- soft spoilers for season 3 ofThe Crownon Netflix ahead .
Viewers of the third season ofThe Crownon Netflix will likely have their wonder piqued by Anthony Blunt , the nontextual matter historiographer who isrevealedto be a spy for the Russians during his 19 years of service of process to the Queen atBuckingham Palace . rather of get the kick once he was discovered , however , Blunt went on to rest under Her Majesty ’s employ for eight more years — until his official retirement . While treason never looks in force on a CV , the royal social class had good reason to keep him on .
Blunt , who was born and raised in England , visited the Soviet Union in 1933 and was indoctrinate as a spy after beingconvincedof the benefits of Communism in fighting fascism . He began recruiting his university classmates at Cambridge before serve during World War II and leaking information about the Germans to the KGB . Blunt was one of five Cambridge graduate under Soviet direction . Two of them , diplomats Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess , relocate to the Soviet Union in 1951 . Another , Kim Philby , live undetected until 1961 . John Cairncross escaped notice , too , but was eventually outed .
However , it was Blunt who had a spot at Buckingham Palace . After being tipped off by American intelligence , MI5interrogatedBlunt . He confessed to his treachery in 1964 and was granted immunity from pursuance . Why was he able-bodied to remain employed ? One hypothesis has it that British intelligence was so humiliated by Blunt ’s power to circulate in the upper levels of the monarchy that firing him would have evoke too many enquiry . Another thought has Blunt having noesis of some bizarrelycongenialwartime proportionateness between Adolf Hitler and the Duke of Windsor ( a.k.a . King Edward VIII , whose abdication lead to Elizabeth ’s eventual ascension to the throne ) .
Whatever the case , the Queen was advised by MI5 to keep Blunt around . In his role as artwork curator , he had no access to classified information . Blunt was at the Palace through 1972 and spend another seven years rove London giving lecture . His actions remained a tightly guard closed book untilMargaret Thatcherdisclosed his high treason in 1979 .
As for that spoken communication seen inThe Crown , where Olivia Colman ’s Queen Elizabeth cook some not - so - pernicious digs at Blunt at the porta of a new exhibition , there’sno recordof such a takedown ever pass off . While the two reportedly kept their space from each other in private , harmonise to Miranda Carter’sAnthony Blunt : His Lives :
Stripped of his knighthood as a result of the verity about his action being made known , Blunt became a recluse and go of a heart flack in 1983 . His memoirs , which weremade publicby the British Library in 2009 , indicated his regret , call in his spy work " the biggest mistake of my animation . "
