A definitive account of the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936 draws on archival material and interviews with the king's closest friends to detail the role played by the king's opponents and supporters and the resulting scandal at a time when war was imminent.

Edward was the twentieth century's Prince Charming. He was handsome, eloquent, quick-witted, charismatic, a dazzling foil to his stuffy royal parents. He was a popular hero who saw firsthand the hell of the trenches in the Great War, who raged at the miseries of the Depression, who adored jazz, danced the night away and seemed the very embodiment of a new democratic royalty that would rule the greatest empire on earth. When he became King in 1936,...

Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson retains her pride and courage through an unhappy childhood, secures money and status through her lovers, and finds fame as the Duchess of Windsor.

In 1931, in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash, Polly Morland returns to Morland Place to save it from financial ruin, Jack seizes an opportunity to return to York, Robert seeks something grander than his London office job, and his sister Charlotte longs for a better life.

Considering Edward VIII's travels and interests as Prince of Wales as well as his relationship with Wallis Simpson and the course of events leading up to his abdication and subsequent exile, Once a King offers a previously unexplored lens through which we encounter first-hand the hitherto concealed subtlety and raw emotion of two of the twentieth century's most iconic Royal figures: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.