Game of Crowns: Elizabeth, Camilla, Kate, and the Throne (39 page)

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With the end of primogeniture, Charlotte ranks fourth in line to the throne.

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Wearing the Queen Mother’s Lotus Flower tiara for her first state banquet at Buckingham Palace in October 2015, Kate was given a place of honor next to Chinese president Xi Jinping.

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His country’s queen looks on as newly elected Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau meets the Prince of Wales at the Commonwealth summit meeting in Malta in November 2015. Poll numbers show that Canada, Australia, and other nations do not want Charles as their king.

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Nearing the end of her reign, eighty-nine-year-old Elizabeth plants a tree in Malta, where she lived the more simple life of a naval officer’s wife before becoming queen.

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“I always knew,” Diana said even though she was married to the next king, “that I would never be the next queen.” Yet she was even more convinced that her husband’s hugely unpopular mistress, then so resented by the rest of the Royal Family, would never wear the crown.

It is no small irony that, in life but even more in death, the doomed Princess of Wales made it possible for the monarchy to embrace change and ultimately reward her archrival with the most coveted title of all: Queen.

When I had my first up-close encounter with Elizabeth, Charles, Philip, and the rest of the Royal Family in 1977 during Silver Jubilee services at Westminster Abbey marking the Queen’s twenty-fifth year on the throne, no one could have remotely imagined the tumult, scandal, triumph, and tragedy that lay in store for one of the world’s most ancient and revered institutions. As the Queen celebrates her ninetieth birthday and her sixty-fourth year on the throne in 2016, she has—again, largely thanks to the rebel princess Diana—proven herself to be a modern sovereign, able to adapt to the times and do what is necessary for the monarchy, and, more important, for her people. It is a new side of the woman named Elizabeth that even close friends, still convinced that the Queen would never abdicate, are slow to recognize. Whether she steps aside upon the death of Prince Philip, as she strongly indicated in 2015, or at some later point, the fact remains that none of her successors is likely to reign as long or be as much a part of our collective psyches as Elizabeth II. Simply put, this iconic figure has been a central actor on the world scene longer than anyone in history. If we all take a moment to think of what the world will be like without her in it, then even the most cynical among us have to admit we shall miss the Queen.

Having covered the Royal Family for more than thirty-five years and written several
New York Times
best sellers about this complicated clan, I
never cease to be amazed by the unexpected twists and turns taken in the continuing Windsor saga. As the Queen nears the inevitable end of her reign—now the longest in British history—the scramble for power behind the scenes has become even more riveting. In
Game of Crowns
, I sought to convey all the internecine drama, excitement, and intrigue going on behind palace walls.

Game of Crowns
gave me yet another opportunity to work with the marvelous people at Gallery Books. Mitchell Ivers, with whom I share a love of theater, American popular music, and politics—yes, these things do go together—is as passionate about the work and as skilled an editor as any author could wish for. I’m also grateful to my many other friends who make up the Gallery/Simon & Schuster team, including Louise Burke, Carolyn Reidy, Jennifer Bergstrom, Jennifer Robinson, Felice Javit, Natasha Simons, Jean Anne Rose, Paul O’Halloran, Elizabeth Lotto, Lisa Rivlin, Jaime Putorti, Al Madocs, and Sean Devlin.

Ellen Levine—close friend and colleague for thirty-one (gulp) years—is the most talented literary agent in the publishing industry, bar none. As any of her legion of loyal clients will attest, Ellen has the amazing ability to make you feel as if you are simply the only writer in the cosmos. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the rest of the marvelous people at Trident Media Group, Ellen’s associates Claire Roberts, Alexa Stark, Meredith Miller, and Alexander Slater.

For nearly a half-century (another, bigger gulp), my incredible wife, Valerie, has been both an inspiration and my partner in crime. Smart, funny, beautiful, unstoppable, and unafraid—perhaps the quality in her I most admire—Valerie has always had her own successful career and, as an active part of our community, made a difference in people’s lives. Of course, she has also always been an indispensable part of my work and my life. Our elder daughter, Kate Andersen Brower, a respected Washington journalist whose first book reached number one on the
New York Times
Best Seller List in 2015, has now discovered just how indispensable her mother’s input can be when crafting an important work of nonfiction. I realize it runs counter to the laws of nature, but I must confess I am extremely fond of my son-in-law, Brooke Brower. Not only is Brooke a highly-regarded, Washington-based network television news producer, but he and Kate are the parents of the inimitable Graham Andersen Brower and our Charlotte—Charlotte Beatrice Brower. We are also enormously proud of our younger daughter, Kelly, who has boldly chosen
her own distinct path. Kelly is studying for her master’s degree in contemporary art in London, and about to embark on her own promising career in the world of museums, auction houses, and galleries.

Additional thanks to Richard Kay, Peter Archer, Dr. Frederic Mailliez, Alan Hamilton, Jules Knight, Beatrice Hubert, Lord Mishcon, Mimi Massy-Birch, Lady Margaret Rhodes, Delissa Needham, Mark Shand, Lady Elsa Bowker, Philip Higgs, Hugh Massy-Birch, Lady Yolanda Joseph, Janet Jenkins, Guy Pelly, Hamish Barne, Andrew Gailey, Thierry Meresse, Elizabeth d’Erlanger, Andy Radford, Joan Rivers, Vivienne Parry, Jules de Rosee, Richard Greene, Adrian Munsey, Josy Duclos, Lynn Redgrave, Jeanne Lecorcher, the Countess of Romanones, Ezra Zilkha, Laura Watts, Harold Brooks-Baker, Mark Butt, John Kaufman, Geoffrey Bignell, Regina Feiler, Remi Gaston-Dreyfus, Natalie Symonds, Tom Freeman, Rachel Whitburn, Elizabeth Whiddett, Penny Russell-Smith, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Miriam Lefort, Pierre Trudeau, Penny Walker, Claude Garreck, Dee Ennifer, Patrick Demarchelier, Dudley Freeman, Peter Allen, Alfred Eisenstaedt, John Marion, Fred Hauptfuhrer, Jessica Hogan, Betty Kelly Sargent, James Whitaker, Alain-Phillipe Feutre, Ron Galella, Mary Robertson, Gered Mankowitz, Lord Olivier, Vivian Simon, Michelle Lapautre, Tom Corby, Cecile Zilkha, Kevin Lemarque, Pierre Suu, Hazel Southam, Norman Parkinson, Ray Whelan, Jr., Matthew Lutts, Tim Graham, Vincent Martin, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Sharman Douglas, Malcom Forbes, Tiffney Sanford, Amber Weitz, Andy Rouvalis, Yvette Reyes, Scott Burkhead, Bill Diehl, Tiffany Miller, Simone Dibley, Daniel Taylor, Ray Whelan, Sr., Paula Dranov, Mark Halpern, Rhoda Prelic, Liz Miller, Steve Stylandoudis, Julie Cammer, Marcel Turgot, Mary Beth Whelan, David McGough, Charles Furneaux, Connie Erickson, Mel Lyons, Lindsay Sutton, Andy Rouvalis, Francis Specker, Scott Burkhead, John Stillwell, James Price, Elizabeth Loth, Ian Walde, Wolfgang Rattay, Richard Grant, Mick Magsino, Lemma Salle, Tasha Hanna, Lawrence R. Mulligan, Jane Clucas, David Bergeron, Hilary Hard, Art Kaligos, Gary Gunderson, the Press Association, Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace, Clarence House, Marlborough College, Downe House, St. Andrew’s School, Eton, Ludgrove, St. Andrews University, Sandhurst, the BBC, Sky Television, Channel Four Television Ltd., the Times of London, the
Daily Mail
, the
Manchester Guardian
, the
Daily Telegraph
, the
Sunday Times
, the
Daily Express
, the New York Public Library, the Bancroft Library of the University
of California at Berkeley, the Gunn Memorial Library, the Brookfield Library, the Silas Bronson Library, the Litchfield Library, the Reform Club, the Lotos Club, the Lansdowne Club, the
New York Times
, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press Images, Globe Photos, and Rex USA.