March 21, 2024 • 46 mins
It’s 1943 during a crucial turning point in the Second World War. Caught in the crossfire, King Boris III of Bulgaria has a make-or-break meeting with a key ally. Boris is a reluctant politician and a family man, sucked into the bloodiest conflict in history. Someone resents his influence and wants him out of the way for good. Could Boris’s fate be linked to the company he keeps?
The Butterfly King is a production of Blanchard House and Exactly Right Media.
From Blanchard House
Host: Becky Milligan
Writer and Producer: Emma Jane Kirby
Original Music: Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nanke-Mannell and Toby Matimong
Sound Design and Engineering: Toby Matimong and Daniel Lloyd-Evans
Managing Producer: Amica Sciortino Nowlan
Creative Director: Rosie Pye
Executive Producer and Head of Content: Laurence Grissell
From Exactly Right
Consulting Producer: Kyle Ryan
Artwork: Vanessa Lilak
Executive Producers: Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark and Danielle Kramer
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Europe.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
August nineteen forty three. Location classified. Across the globe, The
Second World War, the deadliest war in history, is raging.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
This summer is.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
A crucial turning point in the Southwest Pacific. The US
has just overcome the Japanese on the Eastern Front. 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 wavering. Could we possibly cut the
(00:42):
typewriter effects?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Please?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
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 now airstrip, a military plane
in the middle of dense woodland. It's baking hot, the
(01:08):
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 mines. I'm Becky Milligan and I reported
and broke stories for the BBC for almost thirty years.
(01:31):
You can trust me to report the facts, the truth.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
It's what I do.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
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 4 (01:44):
War is a terrible thing. You never know who your
enemy or your friend is. You just don't know who
is who.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
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.
(02:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
For him. Pretty much everything's riding on it.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
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 2 (02:40):
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
(03:02):
the direction of the wall. 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
(03:31):
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
(03:55):
not go into that room quite yet, because that meeting 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 he
(04:15):
has to take to his bed. He goes seriously downhill,
until after six days of agonyask such as a continent.
(04:36):
The 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 3 (04:51):
Does he may science?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
But hang on a minute. 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
(05:17):
heart attack to me. And I'm not the only one.
Plenty of people think the official cause of death was
a complete lie.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
The blotches do sound like a hypersensitive reaction to me
to something they do.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Maybe a poison poison.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
The king was poisoned.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
I think it's a poisoning.
Speaker 7 (05:36):
Poison, the cocktail of doxins.
Speaker 8 (05:39):
I'm convinced that something was put into his soup.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
This blameless king has fallen victim to moss vulgar murder.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
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,
(06:15):
this is the Butterfly King. I'm Becky Milligan, Chapter one,
(06:59):
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 British Parliament. But
(07:23):
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 that someone silenced Boris,
(07:46):
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 its roots in the nineteen forties,
(08:06):
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. They're King Boris's children, his son and his daughter,
and they've invited me and my producer EJ to visit
(08:26):
them at their home. It's just outside Sofia, Bulgaria's capital.
Good Morning, are you okay to take us to Vrana Palace?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Do you know here? It is on the map?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Brana Palace.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
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 1 (08:56):
King Simeon his home.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
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 the end of the war. Except Bulgaria
does still have a sort of king, and that sort
of king is Simeon. Simeon was forced into exile after
(09:26):
the war, but he never actually abdicated, so technically he
is still king, if only in name. But actually, let's
save some of the more complex constitutional details for later,
because if it's confusing for a Bulgarian, do you see
(09:50):
where it is?
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So this is it's like a big part.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I'm clearly getting nowhere here, so I call for back
up from the receptionist at our hotel.
Speaker 6 (10:09):
He'll brilliant.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Thank you so much, Thank you for your health.
Speaker 9 (10:13):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Half an hour later and I.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
Can't quite see the palace at the moment, but I
think this is the park and it was quite barren.
Let's just say this is not the Palace of Versailles.
It was a bit like a scrap metal yard. In fact,
it looks a bit like a dump paper in a way.
I think this is the right place at the moment,
it doesn't feel like it true.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
But despite appearances, it is the right place. Rana Palace
was where King Boris lived too. It was his country pad.
Speaker 9 (10:49):
Yeah, the next one.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So I think we go up here.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
This is more like it's a relief. Didn't fancy getting
out where that dog was looking still very desolate and dilapidated.
Speaker 9 (11:05):
It really is.
Speaker 7 (11:07):
I think this is where we are, yes, I think so.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I think I think we're we're being 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.
(11:35):
They weren't just weekend gardeners. They were both serious botanists.
Speaker 9 (11:42):
Shut the gate quickly, so there are signposts here, it
says in English, as well as Bulgarian palace. So are
we're going to set off up here?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Rana was really Boris's go to place. He was a
country boy at heart, and he loved the great outdoors,
to be in nature, peace and quiet.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
And he liked mounting butterflies.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
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 it how it is.
Speaker 10 (12:31):
They caught them, and he mounted them, and he spent
hours working out which kind of butterfly they was.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I mean he was a geek.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
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,
(12:58):
the kind of king who wouldn't hurt a fly. Well, actually,
he probably would her 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 10 (13:13):
He found himself really pretty unexceptional. He got terribly anxious
about sort of standing up in parliament, especially early on.
He said, little do they know that I have to
go to the loo five times before I confront them.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I think what she's trying to say is that King
Boris was not at all what you might expect in
a king.
Speaker 10 (13:32):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
It helps if you're a big man.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Why does history always demand handsome heroes. I'm starting to
feel rather sorry for Boris.
Speaker 10 (13:49):
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 Afrodiziac attached to Boris was the fact he
was a monarch. And that does some things for some women,
(14:10):
doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Well, I wouldn't know, Tessa. Anyway, back to Varana Palace.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
These look as though they might be the sort of
more modern quarters where Simeon lives.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Actually, do you know what I mean? Oh, there's another
guard dog.
Speaker 7 (14:25):
Let's go and find a doorbell somewhere.
Speaker 9 (14:29):
Goodness knows where you find.
Speaker 7 (14:30):
A doorbell on a palace.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Maybe it's up here.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I suppose when most of us think of a palace,
we'd think of something we see in the Crown or
Downton Abbey, towering turrets, Gothic windows, colonnades. Well, Vrana's a
little more down at heel. The architecture's charming, a sort
of hot potch of styles, but it could do with
a lick of paint. Simeon's doing it up bit by bit,
(14:58):
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 1 (15:17):
We're early, I know, but.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
That's the King's aid Yarville 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, I have a dog.
Speaker 10 (15:37):
So yes, but she's too lovely, too lovely, good dog.
Speaker 9 (15:42):
She is worth.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Sometimes not.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Jeka is too lovely, She's not your typical guard dog.
Meeting a monic is a nerve wracking experience. Luckily, Java
tells us we don't have to curtsey to Simeon, but
there are certain royal protocols which we need to stick to,
such as not touching the ornaments and royal.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Bric a brac in the drawing room. But there are so.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
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 1 (16:26):
Yes, I love that sort of thing. That's really very good.
Speaker 8 (16:35):
Please don't break the palace.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
That's lovely. I'm sure he's insured. Are kings insured?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
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
(17:04):
bricaded in dusky pink silks, and just like in most
people's houses, the mantlepiece is crowded with photos.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
This is someone I recognize.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Of course, two years ago the Pope visit Bulgaria and
he wants a private visit to the royal family.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
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
(17:42):
used to take his holidays with the British Royals shooting
in Scotland. There's a huge portrait of Boris hanging on
the drawing room wall and looking at it you get
a strange sense of deja vu.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, they do all look like each other.
Speaker 10 (17:58):
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.
Do you think Prince William a little bit? I mean,
poor Prince William.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
It's not his fault.
Speaker 10 (18:18):
As Harry said, he does have aggressive premiti or building.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Well, it's true. There's definitely more William than Harry.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
In Boris anyway, movingly.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
On, yes, I think we probably should because it's time
to meet the King.
Speaker 6 (18:45):
I want to see you.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Thank you so much for making the time.
Speaker 9 (18:50):
I'm Becky, missus, Emma j and we're.
Speaker 7 (18:54):
Delighted that we're able to talk to you and really appreciated.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
King's and 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 be eighty six, but he still knows how to
carry himself. He's very charming. He's also very much an
(19:19):
old school sort of king.
Speaker 11 (19:21):
I'm not the type of person who communicates easily, and
I like to keep my feelings to myself.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So if you're expecting him to get all confessional and
Prince Harry on you, you might be disappointed.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
But having said that, once you get to know him.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
He's quite the tease. 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 sick years old when his father
(20:01):
died so mysteriously, a mystery which still haunts him.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
To this day.
Speaker 11 (20:07):
It 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 2 (20:18):
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 11 (20:28):
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 2 (20:43):
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, porking. Boris had a very
differ court relationship with his father. Ferdinand was fiery and
(21:04):
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
(21:27):
was a hands on dad. Whenever he got a day off,
he'd head to the hills with the family.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Oh, on the hike.
Speaker 11 (21:35):
It was always fun because he would teach us all
sorts of things and botaneer or on nature or on
wildlife and so forth. So to ask, this was a
great treat. I will say.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Now, I'm not just here to speak to Simeon, because
behind every great king is a bossy big sister.
Speaker 8 (21:57):
So you don't know. How do I get in touch
with you?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
In half an hour?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Her Royal Highness Maria Louisa is four years senior to Simeon.
She's a plain speaking kind of princess.
Speaker 8 (22:12):
That was a lot of bs.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
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
(22:35):
presented his little daughter to Edward, but Maria Louisa refused
to perform.
Speaker 8 (22:41):
I was I think four or what? And I got
bored and I said, now I have to go and play.
And King Edward an.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
In her black trousers and trainers. Her Royal Highness is
more casual than her brother, but still stylish. She broke
her leg la, 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 as sharp
(23:14):
as a tack, basically the kind of ninety year old
we all hope to be. Maria Luisa 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 drawing or
(23:35):
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 8 (23:52):
He was always there for us, and it was always
feet when he came and told us stories. And he
would take a 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 2 (24:13):
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 8 (24:24):
Ah, it's very difficult to sort of empty one soul.
A very loving father who had time for his children,
definitely for us. He was just loving papa.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And there wasn't even a proper goodbye. He disappeared so suddenly.
Speaker 8 (24:42):
And the Monday morning he came into a room where
Simeona and I were playing, and he 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 2 (24:54):
They were such a close knit family, but someone out
there clearly didn't care for King bors Mars at all.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Once.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
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.
He really battled against his failing heart.
Speaker 6 (25:21):
Crushing chest pain as if there's a metal band around
your chest, feelings of sweatiness and nausea, the feeling of
impending doom.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
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 11 (25:46):
He was feeling sick. Then his liver eventually didn't function,
and there was also in pneumonia, and he lasted for
so long from Monday to Saturday, he lost his conscience.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
The King wasn't short of doctors in that sickroom. The
palace was crawling with them. But it was nineteen forty three.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
What did they have to.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Offer Paul Boris except 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 until it was pretty much over. Now that
seems deeply odd, and not just to me.
Speaker 8 (26:35):
My mother was I should have convinced he was done
in by somebody.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
And here's another thing that makes me suspicious. Once the
king was bedbound, no one was allowed to leave the palace.
They were literally locked in for the first few days.
Even Boris's government was kept in the dark. Whatever happened
in that sickroom stayed in.
Speaker 11 (26:59):
That sick room. 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 play.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
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
(27:52):
its final resting place by train drivers. His enthusiasm for
engines and locomotives was legendary. The railway worker has 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 just
head off to America and gets a job as a mechanic.
Speaker 11 (28:13):
He remember once took us along a railroad because he
was very fond of trains.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
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 11 (28:35):
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 it when they realized that it
was my father who had induced us to take this walk.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Maria Louisa remembers other times when HER's enthusiasm almost got
the better of him.
Speaker 8 (29:04):
We would go horse by 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
our horses there and the train would pass, and if
the machine is recognized my father, of course it would
(29:25):
blow the whistle, and that was catastrophic for the horses
and for us.
Speaker 10 (29:36):
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 2 (29:54):
Boris was a royal who had the common touch. He
fitted in everywhere. Think of the Lake Queen Elizabeth, 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
(30:14):
father Ferdinand, Boris was popular, and whatever you think about
train balls, 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,
(30:38):
is anyone objective about their own parents? Affectionate 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
(31:00):
me about one time when Boris pulled his bet you
can't guess who I am prank on a hapless young soldier.
Speaker 11 (31:07):
My father thought of those hilarios, which it really was,
would he roar with laughter? Well, yes, and I suppose
a soldier almost fainted, not because she then said it's
the king. It's the king.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
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
(31:41):
for their hospitality by sending on parcels and gifts.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Do we believe that? Do we actually believe that? I
don't think so well, Tessa.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
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 a real life story rooted in war,
(32:13):
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 10 (32:23):
Without wishing to denigrate Bulgaria in any way.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I get the feeling she's about to denigrate Bulgaria in
some way.
Speaker 10 (32:30):
It was a nation of peasants, told you, I mean,
we love our peasants.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Now it's quite diregarded to be a peasant, isn't.
Speaker 10 (32:35):
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, I'm like, yeah,
who else did he have to play with?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Really, Boris's bloodline was undeniably blue, but it wasn't so
undeniably bulgar 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
(33:15):
hands of the Turks of the Ottoman Empire, and that's
where it stayed until eighteen seventy eight, until Russia went
to war with Turkey and liberated Bulgaria.
Speaker 11 (33:25):
Again.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
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 10 (33:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
The man are born without quite enough to do so.
Speaker 10 (34:04):
Ideally, you want someone who's been gifted to you with
international approval.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Their first attempt at importing a royal was German Prince
Alexander Battenberg, but he proved so unpopular that they were
soon back to the drawing 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
(34:34):
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
(34:56):
intercepted him at intermission. Sh it's int 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 (35:12):
Yes, he did swing both ways.
Speaker 10 (35:14):
I think all bisexual and of course, if you're a
king you can really do what the hell you like.
He is a grand signior to the point of decadence.
He loved fine clothes, he loved fine wine.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
He liked jewels.
Speaker 10 (35:24):
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 3 (35:33):
On the radio.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
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 relatives wrote him off as weird and ridiculous, but
he got the job anyway. There weren't really any other applicants.
(35:57):
Bulgaria's love affair with Foxy didn't 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
(36:19):
that ended the war, Bulgaria was severely punished. 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,
(36:39):
as they're going to be quite important. A little further
on in our story, Ferdinand had cost his 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
(37:00):
for the sins of the father. Ferdinand might have made
some bad choices, but they weren't Boris's choices. 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.
(37:23):
That's perhaps a tiny bit lost in translation, but you
get the sense. Boris was a diplomat, 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 on the throne. But unfortunately,
(37:44):
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 Maria Louisa.
Speaker 8 (38:07):
There were many many people who would have been happy
to get rid of him.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
As I suspected.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
The king had several known enemies, but as far as
the identity of his assassin goes, the clues are few
and far between. Boris's son, Simeon has tried to crack
this case himself in the past, but his sleuthing has
proved fruitless.
Speaker 11 (38:28):
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 must say, I mean, as a son,
it's disturbing.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
And 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 8 (38:57):
Never forget it. Still you go to a funeral and
it all comes back.
Speaker 11 (39:03):
Not that one looks for the revenge or anything like it,
but simply to know.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
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 to be made. We know Boris hated bloodshed,
(39:33):
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,
(39:55):
on Bulgaria's southern border, 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,
(40:18):
King Boris did pick a side.
Speaker 10 (40:22):
We know that Boris was a political survivor and till
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 2 (40:34):
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
(40:55):
cards and he knows it.
Speaker 10 (40:57):
This man is eminently reasonable relative to what's going on
around him, and he's also got a very good political brain.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
For Bulgaria, they need to survive that's the game.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
But the game's up. Boris is out of time. It's
time to meet.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Adolph Hitler.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yes, Boris, the so called Mender of Broken Dishes, is
an ally of the most evil man in history. He
has been for eighteen months. And this military hideaway, it's
the Wolf's Layer, the secret Nazi headquarters in what is
now Poland, And just like Germany, King Boris the Third
(41:46):
of Bulgaria has declared war on Britain and America.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Now.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
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.
(42:16):
But now Hitler wants that to change. He wants 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 not what King Boris signed up for, and
(42:39):
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 10 (43:02):
Given the hand he was served, Boris did bloody well
to squeeze almost half a century out of this planet.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
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 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 weren't
(43:31):
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 determined
(43:54):
to get to the truth.
Speaker 11 (43:55):
Who would want to cover up after so many.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Years coming up this season.
Speaker 11 (44:06):
In the Butterfly came, everybody started suspecting everybody else. Russian
special services Starting's special services killed King Boards.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
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 3 (44:26):
Could has paint a book.
Speaker 7 (44:27):
Carriats an inside job.
Speaker 5 (44:31):
It was a typical Balkan death.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
What do you mean by a typical Boken death?
Speaker 5 (44:38):
I mean in the bottle there were more political murders
than in the rest of Europe for this period.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
This does not have the whole box of British show
American intelligence, but these sort of things have happened in
the past.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
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 6 (45:12):
I really don't care how he died.
Speaker 7 (45:16):
For me, He's a creaming.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
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 Nankmnell and Toby Matthimol. Sound design
(46:01):
and engineering by Toby Mattamong and Daniel Lloyd Evans. Artwork
by Vanessa Lilac. The managing producer is Amka Schortino Nola.
The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The
executive producer and head of Content at Blanchard House is
(46:21):
Lawrence Grizzell. For Exactly Right Media, the executive producers are
Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hardstark and Daniel Kramer, with consulting producer
Kyle Ryan. The Butterfly King is inspired by the book
Hitler and the King by John hal Spencer.
Europe.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
August nineteen forty three. Location classified. Across the globe, The
Second World War, the deadliest war in history, is raging.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
This summer is.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
A crucial turning point in the Southwest Pacific. The US
has just overcome the Japanese on the Eastern Front. 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 wavering. Could we possibly cut the
(00:42):
typewriter effects?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Please?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
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 now airstrip, a military plane
in the middle of dense woodland. It's baking hot, the
(01:08):
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 mines. I'm Becky Milligan and I reported
and broke stories for the BBC for almost thirty years.
(01:31):
You can trust me to report the facts, the truth.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
It's what I do.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
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 4 (01:44):
War is a terrible thing. You never know who your
enemy or your friend is. You just don't know who
is who.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
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.
(02:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
For him. Pretty much everything's riding on it.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
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 2 (02:40):
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
(03:02):
the direction of the wall. 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
(03:31):
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
(03:55):
not go into that room quite yet, because that meeting 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 he
(04:15):
has to take to his bed. He goes seriously downhill,
until after six days of agonyask such as a continent.
(04:36):
The 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 3 (04:51):
Does he may science?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
But hang on a minute. 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
(05:17):
heart attack to me. And I'm not the only one.
Plenty of people think the official cause of death was
a complete lie.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
The blotches do sound like a hypersensitive reaction to me
to something they do.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Maybe a poison poison.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
The king was poisoned.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
I think it's a poisoning.
Speaker 7 (05:36):
Poison, the cocktail of doxins.
Speaker 8 (05:39):
I'm convinced that something was put into his soup.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
This blameless king has fallen victim to moss vulgar murder.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
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,
(06:15):
this is the Butterfly King. I'm Becky Milligan, Chapter one,
(06:59):
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 British Parliament. But
(07:23):
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 that someone silenced Boris,
(07:46):
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 its roots in the nineteen forties,
(08:06):
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. They're King Boris's children, his son and his daughter,
and they've invited me and my producer EJ to visit
(08:26):
them at their home. It's just outside Sofia, Bulgaria's capital.
Good Morning, are you okay to take us to Vrana Palace?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Do you know here? It is on the map?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Brana Palace.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
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 1 (08:56):
King Simeon his home.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
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 the end of the war. Except Bulgaria
does still have a sort of king, and that sort
of king is Simeon. Simeon was forced into exile after
(09:26):
the war, but he never actually abdicated, so technically he
is still king, if only in name. But actually, let's
save some of the more complex constitutional details for later,
because if it's confusing for a Bulgarian, do you see
(09:50):
where it is?
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So this is it's like a big part.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I'm clearly getting nowhere here, so I call for back
up from the receptionist at our hotel.
Speaker 6 (10:09):
He'll brilliant.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Thank you so much, Thank you for your health.
Speaker 9 (10:13):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Half an hour later and I.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
Can't quite see the palace at the moment, but I
think this is the park and it was quite barren.
Let's just say this is not the Palace of Versailles.
It was a bit like a scrap metal yard. In fact,
it looks a bit like a dump paper in a way.
I think this is the right place at the moment,
it doesn't feel like it true.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
But despite appearances, it is the right place. Rana Palace
was where King Boris lived too. It was his country pad.
Speaker 9 (10:49):
Yeah, the next one.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So I think we go up here.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
This is more like it's a relief. Didn't fancy getting
out where that dog was looking still very desolate and dilapidated.
Speaker 9 (11:05):
It really is.
Speaker 7 (11:07):
I think this is where we are, yes, I think so.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I think I think we're we're being 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.
(11:35):
They weren't just weekend gardeners. They were both serious botanists.
Speaker 9 (11:42):
Shut the gate quickly, so there are signposts here, it
says in English, as well as Bulgarian palace. So are
we're going to set off up here?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Rana was really Boris's go to place. He was a
country boy at heart, and he loved the great outdoors,
to be in nature, peace and quiet.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
And he liked mounting butterflies.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
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 it how it is.
Speaker 10 (12:31):
They caught them, and he mounted them, and he spent
hours working out which kind of butterfly they was.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I mean he was a geek.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
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,
(12:58):
the kind of king who wouldn't hurt a fly. Well, actually,
he probably would her 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 10 (13:13):
He found himself really pretty unexceptional. He got terribly anxious
about sort of standing up in parliament, especially early on.
He said, little do they know that I have to
go to the loo five times before I confront them.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I think what she's trying to say is that King
Boris was not at all what you might expect in
a king.
Speaker 10 (13:32):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
It helps if you're a big man.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Why does history always demand handsome heroes. I'm starting to
feel rather sorry for Boris.
Speaker 10 (13:49):
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 Afrodiziac attached to Boris was the fact he
was a monarch. And that does some things for some women,
(14:10):
doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Well, I wouldn't know, Tessa. Anyway, back to Varana Palace.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
These look as though they might be the sort of
more modern quarters where Simeon lives.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Actually, do you know what I mean? Oh, there's another
guard dog.
Speaker 7 (14:25):
Let's go and find a doorbell somewhere.
Speaker 9 (14:29):
Goodness knows where you find.
Speaker 7 (14:30):
A doorbell on a palace.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Maybe it's up here.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I suppose when most of us think of a palace,
we'd think of something we see in the Crown or
Downton Abbey, towering turrets, Gothic windows, colonnades. Well, Vrana's a
little more down at heel. The architecture's charming, a sort
of hot potch of styles, but it could do with
a lick of paint. Simeon's doing it up bit by bit,
(14:58):
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 1 (15:17):
We're early, I know, but.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
That's the King's aid Yarville 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, I have a dog.
Speaker 10 (15:37):
So yes, but she's too lovely, too lovely, good dog.
Speaker 9 (15:42):
She is worth.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Sometimes not.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Jeka is too lovely, She's not your typical guard dog.
Meeting a monic is a nerve wracking experience. Luckily, Java
tells us we don't have to curtsey to Simeon, but
there are certain royal protocols which we need to stick to,
such as not touching the ornaments and royal.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Bric a brac in the drawing room. But there are so.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
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 1 (16:26):
Yes, I love that sort of thing. That's really very good.
Speaker 8 (16:35):
Please don't break the palace.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
That's lovely. I'm sure he's insured. Are kings insured?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
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
(17:04):
bricaded in dusky pink silks, and just like in most
people's houses, the mantlepiece is crowded with photos.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
This is someone I recognize.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Of course, two years ago the Pope visit Bulgaria and
he wants a private visit to the royal family.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
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
(17:42):
used to take his holidays with the British Royals shooting
in Scotland. There's a huge portrait of Boris hanging on
the drawing room wall and looking at it you get
a strange sense of deja vu.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, they do all look like each other.
Speaker 10 (17:58):
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.
Do you think Prince William a little bit? I mean,
poor Prince William.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
It's not his fault.
Speaker 10 (18:18):
As Harry said, he does have aggressive premiti or building.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Well, it's true. There's definitely more William than Harry.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
In Boris anyway, movingly.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
On, yes, I think we probably should because it's time
to meet the King.
Speaker 6 (18:45):
I want to see you.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Thank you so much for making the time.
Speaker 9 (18:50):
I'm Becky, missus, Emma j and we're.
Speaker 7 (18:54):
Delighted that we're able to talk to you and really appreciated.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
King's and 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 be eighty six, but he still knows how to
carry himself. He's very charming. He's also very much an
(19:19):
old school sort of king.
Speaker 11 (19:21):
I'm not the type of person who communicates easily, and
I like to keep my feelings to myself.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So if you're expecting him to get all confessional and
Prince Harry on you, you might be disappointed.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
But having said that, once you get to know him.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
He's quite the tease. 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 sick years old when his father
(20:01):
died so mysteriously, a mystery which still haunts him.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
To this day.
Speaker 11 (20:07):
It 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 2 (20:18):
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 11 (20:28):
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 2 (20:43):
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, porking. Boris had a very
differ court relationship with his father. Ferdinand was fiery and
(21:04):
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
(21:27):
was a hands on dad. Whenever he got a day off,
he'd head to the hills with the family.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Oh, on the hike.
Speaker 11 (21:35):
It was always fun because he would teach us all
sorts of things and botaneer or on nature or on
wildlife and so forth. So to ask, this was a
great treat. I will say.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Now, I'm not just here to speak to Simeon, because
behind every great king is a bossy big sister.
Speaker 8 (21:57):
So you don't know. How do I get in touch
with you?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
In half an hour?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Her Royal Highness Maria Louisa is four years senior to Simeon.
She's a plain speaking kind of princess.
Speaker 8 (22:12):
That was a lot of bs.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
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
(22:35):
presented his little daughter to Edward, but Maria Louisa refused
to perform.
Speaker 8 (22:41):
I was I think four or what? And I got
bored and I said, now I have to go and play.
And King Edward an.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
In her black trousers and trainers. Her Royal Highness is
more casual than her brother, but still stylish. She broke
her leg la, 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 as sharp
(23:14):
as a tack, basically the kind of ninety year old
we all hope to be. Maria Luisa 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 drawing or
(23:35):
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 8 (23:52):
He was always there for us, and it was always
feet when he came and told us stories. And he
would take a 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 2 (24:13):
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 8 (24:24):
Ah, it's very difficult to sort of empty one soul.
A very loving father who had time for his children,
definitely for us. He was just loving papa.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And there wasn't even a proper goodbye. He disappeared so suddenly.
Speaker 8 (24:42):
And the Monday morning he came into a room where
Simeona and I were playing, and he 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 2 (24:54):
They were such a close knit family, but someone out
there clearly didn't care for King bors Mars at all.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Once.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
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.
He really battled against his failing heart.
Speaker 6 (25:21):
Crushing chest pain as if there's a metal band around
your chest, feelings of sweatiness and nausea, the feeling of
impending doom.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
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 11 (25:46):
He was feeling sick. Then his liver eventually didn't function,
and there was also in pneumonia, and he lasted for
so long from Monday to Saturday, he lost his conscience.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
The King wasn't short of doctors in that sickroom. The
palace was crawling with them. But it was nineteen forty three.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
What did they have to.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Offer Paul Boris except 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 until it was pretty much over. Now that
seems deeply odd, and not just to me.
Speaker 8 (26:35):
My mother was I should have convinced he was done
in by somebody.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
And here's another thing that makes me suspicious. Once the
king was bedbound, no one was allowed to leave the palace.
They were literally locked in for the first few days.
Even Boris's government was kept in the dark. Whatever happened
in that sickroom stayed in.
Speaker 11 (26:59):
That sick room. 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 play.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
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
(27:52):
its final resting place by train drivers. His enthusiasm for
engines and locomotives was legendary. The railway worker has 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 just
head off to America and gets a job as a mechanic.
Speaker 11 (28:13):
He remember once took us along a railroad because he
was very fond of trains.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
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 11 (28:35):
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 it when they realized that it
was my father who had induced us to take this walk.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Maria Louisa remembers other times when HER's enthusiasm almost got
the better of him.
Speaker 8 (29:04):
We would go horse by 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
our horses there and the train would pass, and if
the machine is recognized my father, of course it would
(29:25):
blow the whistle, and that was catastrophic for the horses
and for us.
Speaker 10 (29:36):
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 2 (29:54):
Boris was a royal who had the common touch. He
fitted in everywhere. Think of the Lake Queen Elizabeth, 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
(30:14):
father Ferdinand, Boris was popular, and whatever you think about
train balls, 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,
(30:38):
is anyone objective about their own parents? Affectionate 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
(31:00):
me about one time when Boris pulled his bet you
can't guess who I am prank on a hapless young soldier.
Speaker 11 (31:07):
My father thought of those hilarios, which it really was,
would he roar with laughter? Well, yes, and I suppose
a soldier almost fainted, not because she then said it's
the king. It's the king.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
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
(31:41):
for their hospitality by sending on parcels and gifts.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Do we believe that? Do we actually believe that? I
don't think so well, Tessa.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
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 a real life story rooted in war,
(32:13):
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 10 (32:23):
Without wishing to denigrate Bulgaria in any way.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I get the feeling she's about to denigrate Bulgaria in
some way.
Speaker 10 (32:30):
It was a nation of peasants, told you, I mean,
we love our peasants.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Now it's quite diregarded to be a peasant, isn't.
Speaker 10 (32:35):
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, I'm like, yeah,
who else did he have to play with?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Really, Boris's bloodline was undeniably blue, but it wasn't so
undeniably bulgar 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
(33:15):
hands of the Turks of the Ottoman Empire, and that's
where it stayed until eighteen seventy eight, until Russia went
to war with Turkey and liberated Bulgaria.
Speaker 11 (33:25):
Again.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
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 10 (33:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
The man are born without quite enough to do so.
Speaker 10 (34:04):
Ideally, you want someone who's been gifted to you with
international approval.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Their first attempt at importing a royal was German Prince
Alexander Battenberg, but he proved so unpopular that they were
soon back to the drawing 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
(34:34):
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
(34:56):
intercepted him at intermission. Sh it's int 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 (35:12):
Yes, he did swing both ways.
Speaker 10 (35:14):
I think all bisexual and of course, if you're a
king you can really do what the hell you like.
He is a grand signior to the point of decadence.
He loved fine clothes, he loved fine wine.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
He liked jewels.
Speaker 10 (35:24):
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 3 (35:33):
On the radio.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
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 relatives wrote him off as weird and ridiculous, but
he got the job anyway. There weren't really any other applicants.
(35:57):
Bulgaria's love affair with Foxy didn't 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
(36:19):
that ended the war, Bulgaria was severely punished. 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,
(36:39):
as they're going to be quite important. A little further
on in our story, Ferdinand had cost his 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
(37:00):
for the sins of the father. Ferdinand might have made
some bad choices, but they weren't Boris's choices. 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.
(37:23):
That's perhaps a tiny bit lost in translation, but you
get the sense. Boris was a diplomat, 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 on the throne. But unfortunately,
(37:44):
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 Maria Louisa.
Speaker 8 (38:07):
There were many many people who would have been happy
to get rid of him.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
As I suspected.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
The king had several known enemies, but as far as
the identity of his assassin goes, the clues are few
and far between. Boris's son, Simeon has tried to crack
this case himself in the past, but his sleuthing has
proved fruitless.
Speaker 11 (38:28):
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 must say, I mean, as a son,
it's disturbing.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
And 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 8 (38:57):
Never forget it. Still you go to a funeral and
it all comes back.
Speaker 11 (39:03):
Not that one looks for the revenge or anything like it,
but simply to know.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
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 to be made. We know Boris hated bloodshed,
(39:33):
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,
(39:55):
on Bulgaria's southern border, 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,
(40:18):
King Boris did pick a side.
Speaker 10 (40:22):
We know that Boris was a political survivor and till
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 2 (40:34):
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
(40:55):
cards and he knows it.
Speaker 10 (40:57):
This man is eminently reasonable relative to what's going on
around him, and he's also got a very good political brain.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
For Bulgaria, they need to survive that's the game.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
But the game's up. Boris is out of time. It's
time to meet.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Adolph Hitler.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yes, Boris, the so called Mender of Broken Dishes, is
an ally of the most evil man in history. He
has been for eighteen months. And this military hideaway, it's
the Wolf's Layer, the secret Nazi headquarters in what is
now Poland, And just like Germany, King Boris the Third
(41:46):
of Bulgaria has declared war on Britain and America.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Now.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
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.
(42:16):
But now Hitler wants that to change. He wants 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 not what King Boris signed up for, and
(42:39):
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 10 (43:02):
Given the hand he was served, Boris did bloody well
to squeeze almost half a century out of this planet.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
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 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 weren't
(43:31):
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 determined
(43:54):
to get to the truth.
Speaker 11 (43:55):
Who would want to cover up after so many.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Years coming up this season.
Speaker 11 (44:06):
In the Butterfly came, everybody started suspecting everybody else. Russian
special services Starting's special services killed King Boards.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
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 3 (44:26):
Could has paint a book.
Speaker 7 (44:27):
Carriats an inside job.
Speaker 5 (44:31):
It was a typical Balkan death.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
What do you mean by a typical Boken death?
Speaker 5 (44:38):
I mean in the bottle there were more political murders
than in the rest of Europe for this period.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
This does not have the whole box of British show
American intelligence, but these sort of things have happened in
the past.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
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 6 (45:12):
I really don't care how he died.
Speaker 7 (45:16):
For me, He's a creaming.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
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 Nankmnell and Toby Matthimol. Sound design
(46:01):
and engineering by Toby Mattamong and Daniel Lloyd Evans. Artwork
by Vanessa Lilac. The managing producer is Amka Schortino Nola.
The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The
executive producer and head of Content at Blanchard House is
(46:21):
Lawrence Grizzell. For Exactly Right Media, the executive producers are
Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hardstark and Daniel Kramer, with consulting producer
Kyle Ryan. The Butterfly King is inspired by the book
Hitler and the King by John hal Spencer.
Hosts And Creators
Emma Jane Kirby
Becky Milligan
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