Customer Reviews

The Rise and Fall of the House of Windsor

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I had read this book before, but just re-read it this weekend.
It is one of the best books on the British Royal Family that I have read. The author's insights and observations are right on target. It was published in 1993 before the tragic death of Princess Diana, but that does not change his thoughts on the problems of the monarchy. Nothing will change until the death of Queen Elizabeth II as she is too bound up in tradition to modernize. The whole family lives in a time warp.

I recommend this book highly to anyone who is interested in the history of the House of Windsor and how it is crumbling.

This book is largely opinion- and speculation-based and annoyingly repetitive. Also, the faulty 1992 perspective (Charles will never re-marry, Diana will always be the mother of a future King) sometimes makes it hard to put much faith in the author's other claims.

Various times I would start to give up on this book, but then there would be another interesting tidbit, so I stayed with it. It was worth it, and I recommend the book, but it will annoy you.

One reason I was glad I kept reading was that the real shocker comes at the end--and I don't consider this a spoiler; in fact I'm surprised the author doesn't mention it in the first chapter--when Wilson recommends abandoning the House of Windsor for British Monarchs. I won't mention whom he prefers for a replacement dynasty.

The author reminds us that the Monarch has always historically served at the pleasure of the aristocracy, the main problem being that the aristocracy lost its hold during Elizabeth II's reign. I hadn't thought of it in that way before, but I was reminded of Tina Brown's book on Diana, The Diana Chronicles, where she points out that the Spencers are a much older, more important family than the Windsors.
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