دانلود کتاب Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor

From the book flapThe life of Queen Mary of England, paternal grandmother of Elizabeth II and mother of Edward VIII (later the Duke of Windsor) and George VI, is one of the great Cinderella stories of all time. Before she ascended the throne in 1910 as consort of George V, she was Princess May of Teck, the determined daughter of ambitious, flamboyant, but impoverished parents who were looked upon by Queen Victoria and her considerable royal progeny as their least consequential relatives. Her own sense of duty gave Princess May no option but to consent to become the future bride of the dissolute Duke of Clarence, who, though ineffectual and marked by scandal, was in direct line of succession. Within weeks of this engagement, her fiancé was to die mysteriously, but his death did not daunt Princess May. She then waged a successful campaign to become the wife of the duke's younger brother, the future George V.Within a decade of the beginning of her husband's reign, World War I had decimated the crowns of Europe, but Queen Mary became a crucial factor in maintaining the invincibility and vitality of the house of Windsor. Her early vicissitudes had honed her into a woman of inordinate strength, and her effect upon her children, two of whom were to be kings of England, was immense. She played a major role in the abdication of her oldest son, Edward VIII, and became the personal representative of all that Britain and the Monarchy stood for.Matriarch is a brilliant canvas that brings new life to the drama, the splendors, and the tragedies of the House of Windsor.