Power and Glory
Elizabeth II and the Rebirth of Royalty
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Alexander Larman, the master chronicler of the House of Windsor, brings his acclaimed trilogy to a dramatic and poignant conclusion.
When the Royal Family took to the balcony of Buckingham Palace on VE Day in 1945, they knew that the happiness and excitement of the day was illusory. Britain may have been victorious in a painful war, but the peace would be no easier. Between the abdication crisis, the death of King George VI, and the ascension of young Elizabeth II to the throne, the continued existence of the monarchy seemed uncertain. And the presence of the former Edward VIII, now the Duke of Windsor, conniving and sniping from the sidelines in an attempt to regain relevance, even down to writing a controversial and revelatory memoir, could only make matters worse. Still, the question of whether or not Elizabeth could succeed and make the monarchy something that once again inspired international pride and even love remained.
In Power and Glory, Alexander Larman completes his acclaimed Windsor family trilogy, using rare and previously unseen documents to illuminate their unique family dynamic. Through his chronicling of events like the Royal Wedding, George VI’s death and the discovery of the Duke of Windsor’s treacherous activities in WWII, Larman paints a vivid portrait of the end of one sovereign’s reign and the beginning of another’s that heralded a new Elizabethan Age which would bring power and glory back to a monarchy desperately in need of it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Larman (The Windsors at War) brings his trilogy on the WWII-era royal family to a close with a scrupulous and immersive double portrait of the abdicated King Edward VIII (1894–1972) in exile and his niece Elizabeth II (1927–2023) as a young princess through her 1953 coronation. Larman begins in 1945, when, "dogged by endless controversy" (for his friendships with Nazi sympathizers among other transgressions), Edward "ostentatiously" abandoned his governorship of the Bahamas for a "bored and underemployed" stayover at the Waldorf Towers in New York City. His status as royal pariah in the wake of his marriage to American divorcée Wallis Simpson was newly compounded by the discovery of the Marburg Files, which revealed the extent of his collusion with the Germans during the war. Retreating to a chateau on the French Riviera, Edward and Wallis lost their annual income from the Crown upon the death of his brother, King George VI, and were excluded from Elizabeth's wedding to Prince Philip as well as her coronation. The romance between Elizabeth and Philip, meanwhile, sparked public support in the grim aftermath of war. Drawing from diaries and memoirs of the royals and their retinue, Larman produces an elegant study of the interplay between the personal and the political. Royal watchers will be satisfied with this fitting final installment.