Windsors Make War While Trying to Manage It

British historian and journalist Alexander Larman describes his new book The Windsors at War as “a story about a squabbling and dysfunctional family being tested to the limits under unimaginable pressure.” The “unimaginable pressure” was the abdication of one English king, Edward VIII, and the reign of his younger brother George VI in the years preceding and during the Second World War.
Larman’s book is the sequel to The Crown in Crisis where he chronicled the events leading to Edward’s abdication in 1936, his marriage to Wallis Simpson in 1937, and their forced exile to France. As war clouds gathered in Europe and the Far East, the British royal family faced internal and external crises. Larman’s new book details how they dealt with them.
The internal friction within the royal family makes up the bulk of Larman’s story. None of the royals liked Wallis Simpson and they all decried her hold over Edward. After the abdication, the royals insisted—as did government officials—that Wallis never receive the title of Her Royal Highness. The unhappy couple spent most of the war in the Bahamas, where the duke served as Royal Governor. They longed to return to England and gain what they believed was their rightful place among the royals. But it was not to be.
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