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War Of The Windsors
The year 2002 marked the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reign of any monarch of the House of Windsor. Yet the future of the monarchy is by no means certain, not simply due to today's more egalitarian era, but also because of fundamental weaknesses with the royal house itself. While many of its failings are well known, hidden from public scrutiny are more disturbing activities for which the royals have never been held to account. Until now. In this controversial new book, bestselling authors Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince, Stephen Prior and Robert Brydon reveal the truth behind Britain's modern monarchy. War of the Windsors exposes Lord Mountbatten's ruthless scheming to make Britain's ruling family the House of the real untold story of the abdication of Edward VIII; the existence of a shadowy cabal committed to protecting the royal image; and the truth behind notorious spy Anthony Blunt's connections to the Royal Family. Sensationally revealed are the unconstitutional behaviour of the House of Windsor; the cover-up of major financial scandals connected with George VI and other kings; the routine use of euthanasia to dispatch those who inconveniently linger - and new evidence concerning the deaths of Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales.
368 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 13, 2009
I felt slightly guilty in the end considering it was for a book challenge task in honour of The Queens birthday.. i wont be getting a knighthood any time soon!. Actually H.M comes out relatively unscathed but in general the whole House of Windsor is summarily blasted. Its a definate page turner - we all love a scandal don't we?. Its seemingly very well researched and does point out clearly where things cant be proven and what facts there are. The more you go on, it does seem the more they had to find on them to keep up the pace so it seems whilst the majority of the book is extremely likely to be accurate there are one or two claims when you think, now come on thats a bit much.
e.g - The famous Soviet spy Anthony Blunt who was the Queens Art curator who managed to stay in close contact and in his job with the Royals for 15yrs after being uncovered as a traitor before it became public - the authors suggest was possibly an illegitimate child of George V, hence family resemblences and he new secrets, hence looked after.
- Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Charles favorite uncle and National War hero, while quite conviningly being shown to have been a megalomaniac, incompetent, bisexual and who pushed Prince Philip into tge royal marriage in order to create a dynastic house of Mountbatten (which Prince Charles may well adopt the title of on his accession), is suggested to have been in cahoots with the Soviets and finally killed not by the IRA but by the KGB getting rid of evidence under the guise of the IRA - hmm not sure about that one! Why would a prominent Royal be pro communist being the atipethis of everything communism stands for and at the same time promote his familys dynastic claims
Most of the rest of the book however enlightens us on some other interesting facts, most of which either now well known to the public or corroborated by other researchers suggestions.
Famously the Windsor dynastic line were never really British at and came to power through an obsucre German count who was 52nd in line to the thrown but happened to be the closes related protestant they could find after Queen Annne. Following anti-german feeling during the first world war they reluctantly changed their name to Windsor to try be as british as possible but still remained on excellent terms with the German royal families. They were looked down on by the blue blood english aristocracy who really were decended from English nobility.
Communism was seen as the ultimate threat given what happened to their cousins the Romanovs so though hopefully unaware of the true nature of Nazi-ism were very pro German even during the war and frequently tried to bring behind the scenes peace with Germany to side with them over the Russians.
At various times George the V was shown to have made unconstitutional influences over the government and it is claimed MRS Simpson was a convenient scape goat to force Edward the VIII into abdication because his views were so reactionary and he did not plan on being a hands-off monarch allowing the elected government to do its thing.
The Queen mum is claimed to have been after Edward but settled for second best with George VI hence her unending hatred and snubbing of the Duchess of Windsor who was refused a royal title.
All this and more ! certianly a fascinating read - thoroughly enjoyed it.
e.g - The famous Soviet spy Anthony Blunt who was the Queens Art curator who managed to stay in close contact and in his job with the Royals for 15yrs after being uncovered as a traitor before it became public - the authors suggest was possibly an illegitimate child of George V, hence family resemblences and he new secrets, hence looked after.
- Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Charles favorite uncle and National War hero, while quite conviningly being shown to have been a megalomaniac, incompetent, bisexual and who pushed Prince Philip into tge royal marriage in order to create a dynastic house of Mountbatten (which Prince Charles may well adopt the title of on his accession), is suggested to have been in cahoots with the Soviets and finally killed not by the IRA but by the KGB getting rid of evidence under the guise of the IRA - hmm not sure about that one! Why would a prominent Royal be pro communist being the atipethis of everything communism stands for and at the same time promote his familys dynastic claims
Most of the rest of the book however enlightens us on some other interesting facts, most of which either now well known to the public or corroborated by other researchers suggestions.
Famously the Windsor dynastic line were never really British at and came to power through an obsucre German count who was 52nd in line to the thrown but happened to be the closes related protestant they could find after Queen Annne. Following anti-german feeling during the first world war they reluctantly changed their name to Windsor to try be as british as possible but still remained on excellent terms with the German royal families. They were looked down on by the blue blood english aristocracy who really were decended from English nobility.
Communism was seen as the ultimate threat given what happened to their cousins the Romanovs so though hopefully unaware of the true nature of Nazi-ism were very pro German even during the war and frequently tried to bring behind the scenes peace with Germany to side with them over the Russians.
At various times George the V was shown to have made unconstitutional influences over the government and it is claimed MRS Simpson was a convenient scape goat to force Edward the VIII into abdication because his views were so reactionary and he did not plan on being a hands-off monarch allowing the elected government to do its thing.
The Queen mum is claimed to have been after Edward but settled for second best with George VI hence her unending hatred and snubbing of the Duchess of Windsor who was refused a royal title.
All this and more ! certianly a fascinating read - thoroughly enjoyed it.
February 21, 2016
I pretty much wanted to read the latter chapters of Charles and Diana. So I did. And it was great :) So scandalicious.
October 16, 2013
A hoot - very entertaining, if you love a good conspiracy theory.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews