‘Churchill and the Crown’ by Ted Powell review

There have been many notable courtier-politicians in British history. From William Cecil, confidant of Elizabeth I, through to Lord Melbourne, mentor to the young Queen Victoria, a close personal relationship between monarch and chief minister has often oiled the moving parts of the constitution. Feted for many things, Winston Churchill is seldom included in this roll-call of devoted servants of the Crown. Ted Powell’s fascinating new book is therefore welcome. It is a superbly researched and revealing study of a side of Churchill’s public life hitherto neglected by biographers and royal commentators alike. Born in the reign of Queen Victoria, he outlasted four kings, living on until the second decade of the new Elizabethan age. However, his longevity is only part of the story. Powell shows how assiduously Churchill cultivated contact with each royal of the 20th century, with varying degrees of success.

In his dealings with the Crown, Churchill had an advantage over most politicians: his family heritage. Powell describes brilliantly his ‘Marlborough complex’, that is to say, adulation of his ancestor, John Churchill, the 1st duke of Marlborough, who helped ease William III onto the throne in 1688 and who later found favour with Queen Anne as the pre-eminent military commander of the era. Churchill wrote a biography of the first duke (published in 1947) and constantly evoked his role in the shaping of constitutional monarchy. There were other more immediate family connections. Churchill’s mother, Jennie – ‘almost certainly’ one of the future king Edward VII’s lovers – smoothed his passage into an army commission, and later, once Winston entered Parliament, did her best to bring him to the attention of the palace.

Churchill’s faith in the monarchy often went unreciprocated. Edward VII disliked his apostate liberalism, called him a ‘cad’, and reprimanded him for his attacks on the House of Lords. Things didn’t improve under George V, particularly when Churchill joined the Admiralty. But even when relations soured, as Powell recounts, Churchill went beyond the call of duty, for example as home secretary negotiating George V through a potentially damaging libel case at the start of his reign (the king had been accused of bigamy in 1910).

In a highly readable volume packed full of original findings and insights, perhaps the most significant sections are those covering Churchill’s role in the abdication crisis of 1936, and also his weekly meetings with George VI during the Second World War. Powell describes how close Churchill and the prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII) became in the 1920s, the older politician taking the heir to the throne under his wing. A photograph of the two men playing polo together in 1924 neatly captures the dynamic. Out of office after 1929, and sidelined during the second premiership of Stanley Baldwin (1935-37), Churchill at least had the ear of the next monarch. It proved ‘calamitous’, according to Powell. In December 1936 Churchill took the side of the new king, encouraging him to resist Baldwin’s call for him to abdicate on the government’s terms. This low-point in Churchill’s career is well known, but Powell brings out just how loyal Churchill remained to Edward, visiting him in the south of France, ensuring he remained on the Civil List, and on the outbreak of war mediating between George VI and his exiled brother, so that he might be found something useful but also harmless to do. Clearly, Churchill had backed the wrong horse, but his insistence on proper protocol in dealing with royals stands out. Elsewhere in the book, Powell discusses Churchill’s relations with other exiled monarchs, such as Kaiser Wilhelm II. Churchill was so sympathetic to the deposed German emperor that, as prime minister, he suggested Wilhelm be offered asylum in Britain during the Second World War. After 1945 Churchill’s faith in constitutional monarchy as a bulwark against political extremism (especially communism) remained undimmed if somewhat unrealistic. Powell emphasises an overlooked part of Churchill’s vision of a new European order after 1945: his support for the restoration of many of the pre-1918 royal dynasties.

Inevitably, Churchill’s finest hour as a courtier-politician came during the war years. Powell makes effective use of the recently released diaries of George VI to document the partnership that evolved between the two men, particularly after 1942, by which time the king had put to one side Churchill’s misplaced advocacy on behalf of his brother, and Churchill had come to trust George VI’s advice, not least his views on naval strategy. In fact, the king seems to have become the closest thing Churchill had to a therapist, hearing him out when his ‘black dog’ moods descended. In turn, Churchill brought the king more and more into senior command. He attended the War Cabinet on occasion, and also received advance details of highly sensitive operations such as Operation Overlord and the Manhattan Project. Powell argues persuasively that Churchill’s personal popularity by the time of VE Day was as potent as that of the royal family – they had become inseparable – as the photograph of them on the balcony at Buckingham Palace attests.     

This enjoyable and fresh volume closes out with a chapter on Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II. Some of this will be superficially familiar from the Netflix series The Crown (in which John Lithgow played Churchill). But Powell embellishes what we already know with an eye for detail. For example, Churchill’s observation on meeting a three-year-old Prince Charles (‘he is young to think so much’). And he shows how it was Elizabeth who insisted on Churchill receiving a royal-style state funeral in January 1965.

Now in 2026 it is hard to imagine another British prime minister either being such `a card-carrying monarchist or operating so close to royalty. Winston Churchill seems closer to the Victorians than our modern ways. Nonetheless, the Churchills are still there, next to the throne. Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston, has long been part of the inner circle of Charles III.

• Churchill and the Crown 
  Ted Powell 
  Oxford University Press, 272pp, £20
  Buy from bookshop.org (affiliate link)

Miles Taylor is Professor of British History and Society at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.