?
Speaker 11 (09:19):
You know here?
Speaker 9 (09:20):
It is on the Mapana Palace.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Imagine jumping into a cab in London telling the driver
to take you to Buckingham Palace, only to have him
turn around and ask you for the address. Well, that's
exactly what happens in Bulgaria.
Speaker 11 (09:37):
King Simeon his home.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
To be fair, the whole royal thing here is a
bit confusing these days, Bulgaria's a republic. It no longer
has a monarchy that was all scrapped under the Communists
who arrived at.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
The end of the war.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Except Bulgaria does still have a sort of king, and
that sort of king is Simeon. Simeon was forced into
exile after the war, but he never actually abdicated, so
technically he is still king, if only in name. But actually,
(10:18):
let's save some of the more complex constitutional details for later,
because if it's confusing for a Bulgarian, do you see
where it is? So this is it's like a big park.
I'm clearly getting nowhere here, so I call for back
(10:40):
up from the receptionist at our hotel.
Speaker 9 (10:49):
He'll drag a.
Speaker 8 (10:50):
Brilliant thank you so much, thank you for your health.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Right half an hour later.
Speaker 8 (10:57):
And can't quite see the panel at the moment, but
I think this is the part. It looks quite barren.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Let's just say this is not the Palace of Versailles.
Speaker 8 (11:08):
It's a bit like a scrap metal yard. In fact,
it looks a bit like a dumping brow in a way.
I hope this is the right place at the moment.
It doesn't feel like it.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Too, despite appearances. It is the right place. Rana Palace
was where King Boris lived too. It was his country pad.
Speaker 11 (11:30):
Yeah, the next one.
Speaker 8 (11:32):
So I think we go up here? This is more
like it's relief. Didn't fancy getting out where that dog
was looking at us like that. Still very desolately dilapidated, though,
Is that it really is? I think this is where
we are, Yes, I think so. I think I think
(11:53):
we've we're being.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Dumped in its heyday. Rana must have been a dyllic.
It's surrounded by mixed woodlands and long tree lined avenues.
Some of the trees were planted by Boris himself and
by Ferdinand, Boris's father. They weren't just weekend gardeners. They
(12:18):
were both serious botanists.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Shut the gate quickly.
Speaker 11 (12:29):
So there are signposts here, it says in English, as
well as Bulgarian pallace. So are we gonna set off
up here?
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Rana was really Boris's go to place. He was a
country by at heart, and he loved the great outdoors
to be in nature, peace and quiet, and.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
He liked mounting butterflies.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Yes, she said mounting butterflies. She's Tessa Dunlop, a historian
and an expert on both royal and Eastern European history.
You might find her a little blunt. She certainly likes
to tell.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
It how it is.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
They caught them, and he mounted them, and he spent
hours working out which kind of butterfly they was. I mean,
he was a geek.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Well, he certainly knew his insects. Back to front Entomology
was his great passion, and his knowledge was second to none.
He was well respected in the natural history world. Boris
was at his happiest pottering around his grounds with his
old floppy hat and butterfly nets. He was a gentle soul,
(13:38):
the kind of king who wouldn't hurt to fly. Well,
actually he probably would hurt to fly if it was
a rare one and he wanted it for his scrapbook.
But you can see where I'm coming from. He was inoffensive.
All that pomp and splendor, it just wasn't him.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
He found himself really pretty unexceptional. He got terribly anxious
about sort of standing up in Pult, especially early on.
He said, little do they know that I have to
go to the loo five times before I confront them.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
I think what she's trying to say is that King
Boris was not at all what you might expect in
a king.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
You know, he was not a man who was imbued
with huge amounts of confidence, And I expect part of
that was his physical appearance and his size. It helps
if you're a big man.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Why does history always demand handsome heroes. I'm starting to
feel rather sorry for Boris.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
He was small to look at, eminently unremarkable. You wouldn't
notice him in a room, diminutive, aggressive building, early on,
watery gray eyes, the long protruding Habsburg knows. I mean,
the only afrodisiac attached to Boris was the fact he
was a monarch. And that does some things for some women,
(14:50):
doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Well, I wouldn't know Tessa anyway. Back to Varana Palace.
Speaker 8 (14:56):
These lookers, though they might be the sort of more
modern quarters where Simeon lives, actually.
Speaker 9 (15:03):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 12 (15:03):
Oh, there's another guard dog. Let's go and find a
doorbell somewhere. Goodness knows where you find a doorbell on
a palace. Maybe it's up here.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I suppose when most of us think of a palace,
we'd think of something we see in the crown, or
down to an abbey, towering turrets, Gothic windows, colonnades. Well,
Rana's a little more down at heel. The architecture's charming,
a sort of hotch potch of styles, but it could
do with a lick of paint. Simeon's doing it up
(15:38):
bit by bit, but he has to do that from
his own pocket. As he's only a sort of king,
he can't really ask the Bulgarian taxpayers to foot the bill.
So while parts of it are lovely, the rest is,
let's say, shabby chic.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
I know.
Speaker 11 (15:58):
Early, I know what.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yes, that's the King's aid, Jarville meeting us, and he's
precisely how you'd imagine a king's aid, sharp suited, charming
and perfectly poised, even when the palace guard dog gets
a little frisky.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
I have a dog, so yes, but she's too lovely, lovely,
good dog.
Speaker 8 (16:23):
She is worth.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Sometimes Chica is too lovely, She's not your typical guard dog.
Meeting a monic is a nerve wrecking experience. Luckily, Jarville
tells us we don't have to curtsy to Simeon, but
there are certain royal protocols which we need to stick to,
(16:47):
such as not touching the ornaments and royal bric a
brac in the drawing room.
Speaker 8 (16:52):
But there are so.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Many fascinating bits and pieces it's really hard not to,
including a rather fine filigree box, which was a birthday
gift to Simeon from a fellow king or something, and
which I very nearly break.
Speaker 12 (17:07):
Yes, I love that sort of thing. That's really very.
Speaker 8 (17:10):
Good, difficult, Please don't break the palace.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Anyway, that's lovely. I'm sure he's insured.
Speaker 8 (17:23):
Are kings insured?
Speaker 4 (17:25):
His Majesty's drawing room is light and airy and is
everything you'd imagine in a stately home. The herringbone wooden
floor is scattered with plush persian rugs, The walls are
plastered with icons and oil portraits, and the elegant chairs
on which we're invited to sit are painted gold and
(17:45):
bricaded in dusky pink silks. And just like in most
people's houses, the mantlepiece is crowded with photos.
Speaker 8 (17:53):
This is someone I recognize.
Speaker 9 (17:55):
Of course.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Two years ago, the Pope visit Bulgaria and he wants
a private visit to the royal family.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Simeon's family is not exactly ordinary. He's descended from the
Saxe Coburg Gotha dynasty. That basically means he's connected to
pretty much every royal clan in Europe, including the Windsors.
King Charles is a kind of distant cousin. In fact,
back in the days before the war, King Boris even
(18:23):
used to take his holidays with the British Royals. Shooting
in Scotland.
Speaker 8 (18:29):
There's a huge.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Portrait of Boris hanging on the drawing room wall and
looking at it you get a strange sense of deja vu.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yeah, they do all look like each other. I mean
you can see quite a strong trace of our current
British royal family I think in Boris, and that strong
some would say aristocratic, others inbred profile that he has.
I won't name names, but take a look at him
and then well, yes, peru's the current royal landscape. Prince
William a little bit. I mean, poor Prince William. It's
(18:58):
not his fault. As Harry said, he does have aggressive
premity or bolding.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Well, it's true. There's definitely more William than Harry in Boris.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Anyway, moving on.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Yes, I think we probably should because it's time to
meet the king.
Speaker 13 (19:26):
To see you. Thank you so much for making the time.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
I'm Becky, this is Emma j and we're delighted that
we're able to talk to you and really appreciated. King
Simeon wears a dark suit and tie. He's got a
thin white mustache that's anchored by a chin strap beard
and okay, yes he's completely bald. He's one of those
people who seem taller than they really are. He might
(19:54):
be eighty six, but he still knows how to carry himself.
He's very charming. He's also very much an old school
sort of king.
Speaker 10 (20:02):
I'm not the type of person who communicates easily, and
I like to keep my feelings to myself.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
So if you're expecting him to get all confessional and
Prince Harry on you, you might be disappointed. But having
said that, once you get to know him, he's quite
the tease.
Speaker 10 (20:23):
Not to ram him.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
It's important to laugh where we can, because I'm afraid
this story is a dark one. For a child to
lose a parent is always desperately sad, and Simon was
just six years old when his father died so mysteriously,
a mystery which still haunts him.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
To this day.
Speaker 10 (20:47):
It's still we cannot really either blame anybody or point
our fingers at anybody, and yet we have this, I
would say, ghastly suspicion that something was wrong.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Now, remember that military plane which Boris had taken to
his secret meeting. Simeon got taken to see it after
it landed back in Bulgaria.
Speaker 10 (21:09):
We went to the airport to greet my father when
he came back from this meeting. We were fascinated. My
mother drove us to the airport to see this huge
plane that had landed there.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Little did Simeon know that his father had just flown
home to meet his death. It all seemed like harmless
fun to a little boy. Poor King Boris had a
very difficult relationship with his father. Ferdinand was fiery, and
(21:45):
Boris was frightened of him. Boris had lost his mother
as a very young boy, and that meant he lost
her gentle protection too. He felt he never quite measured
up to his father's exacting expectations. Ferdinand was certainly a
force to be reckoned with. Boris was determined not to
make the same mistakes with his own children, so he
(22:08):
was her hands on dad. Whenever he got a day off,
he'd head to the hills with the family.
Speaker 10 (22:15):
Oh on the hike. It was always fun because he
would teach us all sorts of things and btaneer or
on nature or on wildlife and so forth. So to
ask this was a great treat.
Speaker 8 (22:27):
I will say.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Now, I'm not just here to speak to Simeon, because
behind every great king is a bossy big sister.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
So you don't know. How do I get in touch
with you?
Speaker 13 (22:41):
In half an hour?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Scom Her Royal Highness Maria Louisa is four years senior
to Simeon. She's a plain speaking kind of princess.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
That was a lot of bs.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Excuse me if Simeon's wary about speaking his mind, Maria
Louisa gives it to you straight, no matter who you are.
Just before the war, King Boris invited British King Edward
the Eighth to the palace. He's the king who abdicated
so he could marry American divorcee Wallace Simpson. Boris proudly
(23:16):
presented his little daughter to Edward, but Maria Louisa refused
to perform.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
I was I think four or what? And I got
bored and I said, now I have to go and play.
And King Edwin an.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
In her black trousers and trainers. Her raw Highness is
more casual than her brother, but still stylish. She broke
her leg last year, so she's walking with a stick.
It's a glittery burgundy red one, and it matches her
polar neck sweater. Occasionally she flashes her cane a look
of contempt. You can see she hates being dependent. She's
(23:55):
as sharp as attack, basically the kind of ninety year
old we all have hoped to be. Maria Louisa was
exceptionally close to her father, King Boris. In the next room,
there's a tear jerkingly beautiful black and white photo of
them together. She's wearing a string of pearls and she's
(24:15):
drawing or coloring something while Boris looks on dotingly. In
the photo, she's about eight, maybe nine years old. She's
concentrating hard, but her free arm is sloped around her
father's neck, just keeping him with her. She was ten
when he died.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
He was always there for us, and it was always
at feet when he came and told us stories. And
he would take us sometimes for a little walk in
the forest and tell us stories about gnomes that lived
under mushrooms and came out at night, and you know,
wonderful children's stories that we cherished enormously.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
When Maria, Louisa and Simeon talk about King Boris, they
both often look away or stare at the floor for
a second or two while they composed themselves.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Ah, it's it's very difficult to sort of empty one soul.
A very loving father were time for his children, definitely
for us. He was just loving Papa.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
And there wasn't even a proper goodbye. He disappeared so suddenly, and.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
The Monday morning he came into a room where Sian
and I were playing, and it just said I'm going
to Sofia for work, you know, kissed us and said
I'll see you tonight, and we never saw him again.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
They were such a close knit family, but someone out
there clearly didn't care for King Boris at all. Once
on his deathbed, the King didn't just slip peacefully away.
As we know, his so called cardiac arrest spanned six
long days and nights. He fought to stay alive that summer.
(25:58):
He really battled against his failing heart.
Speaker 9 (26:02):
Crushing chest pain as if there's a metal band around
your chest, feelings of sweatiness and nausea, the feeling of
impending doom.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
That's Dr Stewart Hamilton. More from him later, but he's
bang on the money with the prediction of doom. Simeon
seen the medical reports from his father's doctors.
Speaker 10 (26:27):
He was feeling sick. Then his liver eventually didn't function,
and there was also pneumonia, and he lasted for so
long from Monday to Saturday, he lost his conscience.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
The king wasn't short of doctors in that sick room.
The palace was crawling with them. But it was nineteen
forty three. What did they have to offer Paul Boris
accept a bit of oxygen and sedation. Well, here's one
thing they didn't offer him, the comfort of his wife.
The queen was on holiday in the mountains with the
royal children. She wasn't even told her husband was ill
(27:09):
until it was pretty much over. Now that seems deeply odd,
and not just to me.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
My mother was. I should was convinced he was done
in by somebody.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
And here's another thing that makes me suspicious. Once the
king was bedbound, no one was allowed to leave the palace.
Speaker 8 (27:31):
They were literally locked.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
In for the first few days. Even Boris's government was
kept in the dark. Whatever happened in that sickroom, stayed
in that sickroom.
Speaker 10 (27:41):
Finally, the doctors who came in all that kept everything
very i'd say confidential or secret, and that was also
one of the reasons that people thought there was foul playing.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
In the final stage of his illness, King Boris developed
a high fever. When the doctors couldn't control his temperature,
he began convulsing, and on the twenty eighth of August
it was all over. The King's casket was carried to
(28:33):
its final resting place by train drivers. His enthusiasm for
engines and locomotives was legendary. The railway workers even made
him an honorary member of their guild. He was a
skilled engineer. He once joked that if everything's went badly
for him and he lost his throne, he'd just head
off to America and get a job as a mechanic.
Speaker 10 (28:54):
He remember once took us along a railroad because she
was very fond of trains.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
He was desperate to pass on his passion to his children,
so he took little Simeon into a tunnel. A train
appeared suddenly and roared past them in the dark.
Speaker 10 (29:16):
The conductor reported the next station, there were some lunatics
who had been walking in the track just when the
train came by, and so forth, and of course it
was great fun after when they realized that it was
my father who had induced us to take this walk.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Maria Louisa remembers other times when her father's enthusiasm almost
got the better of him.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
We would go horseby riding, and not too far from
here was a railroad crossing, and we would stop because
the barriers were down, the trains were coming, and since
my father loved driving trains, we were standing with the
horses there and the train would pass, and if the
machine is recognized my father, of course it would blow
(30:06):
the whistle and that was catastrophic for the horses and
for US.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Historian Tessa Dunlop, you know the hours he spent pulling
the levers of locomotives, so much so that the engine
drivers of the Orient Express were told watch out for
Boris because he literally will steal into your engine and
drive off with it. That was the level of his obsession.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Boris was a royal who had the common touch. He
fitted in everywhere. Think of the late Queen Elizabeth the
iond the second longest reigning monarch in history, Yet somehow
most Brits thought of her as their own granny. Think
of Princess Diana, who instinctively knew how to charm a crowd.
Unlike his father Ferdinand, Boris was popular, and whatever you
(30:59):
think about training, being a committed railway enthusiast is hardly
a motive for murder. And this is where some red
flags are popping up for me, because I feel like
I'm getting a somewhat filtered version of the truth here.
So far, we've only really heard from Boris's children, and
I mean, is anyone objective about their own parents? Affectionate
(31:27):
stories about Boris are threaded through Bulgarian folklore. There are
countless tales of the king picking up hitchhikers in his
car incognito. He'd drive them around for miles, chatting away.
Simeon told me about one time when Boris pulled his
bet you can't guess who I am prank on a
hapless young soldier.
Speaker 10 (31:47):
My father thought of those hilarious, which it really was?
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Would he roar with laughter?
Speaker 10 (31:52):
Well, yes, and I suppose a soldier almost fainted. Not
because but she says it's the king it's the king.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
And some of the legends sound like they're straight out
of a fairy tale, like when King Boris was caught
in a rainstorm when he was out butterfly hunting in
the mountains. Apparently, he'd often pitch up at a villager's
door in the hope of a hot bowl of broth
and some shelter. Once home, he'd always thank the villager
(32:22):
for their hospitality by sending on parcels and gifts.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Do we believe that? Do we actually believe that?
Speaker 4 (32:28):
I don't think so well, Tessa. From what I've read,
at least some of these accounts really are true. There's
evidence to back them all up. But like Tessa, the
skeptical journalist in me is starting to smell a rat
because my research shows me that we're getting a very
sanitized version of history here. This is not Disney. It's
(32:51):
a real life story rooted in war, and wars always
a dirty business, and if I dig around a bit
in Boris's past, it's not hard to unearth a less
polished reality.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Without wishing to denigrate Bulgaria in any way.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
I get the feeling she's about to denigrate Bulgaria in
some way.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
It was a nation of peasants, told you, I mean,
we love our peasants. Now it's quite diregard to be
a peasant, isn't it, But back then less so. It's
kind of weirdly lonely for Boris. He was known as
the lonely King, actually, because who'd you hang out with
if your new country doesn't have any proper posh landowners.
There was not much between Boris and the peasants. So
when we say, oh, Boris really got on with the peasants,
(33:32):
I'm like, yeah, who else did he have to play with?
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Really, Boris's bloodline was undeniably blue, but it wasn't so
undeniably Bulgarian. Let me explain with a whistle stop tour
of the country's history. Established in the seventh century, Bulgaria
is one of the oldest countries in Europe, but at
the end of the fourteenth century it fell into the
(33:55):
hands of the Turks of the Ottoman Empire, and that's
where it stayed in eighteen seventy eight until Russia went
to war with Turkey and liberated Bulgaria.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Again.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Delighted with their newfound independence, the Bulgarians set about reinstating
the monarchy The problem was it had been so long
since they'd had a king they couldn't trace back the bloodline.
They hadn't got a clue who their real royals were.
The solution simple, import a new royal family.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Where's the obvious place to import a royal from Germany?
It's got an abundance of slightly pointless. The little dukes
and princes of the man are born without quite enough
to do so. Ideally, you want someone who's been gifted
to you with international approval.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Their first attempt at importing a royal was German Prince
Alexander Battenberg, but he proved so unpopular that they were
soon back to the rowing board. The next bit sounds surreal,
but I promise you it's true. The Bulgarians went shopping
for a king. Three royal headhunters trailed around all the
(35:15):
royal courts of Europe, but to no avail. They just
couldn't find a suitable or willing candidate. Downcast, they decided
to cheer themselves up with a trip to the opera
in Vienna, and sitting right under their noses in the
royal box was the perfect man for the job. They
(35:36):
intercepted him at intermission sh it's intermission. Anyway, he was
a suave German prince by the name of Ferdinand. He
had away with the ladies and with the men. Actually
he lived for pleasure.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Yes, he did swing both ways. I think all bisexual
and of course, if you're a king you can really
do what the hell you like. Is a grand signeur
to the point of decadence. He loved fine clothes, he
loved fine wine. He liked jewels. He wore many jewels
on his fingers. He was not the most quote comfortable
of husbands. No, I shouldn't think he was if he
was boning the local No, I mean, I can't say that.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
On the radio, of course, he was known as Foxy Ferdinand,
and not in a good way. His cousin, the British
Queen Victoria, hated him. She described him as eccentric, effeminate
and totally unfit. Other relators wrote him off as weird
and ridiculous. But he got the job anyway. There weren't
really any other applicants. Bulgaria's love affair with Foxy didn't
(36:41):
last long. He got a reputation for being sly and untrustworthy,
and crucially, during the first World War, he joined the
wrong side, the losing side. His alliance with Germany cost
the lives of one hundred thousand Bulgarian soldiers, and in
the peace treaty that ended the war, Bulgaria was severely punished.
(37:04):
The country lost huge swathes of territory, including the strategically
important Thrace, a region bordering Greece and the AEGNC and Macedonia,
which was given to Yugoslavia. Do remember the names Thrace
and Macedonia, as they're going to be quite important. A
little further on in our story, Ferdinand had cost his
(37:27):
country dearly. He was forced to abdicate and was exiled,
and his throne, still warm, was handed to his son,
twenty four year old Boris. Was Boris's murder a simple
case of payback for the sins of the father. Ferdinand
might have made some bad choices, but they weren't Boris's choices.
(37:48):
In fact, the two could not have been more different.
While Ferdinand loved a good row king, Boris hated conflict
of any kind, especially war. He jokingly nicknamed himself the
mender of broken dishes. That's perhaps a tiny bit lost
in translation, but you get the sense. Boris was a diplomat,
(38:10):
the kind of king who picked up the pieces and
glued them back together, not the kind of king who
threw tantrums and smashed things. And he never aspired to be.
Speaker 8 (38:21):
On the throne.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
But unfortunately that's precisely where he found himself as the
world went to war again in nineteen thirty nine, and
it was in the darkest part of the middle of
that war that Boris died, a brutal and baffling death.
Why murder a peace lover? It was wartime, his daughter
(38:46):
Maria Louisa.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
There were many, many people who would have been happy
to get rid.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Of him, as I suspected. The king had several known enemies,
but as far as the identity of his assassin goes,
the clues a few and far between. Boris's son Simeon,
has tried to crack this case himself in the past,
but his slewing has proved fruitless.
Speaker 10 (39:09):
It's amazing. I mean, so many years, so many archives, investigations,
questions or what have you, and there still hasn't been
any proof. And I mus siven, I mean as a sun.
It's disturbing and.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
There's no nice way to put this. Time's running out
for Simeon and Maria Louisa to find answers to the
question that haunts them.
Speaker 5 (39:38):
Never forget it still, you know, you go to a
funeral and it all comes back.
Speaker 10 (39:44):
Not that one looks for the revenge or anything like it,
but simply to know.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
And I want to know too, So I'm going to
pick up this case where Simeon left off. Time to
recap and to fill you in on one of Boris's
dirty little secrets. Remember its wartime, and in war, difficult
choices have.
Speaker 8 (40:10):
To be made.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
We know Boris hated bloodshed, so at the start of
the war, Bulgaria opted for neutrality. But Bulgaria has an
unfortunate geographical position. Rumania, on its northern border, had joined
sides with Hitler. That meant very quickly there were German
troops breathing right down Bulgaria's neck. Meanwhile, on Bulgaria's southern border,
(40:38):
the Italian army invaded Greece. They needed back up, and
Hitler was itching to help. Little Bulgaria was sandwiched between
hostile players. She found herself backed into a corner. And
when you're backed into a corner, you have to pick
a side and in nineteen forty one, King Boris did
(41:00):
pick a side.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
We know that Boris was a political survivor and then
he died. But he was, and he'd survived for a
very long time. Now what do you do if you're
a survivor, You work out which way the wind's blowing
and you travel with it.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
So let's go back to that top secret bunker once again,
the one where Boris is about to walk into the
most important meeting of his life. It's now August nineteen
forty three. In the stifling bunker, Boris has been trying
to get his head straight, but he's played all his
(41:36):
cards and he knows it.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
This man is eminently reasonable relative to what's going on
around him, and he's also got a very good political brain.
For Bulgaria, they need to survive.
Speaker 7 (41:49):
That's the game.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
But the game's up. Boris is out of time. It's
time to meet Adolf Hitler. Yes, Boris, the so called
Mender of Broken Dishes, is an ally of the most
(42:11):
evil man in history. He has been for eighteen months
and this military hideway it's the Wolf's Layer, the secret
Nazi headquarters in what is now Poland, And just like Germany,
King Boris, the third of Bulgaria, has declared war on
Britain and America.
Speaker 9 (42:34):
Now.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
So far, in the time they've been allies with Germany,
Bulgaria's involvement has been pretty passive. While thousands of men
across Europe are losing their lives on the battlefields, not
a single Bulgarian soldier has been involved in active combat,
and as yet not a single Bulgarian Jew has been deported.
(42:57):
But now Hitler wants that to change. To up the ante,
he's demanding, Boris's troops must help the Germans on the
front line, and he's determined to send each one of
Bulgaria's fifty thousand Jews to the gas chambers. This is
(43:17):
not what King Boris signed up for, and this is
why he's here. He's about to disobey Hitler's orders to
tell him he won't do as Hitler commands. You don't
need to know much about history to know what happens
to people who anger Hitler. Less than two weeks after
leaving the Wolf's Layer, King Boris will be dead.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Given the hand he was served, Boris did bloody well
to squeeze almost half a century out of this planet.
Speaker 4 (43:49):
So was it Hitler, who personally ordered his murder. He
had a motive, he had the opportunity. But I gave
my word that I would tell this story of objectively,
and that means telling you all the facts I know,
even those which don't quite fit the narrative. And there's
something here that doesn't quite square with me. Because things
(44:11):
weren't shaping up well for Hitler by the summer of
nineteen forty three, with heavy losses on the Eastern Front
and Italy on the verge of surrender, Hitler needed all
the friends he could get. Would he really kill one
of his only allies? Or did his need for revenge
overcome his reason? Eighty years on from Boris's death, I'm
(44:33):
determined to get to the truth.
Speaker 10 (44:36):
Who would want to cover up after so many.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
Years coming up this season in the Butterfly.
Speaker 10 (44:48):
Came everybody started suspecting everybody else.
Speaker 7 (44:51):
A Russian special services, Starting's special services killed King Boris.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
I mean it would make sense to be the Germans, right,
because it would be safer for the Germans if he
was out of the picture.
Speaker 8 (45:07):
Could have paint the Bulgariats an inside job.
Speaker 7 (45:11):
It was a typical Balkan death.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
What do you mean by a typical broken death.
Speaker 7 (45:19):
I mean in the Bocles there were more political murders
than in the rest of Europe for this period.
Speaker 6 (45:25):
This does not have the whole box of British or
American intelligence, but these sort of things have happened in
the past.
Speaker 4 (45:35):
It's a long list of suspects. There's just one other
tricky problem I need to share with you. For Simeon
and Maria Louisa King Boris was just dear, sweet Papa,
but others, well they saw him very differently.
Speaker 8 (45:53):
I really don't care how he died.
Speaker 9 (45:57):
For me, He's a great.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
The Butterfly King is a production of Blanchard House and
Exactly Right Media, hosted by me Becky Milligan. It's written
and produced by Emma Jane Kirby. Original music is by
Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis nank Manell and Toby Mattamong. Sound
(46:41):
design and engineering by Toby Mattamong and Daniel Lloyd Evans.
Artwork by Vanessa Lilac. The managing producer is a Mika
Schortino Nolan. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye.
The executive producer and the head of Content at Blanchard
House is Lawrence Grizzell for Exactly Right Media. The executive
(47:06):
producers are Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hardstark, and Danielle Kramer, with
consulting producer Kyle Ryan. The Butterfly King is inspired by
the book Hitler and the King by John Hall Spencer
Host
Natalia Antelava
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