The Mail on Sunday

The uncle left empty handed...

-

DAYS after becoming Queen, she had an awkward encounter with the black sheep of the family – the Duke of Windsor.

The meeting took place just before the funeral of her father, George VI.

The Duke’s main purpose in turning up was not to pay his respects to the late King, his grieving wife or the new Queen, but to ensure that the £10,000-ayear income (equivalent to about £300,000 now) he’d been receiving from his brother would continue.

A week after the funeral, still waiting to hear whether his Royal allowance was safe, he wrote to his wife Wallis: ‘It’s hell to be even this much dependent on these ice-veined bitches.’

Ultimately, though, he’d be grievously disappoint­ed.

In one of her first acts as Monarch, his niece cut his allowance completely.

The Duke – formerly Edward VIII – could at least console himself with the £1million he’d made the previous year from his memoir, A King’s Story.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom