Former King Edward VIII misled his brother King George VI and members of the royal family about his finances because he felt he was entitled to a “royal income” after his abdication, a royal historian has claimed. Royal experts have said in a new documentary that in 1940 the King and Duke of Windsor became “brothers in war.”

Royal author Sarah Gristwood told the documentary “Elizabeth II & The Traitor King: A Secret Friendship”: “Edward VIII, the outgoing king, felt he was entitled to a pretty royal income.

“This was not the opinion of either the rest of the royal family or the British establishment.”

Dr Piers Brendon, a royal biographer, said: “I think he said he only had £ 90,000 left and that was a complete lie, he had around a million.”

“He had a stipend of £ 25,000 a year from King George VI’s private purse.”

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“It was a colossal amount of money, I mean £ 1.6million in modern cash.”

“They were fine by 1940 brothers at war.”

Edward VIII became king on January 20, 1936 after the death of his father, King George V.

However, he abdicated the throne on December 10, 1936 after the Church of England and the British Cabinet refused to allow him to marry his partner Wallis Simpson.

Relations between the royal family and the Duke of Windsor remained strained after the abdication crisis.

The Duke called his brother daily during the first months of his reign to ask for more money and to request that his wife receive an HRH title.

The Queen’s mother would never have forgiven the Duke and Wallis Simpson for placing her husband on the throne, which she attributed to his untimely death in 1952.

In 1972, the Queen visited the Duke at his home in Paris in the last days before his death. She also attended his funeral at Windsor Castle on June 5, 1972.