Wallis Simpson was the woman who stole the king's heart and rocked the monarchy - but she was not Edward VIII's first or only love. This book is about the women he adored before Wallis dominated his life. There was Rosemary Leveson Gower, the girl he wanted to marry and who would have made the perfect match for a future king; the Prince's long-term mistress, Freda Dudley Ward, who exerted a pull almost equal to Wallis over her lover, but abided by the rules of the game and knew she would never marry him. Then there was Thelma Furness, his twice-married American lover, who enjoyed a domestic life with him, but realised it could not last forever and demanded nothing more than to be his mistress. In each love affair, Edward behaved like a cross between a little boy lost and a spoilt child. Each one of the three women in this book could have changed the course of history. In examining their lives and impact on the heir to the throne, we question whether he ever really wanted to be king.

"A landmark new book" - Daily Mail Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, is destined one day to be king. Determined to serve his country as his grandmother, the Queen has so selflessly done for seven decades, William is the epitome of a loving husband to Catherine, and a devoted father to their three children: George, Charlotte and Louis. In public, William appears calm, balanced and determined. He is passionate about safeguarding the environment and helping to protect species under threat of extinction. The Duke and his wife have also worked tirelessly to remove the stigma that continues to mark mental health problems. In private, however, those close to him say that William, while being a dedicated servant of the Crown can defy his calm, family-guy public demeanour. This is the definitive account - insightful and nuanced - of the life of the Duke of Cambridge as he approaches his milestone birthday. Jobson explores the complex character of the man who will one day reign as King William V. It is the story of the making of a king for our times. THE STORY OF THE MAKING OF A MONARCH FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY.

As the battle for royal supremacy raged between the houses of Lancaster and York, Margaret Beaufort, who was descended from Edward III and proved to be a critical threat to the Yorkist cause, was forced to give up her son - she would be separated from him for fourteen years. Surrounded by conspiracies in the enemy Yorkist court, Margaret remained steadfast, only just escaping the headman's axe as she plotted to overthrow Richard III and secure her son the throne. Against all odds, in 1485 Henry Tudor was victorious on the battlefield at Bosworth. Margaret's unceasing efforts and royal blood saw her son crowned King Henry VII, and Margaret became the most powerful woman in England. Nicola Tallis unmasks the many myths that have attached themselves to Margaret and reveals the real woman: an independent and vibrant character, who would risk everything to become Queen in all but name.

Using hitherto neglected sources, this work offers a dramatic reinterpretation of the Lancastrian revolution, and the establishment of Henry IV's kingship. It is also the first work for thirty years to re-examine the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV together, charting the shifting balance of power between the crown and the nobility across the turn of the fifteenth century.

This rich and compelling volume describes the life of Kaiser Wilhelm II from his birth in 1859 to his accession to the Prusso-German throne in 1888, a story so extraordinary that it will fascinate anyone interested in the psychology and the throng of personalities of the period. Its aim is to set the characters on the stage and let them speak for themselves, which in their letters and diaries the Victorians and Wilhelminians did with quite extraordinary clarity and persuasive power. The central theme is the bitter conflict between the handicapped Prince and his liberal parents, and in particular with his mother, the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and the utter failure of a daring educational experiment intended to turn the young Prince into a liberal Anglophile.

Behind the scenes of the private world at the heart of royalty, as revealed by a distinguished royal commentator. This is the real story of what goes on inside the royal palaces, as witnessed by members of the royal staff and household past and present. Buckingham Palace is effectively an independent kingdom with its own rules and customs, now explained by Brian Hoey. Hundreds of anecdotes reveal the conditions in which the staff live and work and also their relationship with the Royals they serve. How does one get a job as personal footman to the Queen? Why does Prince Charles still have to send a note to her Page of the Backstairs requesting a meeting with his mother? How much do members of the household earn? Why does the Queen hate men in three-piece suits? Why are the Queen's bedsheets six inches longer than Prince Philip's? Why do her maids have to vacuum walking backwards? Why doesn't the Queen allow square ice-cubes to be put in her drinks?

Unseen behind the throne, two sides of the royal bloodline competed for influence, and egregious family secrets had to be protected. Meanwhile, in public, a succession of family ruptures put the monarchy under unprecedented scrutiny from the world's media. From the turbulent loves of Princess Margaret to the tragic saga of Princess Diana, from the torments of Prince Charles to the arrival of Meghan Markle, tensions gripped the House of Windsor. Through all this, Elizabeth II remained steadfast in her values while many of those around her seemed to lose their moorings. Clive Irving's gripping account casts new light on seventy tempestuous years of British history, exploring how the Queen, uncomfortable with the pace of the social and cultural changes in her nation, and often seeming out of touch, resolutely kept the monarchy stable in a rapidly changing world. With unparalleled insight, Irving examines the pivotal events of the Queen's reign and then steps above them to assess her role in the royal family's Faustian pact with the media. The final irony is, as Irving's carefully measured scrutiny shows, that in the last decades of her reign the Queen endures to become one of the most admired people in the world while remaining one of the least known and understood. She will likely be the last Queen of the United Kingdom.

The authorised life story of the king who gave up his throne for love, by one of our most distinguished biographers. In this masterly authorized biography, Philip Ziegler reveals the complex personality of Edward VIII, the only British monarch to have voluntarily renounced the throne. With unique access to the Royal Archives, Ziegler overturns many myths about Edward and tells his side of the story - from his glamorous existence as Prince of Wales to his long decline in semi-exile in France. At the heart of the book is an unflinchingly honest examination of Edward's all-consuming passion for Wallis Simpson, which led to his dramatic abdication. Elegant and devastating, this is the most convincing portrait of Edward ever published.

Henry VIII is best known in history for his tempestuous marriages and the fates of his six wives. However, as acclaimed historian Tracy Borman makes clear in her illuminating new chronicle of Henry's life, his reign and reputation were hugely influenced by the men who surrounded and interacted with him as companions and confidants, servants and ministers, and occasionally as rivals--many of whom have been underplayed in previous biographies. These relationships offer a fresh, often surprising perspective on the legendary king, revealing the contradictions in his beliefs, behavior, and character in a nuanced light. They show him capable of fierce but seldom abiding loyalty, of raising men up only to destroy them later. He loved to be attended by boisterous young men, the likes of his intimate friend Charles Brandon, who shared his passion for sport, but could also be diverted by men of intellect, culture, and wit, as his longstanding interplay with Cardinal Wolsey and his reluctant abandonment of Thomas More attest. Eager to escape the shadow of his father, Henry VII, he was often trusting and easily led by male attendants and advisors early in his reign (his coronation was just shy of his 18th birthday in 1509); in time, though, he matured into a profoundly suspicious and paranoid king whose ruthlessness would be ever more apparent, as Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and uncle to two of Henry's wives, discovered to his great discomfort, and as Eustace Chapuys, the ambassador of Charles V of Spain, often reported. Recounting the great Tudor's life and signal moments through the lens of his male relationships, Tracy Borman's new biography reveals Henry's personality in all its multi-faceted, contradictory glory, and sheds fresh light on his reign for anyone fascinated by the Tudor era and its legacy.

The remarkable life of Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret who was also a Maid of Honour at the Queen's Coronation. Anne Glenconner reveals the real events behind The Crown as well as her own life of drama, tragedy and courage, with the wonderful wit and extraordinary resilience which define her.

Anne Glenconner has been close to the Royal Family since childhood. Eldest child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, she was, as a daughter, described as 'the greatest disappointment' by her family as she was unable to inherit. Her childhood home Holkham Hall is one of the grandest estates in England. Bordering Sandringham the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were frequent playmates.

From Maid of Honour at the Queen's Coronation to Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret, Lady Glenconner is a unique witness to royal history, as well as an extraordinary survivor of a generation of aristocratic women trapped without inheritance and burdened with social expectations.

She married the charismatic but highly volatile Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who became the owner of Mustique. Together they turned the island into a paradise for the rich and famous, including Mick Jagger and David Bowie, and it became a favourite retreat for Princess Margaret.

But beneath the glitz and glamour there has also lurked tragedy. On Lord Glenconner's death in 2010 he left his fortune to a former employee. And of their five children, two grown-up sons died, while a third son had to be nursed back from a coma by Anne, after having suffered a near fatal accident.

Anne Glenconner writes with extraordinary wit, generosity and courage and she exposes what life was like in her gilded cage, revealing the role of her great friendship with Princess Margaret, and the freedom she can now finally enjoy in later life.

A "New York Times" Notable Book
In 1852, at age sixteen, Cixi was chosen as one of Emperor Xianfeng's numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a coup against her son's regents and placed herself as the true source of power--governing through a silk screen that separated her from her male officials.
Drawing on newly available sources, Jung Chang comprehensively overturns Cixi's reputation as a conservative despot. Cixi's extraordinary reign saw the birth of modern China. Under her, the ancient country attained industries, railways, electricity, and a military with up-to-date weaponry. She abolished foot-binding, inaugurated women's liberation, and embarked on a path to introduce voting rights. Packed with drama, this groundbreaking biography powerfully reforms our view of a crucial period in China's--and the world's--history.

Twice a princess, twice exiled, Neslishah Sultan had an eventful life. When she was born in Istanbul in 1921, cannons were fired in the four corners of the Ottoman Empire, commemorative coins were issued in her name, and her birth was recorded in the official register of the palace. After all, she was an imperial princess and the granddaughter of Sultan Vahiddedin. But she was the last member of the imperial family to be accorded such honors: in 1922 Vahiddedin was deposed and exiled, replaced as caliph-but not as sultan-by his brother (and Neslishah's other grandfather) Abdulmecid; in 1924 Abdulmecid was also removed from office, and the entire imperial family, including three-year-old Neslishah, was sent into exile. Sixteen years later on her marriage to Prince Abdel Moneim, the son of the last khedive of Egypt, she became a princess of the Egyptian royal family. And when in 1952 her husband was appointed regent for Egypt's infant king, she took her place at the peak of Egyptian society as the country's first lady, until the abolition of the monarchy the following year. Exile followed once more, this time from Egypt, after the royal couple faced charges of treason. Eventually Neslishah was allowed to return to the city of her birth, where she died at the age of 91 in 2012. Based on original documents and extensive personal interviews, this account of one woman's extraordinary life is also the story of the end of two powerful dynasties thirty years apart.

The prequel to The Crown: the first truly candid portrait of George V and Mary, the Queen's grandparents and creators of the modern monarchy The lasting reputation of George V is for dullness. His biographer Harold Nicolson famously quipped that 'he did nothing at all but kill animals and stick in stamps'. But is that really all there was to King George, a monarch confronted by a series of crises thought to be the most testing faced by any twentieth-century British sovereign? As Tommy Lascelles, one of the most perceptive royal advisers, put it: 'He was dull, beyond dispute -- but my God, his reign never had a dull moment.' Throughout his reign, George V navigated a constitutional crisis, the First World War, the fall of thirteen European monarchies and the rise of Bolshevism. The suffragette Emily Davison threw herself under his horse at the Derby, he refused asylum to his cousin the Tsar Nicholas II and he facilitated the first Labour government. How this supposedly limited man steered the Crown through so many perils is a gripping tale. With unprecedented access to the archives, Jane Ridley has been able to reassess the many myths associated with this dramatic period for the first time. 'Superb . . . a perfectly candid portrait' Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph 'Riveting . . . Never a dull paragraph' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Times

Edward IV, (1442-1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death on 9 April 1483. In a turbulent world marred by civil war, Edward, 4th Duke of York-with good title to the throne-overthrew the corrupt government of the weak and feeble-minded Henry VI, setting the foundation stones for a strong and prosperous England. He was an able and successful king who rescued England from the misery of war and created her with a firm, judicious and popular government. Like his grandson, Henry VIII, he was tall and handsome as a young man. Also like his grandson he was pleasure-loving, and in his later years he was increasingly arbitrary and avaricious. Notwithstanding this, he proved capable of creating a successful and highly personal monarchy which in many ways set the scene for the Tudor monarchs who ruled throughout the sixteenth century through the bloodline of his eldest daughter, Elizabeth. Cora L. Scofield's two volumes are a magisterial record of this reign. Although other biographies have appeared, none have replaced this solid work of scholarship.In his authoritative and best-selling biography of Edward IV in 1975, Professor Charles Ross said '. ..my attempt ...has necessarily involved some foreshortening, and for details one must still refer to Miss C. L. Scofield's elaborate ...account of Yorkist foreign policy.'

In this new book royal historian Lady Colin Campbell covers The Queen's Marriage in intimate detail. Using her connections and impeccable sources she recounts details of the inside story of the monarch's relationship with the Duke of Edinburgh and her close family.

The fate of Richard III's nephews, Edward V and Richard of York, who disappeared after his coronation in 1483, remains controversial centuries after Thomas More's history and Shakespeare's play laid the blame on their conniving uncle. Later writers, unconvinced of the king's guilt, have tried (with little success) to portray him as an innocent victim of Tudor propaganda, pointing instead to a number of unlikely culprits, including Henry Tudor and the Duke of Buckingham. This book sifts through the available evidence concerning the fate of the two boys. The author examines the facts, discusses who may or may not have known key information and offers a reasoned solution to the question, What really happened to the two princes?

In 1936, the British monarchy faced the greatest threats to its survival in the modern era--the crisis of abdication and the menace of Nazism. The fate of the country rested in the hands of George V's sorely unequipped sons: *a stammering King George VI, terrified that the world might discover he was unfit to rule *a dull-witted Prince Henry, who wanted only a quiet life in the army *the too-glamorous Prince George, the Duke of Kent--a reformed hedonist who found new purpose in the RAF and would become the first royal to die in a mysterious plane crash *the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, deemed a Nazi-sympathizer and traitor to his own country--a man who had given it all up for love Princes at War is a riveting portrait of these four very different men miscast by fate, one of whom had to save the monarchy at a moment when kings and princes from across Europe were washing up on England's shores as the old order was overturned. Scandal and conspiracy swirled around the palace and its courtiers, among them dangerous cousins from across Europe's royal families, gold-digging American socialite Wallis Simpson, and the King's Lord Steward, upon whose estate Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess parachuted (seemingly by coincidence) as London burned under the Luftwaffe's tireless raids. Deborah Cadbury draws on new research, personal accounts from the royal archives, and other never-before-revealed sources to create a dazzling sequel to The King's Speech and tell the true and thrilling drama of Great Britain at war and of a staggering transformation for its monarchy.

This intimate and personal memoir of the present incumbent of Firle Place, the home in the South Downs of the Gage family for 500 years, is described as follows by Charles Moore: In this book, Nicky Gage describes his father's memoirs as 'masterly but short'. The same could be said of his own. Both when being funny - which, again and again, he is - and when being serious, he has a gift for economy of style. Take this chapter opening: 'Sadly, the sexual revolution of the 1960s passed me by, as I was either sitting on my tractor looking after sheep or occasionally visiting my parents - whose butler disapproved of my agricultural attire.' Without being tediously confessional, Nicky is direct about his own failings. One of these, he thinks, is that he took much too long to grow up. Is that such a failing? No doubt it caused some difficulties along the way, but his childlike quality is central to the charm to which all his friends testify. It has allowed him to stay open to the world. He became a father in his seventies and continues to paint and hunt in his mid-eighties, an age when most men would long have put aside such things. He possesses an invincible innocence, which lights up his blue eyes, and makes this book a delight. Sir John Gage made the family fortune in the first half of the 16th century. Nicky, his descendant, writes admiringly of Sir John's good intentions towards Firle expressed in his will. We should all admire Nicky's fulfilment of those intentions in the 21st.

** Now updated to cover Harry and Meghan Markle's engagement. ** Prince Henry of Wales has emerged as the unexpected jewel in the crown of the modern British monarchy. Despite his unruly antics, for which he's made headlines all over the world, Harry has won the nation's admiration and respect through his commitment to helping injured servicemen and women with the Invictus Games and his spearheading of mental health issues. With updated chapters on Harry's flourishing relationship with American actress Meghan Markle, Duncan Larcombe's insightful and highly entertaining biography is the inside story of how a young prince has grown and matured into a respected soldier, charitable fundraiser and national figurehead who still retains his reputation as a heart-throb and lovable rogue.