A Royal Family Episode 3: The Heirs to an Empire (Documentary)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] at the end of the 19th century the Danish King Kristin the ninth and his Queen Luise succeeded in marrying their six children into the leading European royal families and Christian the ninth thus became known as the father-in-law of Europe [Music] today his family are all over Europe and these royal descendants have quite exceptionally chosen to come together and talk about their family's incredible story a story that has been passed down to them through the generations in addition this great royal family has also made private photos and films available many of which have never been seen in public before this episode is about Christian the ninth daughter Alexandra and her descendants who have now sat on the British throne for over a hundred years [Music] as a result of problems with a Danish line of succession Prince Christian has been declared heir to the throne his oldest daughter Princess Alexandra is now 14 years old and the family reside in the yellow palace in Copenhagen they didn't have a lot of money so their lives were modest she became therefore very capable she made her own clothes she was able to help in the house on the staff stay off she would be able to Co killed help prepare like she make practical like that Prince Christian and Princess Louisa are very close to their children and they decide to teach them at home the mother taught them English divinity music I think and their father taught them drawing gymnastics of the four siblings she has thus far Alexandra is closest to her sister and Dagmar the two girls who share a modest room are completely unaware that one day they will be married to Europe's two most powerful sovereigns in England around 1860 Queen Victoria begins to think about who her eldest son 19 year old Prince Edward known as Bertie shall marry Edward had already refused I think six of seven princes say this one is ugly this one is cross hi this one is fat but many reason not to marry but he wanted to go on with his bachelor's life and also because he was rather naughty and was a bit of a de Bourgh she already it was difficult to find a princess my great-grandfather was not the most polished character that age and it was thought that he had to be married to somebody who would make him happy on the up basis that an unhappy heir to the throne would perhaps lead to the country being unstable ultimately so when Queen Victoria hears a rumor that the Russian Tsar is interested in having Princess Alexandra of Denmark as his daughter-in-law she immediately requests that a photograph of the princess be sent to her then what was a small par and I think that one of the reasons why then mark was a sick acceptable was that someone who came from Denmark there would be no strings attached it was not a major power Queen Victoria receives the portrait and she is impressed by what she sees she was sent food Alexandra for approval to Windsor and she remained one or two weeks alone with Queen Victoria in the Windsor to be examined and see if she would fit what's been terrified Queen Victoria was utterly charmed by her she was natural she was light she was attractive she was very had wonderful presence um everybody adored her but the Queen Victoria's very worried that she wouldn't take to Bertie her son the air himself is not best pleased he has just in all secrecy began an affair with an Irish actress yet he accepts his mother's decision and after having met Alexandra on a couple of occasions he becomes somewhat enamored of her and consume write a letter that pleases his mother I proposed to the princess and she said yes I cannot tell you how grateful I am I still feel as if everything is a dream she came here on the strict understanding that she had no lady-in-waiting or no maid even from Denmark for fear that the two of them will talk together in Danish languages nobody else understood and this would be disruptive and they might plot and plan things she really liked at what very much and they were really in love but I think for her it was not so easy to come to a sort of a big court where it wasn't a small tiny living together like in Copenhagen so she had to get used to a different life Queen Victoria appears at the wedding dressed in black as she is still in mourning for her husband who died a year ago [Music] she does not wish to mix with the guests in the church and thus observes the wedding ensconced in her box the ceremony goes according to plan yet in the middle of everything Alexandre catches sight of her four-year-old nephew the later kaiser vilem the second crawling around biting two of his kilt clad uncles on the knee an hour after the wedding Queen Victoria allows herself to be photographed sitting between the newlyweds and beside a bust of her dead princely husband [Music] Alexandra and Edward move into Marlborough house which the prince had received on his 18th birthday and despite the fact that the building is not in very good condition Princess Alexandra quickly becomes enamored of her beautiful London residence the drains were frightful to the extent even but a lot of the people in the house Co were called typhoid and typhoid was a terrible killer in those days it was rat infested the plumbing was beyond all belief it was overheated the sellers were so ever heated that they lost in one year 1,500 pounds worth of wine misses in the 1860s Alexandra gives birth to her first child two months too early a tragic destiny awaits the little prince who within the family is known as Eddie the royal couple travelled to Denmark to show off their firstborn [Music] the couple not only meet their own family in Denmark but also the Russian heir to the throne who is present to request Alexandra's sister's hand in marriage Edward cannot sit still he is occupied from morning to evening either riding sailing playing billiards or parlor games and the Danish cabinet secretary notes that the Russian and English courts behave very differently I remember one evening in particular in which the Prince of Wales had arranged that old game of changing seats he and his companions played with such unparalleled energy that my crown property in sensitive heart wants with horror as one fine old chair after another was broken into and the Russian gentleman observed these goings-on in complete astonishment [Music] in Britain Alexandra quickly becomes popular I think she was very much loved very much respected and very much admired but also because of her beauty she had I think what one would call real glamour though in those days the word I don't think believed I believed they were existed but she really was extraordinarily beautiful she invented new maquillage royalties maquillage she was the first one to understood that you have a royalty has to be seen from far so what do you do you paint yourself but much more than if you are seen from near so she painted a lot red pink anything and she understood also that your face had to be seen so no big hats so if they can see your face from far she invented also died Alexandra is hard of hearing and as a result of one of her pregnancies she also develops a problem with one of her legs she had a limp which because she was just a popular figure and always so one who turned out became a fad and people copied the limp within the space of five years alexandra produces five children amongst the children is prince george who many years later will be king even though he is not the oldest son alexander who became deaf so very early on must have been very cut off from people in general I'm sure that part of her possessiveness and her sort of almost clinging to her children may have been that she was in the I suppose in a way or a lonely person as the way the way deaf people can be frightfully lonely yet the hard-of-hearing Alexandra isolates herself with her children who she is very close to Alexandra brought up her children also in a very loving and close way it was nowhere near what the then courts of Europe used to do having nannies bring up the children until they were presentable and then presenting them they used to romp with her and and she let them run wild really use of some soda siphon fights and all sorts of things like that these children messing about left right and centre were pretty much a shock and horror to their grandmother Queen Victoria [Music] Queen Victoria does not pass on even the smallest official engagement to her son and the intelligent air does not find it easy having so little to do in 1870 his active nightlife in London begins to create problems the heir to the throne is dragged into court by a man who accuses him of having an affair with his 21 year old wife in 1875 he decides to travel to India which belongs to the British crown it has long been Alexandra's dream to travel to such distant exotic countries but her husband will not take her with him alone he takes off on a nine-month tour and in India he spends a lot of time big-game hunting tigers and elephants being particular favorites whilst in India he is incensed to read in a newspaper that his mother has decided to make herself Empress of India and that nobody has told him anything about it Edward and Alexandra do not have an easy marriage there was no intellectual base rarely between the two and as she got older and she got more deaf she tended to concentrate on those things which made her comfortable her children had dogs flowers and his eye began to wander I think but she was never jealous she despised jealousy and whenever there was a new lady she would always be very gracious to him in 1877 Edward begins an affair with a beautiful daughter of a priest Lily Langtry the affair lasts three years and by its end she has become one of England's most famous actresses Alexandra devotes a lot of time to her many dogs and they are buried in the garden of Marlborough house when they die amongst her favorite dogs are Togo given to Alexandra by the Empress of Japan and beauty a gift from the Russians are a number of the dogs are stuffed and mounted and the Russian Court doula Fabri shea makes small models of the pets the favorite rabbit is given its own gravestone in the garden she loved animals and people adored her and as they knew she liked animals they gave her animals and she had oh she had they had Tigers they had all sorts of animals at saundra home and they had a sort of menagerie there in the end alexandra is approaching 45 years of age and despite having given birth to a large number of children she is still amazingly slim on the other hand the fact that Edwards seldom consumes less than 12 courses for dinner every evening is beginning to show and a traveling fair the main attraction is a man who due to a rare illness has been born with a massively deformed face he is known as the Elephant Man one day alexandre visits the travelling fair he was a monster who was exhibited in affair as an object of curiosity she went to talk to him as he was a normal person how why and what you do he couldn't believe he was she was the first person who treated him as a human being and eventually he was taken into care in a hospital in London where even the nurses were so frightened of his appearance that they wouldn't go into his room Alexandre came along was completely unfazed and looked after him and went to see him very often they struck up something of a friendship and they would ask him for the rest of his life [Music] Alexandra focuses all her love on her two sons Eddie and George she does not have the same interest in her three daughters they are normally all dressed the same and always in a way that does not compete with their mother Eddie who was born to one day be king of Britain is a late developer and he has difficulty concentrating his cadet training has been a fiasco and his father despises his feminine dress tight clothes unusually large collars and extra-long cuffs yet in this Victorian stronghold of conservatism one doesn't speak about why he seems to prefer dressing this way the family attempts to marry Eddie off and they manage to arrange an engagement with a distant cousin Princess Mary of Teck the wedding is arranged but Eddie is struck down by influenza a few weeks before he is due to get married his condition deteriorates and he dies four days later Alexandra is shattered by the news and rights to her parents today I have buried my angel and with him my happiness he died in the arms of Mary and then Queen Victoria said now what do we do with Mary oh she managed the second one so after been engaged to the first one she became the wife of the second boy the wedding takes place in 1893 and although the marriage between the pair who one day are to be king and queen begins in unusual circumstances it nonetheless proves to be happy [Music] Edwards nephew has now become the german kaiser wilhelm ii and vilhelm who had Edward in Alexandra's wedding crawled around biting his uncle's on the knee is very ambitious I think he tried to show the world that even German is a strong country he had to complex somehow to show the oil that even Germany can do well politics and that was his mistake Wilhelm is extremely suspicious and fearing that his english-born mother will end up supporting the British he has her placed under observation during these years Edward devotes a lot of time to yacht racing and he's especially interested in the cowls regatta held off the coast of southern England yet his interest diminishes when kinds of vilhelm begins turning up to the regatta in his gilded Yacht horn salon the two combatants despise each other but nonetheless continued to sail against each other for many summers to come [Music] Edouard describes his nephew as history's most glorious mistake whilst vilhelm calls his uncle an old peacock [Music] one year ville home turns up with a new yacht which he has had built villains yacht was the time a copy of the Britannia but only bigger this is too much for Edward who will never race competitively again [Music] Queen Victoria has now been on the throne for 60 years and her Jubilee is celebrated in magnificent fashion [Music] [Applause] Alexandra loves charity events so she welcomes the opportunity to arrange a meal for 400,000 poor people London is the world's largest city and the center of an enormous Empire smog is beginning to be a problem people use coal to heat their homes and this pollutes the atmosphere which leads to many deaths from respiratory diseases the use of electric lighting is on the increase and horse-drawn buses fill the streets and horses play an important role in Edward's life - amongst much else the horse is irreplaceable when hunting [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Edward occasionally spends a little too much money but he also understands how to make it not least on the horses he breeds racehorses and is fortunate enough to win the Derby on a number of occasions which on top of the cash prize also contributes to increasing his popularity amongst the public in nineteen hundred year in which he brings home 31 thousand pounds from the Davi Alexandre and Edward visit Denmark as they have done so many times previously [Music] they travel via Brussels to Copenhagen by Royal Train however something unexpected takes place at the station in Brussels a young anarchists Belgian anarchists entered the the the train and drew out a handgun and fired at Edward and Alexandre missing them only to shoot between their their their heads so to say he was nevertheless caught and was stopped and nobody was injured the 15 year old assassin wants to take the life of the heir to the throne because of the British involvement in the Boer War in South Africa Queen Victoria dies aged 82 an Edward arranges an awe-inspiring funeral and from the very first day he appears extremely confident in his new role as King Edward the seventh [Applause] Edward and Alexandra move into Buckingham Palace and Edward does not have a single evening free of duties in his first year as king his list of official engagements and events he attends is without compare the custom was to each had quite a long table in the king and queen sat in the middle not at the end and the large number of course is probably a dozen and quite small and the king queen of course was served first at the same moment then he came around the table and the unimportant people were at the end and the moment the king and queen had finished they their fates were taken away and so were everybody else's so the people at the end the jury of people got nothing to eat whatsoever had to give back afterwards and have sandwiches in room only after his mother has been dead a year does EDD would allow himself a break he spends a week incognito in Paris but not with Queen Alexandra as his companion instead he's accompanied by his mistress Alice Keppel she has become Edwards permanent unofficial companion and they are seen together regularly and she manages to create such a good impression that even Alexandra accepts her and this will be underlined many years later she must have been an extraordinary because to come into this country and become the queen of this country to have this defect not being able to hear very well you know it couldn't have been very easy for her and her husband was a very active man and that wasn't couldn't have been easy for either but she survived all that she must have been quite an extraordinary day Edward also demonstrates his interest in beautiful women at the Opera one day my uncle Prince Felix Yusupov was in London and his mother was away and his mother's jewels were legendary apparently better than the Romanov jewels and he decided he'd dress as a woman and go to the Opera dressed in her jewels in a beautiful gown and he turned up an Alec Edward the seventh who had an eye for the women and saw this beautiful woman across the Opera House and wanted to be introduced after the performance and so Felix was introduced and of course the whole thing came apart because he realized it was Felix and there was a small scandal as a result the annual summer trip to visit her family in Denmark means a lot to Alexandra on her arrival this year she is met by her father Christian the ninth and other members of the royal family Alexandra always looks especially forward to meeting her sister Dagmar who is now Serena in Russia they were very attached to their roots and very attached to each other and of course they lived in very very far apart it's in Petersburg and and and and London is a very long far away from each other and in those days before the telephone I mean you would write letters and they would take some time to get there so being here was very important the sisters especially enjoy spending time together with their father who for many years now has been known as the father-in-law of Europe and with the brother who was King in Athens their younger brother William who was living in Greece was even further away than these two sisters so Elia only if only for that reason everybody wanted to be to meet in Denmark it was the the easiest place to be because there they were all on the same level their parents were the king in the Queen and these were just the younger generation they were very cheerful family they liked jokes they liked to laugh they were also rather sentimental they they loved a good cry they simply liked each other's company I think they prefer details companies to anybody else's Edwin has become increasingly tired of the many family reunions yet a tour in an automobile is always tempting Alexandra her sister Dagmar and Tsar Nicholas also go along for the drive [Music] [Applause] [Music] Edwards coronation is planned for the end of June 1902 yet 12 days before his due to be invested Edward is taken seriously ill whilst at Windsor the illness turns out to be appendicitis and this is at a time when only two successful operation is to remove the appendix have been carried out in the entire country the coronation is canceled with two days notice as the king is close to death a special train takes into London where surgeons are waiting to operate on him in a specially equipped operating theatre in Buckingham Palace King Edward becomes the third Briton to survive an appendicitis operation Edward makes a quick recovery and the coronation can take place in August 56 year old Alexandra who was still considered as Europe's most beautiful Queen is wearing a modern dress which clearly has no connection with the style adopted at previous coronation ceremonies she had a great dress sense for example she Morris designed her own coronation robes and she said of her milliner's and her dress makers I know more about her than any of them I shall wear exactly what her like and social my ladies Buster London's population is enraptured by the sight of the monarch and his popular queen she had a wonderful attributes everybody adored her but she could be quite headstrong quite stubborn and she was famously unpunctual everybody was always waiting for Tuesday / coronation Keegan Dodd was waiting finally he rolled his grand mother rushed the staircase and into the boudoir and the Alexandra Alex Alex do you want to be crowned yes or no and Alex appeared beautifully but yes my dear why why we go now covered in in jewels and very regal [Music] [Applause] Empress dogma and Queen Alexandra when their parents had birth died felt that they would still want to be able to go to Denmark but they did not want only to be able to stay as guests of their brother and sister-in-law probably because I did enjoy their sister-in-law that much so they bought a house for themselves they thought a very large villa on the coast just outside Copenhagen which is called v-0 villa is a modest villa compared with the accommodation the two sisters normally live in it is not only Alexandra who enjoys the simple life in Denmark the czarina also sets great store in the easily manageable conditions what do I need with my four hundred rooms in the Gatchina Palace I never used more than two they have the legend east west home is best engraved over the fireplace in the drawing room and it's here that they spend time together at least once a year Edward was not very fond of viscera and sort of the Danish quarter there at that time so he he stayed only one night into the urn and he had had definitely had enough Edward speaks many languages and through the years he has built up a comprehensive network of contacts abroad with Edward as king foreign policy is given a whole new emphasis for many years britain's foreign policy has been influenced by Queen Victoria's feelings for her family in Germany yet Edward is nervous at the thought of what his nephew the German Kaiser might decide to do Edward therefore decides to establish alliances as a counter to the ever more dominant Germany I think King Edward was a pretty effective King the famous aunt on cordial between England and France was very much as something which he was the architect of after reaching an agreement with France which resolves the colonial disagreements between the two countries Edward achieves a similar deal with Russia so the three countries now stand side-by-side on international questions in Germany Kaiser Wilhelm is angered by the new alliances and at a dinner is heard to state my uncle Edward is a devil nobody knows how big a devil he is [Music] edward has created the alliances in an attempt to maintain peace in Europe but he is not given the opportunity to find out if his efforts ultimately proved successful after nine years on the throne Edward dies of a lung infection in 1910 when he died his last mistress who was brought by the Queen I think to his bedside really when he was dying it says something for all of them four days Edwards favorite and ever faithful dog lies howling outside the door of the deceased Kings bedroom my great-grandfather had a little dog called Caesar which reserve Terrier and it actually took part in the funeral procession at the impressive funeral the faithful dog joins the procession immediately behind the casket as it moves through the streets of London [Music] [Applause] [Music] the year is 1910 and the monarchy is now made up of King George the fifth and Queen Mary George had inherited Mary on the death of his eldest brother the couple have five sons and a daughter and the king is very strict my grandfather King George the fifth was an interesting figure I think probably everyone was rather scared of him I didn't think Queen Mary was I think he relied on her enormous Lee they were a very I believe a very devoted couple and I think he needed that kind of reassurance and indeed that love that that she gave him [Music] tensions continue to increase in Europe not least in the Balkans where nationalism is on the rise [Music] in May 1913 king george v meets with his two cousins germany's Kaiser Wilhelm and Russia's Tsar Nicholas at a family reunion in Germany the following year they are the leading figures in a war that will result in incredible human suffering [Applause] the heir to the austro-hungarian throne is traveling through Sarajevo when he and his consort are murdered by a Serbian nationalist austro-hungary immediately declares war on Serbia and this sense of a chain reaction over the whole of Europe Kaiser Wilhelm who is allied to austro-hungary is the first to react when Germany declares war on Russia because of the Serbian affair France zips in immediately England steps in a day later two days later not more than that probably there wasn't hope that the whole thing will come out somehow and the war will be stopped but the Germans didn't want to stop the war [Music] [Applause] [Music] the first world war is very hard on George v who travels constantly to encourage the troops the USA enters the war on the side of Britain and her allies in 1917 and the following year Kaiser Wilhelm realizes that Germany cannot win the war he abdicates and flees to the Netherlands after four years of war approximately 10 million people have been killed a series of Peace Accords and treaties results in the drawing of a new map of Europe Poland is reestablished the austro-hungarian Empire is split up resulting in two new countries Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia Russia is divided up into a number of states and turkey appears out of the former Ottoman Empire [Applause] [Music] even though it's difficult to see Queen Alexandra is now 80 years old and extremely isolated by almost total deafness throughout the years her daughter Victoria has always been with her as a kind of lady in waiting she was I think a very possessive mother one of her daughters never married whether because she never wanted to marry or more because her mother wanted her there all the time I think that's very possible and then in the end she became an old maid not much loved by the rest of the family I'm afraid [Music] Alexandra dies of a heart attack a few days before her 81st birthday [Music] George v has lost his mother but immediately gains a grandchild who he becomes very fond of it is a girl who although she has not been born for a life at Buckingham Palace will come to reign over Britain for more than 50 years as Queen Elizabeth the second as a six-year-old Princess Elizabeth can hear her grandfather's voice on a crystal set George the fifth has just introduced a new tradition an annual Christmas radio address to the nation like the rest of the family Elizabeth and her sister Margaret are as yet unaware of the fact that their parents will soon become king and queen of Britain in his final years George the fifth becomes ever more introspective he was rather hypochondriac then I remember going to say goodbye to him once at a Twins own April or something I don't know but I did have hay fever and I used to sneeze among the Grouse gave off fallen and I sneezed before doing it get that damn child away you know what kind of thing went on but it was disconcerting at the age of 10 or something to be yelled at by your grandfather or to be yelled at by the king even though he was your grandfather bill Harwood is one of George the fifths grandchildren and the owner of Harwood house in Yorkshire the Earl has organised opera festivals around the world for over 50 years [Music] the flags at Buckingham Palace are lowered to half-mast on a gray January day King George the fifth is dead [Music] his oldest son Edward will now be known as King Edward the eighth he's 41 years old and unmarried yet for many years the new king has been in love with a married American woman Wallis Simpson she was a very popular thing but she spoiled his life completely shortly after Edward takes the throne Wallis Simpson is divorced for a second time and Edward is in no doubt now he will marry her his government's first would not accept a marriage with an American woman and the divorcee for that and I think the moment when he had to make a choice King Edward the eighth chose his heart and not what was his duty Edward the eighth accepts the consequences of his actions and abdicate ability and to discharge my duties as King as I help I love Edwards mother Queen Mary is devastated I think it hit her very strongly I think that she in a way never recovered from it I never heard her talk about it Edward and Wallis settle in France where they also choose to marry none of his close relations were prepared to come and be his best man and that none of them would come to the wedding and I think that hit him very hard the couple will never live in Britain Edwards younger brother is suddenly forced to take the throne completely unprepared and somewhat unsure of himself he is now King George the sixth fortunately he is supported by his Queen Elizabeth who will later become known as the Queen Mother she seemed and people now talk about it as if she was more prepared perhaps Thunder than he was the two of them first met as children and they have maintained their friendship ever since from childhood George had been hampered by a stutter and this had made him very shy it with the help of a speech therapist and the support of his wife his public speaking improves he was the Duke of York and the life of the Duke of York was probably exactly what he had dreamt of finding himself all of a sudden as King and Emperor was I'm sure just as was shocked to him as was to the British people the coronation takes place the following year and the page boys are expected to prepare thoroughly for the great ceremony including the Kings nephew the young Harwood we had rehearsal and of course that was not the fun which will run away from school to do it and people told one what to do and you walk to new stores and new got instructions who were rehearsed as if you were going to be in a play [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] after the coronation Elizabeth and Margaret joined their parents on the balcony of buckingham palace George the sixth is happiest when spending time together with his family and whenever possible he likes to potter around in his garden he used when one went to see him from school rules are they used to go around in the garden beginning at plants and pulling things up and all that kind of thing he was very keen about it serious gardener on the 3rd of September 1939 George the six speaks to the nation we are at war we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences between ourselves and those who are now our enemies but it has been in vain despite the fact that Buckingham Palace is bombed nine times during the Second World War the royal family refused to leave London George the sixes younger brother the Duke of Kent has married the Greek princess marina who like himself is a descendant of the father-in-law of Europe the Duke of Kent is in the Air Force during the war when tragedy strikes my father was killed in a flying accident in Scotland in 1942 and I was not when I was a few weeks hose I never knew him the Duke of Kent leaves three children including Prince Michael of Kent Prince Michael who has his own consulting company is Queen Elizabeth's cousin and Prince Philip's great nephew today he lives in Kensington Palace in London [Music] Princess Elizabeth has just turned 17 in 1943 and she will soon undertake her first solo official engagement the Princess Elizabeth of course was growing up in the war and by the end of the war she was 18 and she was sitting through the schooling things and I think she did quite a lot of semi military training learning to drive learning how to maintain vehicles change wheels and all that kind of thing and in 1945 the messages finally received that Germany has surrendered thus bringing the Second World War to an end [Music] a couple of years after the end of the war Elizabeth and her family undertake an extensive foreign tour and the princess enjoys her time in South Africa [Music] Elizabeth turned 21 on the tour and her thoughts are turning more and more to marriage Elizabeth presents her fiance shortly after her return from South Africa the Greek Danish Prince Philip fate egg you could say brought them together but the interesting part was in this context that they were both descendants of King Christian and Knights so you can say history still sort of repeating yourself [Music] the wedding takes place in Westminster Abbey in November 1947 and the couple's first child Prince Charles is born the year after two years later the lively Charles is joined by a sister Princess Anne the last time Elizabeth sees her father alive is when she leaves him to fly out on an official visit to Africa George the Six has lung cancer they turned one of the rooms of vacuum Paris into an operating theatre and he was operated inside the royal palace and then unfortunately after some time he died while the Princess of Wales was in Kenya the king was only 57 years old and the new queen now returning to Britain is just 26 in the summer 52 my mother took my two sisters May to England for the first time and we also that was very shortly after the english but ii had become queen and we went to visit her Louisa that Queen Mother and we visited old Queen Mary we had tea one afternoon at Maura house with Queen Mary where she lived and I remember they are seeing for the very first time a television set and that impressed me a lot television has been in Britain for many years and the following year millions of people are able to watch the coronation from their own homes [Music] and the carnation is the most sumptuous the world has yet seen [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the family continues to grow and Han and Charles take good care of their little brother Andrew a lot of Elizabeth's time as Queen is taken up on official business she meets with everyone from presidents to artists and in 1964 Prince Philip has the pleasure of presenting the prize for the best beat group to the Beatles and the couple's last child Edward is born in the same year Prince Charles studies archaeology and history at Cambridge and here he loves to perform in a number of various ways Charles has his sons William and Harry together with Princess Diana and as the oldest William will one day follow his father as king [Music] in the next episode we will follow Dagmar who like Alexandra is a daughter of the father-in-law of Europe Dagmar becomes czarina of Russia and her son later becomes Tsar Nicholas the second and suffers a gruesome fate because the second was weak but somehow he was down to earth even if he had no knowledge of what was going on whereas the Empress was totally lost in mystical clouds she had no link with reality whatsoever [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: undefined

Views: 1,041,053

Rating: 4.645607 out of 5

Keywords: queen margrethe ii, queen elizabeth ii, prince michael of kent, grand duchess josephine-charlotte, crown prince frederik, prince joachim, crown prince haakon, king harald v, royal, royalty, royal family, british royal family, swedish royal family, danish royal family, queen alexandra, queen maud, russian imperial family

Id: 8jywqvYgOLg

Length: 52min 27sec (3147 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 09 2017