I'm Not As Nice As People Think I Am

one former courtier described her as an upmarket alf garnet Hitler called her the most dangerous woman in Europe diana was convinced she was the source of all the bad feeling against her in the palace a life is one of Shakespearean proportions behind the grandmotherly charm the flowing chiffon and the well-worked smile lies as shrewd and as tough a mind as has ever ruled a kingdom [Music] history is defined by murmurs a split second in time that changes everything and everyone forever such a moment occurred in May 1920 at a dance the future King of England was introduced to the girl of his dream this girl was a privileged aristocratic commoner who would one day become queen of England her name Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite bowes-lyon but all on the 4th of August 1911 was the ninth child of Cecilia and Claude bowes-lyon the 14th early Strathmore nicknamed the IMP Lady Elizabeth enjoyed the typical childhood over well-to-do titles Scottish family as one of the younger members of a large family with money with breeding with connections I think she was precocious knew exactly where she was going as with the last daughter she was had a lot of sort of brother and sister she could look up to I think she knew her place in the world you know from the word go jocks got the family's gamekeeper described her as a proper little tomboy one of her favorite pranks with her little brother David was to go up to the top of the tower above the front door which is 90 foot up and then they used to repel Raiders which meant they poured ice cold water on visitors arriving to see her mother down below I think she always had a sense that she was rather special when you look at photographs her as a young girl I mean she is absolutely ravishing 19:14 and the first world war was to touch the bowes-lyon family as hard as any in the land Elizabeth's brother Fergus was killed at loos in 1915 another brother Michael was posted missing presumed killed in 1970 the family home gloms castle was converted into a 16 bed hospital for the wounded she used to play poker with them she used to sing to them she used to play the piano for them she used to run up to the village and make sure they had their backi in their sweets and so on she reminded them of their little sister or their sweetheart or whatever and I think she rarely cheered them up I think it's interesting that her parents from all this middle age when she was born and they had tragedies in the family that the death well done explained as of one one brother the other brother was killed in the war and she grew up I think rather quickly by 1918 Elizabeth had blossomed into an attractive and headstrong young woman the Countess of Earley lady-in-waiting to Queen Mary described her as very unlike the cocktail drinking chain-smoking girls of the 1920s her radiant vitality and a blending of gaiety kindness and sincerity made her irresistible to men from the contemporary accounts it appears that she was something of a flirt that she was very bubbly she was a most wonderful dancer and she was a great tease she was the sort of it girl of her day if you like there was one gentleman who really caught the eye of this 1920s it girl Major James Stewart was from one of Scotland's most noble families and had gone to war with Elizabeth's brother Michael after the war he became a regular visitor at gloms enjoying the Strathmore legendary hospitality and Elizabeth's company well the thing is about James Jones he was sort of dropped down dead handsome you know and he only had to lift an eyebrow and all the women would be swinging did Elizabeth swoon Elizabeth's loyal dresser Mabel Monty thought so Stuart was an absolute heartthrob and they fell for each other in a big way it was obvious when you saw them together that they were madly in love fate then took its hand in May 1920 major Stewart was invited to be equity to Prince Albert the second in line to the throne and brother of the charismatic Edward Prince of Wales and at a dance in Grosvenor Square London shortly after his appointment Stuart found himself introducing his sweetheart to his monster for Prince Albert Bertie to his friends it was love at first sight Stewart later wrote in his memoirs it was a more significant moment than it was possible then to realize but it is certainly true to say but from then on he never showed the slightest interest in any other young lady it soon became evident to the palace that Stewart was crucial in helping Bertie to win Elizabeth's heart but also the one man who stood in his way [Music] Queen Mary must have realized from quite early age that it was Edward who was going to be a problem and it was Bertie Prince Albert who was likely perhaps to be the crucial player and it was therefore very important as everyone said that he married well and I have a sneaky feeling that queen mary had poppy you know cast an eye over Elizabeth and decided from an early period that she would be a very good bet indeed so like three witches Elizabeth's mother Lady Strathmore Stewart's mother lady Marais and Queen Mary boiled up a plan [Music] exactly a conspiracy but I think the mothers sort of put their heads together and just by sheer coincidence James went off to Oklahoma to the oil fields and the way was left clear for Bertie Elizabeth seems to have gone along with the witch's spells all too easily something of a rake very flamboyant not entirely account to be trusted and I think that's probably why the burgeoning friendship between Elizabeth and James Stewart went no further but she was also dutiful so I would have thought that from a very early page she realized that she was being lined up for other and more superior prospects or perhaps it was as former editor of The Daily Telegraph Lord deeds noted simply a case of money he wrote while they had a huge affection for each other neither had a being and he had no prospects they both needed to marry money with Stuart four thousand miles away the path was clear for Bertie to make his move some estimate that vertie proposed as many as seventeen tires and is beginning to irritate she was in no hurry to get married she was having a high all time really and I think she came from an extremely religious background and where marriage meant marriage for life and I think you know she wanted to be saw that when she did marry it would be to the right person and it would be a happy marriage as well as waiting for mr. right maybe she was aware that marrying into the royal family would draw to a close her frivolous lifestyle she said before her engagement she was afraid she would never ever again be free to think or act or speak as I really feel that I ought to think or act or speak Burtie first proposed early in 1922 or rather sent an emissary to issue the proposal Elizabeth turned him down throughout his life he'd never had much success with women but the one thing that saved him I think really is that he was enormous ly resilient and from his point of view he had spotted undoubtedly that she was the one for him even if he was not the one for her so by sheer determination he just kept on pounding at the door until eventually she gave him lady Hambledon a lady-in-waiting claimed elizabeth was touched by a Bertie's persistence but it was almost certainly not love at first sight for her it was my duty to marry Bertie I fell in love with him afterwards she is quoted as saying you had this conflict within her between love and duty should she marry someone she did not love or did the duty come first and that it really was her responsibility to try and take on this Prince and make something of him they were married on the 26th of April in 1923 the ceremony was scheduled to be the first royal wedding to be broadcast but the idea was shelved for fear that disrespectful citizens might listen to it in pubs with their hats on Elizabeth now had a minor walk-on part in the royal family but some within the inner circle were wary Marina the Duchess of Kent and now Elizabeth's sister-in-law called her a common little Scotch girl I think the royal family probably looked Elizabeth and found her not quite a threat but something about potential source of embarrassment there was no doubt that she was lively exciting fun to be with would she fit into the the limitations the confines of the royal household she did get on well with George v and father-in-law was very difficult I mean father-in-law had got on badly with his sons and I think it was a breath of fresh air for everyone to find it here was rather a nice nice charming young woman who was prepared to make an effort where George v was earned so they got on well together I bet everyone was delighted by that particularly Queen Mary the perfect royal family was completed when on the 21st of April 1926 Princess Elizabeth was born Margaret followed four years later some historians have questioned why it took nearly two and a half years to conceive in an age before contraception and why there have only been two children was there a problem well there might have been because as a young boy when Bertie was a Dartmouth with his older brother there was an epidemic of mumps and measles and both of the princes caught it twice over now there is a suggestion that something like that can cause problems with one's fertility that was for Bertie we don't know but there is this sort of slight gap and there have been one or two suggestions that the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret might've been should we say helped on their way by artificial insemination Elizabeth's doctor simply noted after the birth a certain line of treatment was successfully adopted the period between 1923 and 1936 was a time of relative obscurity for Bertie and Elizabeth indulging in the luxuries of the palace life though was to change dramatically on the 20th of January 1936 George v died this great crowd and millions who listened in the new mallet proclaim as Prince of Wales he was honoured and not flout the world his subjects pray that he were long despaired to rule this ancient realm as King Edward the eighth but Edward could not face his future on the throne without his partner the American divorcee Wallis Simpson after only 325 days as King on the 11th of December 1936 he abdicated has been made to me by the sure knowledge that my brother with his long training in the public affairs of this country and with his final qualities will be able to take my place forthwith 30 and Elizabeth were catapulted onto the throne suddenly Elizabeth was Queen Bertie king little could she have predicted the enormity of the tasks ahead transforming her husband into a sovereign worthy of the term leading the nation through the war the battles with Edward and Wallis nor could she have known it would end in tragedy [Music] Elizabeth has a shrewd understanding of how to work the media born out of a lesson in what not to do in 1923 she gave an informal interview to the daily sketch about her engagement and was chastised by George v for doing so the royal family simply did not give interviews it was to be the first and last interview she has ever given the traditional view has always been that it's the press pursuing the royal family or is this sense that the the quarry the hunting of the Royals and it's the media were trying to bring them down that is absolute rubbish when you look back you can see that it's the royal family who have been almost at the arch manipulators of the press so even in the 1920s the dowdy york's they were still making sure that biographies were commissioned of the new duchess of york they were already priming the press using selected royal courtiers to provide authorized publications the growing influence of radio and cinema news reels brought a new set of challenges screening it now the public could see and hear the king and queen and a king with a stunner happy to feel it was the stammer then that are the members of his family particularly his father who was in a Rob used to tease him about which shouted him when Bertie was stammering get it out get it out you stammering fool and that is you know for someone with the stammer the worst possible approach one could make Elizabeth wanted to find a cure as possible for her husband's appalling stammer and she made one last shot of this and she was fog lodged him to this brilliant man in Harley Street called gnarled leg I think his name was and there was a vast improvement for Elizabeth her public image was equally important as Queen she could should and certainly did enjoy the best a great dollar per vanity I was there there as a queen she's got the possibility to wear whatever outfits commissioned from the finest designers in the world why not do so for her state visit to Paris in 1938 top designer Norman Hartnell was commissioned to create her outfits she was to look chic in the capital and she it is absolutely stunning and pure like million dollars and that had contributed enormously to the success of that visit not everyone was impressed Wallis Simpson mocked Elizabeth dress sense she has the most awful taste with her shape it's no wonder she wears those hanging tents and frumpy hats she has to do something to distract attention every time I see pictures of her I have to laugh I think it can't get worse but then it does another young man was recruited for Elizabeth's makeover Cecil Beaton the photographer he hasn't extraordinary backing powders photographing the Queen and she had the Savage to guess herself in these wonderful Norman Hartnell creations Beaton thought he'd have about 20 minutes you know he had half the day I mean the Queen was running up and down stairs changing and putting new jewels on and she posed indoors she posed by the piano as she pays out of doors and you thought was a terrific PR operation again but did the camera lie she went on diets she lost weight she chose clothes that tried to make her look slim and if all else failed she would get some of the royal photographers to doctor the photographs to make a look artificially slimmer than in fact she was with the Royal makeover completed Elizabeth could take to the stage confident she at least looked the part she was less certain about the actual performance I always had to steel myself before engagements because I was so dreadfully nervous I used to think that would change when I became Queen but it never did she told Churchill suddenly she found herself the leading lady and doing it exceptionally well able to dress able to project herself to photographers do you know to the media of the time without ever giving away anything about us her real self [Music] [Applause] [Music] even things that we should be fighting against then faith injustice oppression with the monarchy's popularity still at rock bottom the war was set to make or break the new king and queen by 1939 day was still not very popular not very known not not not ref fashionable but it was really 1939 to 1945 the opportunities which the war gave them to provide the focus quite understandably for the nation that they seized upon with eagerness and it made them newsreels presented the new queen spearheading the war effort Buckingham Palace sets an example to all homes great and small throughout the land women and girls of the palace staff for making comforts for the troops and the Queen joins in with her knitting Bharati and elizabeth was seen dressed modestly the king in military uniform Elizabeth in plain suits prompting Time magazine to write in 1941 and Elizabeth looked like a middle-aged matron Elizabeth performed her carrying Queen role out on the streets visiting bombed out homes and remissions factories all over the country cream others Britain to PR earlier for example during the war she bailed out one day in an attempt caviar can you imagine and she went to service at some Paul's Cathedral gang a gang a gas mask George the 6th felt less comfortable in the spotlight Elizabeth would often have to walk ahead of him to break the ice and then encouraged the King to join the conversation was very important they were seen to care ok people knew that they came down and they went away again and that the conditions they were returning to were rather superior to the ones that the bomb people experienced that they left behind but at least they showed their care the royal family remained in London throughout the Blitz the Press reported that should there be an invasion the king and queen would go down fighting Elizabeth refused to have the young princesses evacuated the princesses would never leave without me and I could not leave the king and the king will never leave she told Chamberlain it is such a wonderful phrase that I think really people could spend their lifetimes trying to find a catchy phrase and never coming up with some time at but I rather suspect it was something that one of their script writers dreamt up honed and then passed on to the Ministry of Information for wider propagation privately however it was arranged that should there be an invasion the two princesses would be evacuated to Canada a potential disaster responding to a PR Trump when on the 12th of September 1940 Buckingham Palace was bombed for the Ministry of Information it was a blessing in disguise the royal couple was uninjured a few staff suffered minor injuries damage to the palace was only superficial the press could show the royal family suffering like everyone else at least I can look the East End in the face came another the Queen's famous spontaneous remarks from then on really one camera could do no wrong and there was rapport between the crown and the nation was firmly sealed some though were less sympathetic adores the sixth and Queen Elizabeth were touring again the bombed East End and George the sixth scent of one of the bystanders you know my house too has also been bombed and the bystander replied which one even the royal family had to survive on meagre rations apparently this is one of those carefully nurtured images that comes around from time to time in authorized Royal biographies this sense we're all in together which means that supposedly they didn't have much to eat and they just had an inch of bathwater and so on one has to remember that the royal family had substantial royal estates in Sandringham and so on and therefore they would have been able to supplement their royal diet by careful husbandry of their own internal resources the war gave them a very great opportunity to be the focus of national life and national loyalty and don't underestimate how hard they work to that [Music] today is Victory in Europe day advance for Kenya one live the cause of freedom god save the king on VE Day the 8th of May 1945 the king queen and Churchill took 8 curtain calls before a huge crowd outside Buckingham Palace Churchill wrote to the king this war has drawn the throne of the people more closely together than ever before I think they thought of that scene on the balcony as being the culmination of their work in the reestablishment of their monarchy but I think they then said to themselves let the good times roll with the cheers of the crowds ringing in their ears Bertie and Elizabeth now had the opportunity to enjoy life Princess Elizabeth married Prince Phillip in 1947 the royal family made a state visit to South Africa also in 1947 1948 was their silver wedding but it was not to be a happy time the appearance of Phillip posed a bit of a problem fate for the Queen because of his German connections she probably would have liked her daughter Elizabeth to have married some safe British aristocrat the state visit to South Africa was particularly grueling with tensions high Elizabeth misread the intentions of a black man running alongside the official car and hit him with her parasol all he was trying to do was give Princess Elizabeth a birthday present author Enid Bagnold noted the told trip was taking she gave one more sickly way of like a dying duck she looked as though she would die if she saw just one more woman to wave to then shortly after they returned from South Africa Burtie began complaining of pains in his legs by 1951 he had cancer of the lung he drank too much he smoked too much his diet wasn't all it might have been he was still consumed by internal nerves the stammer had not entirely gone away so I think that the wall had died definitely taken a lot out of him so I think a combination of circumstances meant that he was not really in very good health [Music] to the stunned heart of London and to the whole Commonwealth came the tragic news from Sandringham of the passing of a beloved sovereign King George the sixth Bertie died peacefully in his sleep on the 6th of February 1952 aged only 56 there's no question whatsoever that the Queen Mother was very very seriously perceived by the death of King and her first instincts were to read war from private life she'd no idea whether anybody was going to be interested in her she didn't have home she didn't have a role everything was gone and she was totally totally devastated and then suddenly she saw though for herself in deflecting if you like some saw the other criticism of the Queen's idea early years on the phone and she discovered to her amazement she didn't depend on the King for the adulation or whatever that she was her woman she was a personality in her own right she wasn't just an appendage to the sovereign and that made her think again till well perhaps I had got a veil to play Elizabeth mourned she wore black for a year but she was not to abandon her duty the show must go on [Music] she had a sense really of of grievance that her husband had died young and quite understandably she cast around for reasons for her husband's early demise and she had never liked mrs. Simpson she certainly didn't like the Windsors when they're in exile so they became for her very convenient scapegoat for her husband's death even before Bertie's death elizabeth had clashed many times with Edward and Wallis in 1937 Wallis was refused her Royal Highness status they did not want rival court set up down the roads it's big unfortunately they cooked up an absolutely ludicrous plan just before the Drupal Winsor married was Sir Walter Moncton was sent after France with the data from the king saying I had drawn up debtors patent as a result of which your wife will not be a law highness it is a terrible insult you've never really got over that and in a letter Elizabeth wrote to the Colonial Secretary Lord Lloyd in July 1940 which has since mysteriously vanished she opposed Edwards appointment as governor to the Bahamas the people in our own land are used to looking up to their kings representative the Duchess of Windsor is looked upon as the lowest of the low it will be the first lowering of the standards hitherto set and may lead to unimaginable troubles if a governor's wife such as she is to lead and set an example to the Bahamas on foot behind the Queen's carriage walk his two surviving brothers but his death in 1952 brought the two sides of the royal family into bitter conflict once again it seemed that Edward's infidelity to the Crown had been rewarded with personal happiness for him and Wallis while Elizabeth had been left a widow at 51 having kept the royal ship afloat she always used a fertile Wallace Simpson as that woman who killed my husband and I think that says it all the Windsors were equally scathing of Elizabeth they called her mrs. temple laughter Princess Elizabeth had been photographed looking like Shirley Temple on hearing their financial allowances were not to be continued following Bertie's death Wallace wrote to Edward they are beasts to continue to treat you the way they do anyway do the best you can my darling but I'm afraid mrs. temple senior will never give in Edward replied it's held to be even this much dependent on these ice veins bitches the Duke of Windsor called Elizabeth that fat Scott cook they called a cookie they called her the great fat blimp the monster of gloms castle they went out of their way to let their feelings about the Queen Elizabeth be known and naturally enough when these things were reported back there reported with a certain amount of edge and malice and so the gulf widened and continued to widen year upon year upon year in retaliation a close watch was kept on the Windsors as they were load in isolation well there's absolutely no question that the Duke of Windsor was marginalized and exiled as a result of the the Queen Mother's hatred of him and the Duchess and what they had both done to her husband the British Embassy in Paris during the period that the Windsors were there were acting as spies for the royal family a special fire would be created which would be sent back to Buckingham Palace with all the latest gossip when the lashes of windsor took a lover buckin palace knew about at that moment I mean there's absolutely no question they wanted to revel the Duke and Duchess's misfortunes justice Elizabeth was coming to terms with the loss of Bertie another death in the family Queen Mary the Queen Mother died on a 24th of March 1953 as her health deteriorated there was concern that Mary might die too close to the coronation official mourning for the Queen Mother is two months and if this overlapped into June it would throw the coronation into chaos George the fifth have been dispatched early by the royal doctor to make absolutely certain that his death should be announced in The Times rather in what was regarded as the more downmarket evening newspapers so he'd been filled up with drugs to make sure that he had departed absolutely to the deadline there is also a suggestion that his wife Queen Mary you know laid down her life for the royal duty because she was ailing she was sick she was clearly going to die and he was very important that she did not die too close to the coronation in June 1953 was she helped on our way well her husband had been there's no real reason why Queen Mary very discreetly might not also have the same thing of happened to her as payback for not being invited to Queen Mary's funeral Wallace partied Wallace took great joy in snubbing the royal family in any way in which she possibly could when Queen Mary died she and her lover Jimmy Donahue went out to a nightclub in Manhattan they got very publicly drunk together they danced together and when they went out into the night there was absolutely no question as to what was going to happen next then in snubbing the coronation in 1953 the Windsors reached their all-time low the newspapers carried a picture of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in the hallway of the El Morocco Club in New York they were wearing evening dress and wearing paper crowns on their heads and it is without doubt the single most shaming moment in history of the royal family in the 20th century with the Windsors safely out of harm's way and queen mary dead elizabeth was free to make the role of queen mother hers in the wings hovered the terms under fair clashes with Mountbatten and a certain young lady who was to shake the monarchy to its very foundations June 1953 the coronation the official staffed at the second Elizabethan rang there was a new leading lady Elizabeth was relegated to Best Supporting Actress when Queen Mary died there was at last a vacancy Elizabeth lost her husband she becomes the Dowager Queen which is really not much of a part for any actress to occupy but when Queen Mary dies that means she can step into the role of the Queen Mother Elizabeth's first challenge was once again to be a conflict between love and duty in May 1953 Elizabeth moved to Clarence House which she described as a horrid little house with her daughter Margaret and her merry band of courtiers under the direction of Group Captain Peter Townsend Townsend had first entered the royal household in 1944 when he became a query to the king Margaret was soon charmed by his good looks and humor he was captivated by her youth and beauty the inevitable happened it is very early on in the rain perfect on condita to the coronation that the fact that Princess Margaret and blue crab captain Townsend we're now of Princess Margaret seen crushing some fluff office of his Kate while he was controller to the Queen Mother remember the house held you don't do that in public Townsend was now divorced he was almost 20 years older than Margaret the princess was third in line to the throne it was all too close in content and time to the abdication the Princess Margaret crisis was also a crisis for the Queen Mother she had after all not too long before less than 20 years before seen the royal family rocked to its very foundations and I think that she took the business of royalty so seriously that any personal unhappiness didn't come into it and why she should choose somebody who was a divorcee when so much trouble had been caused less than 20 years before was absolute folly on her daughter's part and that her daughter should toe the line the palace turned to history for a solution Townsend was removed to Brussels as a attache Elizabeth informed her daughter three days before they returned from a visit to Rhodesia I have a feeling she looked upon the relationship as looking back to her own early days and her feelings towards James Stewart that in some respects James Joe was the good-looking dashing handsome young man of the 1920s crew captain Townsend was the dashing handsome young man of the 1940s 1950s with one crucial difference he was already married and amend therefore that you have this conflict between love and duty and once again is duty that always wins out the relationship started on for nearly three years but in the end like Elizabeth and major Stewart before there was little point in fighting the machine on the 31st of October 1955 a statement was issued saying that Margaret had decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend [Music] the Townsend affair was evidence of the Queen mother's continuing influence within the court but she faced one major rival for power Lord Mountbatten my baton was handsome good-looking ambitious energetic very much full of himself another drama queen and what happens when you get two drama queens in the same room they loathe each other I think Elizabeth was always deeply suspicious of Mountbatten here was a man who wasn't above rewriting his family history or trying to infiltrate his bloodline into the royal family by his granddaughter he was wily he was deceitful some of his war record didn't look quite as good as he wrote it down and his memoirs and I think that she felt that here was somebody who's trying to horn in on this royal family when Mountbatten's wife died her wish was to be buried at sea the Queen Mother is said to have commented poor Edwina she always did like to make a splash Elizabeth and Matt battens rivalry surfaced over Charles the relationship between Charles and his parents was distant and aloof the Queen had her own War duties Prince Philip was not so far though who I think brought a great deal of love and affection into his relationships so the Queen Mother in effect became like Charles's mother and mal batten became in effect Charles's father someone he could look up to take advice from learn from this rivalry was made more acute as Charles had always been Elizabeth's favorite grandchild [Music] Charles as a little boy was a was nervous he was not naturally good-looking he was shy he was timid he was intimidated by his sister Jesus and so I think that the Queen Mother looked at Charles and thought ah he is a young Bertie and just as I nurtured my husband I need to nurture my grandson and rather like Bertie before the shy and reticent Charles heir to the throne needed a partner who would look perform and behave like a queen from the Queen mother's point of view she knew that her husband Bertie daughters egg had been made by his choice of her and she realized that exactly the same thing was going to apply to Prince Charles he was vital that he married the right woman the right wife who have provides support who were been ornament and we would carry out all the kind of raw responsibilities that she herself had excelled at over the last 30 or 40 years the kind of advice that man gave to Prince Charles kind of you know sort of sow your Wild Oats putting it crudely which he took up with some enthusiasm I don't think any of that would particularly have been pleasing to the to the Queen Mother but there was more to his advice than meets the eye he was engineering for Charles to settle with his granddaughter Amanda knatchbull there was a chess game between and Elizabeth to see which nominee would go forward to the next round and it was as simple as that I didn't think anybody thought about there being a love match in so far as Prince Charles was concerned it was just finding the right partner forget love that didn't matter the Queen Mother's preferred eternal partner for Charles was the granddaughter of one of her closest friends there was no context it was checkmate to Elizabeth I think the Queen Mother had some there was a matchmaking between Donna and the Prince because some lady darkness wins his grandmother lady from Y was lifelong friend of Queen Mother and a lady-in-waiting thus prince has always been enrolled service for years and years and years Elizabeth saw in Lady Diana Spencer almost a photo fit of her herself they both exude it in early as that same of innocence and I think that she thought that this was the perfect partner for the Prince of Wales the relationship slowly blossomed and the public fueled by the press worked themselves into a frenzy with the announcement of the engagement the Queen Mother is reported to have said and now I can die happy for her the future of the dynasty was secure on the 29th of July 1981 the wedding of the century Diana now had her part in the drama nobody had a clue at the time of the marriage that just get educated not very bright schoolgirl was going to turn out into an absolute star they couldn't understand her I mean she would come from outer space as far as war family are concerned the relationship between the Queen Mother and Diana had begun to turn before the wedding as Diana became more a public figure more love more idolized the Queen mother's original endorsement of this girl as a future wife of her grandson turned to nothing less than jealousy she was deeply jealous of Diana Diana had come from the same background as her but somehow had tranced the Queen Mother at her own game two major stars in the same room simply don't mix and so the Queen Mother instinctively I think as she realized what Diana was up to that Diana was becoming the most you know star like woman in the universe found that it was getting out of control and she was being diminished her own pulling power her own sense of style was being diminished by comparison with Diana on the eve of the wedding Diana was taken to stay at Clarence dianna expecting a warm welcome told her biographer Andrew Morton there was nobody there to welcome me it was like going into a hotel as far as Charles was concerned he was endowment Camilla parker-bowles and he knew that taking on a wife was simply giving somebody a job well interesting laughs the queen-mother belongs to a generation who really don't why very much mr. C's what she can't stomach and this goes back to the application is his divorce Prince Charles would never have taken Camilla to burke Hall the Queen mother's house on the Balmoral estate without the Queen Mother tacitly agreeing to it now he may not have gone up to her and said look granny I need somewhere to go with my girlfriend while my wife stays in London but tacitly there would have been an understanding between them that this could be a safe house where he could take his love and be with her in adultery she sort of probably thought that Charles would settle down Diana that they would produce children which they did and that Charles were their meal to go his own way and no one would care about he because no one would know about it the difference now was that Diana was prepared to spill the beans and the press loved it Kelvin Mackenzie former editor of the Sun described the royal family as birds to be shot at and while Elizabeth has remained the darling of Fleet Street they have taken shots at her too in 1987 the press revealed that the Queen Mother had two nieces Catherine and Nerissa daughters of her brother John they have been ignored by the palace while locked away in a mental institution in southern England since the early 1944 years back Ian parrots have pretended that the cream mother's nieces had deceased and it's when the information comes out that something has to be done about it so I'll bet the Queen Mother found that in a real problem because it was like nieces she'd gotten about suddenly were a difficulty more recently in 1999 the tabloids printed revelations about the Queen mother's lavish spending saying she entertains in a manner that makes other royal households seem like boarding houses she's a big big spender and the four million overdraft I would think was a considerable understatement I think from the Queen Mother's point of view fidelity in marriage or apparent fidelity in marriage is probably the most important single factor in presenting your face to the public and I think she must have been immensely disappointed by the absolute shambles of Charles and Diana's marriage the shambles of Fergie and Andrews marriage and Princess Anne's absolute disregard for her husband I mean one feels so sorry if the green mother because there she is she gave up so much she was determined that the royal family had to present this image of happy families the divorces were anathema their group got encountered Townsend had to be sent off into exile and then she finds that with her grandchildren divorces are popping up from all over the place and it must have been very difficult for a lady of senior years to reconcile herself to the demands of the younger generation and then as the media were poised with their fawning obituaries for Elizabeth the Queen Mother everyone was caught completely off-guard by the greatest death of all Diana the Queen Mother's reaction was typically hysterical she knew that you know if diner had left on she was going to be a monstrous embarrassment to the whole future of the firm the royal family death doesn't solve everything but it can take away what is obviously going to be an immense problem [Music] as we near her hundredth birthday what did the Queen Mother mean when she reportedly said to a lady-in-waiting and not as nice as people think I am there is a very sharp intelligent called Stila dated for like behind the facade of the makeup and the two on the pink and green and the flag image that she gives when she goes on about I think this up to no question that being sovereign or being the wife of a sovereign involves you being very nice to people in public and being very nicer to people in private you have to be really tough and I mean I think there is absolutely no question in anybody's minds how tough the Queen Mother is both physically and certainly mentally I don't think many people in public life who have a sense of imagery ever quite as nice as they'd like to be because they know that the image they have to give is one of being gentle kind sensitive and so on but I think most public feelings would accept that if you are going to get to the top and stay at the top you have to cut a few corners I think she is an iron fist and velvet glove and I think the more the people know that the more they will respect her [Music]

Channel: Jonathan Trace

Views: 697,353

Rating: 4.5432272 out of 5

Keywords: Queen Mother, elizabeth queen mother, royals

Id: QgaaqxE5BFg

Length: 48min 40sec (2920 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 02 2018