In times of conflict, the quest for cheering news becomes more urgent by the day. What is required is a prime slice of international gossip, and none is more succulent and sustaining than that dished up, over the centuries, by the British Royal Family. This time, as if by popular demand, the Firm as the Windsor clan is sometimes known, lending it a heavy-browed influence on which Tony Soprano would hesitate to trespass has surpassed itself. Documents released by the Public Record Office on January 30th shed a fresh and delectable light on the abdication crisis of 1936, when King...