Battle royal Quotes

“David might have hoped that his parents would adopt a less authoritarian attitude towards him, now that he was at University. But such a thought evidently did not occur to them, for they even removed from their son the small pleasure of finding his own Christmas presents for them. That year the King had set his heart on a gold soup bowl, and to avoid any disappointment, ordered it on David's behalf. It cost £150. ‘I only that you won't mind,’ wrote Queen Mary, who that spring had bought a couple of charming old Chinese cloisonné cups (price £12) for her son to give her as a birthday present.”
― Kirsty McLeod, Battle royal: Edward VIII & George VI : brother against brother

“Thirteen years earlier, in the week of David's birth, The Times in its Parliamentary report had carried the famous prediction of the first Labour MP, the Member for West Ham South, Keir Hardie. In opposing a motion that a humble address be presented to Her Majesty to congratulate her on the birth of a son, Keir Hardie addressed the House on behalf of those who disowned any allegiance to hereditary rule. To a background of cries of ‘Order!’ and shouts of outrage, he questioned ‘what particular blessing the Royal Family has conferred on the nation.’ Then he turned his fire upon the new-born child who would be called upon one day to rule over the Empire. “We certainly have no means of knowing his qualifications or fitness for this position,” the MP declared. “From childhood onward this child will be surrounded by sycophants and flatterers by the score and will be taught to believe himself as of a superior creation. A line will be drawn between him and the people he is to be called upon someday to reign over. In due course, following the precedent which has already been set, he will be sent on a tour round the world, and probably rumours of a morganatic alliance will follow, and the end of it all will be (that) the country will be called upon to pay the bill.”

Keir Hardie sat down to universal cries of ‘Shame!’ from a House of Commons which, forty years later, would as unanimously shout down Winston Churchill‘s efforts to prevent Edward VIII from fulfilling these dire predictions.”
― Kirsty McLeod, Battle royal: Edward VIII & George VI : brother against brother

“Bertie became a tennis ace, who played in the doubles of the 1926 Wimbledon championships. And he held a unique cricketing hat-trick, dismissing in three consecutive balls, in a game of garden cricket, three consecutive English kings: his grandfather ( Edward VII), his father (George V), and his brother (Edward VIII).”
― Kirsty McLeod, Battle royal: Edward VIII & George VI : brother against brother