Paul of Yugoslavia: Britain's Maligned Friend

Paul of Yugoslavia: Britain's Maligned Friend by Neil Balfour. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781550563979.

Prince Paul was an intimate friend of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, a trusted and much loved brother-in-law of the Duke and Duchess of Kent and a Knight of the Garter (one of the highest honors of the British Crown can confer). George VI, as Duke of York, had been his best man at his wedding in Belgrade in 1923. He had been educated at Oxford and his closest friends and outlook on life were British. From 1934 on, when he became Prince Regent of Yugoslavia until 1941, he sought to steer the best course for Yugoslavia, which would also be consistent with his own pro-British sympathies. Throughout this period he earned their friendship and admiration. Yet the British orchestrated and then acclaimed the 27th March Coup dEtat in Belgrade which overthrew Prince Pauls Regency as an act of "liberation". For the remainder of the war, British propaganda portrayed the 1941 Conspirators as national heroes and Prince Paul as a traitor and quisling. He was kept, with his family, under house arrest by the British in Africa for the remainder of the war while defamatory speeches in the House of Commons and in newspaper articles were, st best, allowed to go unanswered and, at worst, encouraged by the British authorities. A major reassessment of Prince Pauls place in the annals of European history is long overdue. He was true European, steeped in the literature, culture, traditions and civilization of his European world, yet he was a life-long supporter of Anglo-Saxon world - a believer in the values and achievements of the British Empire and an admirer of the confidence and drive of the United States Based on painstaking and scrupulous research, this book not only makes a valuable addition to the process of dispelling the unreasoning odium to which Prince Paul was exposed in Britain at the time of the Belgrade Coup dEtat of March 1941, but also places the achievements of his seven years of Regency of Yugoslavia in their true perspective.