Edward VIII

"I think this is the definitive biography of Edward VIII. There have been others, notably by Philip Ziegler, who wrote the official biography. But Frances Donaldson’s is the one which best captures the ambiguous spirit of Edward VIII. I have put it on the list for two reasons—because of its shrewd depiction of the king’s character and failings, but also because those were the mechanical reasons that propelled the little Princess Elizabeth into the main line of succession. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter When Edward VIII abdicated in order to be able to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, his younger brother Bertie, Elizabeth’s father, became king. There were 12 incredibly dramatic months in 1936 when Britain actually saw three kings in one year—George V, Edward VIII and, by the end of the year, George VI. In that time, little Princess Elizabeth went from being on the sidelines to becoming the heir to the throne. It was quite an extraordinary transformation, and the turning point of her story. The two little princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, her younger sister, adored their playful uncle who was so very dashing and handsome. Queen Elizabeth always used to talk about him as her favourite uncle. But Edward proved to lack the grit, application and sense of sacrifice which is so crucial to being a monarch. In the case of Queen Elizabeth, we were able to see her willingness to subordinate her own life to duty, in her two families of children. She started with Charles and Anne and was planning more. But then her father died unexpectedly. So she suspended childbearing for the best part of a decade until she had played herself in as queen—when she produced Andrew and Edward. He clearly felt that Elizabeth understood and embodied all the dignity of the monarchy. I have a story in my book about how he pulled himself together in his dying days, when Elizabeth went to see him while she was in France. He insisted on getting dressed and bowing to her, even though he was being kept alive with tubes which had to be concealed under his clothing. Yes, there is a lovely story of how gentle and understanding Queen Elizabeth was towards Wallis Simpson at the time of the Duke of Windsor’s funeral. Wallis was an object of hate to Elizabeth’s mother, the Queen Mother, but Elizabeth rose above that."