Noble Blood - The Cabbage King and Queen vs. the Nazis

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

The tiny island of Sark, in the English Channel, had the distinguished honor of being the last fiefdom in Europe. And in 1929, an American businessman named Robert Hathaway became its lord. He could not have known just how challenging the next few decades would be, for all of Europe and for a tiny island that would soon be occupied by enemy forces. Support Noble Blood: — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon — Noble Blood merch — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHart Podcast presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school.

Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they hit a bogo. Well, then you got it.

Listen to soccer moms on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. 20 miles off the northern coast of France in the English Channel is a small island called Sark. Today, about 500 people live on the island's two square miles of land, which is a small island. is situated atop sweeping granite cliffs. No cars are allowed on the island. The only ambulance is a converted tractor. Historically, the residents have farmed and fished, and many still do today. But there's something that makes this otherwise simply pleasant island totally unique.

Until 2008, it was ruled as a feudal state. In fact, it was the very last feudal state in Europe, officially overseen by a signor or a dame who owed allegiance only to the British crown. Many of the island's ancient customs lasted all the way into the 21st century. Divorce was forbidden, income tax didn't exist, and only the feudal lord was permitted to. to breed pigeons or own an unspayed female dog. The various lords of this peculiar island over the centuries included knights of Queen Elizabeth I,

renowned statesmen serving under King George III, and devious privateers commissioned by Queen Victoria. But in 1929, the title to Sark passed to an unsuspecting figure, an American American businessman. A man named Robert Hathaway legally ruled Sark from 1929 until his death in 1954. His tenure was anything but uneventful. In 1940, the German army seized the island, and in 1941, a story broke out in American newspapers that Robert, lovingly referred to as Bob by his family, had been forced to plow the fields of his island alongside his wife, Sybil. The New York Daily News reported, quote, Cabbages and Kings turn out to have something in common after all.

Bob was allowed to send letters to his relatives in America, but German censorship made it nearly impossible to convey the gravity of their situation. In the middle of the English Channel, the first American lord of the last fiefdom in Europe languished alongside his neighbors. Robert had never planned to become a feudal lord. He had simply fallen in love with Sybil.

He never planned to stand side by side with the people of this tiny Channel Island amidst a war. But today he and his wife both stand as two of the many heroes in Sark's hallowed history. I'm Dana Schwartz and you're listening to Noble Blood. In 1563, Queen Elizabeth I first of England granted the island of Sark to one Sir Helier de Carteret. Queen Elizabeth inherited many islands in the English Channel. Some were large like the aisles, Guernsey and Jersey,

and some like Sark were tiny. Worried about a French invasion and annoyed. Worried about a French invasion and annoyed by pirates plaguing the English Channel, Elizabeth's court stipulated that Carteret bring 40 men to Sark from Jersey, each armed with muskets, in order to protect and cultivate the land. To this day, descendants of those first 40 families still live on Sark. Until very recently, those families retained the old custom of organizing a town council that appointed a judge, and sheriff, all overseen by the island Lord, who held a limited veto power. The island itself passed through many hands over the centuries. Usually it was sold by a Signor or Dame who was hard for cash.

Such was the case centuries later when the great-great-grandfather of Sybil Collings bought the island of Sark in 1844 because its former landowner could no longer run its silver mines profitably. In Sybil's autobiography, she describes her grandfather as a tender and skilled statesman. In contrast, this is how she describes her own father, William, who would become lord after his father. Quote, unfortunately, my father was extremely insubordinate, madly obstinate, fiercely self-opinionated, and prone to outbursts of uncontrolled race. Needless to say, Sybil did not get along with her father growing up. She was forcibly sent off to a convent in France against her will at 14.

After she returned, she considered marrying a British army officer who allegedly fell madly in love with her. Sybil's mother broached the topic of that marriage to Sybil's father, but that only made him furious. One night, Sybil bravely demanded that. her father let her do as she wished. Three weeks later, her father woke her up in the middle of the night and violently threw her out of the house. If it weren't for the secret intervention of Sybil's mother, Sybil wouldn't have been able to escape the island safely or rendezvous with her British

officer, Dudley, in London for their wedding in 1909. The couple settled down in England and had their first child, a daughter Bridget, the following year. This prompted Sybil's father, William, to reconnect with his daughter, congratulating her, but also lamenting that she hadn't given birth to a son. In his first letter to Sybil after a whole year of silence, he wrote, quote, sorry it was a vixen. Sybil occasionally returned to Sark, sometimes tending to her ailing mother, other times preventing her father from damaging the island's reputation any more than he already had. In her own words, quote, He had never provided me with a settlement nor given me a penny,

but I was his heir and I loved the island passionately, more than anything or anyone in the world. When the time came, I intended to do as much for Sark as my time. grandfather had done. This was my future and I had no intention of allowing father to take it away from me. Sybil officially moved back to Sark in 1912 with her children and took up cattle breeding. When her husband Dudley unexpectedly passed away from the Spanish flu in 1918, she was left with nothing but a widow's pension to raise six children on. Her father refused every request for money. Sybil had no choice but to move wherever she could to support her family,

from the nearby island of Guernsey to Germany. Finally, in 1927, after a 45-year reign, Sybil's father died, and Sybil took over Sark with a new vision for the island. She assured her 500 or so subjects that she would maintain the traditions of the past, and then proceeded to lead a whole slew of changes, from a new harbor to renovations on the family's manner, to reinstating tithes of wheat and chickens to help fund all the projects. Her intention was partly to make the island more suitable for tourists, largely English tourists. Some of the culturally French islanders feared becoming anglicized. Even while the new Dame of Sark was busy reinventing the islanding the islanders, the islanders, she was busy

reinventing the island, she found time to travel and schmooze with the wealthy and well-connected. Before embarking on a holiday to the United States, a friend in London insisted that she dine with an American businessman named Bob Hathaway. Bob was not an aristocrat, but he did come from an elite, distinguished American family. His father was a Wall Street banker, and his family had made it big in the publishing industry. He had graduated from Yale in 1913, and then with friends had enlisted in the United Kingdom's Royal Flying Corps to support the Allies in the First World War. Bob was an avid golfer and tennis player, but if there was one thing he loved more than sports, it was gin. He joked with Sybil that he left the U.S. for the UK because of prohibition. In fact, he had

actually moved to London to work with the sporting goods company Spaulding. Yes, the same one famous for their basketballs. But Bob insisted that he only took the job because of the free golf balls. If there's one thing that shines about Bob through the fragments that we have of him, it's his sense of humor, which was no doubt a plus for Sybil throughout their whirlwind courtship. The day after they got to know each other over lunch, Sibyl bored at her ship, for her vacation in America, and she found her cabin full of flowers sent by Bob. When she reached New York, Bob's older brother, Stuart, and his wife Helen, warmly welcomed and hosted Sybil.

When Sybil boarded the boat for her return of voyage, she was greeted with even more flowers from Bob, and a message inviting her to dinner when she arrived back in London. Sibyl recollects, quote, it had become clear that this tall, lean Yankee was not only an entertaining companion, but a very determined man. I am a strong-minded woman, but this time I had met my match. It took no longer than three weeks for the two of them to decide to get married in 1929. The tabloid pounced on their wedding as another curio streaming from the already curious Channel Islands.

Headlines on London papers read, Woman Ruler to Wed and Woman Ruler's Romance. One paper even described Bob as Sybil's consort. He did, after all, willingly give up his job to go live with her on the island. When the newly wedded couple reached Sark, they were greeted by a whole procession of islanders, carrying flags and flowers. Upon seeing the small island that would be home for the rest of his,

life, Bob jokingly complained that there was nowhere to install his own golf course. But Bob was in for an even greater surprise than no golf on the island. As Sybil remembered it, Bob turned to her and said, I never knew the Dame of Sark was such an important person, why they treated you like royalty. Sybil gave him a smug look. My poor Bob, you've got a shock coming to you. The seigneur of Sark is a more important person than L'addam. Under our old feudal laws, a husband owns everything that his wife possesses, and this applies to the lordship of the land. Bob sat there dumbfounded. At first, he was resistant. The both of them left Sark after a week for the Isle of Guernsey, where Sibyl called upon an expert of feudal law who confirmed,

Bob's worst fears. To make matters even more complicated to the new Yankee Royal, divorce was not legal, according to Sark's ancient custom. Lawfully, Bob of America had become a feudal lord of Europe, and there wasn't anything he could do about it. Make no mistake, just because Bob Hathaway legally ruled over Sark doesn't mean he did so in practice. Like the king he was, Bob was happy to relinquish any real power vested in him to Sybil, who carried on her administration of the island. Bob would officially preside over council meetings, but he needed Sybil's help translating the French patois, the locals, spoke. He never voiced an opinion unless one was asked of him. American journalists who visited the island and had heard about the American Lord were surprised to find that Bob wore ordinary clubs.

and when visitors stopped to ask him questions, he would just respond that he was a visitor, too. As Sybil remembered it, Bob fit right in. He grew to love the fishing and farming that living on the island entailed. In times of difficulty, he supported Sybil with a compassion and a partnership that starkly contrasted with her childhood experiences of her parents' marriage. Settling into Sark also didn't mean relinquishing their holidays, the newly wedded couple traveled with Bob's mother to Germany and France in the 1930s. Sybil voyaged to the British colony of Burma. In 1936, they returned to the United States, taking trains from New York to Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, whining and dining with politicians, Hollywood stars, and famed industrialists. A broad in

Sybil took the opportunity to spread the word about her tiny home island. In 1932, she penned an article about Sark for the National Geographic that intrigued the editors so much that she was later invited in 1938 to deliver a lecture in Washington. That was just the start of a whole lecture tour that heaped more and more intrigue upon the exotic island, void of cars, income tax, union's or real politicians. But when Sybil and Bob returned to Sark, it was to face an unpleasant reality. War was beginning to brew in Europe. On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The United Kingdom declared war on Germany two days later.

The following months were unnerving for an isolated island nation. At first, the only thing that really changed for the people of Sark were the BBC radio reports, which documented the first stages of the German campaign. The war became just a little more real when news broke that Germany invaded Belgium and then that it had invaded France. On June 9, 1940, the residents of Sark could see off toward the coast of France a dark plume of smoke drifting upwards. The French were blowing up oil storage tanks before making their retreat.

Refugees from the continent passed through Guernsey and Jersey, delivering news of the invasion. The British Army reasoned that they could not protect the Channel Island, which were so far from British shores. So they called back their entire military presence and took in any islander who wanted to flee. Sibyl reassured her neighbors that she would stay put. Occupation would be difficult and they might go hungry,

but they had their land and they had their farms. In the end, no Sark-born person decided to leave. All they could do was sit and wait for the enemy to come. Sibyl anticipated German officers would want to speak to her, to discuss the terms of their occupation. She was eager to project confidence and strength against the invaders. She worked with Bob to rearrange their manner such that the couple would appear imperious to visitors. For example, she rearranged the drawing room in her house so that their visitors would have to walk a long distance before settling down at the table.

She instructed their maid to announce the officers as though they were any other guest. As the German officers approached the manner, Sybil noted that they wiped their shoes before coming in. She took that to be at least a small good sign. The Germans intended to deal with the locals with at least some hospitality. Two Nazi officers visited her and Bob on that day, and they produced a document with new orders for the officer. island, a curfew, confiscation of all firearms, the banning of alcohol, no assembly of more than five persons, and no one was to leave the island without express permission. The rulers of Sark had no choice but to accept the demands, though it's notable that they were the only leaders of any of the

Channel Island who never once signed any German orders. The Nazi army officially took control over Sark with 10 soldiers on July 4th. Bob, our American, remarked that it was, quote, a hell of a day on which to be occupied. Sark's people found small ways of rebelling right from the get-go. Sibyl prominently displayed banned anti-fascist books in her home. She and Bob never turned over their band radio set, which would prove to be a lifesaver over the next five years.

The soldiers were especially concerned that Sark's fishermen could use their boats to escape to England, despite the fact that no fishing boat could ever make it that far. The Germans set up a fixed time of day for fishing, an absurd proposition to the island who knew that fishing depended on the tide, which was often unpredictable. The Germans relented and allowed the fishermen on their tiny boats throughout the day, but only if accompanied by a soldier. The Sark fishermen reportedly had loads of fun steering their boats into big waves

and watching the soldiers get sick. The people of Sark had virtually no contact with the outside world and so relied almost entirely on the Germans for their news. They didn't know the Nazis failed to invade Britain. They could only hope for allied victories. Bob, Sibyl and only were, almost every other person on Sark, were simply concerned with survival. Over the first year of the occupation, the island ran out of sugar, tea, coffee, and tobacco.

They couldn't count on food imports, so they made do with lobsters from their coast and rabbits from their fields. As American newspaper readers were soon to find out, the, quote, king and queen of the island were forced to grow their own cabbages. These difficult conditions took a turn for the worse in 1942 when five British commandos conducted a secret operation on Sark to gather intelligence and capture prisoners. The commandos broke into the home of a woman named Mrs. Pritterd, who helped them locate some of the German soldiers on the island.

But the tiny British invading force was able to capture only one German soldier before sailing away. The Germans used the invasion to justify clamping down on the locals even more. Soldiers unspooled miles of barbed wire around the island's perimeter. They also placed 13,000 landmines around the island's cliffs. Sibyl wrote that the mines were sometimes put on top of the island's best agricultural land. The Germans had already deported 13 Sark residents. early in 1942. By February 1943, they called for another 63 people.

Bob was among them. Bob and Sybil were well aware of the horrors of German camps, thanks to their illegal radio. They also knew that fighting back would be pointless. In Sybil's recollections, Bob was the rock that had gotten her through the occupation. He continued to help oversee the island's finances and policies, of course, but more importantly, his companionship had offered a space to resist and laugh amidst their absurd and horrific conditions. We don't have any written reflections of this time from Bob, but we can expect that he thought similarly of Sybil. The day of Bob's departure was cold and wet. Rain pelted down from a gray sky and showered all the parents, children, and partners who were bidding farewell to their loved

ones. Unsure how long they'd be apart. Bob joined prisoners from other Channel Islands at Laughan, a small medieval town in Bavaria with a castle that the Nazis converted into a prisoner of war camp. As one might expect, the living conditions in the camp were horrid. Plenty of prisoners were kept at the brink of starvation. Sybil was able to mail letters to Laughan and Bob was able to send messages to friends in England who could pass censored notes to Sybil. Eventually, Sybil tried sending her husband more than just letters.

She would give over onions, which might at least provide some flavor to his soups, in addition to small doses of illegal whiskey and brandy that she sent in inconspicuous medicine bottles. She sent what she could, even as the Germans cut the island's rations again in 1943. Sybil wasn't too worried about the adults on the island, but she feared greatly for the island's children

who never had a steady supply of milk. Germany's victories were being reversed throughout early 1944, but nothing boosted the morale, of the Sark inhabitants as much as news of D-Day. A German doctor whispered news of the Allied, landing on the beaches of Normandy, mere miles from the Channel Islands.

Secret news passed by way of pamphlet, illegal radio, or word of mouth, and it all helped counteract the German propaganda that painted Britain as a sea of flames and the rest of the Allies as totally inept. As retaliation after D-Day, the Germans once again severely cut the rations of the Channel Islanders. The people of Sark celebrated their annual harvest festival with mere symbolic gestures, because no one could exchange the typical gifts of soap, bread, tobacco, butter, or eggs.

The days dragged on and the people of Sark had less and less. When the Allies cut off the German army stationed in the Channel Islands from the continent, Sark's occupiers began cutting their own rations. Some began stealing the local cows, pigs, and chickens to eat. Others were so desperate that they stole cats and dogs. The German officers scrambled to preserve some authority in the final months of the occupation, but they could do little in the face of an inevitable. counterattack. On May 7, 1945, all the inhabitants of Sark gathered around Sybil's radio to hear Winston Churchill address the Channel Islands and declared that they were free. The dame of Sark was granted full authority

over the island by the incoming British Army. Her first orders were for the German soldiers to install a telephone line at her house, to remove all of the landmines that they had laid around, and to hand back everyone's radios. Seemingly overnight, it was German officers coming to Sibyl for their orders. Sark survived the occupation, weary but resilient. Bob and Sibyl had a bittersweet reunion. She wrote of him, quote, the moment I caught sight of him at the harbor, I realized that he must not guess for my expression how his appearance shook me. He had always been a lean man. Now he was nothing more than a bag of bones. Getting back to a normal routine took time, but Sark and its people grew vigorous once more.

Experts from the Ministry of Health came to examine the island children. New doctors and school teachers were hired. for the island. Sibyl and Bob worked tirelessly to fund a new harbor. The Hathaway's left to visit Bob's family in America in 1946, and Sibble embarked on a North American lecture tour once again. There was one occasion in Toronto where she couldn't speak due to losing her voice. Bob took over but disregarded all of her notes. He delivered a handful of funny remarks, and the Toronto Papers heralded him as, quote, a new star with a wit as dry as paper. The high point of this post-war era for Sark was probably a royal visit in 1949, which coincided with the completion of the new harbor. Nearly the whole island gathered at the harbor to welcome

then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and it was Bob who began the official ceremony with an address to the royal couple that recounted Sark's history since the days of Elizabeth I. A video of his speech can actually be found on YouTube, and you'll notice that in the middle of it, a stray dog wanders through the crowd and goes up to the future Queen Elizabeth II for a pet. It appears that all of the subjects of Sark wanted to pay their respects to the crown. Sark had more than just recovered from the first. five years of perilous occupation. Sibyl's dream of converting the island into a tourist attraction

succeeded, thanks both to her extensive lecture series and the New Harbor. A royal visit, publicized on the BBC, no doubt helped as well. Her autobiography speaks to her bold personality and fighting spirit. Sibyl never backed down from her father, from family crises, or from the German occupation. What of Bob? What sort of impact did he have on Sark and what sort of imprint did Sark leave on him? Only five weeks before Bob's death, he and Sibyl threw an island-wide party in 1954 to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, replete with barrels of wine and wedding cake. He raised his glass and delivered these lines to the people of Sark, his unexpected fiefdom. Quote, I shall not call you ladies and gentlemen, but just my friends, for you have given me your

friendship, which I have valued for 25 years. That's the strange story of the dame and lord of Sark during the occupation, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about the idiosyncrasies of Sark. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big

Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo! Woo! Woo! My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings.

I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming town. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah. It would not be. Right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot.

I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sark's history of strange and unexpected events did not end with Robert and Sybil Hathaway. In 1990, an unemployed nuclear physicist named Andre Gardas conducted a one-man invasion of Sark.

He believed himself the rightful heir to the throne of the island, so naturally he printed out and posted up notices around Sark, expressing his intention to take over. The following day, the only law enforcement on the island, the volunteer police officer, went off looking for. for Andre. He found him sitting on a park bench dressed in military gear, loading an automatic rifle. According to one story, all the constable had to do was compliment Andre on his choice of weapon and ask him if he could inspect it more closely. Andre obliged, handing the constable the rifle, and then he got punched in the face. Andre was arrested and in one fell swoop the most ambitious invasion attempt of Sark came to an end. It's not entirely clear what happened to Andrei afterwards because Sark does not really have a jail. Noble Blood is a production of I-Heart Radio and Grim and

Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Danish Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Julia Melani, and Armandke some. The show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and Rima Il K. Ali with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcasts presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school.

Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they hit a bogo. Well, then you got it.

Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Thank you.