The duke of York, nicknamed Bertie, was born as royal 'spare heir', younger brother to the prince of Wales, and thus expected to spend a relatively private life with his Scottish wife Elisabeth Bowes-Lyon and their daughters, in the shadow of their reigning father, George V, and next that of his elder brother who succeeded to the British throne as Edward VIII. However Edward decides to put his love for a divorced American, Wallis Simpson, above dynastic duty, and ends up abdicating the throne, which now falls to Bertie, who reigns as George VI. Now he expects to be, as constitutional monarch, little more then a figure head, but again faith has more in store for him: Nazi Germany proves such a formidable war challenger to the British Empire that the nearly desperate nation looks to its royal couple as comforting symbol of the unbroken spirit, a part they play with great success, while hosting chased monarchs and governments from continental Europe...

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