Why The Queen Mother Never Grew To Like Philip | Behind Palace Doors | Absolute History

[Music] on the 2nd of June 1953 the 27 year old Princess Elizabeth became Queen in a glittering pageant dating back almost a thousand years now this holiest of rituals concealed the unholiest of rails in the House of Windsor leading up to the coronation successive monarchs had harnessed the coronation to set the tone for their ring this ceremony was an opportunity to showcase a thoroughly modern monarchy Prince Philip was all in favor of a fresh and dynamic style for a new reign but he was met with a wall of resistance there were these forces of tradition were much much older people reigned up again against him every time he tried to do something he was slapped on by the old guard of the courtiers even by Queen Mary who described him on one famous occasion as that damned fool Edinburgh unfortunately for Philip the traditionalists included his new mother-in-law who was determined that her daughter's reign would be a seamless continuation of her own the Queen Martha was very protective of her dynasty and nothing and no one was going to get in the way of that the scene was set for conflict in the build-up to the coronation the two opposing sides the old and the new would clash repeatedly the Queen was caught in the middle [Music] this is London if chills with the greatest sorrow that the King on February the 6th 1941 ounce that King George the sick had passed away peacefully in his sleep early that morning King George the sixth premature death at the age of 56 was not only a dreadful loss for his family for them it marked a traumatic change in their roles and status BBC offers profound sympathy to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family [Music] Elizabeth aged only 25 was catapulted prematurely onto the throne her coronation were not only sanctify her role as monarch there was to symbolize a new era in British history there was a lot made of the prospect that this was going to be the beginning of a new as an Elizabethan age Churchill made the point himself and he referred back to the genius of the Tudors and hope that it was going to occur again the coronation was to be the perfect tonic for post-war austerity it showed that a victorious nation had recovered from the Second World War that peace and prosperity had returned it also seemed to show that British power was intact it was a pageant of empire [Music] the stakes were high and with so many expectations riding on the coronation 16 months were given to plan and rehearse this event the to choreograph the role family's new roles would be an even more demanding task and the Queen Mother and Prince Phillip found they were moving two very different rhythms he was seen to be a new Prince Albert a consort for the jet age the way that he presented himself as a man of science technology industry the future was part of his own attempt to be taken seriously and to be absolutely at the forefront of how the monarchy was seeing but the Queen Mother saw no need for change and for Philips jet age dynamism she was very much a matriarch she was determined that what she and her late husband had begun was going to continue throughout the 20th century and beyond and that was a monarchy of tradition stability continuity and probity the Queen Mother saw her daughter's coronation is a chance to celebrate this who organized the coronation and the way that the coronation was organized was all about maintaining tradition to present an idea of seamless continuity over the centuries and the main purpose was to get it as close as possible to the coronation of George the Six the Queen's father's coronation had been a deeply traditional display of majesty in archaic ritual it boosted the confidence of the monarchy badly shaken after Edward the Eighth had abandoned his throne to marry Wallis Simpson the queen mother joined wholeheartedly in the effort to restore stability to the crown they were much better qualified than they realized because they had this very good stable family relationship and I think also that the British public preferred the kind of Sunday lunch afternoon tea walk in the park image that the royal family projected to the rather sort of brittle cocktail shaker world of the King Edward the eighth and mrs. Simpson she was charming she was outgoing she knew how to talk to people in a very relaxed kind of way she was a commoner but she had the magic touch and people tended to fall in love with her and I think she did an enormous amount to create the matriarchy which her daughter inherited she was determined to safeguard the carefully managed image of the royal family that she had projected on the coming Queen she had turned to London's top society couturier Norman Hartnell to rebrand her and he created her signature look exuberant layers of crinoline the new look went on test on a state visit to the style capital of the world Paris in July in 1938 unfortunately three weeks before the the state visit was to take place it was the first state visit of their reign her mother died while that normally meant court mourning for six months well she couldn't really go to that great fashionable city in black but um Queen Mary had actually often worn white in widowhood and white is also a color of mourning and so they interpreted that and so Hartnell then ran her up this fantastic white wardrobe Queen Elizabeth left London in black and emerged in Paris in white and dazzled them all like mad Hartnell's designs make the queen-mother a fashion sensation the jackie kennedy of her day but the new role chemistry really began to fizz when the queen-mother met the infamous league a photographer Cecil Beaton [Music] Cecil Beaton was summoned to Buckingham Palace to photograph Queen Elizabeth and out came more versions of this white portrait and of course between the two of them they created in a way this this new image what better hands could she have fallen into than the hands of Norman Hartnell and Cecil Beaton both of whom had an immense flair and style flanked by these camp generals the Queen mother had rebranded the Royal image they had captured that elusive thing a fairy tale queen with a human face now she would call on them to spin their magic for her daughter's coronation even as she herself at the age of 51 was forced to stand aside it must have been upsetting to see all that terrific deference etc etc all the power going to her daughter and herself elbowed into the shadows [Music] dealing with their new son in law's innovative views was also a challenge he seemed to be somebody who could threaten the stability of the monarchy in the way that King Edward the eighth had done the Queen's husband with his whiff of modernity and his international family background was treated with suspicion by the establishment who was this young man Prince Philip Philip of Greece was he a real Prince why were his parents for example his father had died in France during the war is his mother who was sort of in Greece but but who were they his sisters well hadn't they all mattered Germans and weren't some of those Germans Nazis he was too many people a suspect character the prince from nowhere he's got Russian ancestry and German ancestry and he's completely polyglot he's very royal but he is in a sense a European he doesn't really in a way come from anywhere and I think you know this sort of sense of being a slightly displaced person albeit royal actually explains quite a lot about him Philips background didn't help him win the confidence of his mother-in-law she felt that Philip was with all these mysterious European connections he wasn't a sound chap he was he was dangerous I'm not sure he was really her sort of man if you look at the friend she had you know that I don't think he really was and this is perhaps well a strong thing to say but she was tremendously anti-german Philip was perhaps not the Queen Mother's ideal son-in-law but he had won her daughter's heart he suddenly found himself at the center of a great ruling dynasty and he wasn't the sort of person to take a back seat I think that he felt that what he got was a billet for life which was something that he had singularly lacked in his youth when he'd been I mean he had to wear hand-me-downs from Lord Mountbatten he had he'd really been very badly off now at last he had found a wife with all the money in the world and he expected to benefit from this terrific position that he'd now got at least for the first years of their lives together it seemed that Philip was able to wear the trousers his career was taken off in the Navy and in 1949 he was posted to Malta as first leftenant to the destroyer hms checkers when Prince Philip McQueen of course she wasn't she was Princess Elizabeth them lived in mortar the sort of ordinary service life of a naval couple it was probably the happiest most normal period of their life the Queen was terribly happy because of course she was then quits only a princess and she was away from the public glare and she was shielded by my baton who was the commander-in-chief locally on Kuchiki so she became nearest to normal when she was actually in mortar as a naval officer's wife [Music] but this break from royal life was to be short-lived in July 1951 Philip and Elizabeth was summoned back to London the king was gravely ill it was Elizabeth duty to be by his side and Philips to be by hers [Music] when six months later the King died Philips much-loved naval career was also dealt a deadly blow he'd always led a very independent private life in the Navy he been school here and I think that suddenly from being sort of the Queen's husband and playing a quite a big role like that he suddenly realized you know that they was walking two steps behind uh sort of thing you know he said when the late King died everything changed within weeks the dusty machinery of states creaked into action to plan the coronation reassuringly for the Queen Mother it was headed by the Duke of Norfolk the man who had organized her husband's coronation he was a very conservative man for him the coronation was all about maintaining tradition and continuity and that was how the Duke of Norfolk wanted to keep it when Philip asked the Archbishop of Canterbury how some features relevant to the world today could be introduced into the ceremony he was brushed off and this tyranny of tradition extended beyond the coronation and into every area of royal life Philip and Elizabeth were even forced into an unwelcome house swap after Georgian six death it was inevitable that the new royal couple the Queen Elizabeth and and Philip would have to move into Buckingham Palace this was something that Philip didn't want he didn't want to leave Clarence House which he'd spent a fortune on redecorating it was all very nice and suited him it was a small palace but it was also like a large London home and they enjoyed it there they made a proper home of it and when the Queen became Queen Prince Philip's idea was that the family should continue a Clarence House the official business could be done from Buckingham Palace but their home would continue to be down the MAL at Clarence House he produced a document setting out the reasons I this is the best way forward his piece of paper was dismissed the Queen was obviously influenced by Philip but in the last resort she had to do want her official advisors told her and so when Churchill said they must move into Buckingham Palace she had to go along with this Prince Philip's view counted for nothing the Prime Minister's you went for everything there was another problem Buckingham Palace already had an occupant the Queen Mother and she was in no hurry to downshift to the mere four-story mansion Clarence House I know it sounds strange said she thought it was too small we would now think it was the perfect size residence but of course times have moved on so Philip found himself reluctantly living with his mother-in-law surrounded by her camp courtiers [Music] I think it was difficult for Philip when they moved into bucking paths because the the Queen Mother was there though Queen's sister was there he was surrounded by all these women and he was server their aisle man's man of his own and he didn't he didn't he found this rather I I think he found this rather tarsem even the Queen's formidable grandmother Queen Mary was still alive and living down the mail at Marlborough house if this was hard to live with the leaden pace of life at Buckingham Palace which had so suited the Queen Mother was almost intolerable for Philip when he got there he found this fusty old-fashioned setup and he felt that what was necessary was to modernize the whole place there were all sorts of people with vested interests in this and people who had to light the candles and people who had got to wear particular uniforms and appear at particular times it was really rather absurd so he was most impatient with this and he was most impatient of all with Sir Alan Lascelles the Queen's private secretary who was the personification of old fashions and he very much looked down his nose at this brash young naval officer who would come in and try to turn the health system on its head if you wanted to send a message to another member of the family in Buckingham Palace you've summoned a footman and you gave him a handwritten mate which he put on herself and he walked at half a mile to the other part of the palace and gave it to the other member of the family [Music] and Prince Philip said this is ridiculous in the Navy we have walkie-talkies why can't we have them in the palace well of course a certain sort of in a palace bureaucrat was absolutely appalled at this idea they'd always used footmen with us itself as how could they possibly do anything else the court has found the Queen most of them worked for the Queen's father were very much old school English public school types I think Princess Margaret calls them the men with mustaches men who'd fought in the First World War would all been to the same schools who looked out on Prince Philip as a foreigner and a penniless foreigner even my if he might been royalty he wasn't first-class royalty [Music] Philip escaped the palace walls through a social life mixing with his type of people he had had quite a colorful life before he was married and it didn't take him long to resume the rather rackety existence that he had adopted as a young licentiousness er after Elizabeth and he got married and certainly when she was preoccupied with her royal duties he tended to be off in rather shall we say unsuitable company amongst those deemed unsuitable was the Society photographer Baron noun he had photograph the royal wedding and was to become a candidate to take the official coronation portrait his rival would be the Queen mother's favorite Cecil Beaton while Beaton was notoriously camp baron was an infamous philanderer well it was quite often we'd have to go and wake Baron up several times I had sort of girlfriend shouts up the stairs and he'd roll out of bed and there's always some woman there principle it found him rather fun musing quite often we helped him with his parties they've always quite fun soul parties and various interesting friends would be there pretty girls and I think principally found humors in a way it's like to escape from the rigors of the palace it was a testosterone-fueled social scene and was populated by bohemian types amongst the actors newspaper editors artists and authors were David Niven and Peter Ustinov the spike in Philby and the later infamous Stephen Ward Barron even set up a regular gathering for Philip they called themselves the Thursday Club it was a luncheon club dedicated I supposed to the idea that weekend's of lucky people started on clear space and you took Friday off from work and like by Saturday and Sunday and only started again on Monday it was full of faintly raffish faintly lose people letting off steam they probably having slightly too much to drink possibly a telling slightly off-color stories and when he was went down any of these parties he would be very relaxed and he'd enjoy company I didn't know what happened afterwards and he invited these servo Knights were just the short escape at home Philips efforts at reform were being blocked even by the one person he might have expected to be an ally some marriages work because the people are very similar some work because the people are very different for the Queen and Prince Phillip are very different people she sided with the old guard she is a traditionalist she followed in the footsteps of her father so there's a tension there she was the personification herself of duty of obedience she knew that this was what she was having to sacrifice her own satisfactions to be what she was and therefore there was inevitably a good deal of friction with her husband and his position wasn't made any easier by the presence in the palace of the formidable Queen Mother [Music] one of the reasons Philip felt so frustrated by the court was that his mother-in-law was very much a power behind the throne and she was no moderniser the Queen Mother was still living in Buckingham Palace although conventions a month at she move out to make way for her daughter when sessile Beaton visited her he wrote that he suspected the heating had been turned off to try and freeze her out some of the higher up servants of the palace couldn't think why the Queen Mother stayed on here so long when I passed by the Queen mother's old rooms I noticed that the walls were bare the furniture had been taken away and the rooms were below freezing but it wasn't just her home she was hanging on to and there to help was her ally Winston Churchill she was encouraged by Churchill to continue in public life and actually she was quite pleased to do that so she resumed the Royal life Butler had to play second fiddle obviously to her own daughter [Music] traditionally a Dowager Queen would retire into the shadows but this wasn't a case for the 52 year old Queen Mother symbolically Elizabeth ordered a despatch box to be made for her and even made her a councillor of state the first Dowager Queen in British history to become one although Phillip was boxed in by the forces of tradition he could see one way of making an impact on the House of Windsor perhaps the dynasty could have a new name his name there were issues he of course what was his family name his family name ended in the word glücksburg well it was quite complicated I don't think anyone thought he was gonna be called groups burg he changed his name to Mountbatten when he became engaged to the Queen so was he going to was the royal house to be called Mountbatten it was very important to his uncle Lord Mountbatten who saw himself as a sort of kingmaker as a power behind the throne and it mattered a lot to him that he should be in some way associated with a royal house which included the word Mountbatten shortly after Elizabeth's accession Mountbatten boasted at a dinner party that the house of Mountbatten now ruled this got back to the Queen Mother and the Queen and Churchill all of whom were horrified I think I know exactly what the Queen Mother thought about Lord Mountbatten I think I know pretty much what brought my bat and thought about the Queen Mother I think there was what you call a want of sympathy between the two of them and a considerable distrust on her part Philip threw himself into the campaign to alter the family name with a brisk naval efficiency when Prince Philip submitted a memo to the cabinet arguing in a very rational and moderate way that perhaps the Royal Family's name should now change from Windsor to Mountbatten the cabinet unanimously with the support of the rest of the royal family the cabinet unanimously decided to keep the name Winsor the pitifully I think he was upset about that because um you know that that was about the the only dynastic contribution that he could make that did infuriate him he wasn't hung up on the name Mountbatten I think he'd annoys and when people think he was obsessed that the family should be called Mountbatten it was the principle that he was not able to hand on to his children his family name the stakes for Philip were high a name change would have acknowledged his status but on the 9th of April 1952 the Queen siding with her family and advisers signed a royal proclamation stating her descendants will be called Windsor Philip allegedly responded to the news I'm just a bloody amoeba I'm the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his children he did feel in some ways emasculated by this infuriated angered antagonized and I think it must have been difficult for the Queen in some ways because of not wanting to hurt her husband in a to an extent he was pushed on to one side so I think that from the point of view of actually maintaining very good marital relations it was quite important the Prince Philip should be seen to have a job recognizing Philips mounting frustration she hoped to compensate him in some ways by giving him complete control over their children's education and over the Royal estates but in a more public gesture Elizabeth also made Philip head of the coronation committee [Music] the coronation was to be the biggest royal event of the 20th century and Phillip threw himself into the organization with his characteristic gusto there were lots of Commonwealth troops coming to United Kingdom they were stationed all over the country and the Duke of Edinburgh as chairman of the Commission thought that he should go and visit them all troops from around the Empire around the Commonwealth so he looked at the logistics he did this with his own private secretary a guy called mike Parker the pair of them sat down with some maps worked out where everybody was decided the best way to do this would be by helicopter that's the way it should be done dynamically they got a helicopter from the Royal Navy Philip was in the Royal Navy they borrowed this helicopter and off they went to visit all these troops well as the Duke of Edinburgh said to me it caused quite a ruckus I'm Churchill was furious because as far as he was concerned anyone traveled on horseback basically and he'd taken part in the last cavalry charge for British history and helicopters were the invention of the devil and he actually said to principally Paul said to his aquarii is Prince Philip trying to kill off the entire royal family what's he doing you know I don't want him traveling about in helicopters there was a lot of pettifogging bureaucracy he had not sought the necessary permissions to do this he just got on and done it and his secretary Mike Parker was hauled in to 10 Downing Street and wrapped over the knuckles given a severe dressing down by the prime minister himself so the chairman of the coronation Commission was told in no uncertain terms you've got to do it our way not your way to make it worse it became clear that Philip had no real power at all [Music] they did their best to involved Prince Philip but the real part wasn't in his hands the real power was in the hands of his deputy chairman the Duke of Norfolk chief Butler of all England the man who traditionally runs these kinds of affairs but the modern world couldn't be totally excluded television was in its infancy this new medium had never been a factor in previous coronations would it be welcomed or rejected by the Royals in the early days of post-war television we used to televise any royal occasion that we possibly could and so when the coronation that that was clearly going to be the most wonderful occasion all if we could get permission to televise it Prince Philip with an influence from Beryl I think was all for it and this was modernizing and yeah we're changing from old type royalty to a new type Rorty this was the age of television and he would undoubtedly have been wholly in favor of the televising of the coronation but it was the queen who had to be persuaded and once again Philip was out on a limb the Queen I believe wasn't very keen on having it televised because it was a very solemn is a religious service you know the Queen was uneasy with cameras she couldn't unbend she was nervous she was not spontaneous but as ever it wasn't only the Queen's decision the Prime Minister Winston Churchill was also opposed to allowing television cameras in the Abbey he didn't want the mystique of the monarchy to be overexposed Churchill was very against it he said a religious ceremony should not become a theatrical performance the BBC request was refused by the Duke of Norfolk the coronation committee and the cabinet there was a good deal of apprehension and almost a blank refusal I think on the grounds of additional lighting and the strain that it would have extra strain that it would impose upon a young queen during the service the problem about televised in the Royals is that as Alan lessels the private secretary of the Queen kept insisting you were letting daylight in upon the magic you were revealing what was going on behind the scenes you were making a you were creating perhaps what came to be known as the Royal soap opera it just went on week after week every time they said no we tried to find a reason why they should have said yes for the forces of tradition it wasn't just a case of who would watch the coronation but what it would look like the Queen Mother was making sure that it would reflect the look that she had created his queen mrs. Elizabeth had already gone and had a wonderful wedding dress created for her by Hartman in 1947 and so when it came to a grand gonn which was going to be embroidered again the coronation dress was obviously going to be commissioned that mr. Hart will receive the Queen really is not that interested in clothes not like her mother who loved clothes for clothes sake the Queen looks upon all her clothes as a sort of working wardrobe to carry out the duties for which she is the moment Elizabeth's disinterest in clothes gave the Queen Mother the opportunity to make her mark as Hartnell soon discovered on a trip to San Jing him to his surprise and relish shop he got there any fan but the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret they're eagerly waiting to see what he was going to produce which he passed slightly unnerving but they were very enthusiastic and obviously ordered their gowns from him too Hartnell would not only be designing the coronation robe for the first time a coronation would have a coordinated look and the Queen Mother would also make sure she influenced who will be wearing some of these beautiful clothes including the maids of honor my parents had known Queen Mother in fact my father knew the Queen Mother when he was a young man and she was a young girl in Scotland and so he'd known her for a very long time and they both knew the late King and Queen mer and and I was the right age and I think that's it's what I call accident of birth she'd be a great friend of my parents and my father been a query to the Duke of York for the war so and we've also chosen the way we looked our figures and we were very carefully created all girls at the back Rosie spencer-churchill and Mara Hamilton the coronation was to be a grand performance rehearse to perfection we were drilled by the Duke of Norfolk like soldiers we were every movement was worked out in advance we used to go to the abbey quite often actually in rehearse but we never rehearsed with Queen except at Buckingham Palace when she wore sheet and we also wandered up and down behind her as Coronation day drew closer the rehearsals became more urgent the Queen Mother's camp was winning hands down but there was increasing concern about how the event would be presented to the wider world for Phillip this was an opportunity the BBC was still fighting to get their cameras in and who would immortalize the day in photographs the Queen mother's favorite the Queen Lee beaten or Philips friend the playful socialite Baron Prince Philip wanted Baron his partner from his nights out in Soho to take the coronation photographs Darren would have been a natural person to take the coronation pictures but principle it was only the chairman of the coronation Commission he was not Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother the Queen Mother had a different idea she was determined that the Hartnell beaten magic that it served her so well would also work for her daughter it did three sessions with the Queen Mother that I remember one was in the garden and in Buckingham Palace and then one was the nothing in the green room and then it was in the green room that he had a long chat with the Queen Mother I remember him saying Queen Mother that's it very much like to first graph the Queen and she said yes she thought that would be possible I think she was pretty good at getting her own way when she wanted to if she thought it was important beaten himself recalled his relief in his diary baron a most unexpected friend of Prince Philip's has been taking all the recent pictures so the call saying the Queen wanted me to do her personal coronation pictures comes as an enormous relief I also had a short opportunity to thank the Queen Mother for what I am sure must have been her help in bringing about this cook for me she laughed knowingly with one finger high in the air [Music] it was another victory for the Queen Mother maybe now secure in her new position just weeks before the coronation she finally left Buckingham Palace for her newly decorated home at Clarence House at last Philip could be master of his own home there was also still an opportunity to throw a little twentieth-century light onto the ancient coronation ritual the BBC decided to take a chance on public opinion what happened was that the BBC leaked the fact that this cabal of the establishment had decided not to televise and then there was a media storm I'm afraid we did adopt a bit of spin because if ever we could leak any information that we thought was in our favor then we try and get it into the press hoping that the government and the palace would read it and we had a a very good friend and George campy because every time we got to know he'd come out with a great big article saying it seems that they're not going to allow television in the Abbey and they're short the spin had worked in a public opinion poll 78% voted in favor of televise in the day it clearly wasn't just Philip who wanted to propel the royal family into the 20th century and eventually a telephone call came yes you have permission and from that moment on it was wonderful this time Philips view chimed with popular opinion at last the forces of tradition had to back down [Music] television will give unprecedented live access to the ceremony any mistakes will be witnessed by millions the mystery of the monarchy had never been so exposed on the 2nd of June 1953 after 16 months of preparation coronation day finally arrived the nation was in a receptive mood and some were even prepared to embrace a bizarre request at that stage monarchy had become a kind of state religion really it had become a formal Shintoism and I think this is best illustrated by the order that went out to naval ratings in the our NVR who were going to line the route and the order went out to them that they should refrain from alcohol and sexual intercourse for at least 48 hours before they lined the route of the procession because otherwise they might be seen to contaminate the royal juju [Music] the lavish ceremony and the charisma of the beautiful young Queen worked its magic on the day Elizabeth could put the rankles of the last 16 months behind her finally it was her moment she was very cool very calm and she looked so young and so vulnerable and it was a very solemn moment and I could feel a lump coming in my throat at that time I thought goodness what responsibility the rest of her life Philip Duke of Edinburgh on that day was merely an attendant Lord he was the most significant attendant Lord but that's what he was he did not take part in the coronation the Queen arrived with him but she processed alone she was crowned alone it was her day her moment the Queen Mother too was watching her daughter's flawless performance from a front row seat I think the Queen Mother was to have very mixed feelings because I was very very sad when the King died I mean you know they had such a wonderful married life together and on the other hand I think she was enormous ly proud obviously of the Queen you know who was magnificent and there has been magnificent ever since [Music] although Philip was technically just another of the Queen subjects he was at least the first among equals during the ceremony he took his place in front of the pairs with the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent as the three Royal Dukes and each in turn paid homage to the Queen promising to be liege man of life and limb and so forth which was in a sense - I suppose mark you know his particular role millions of viewers were entranced by the spectacle unaware that behind the scenes some family tensions continued [Music] [Applause] [Music] when they returned to the palace for the official photographs Finn it was no longer on his best behavior [Music] he was a bit tetchy but he wasn't rildo nothing like that and they're just you just wanted to get on with the job so - come on hurry up let's get on with it and finishing together well sessile Wheaton was sort of you know in a roller stu actually hopping up and down and we were all arranged and the Duke of Edinburgh I think he was an amateur photographer anyway he kept on sort of saying now you've got to be there and in the incident said look I'm taking the photographs you know I think I'd better get on with it beaten recorded the atmosphere in his diary the Duke of Edinburgh stood by making ride jokes his lips pursed in a smile that put the fear of God into me I believe he doesn't approve or like me perhaps he was disappointed that his friend Barron wasn't doing this job today overall the coronation had been a stunning success for the traditionalists the society dearest chips channel wrote what a day for England than the traditional forces of the world shall we ever see their like again just as Philip had hoped an ancient ritual had been given new life by television the nation was entranced by the spectacle and the following day will be broadcast around the world paradoxically the people got a better view than the nobs did because the the ceremony was shown on television it was a a commercial that went on all day which 27 million people saw 10 million of them who'd never seen television before in their lives it was the most extraordinary plug for the minar kacal system that had ever occurred I think the Queen and Prince Philip were absolutely right to let the cameras in it made the monarchy seem to be once the protector of tradition history custom at the same time a symbol of progress dynamism vitality that almost impossible juggling act that the monarchy has always had to do to embody the nation's past present and future but this nod to modernity had an impact in no one in 1953 could ever have foreseen the media would from now on record not just the triumphs of the royal family but also its trials with hindsight it was a huge mistake because as Churchill predicted once you let the mass media in to this very ancient and actually religious ceremony you're never going to get rid of the mass media [Music] and fulfill it personally there was another symbolic victory almost a decade after the coronation the slobber blew the family name was reversed finally in 1960 an order-in-council decreed that some of those descendants but not the heirs of queen elizabeth ii and prince philip should hold the surname Mountbatten Windsor [Music] you [Music] you

Channel: Absolute History

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Length: 46min 52sec (2812 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2019

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[u/alllie]

When Elizabeth fell for Phillip he was gorgeous but their children turned into spoiled horse faced gnomes.

The Coronation in 1953 appeared to be a glittering triumph for the House of Windsor. But behind the scenes there was a three-cornered story of jealousy and rivalry at the highest level.

On one side Prince Philip was at odds with the Queen Mother over his desire to modernise the monarchy. On the other the old Queen was jealous of her daughter's sudden rise to power. The Coronation was a critical year for the young Queen Elizabeth. She was preparing to undergo the most ancient and important royal ritual, but the two people closest to her, the Queen Mother and Prince Philip had very different ideas about how it should be handled. Philip, the dashing but dangerously modern consort, was anxious that the Coronation should not be simply a stuffy replay of previous reigns. He wanted 'some features relevant to the world today'. But he was fiercely resisted by the Queen Mother and by Princess Mary, who referred to Philip as 'the Hun'.

The new Queen was caught in the middle. In Coronation Coup, we learn that Mountbatten, who had engineered the marriage between Philip and Elizabeth wanted the family name changed to Windsor-Mountbatten after her accession. Also, while the new Queen largely sided with her mother over arrangements for the Coronation, she backed Philip over perhaps the most important decision to televise the ceremony inside Westminster Abbey. In doing so she set a precedent for television to be given access to the most intimate rituals.