The Last Lion. Volume 2: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940

p. 383

Edward VIII, the King of England who abdicated in 1936 because of the crisis provoked by his marriage to Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee, was a Churchill friend. Churchill defended him during the crisis. Later, he had second thoughts. “To Churchill, Edward’s wrath, once majestic, now seemed more like petty whining. By now Winston had shed all illusions about the man he had championed at such cost to his own career and the cause he led. There was, he noted, no depth to the man; he never read a serious book, never gave the world’s affairs profound thought, and what he presented as opinion was merely narrow, ill-informed prejudice. He doted on his wife, who ordered him about, apparently to his delight.”