The Queen's Reaction To The Death of Margaret & Her Mother | Elizabeth: Our Queen | Channel 5

the queen's sister princess margaret had been ill for some time in 2002 her health took a turn for the worse princess margaret had always been the queen's glamorous and mischievous sister and they were devoted to each other [Music] she was the companion of her childhood and she was younger than the queen and they did talk a lot more or less every day so she was a very very constant presence in her life growing up the queen's family had been a tight-knit unit they called themselves us four after the death of their father two sisters became even closer and they'd had other difficult times in the 50s the queen had not been able to support her sister's relationship with divorcee group captain peter townsend but despite this tension they had remained close lady glenn connor was one of princess margaret's best friends and a maid of honor at the coronation princess margaret adored the queen and was always very loyal i mean she always talked and was very proud of what the queen had done and all that during the breakup of princess margaret's marriage to anthony armstrong jones the queen had been a great support the children used to go and stay with her a lot and she sort of did our best to make it better for princess margaret in february 2002 princess margaret died from her third and final stroke the queen had lost her only sister well i would imagine she was expecting it because she had prince probably neil for a very long time we're all devoted to it she was so good to everybody and i think a lot of people wept a lot yes in a way it was sad but i'm so glad that princess margaret had suffered so much of the m and for somebody like that who had been so vivacious and beautiful um and enjoying life to see her in a wheelchair unable to see i you know broke my heart actually princess margaret's funeral was a relatively low key affair for a member of the royal family for the queen it was a doubly sad occasion princess margaret's funeral fell on a very painful anniversary fifty years ago to the day they had buried her father in the same chapel at windsor [Music] when princess margaret died and the queen mother was still at sandringham where she would have probably stayed but she insisted on coming down to windsor and taking part in the funeral a fragile queen mother didn't want to be seen by the press we all sat in front all the ladies and waiting together and it was terribly poignant because the queen mother was a wheelchair and when the coffin went by she tried to stand up i think she may have been helped up so that she could be standing when princess margaret's coughing went business margaret was cremated one of the first members of our family i think because she wanted to be buried between her parents there was any room really for ashes in the weeks after princess margaret's death the queen mother's health continued to deteriorate the queen obviously been worried about the queen mother for some time because the queen mother was an enormous age and was appearing in public very regularly the queen would obviously be worried that she was going to fall over or something which luckily she never did i think the queen mother been ill for some time and she had some trouble with her lungs i think and constant coughing and that sort of thing but it was all kept fairly low key you know they didn't talk about it much and she was after all in a hundred and second a year i think wonderful the queen mother had been the queen's rock throughout her 50-year reign i think hardly they went by without communication between them as a visitor or telephone call and when the agreement oversaid overseas she wrote a series of letters every day back to her mother i mean the queen mother had a lot of adulation from the public and people loved her queen mother was very strong person i think she's got a lot of her mother's qualities in her the queen just six weeks after princess margaret's death on the 30th of march the 101 year old queen mother passed away [Music] the queen mother mysteriously and miraculously waited until the one day in the year when she could have died without any inconvenience to anybody she waited until the queen whispered windsor with all her family around her the queen was out riding and was just summoned to royal lodge and as understanding the queen mother had her head perfectly all right until about 10 minutes before she died when she just sort of basically spun away the two women who had been closest to the queen throughout her 50-year reign were now gone she'd lost her mother who was not only a friend and companion but her mother somebody she spoke to every day on the telephone that she would visit regularly that she knew and loved and was the link also with her father a key figure in the queen's life the queen mothers would be the first royal public funeral at westminster abbey since princess diana's in 1997. there was speculation in the newspapers that people wouldn't turn up that you know the queen mother being over 100 years old belonged to a another generation that people wouldn't remember her in fact people turned up in their hundreds of thousands i mean the country was mourning sir michael wilcox was the queen's black rod at the time he was her daily representative in parliament and responsible for many ceremonial duties after the queen mother's death he organized for the coffin to be brought to westminster hall where the public would come to pay their respects initially when she died and at the first meeting coordinating meeting the buckingham palace there was a sense that we should only open the lying state for a limited period during the day and i argued against that i felt that the nation would turn out for the queen both in sympathy and to show their affection we opened uh on the first morning and within three hours we had a three-month queue and i then said okay we'll keep it open 24 hours a day it was overwhelming and the queue went right the way out down the other side of the thames there were all kinds of people there were young children young mothers young families and the older generation so you you name it and they were in that queue over a million people came to mourn the queen mother it is the fairy tale queen mother the mother of our sovereign for much older people she was the queen during the second world war she represented their lifetime story there is an outpouring of emotion that is about oneself one's country exemplified in the life of the person who's died one hesitates to compare it to the emotion over diana but it it was a mass popular moment of emotion when perhaps the cycle after the death of diana swung decisively in the monarchy's favor she's had a great life and diane only had a short life but um she's done so much for history she's gone through so much and she just really puts the backbone back into britain she was a wonderful lady we love him very much and he do a lot of good for me as the queen left westminster hall the crowd reacted in a surprising way it would be a transformative moment as the public now began to support the queen there was this very polite very discreet clapping which was almost symbolizing the transference of affection from one great matriarch to another and i know that the queen was very touched by that on the eve of the funeral the queen addressed the nation ever since my beloved mother died over a week ago i have been deeply moved by the outpouring of affection which has accompanied her death but the extent of the tribute that huge numbers of you have paid my mother in the last few days has been overwhelming i thank you for the support you are giving me and my family as we come to terms with her death and the void she has left in our midst we must have changed her life enormously to lose her mother and her sister within a few months of each other like that it must have been very traumatic for her very sad i think she missed them a lot i mean suddenly she lost her two best friends after the service at westminster abbey the queen mother's coffin was taken to windsor castle its final resting place alongside her husband and daughter princess margaret i think with the death of the queen mother there was a subtle change in the role of the queen now the queen was the uh the oldest member of the family she was the matriarch she as it were was moving into the queen victoria role she was the senior member of world royalty and some people say that that almost freed her that she seemed to relax a bit well martin chartres who i think was her best private secretaries always used to say wait and see what happens when the queen mother dies because i think with any parent somehow they're always looking over your shoulder and suddenly she did blossom there's no question about it these deaths would herald a new era in the queen's reign at the turn of the century the queen had lost two of the most important people in her life her sister princess margaret and the queen mother despite the public sympathy for the queen the sovereign still had a problem with her image she needed a new way to connect to her people and show that she was in touch she and her senior advisors had created a working party to develop a new strategy they called it the way ahead group it was chaired by the queen herself the queen was central to the warehead group but actually not just the queen every single member of the inner royal family came to the warehead group and their private secretaries the meetings were sometimes a bit chaotic i i recall that the queen had a bit of a tendency to to chat to whoever was sitting next to her rather than um paying full attention to the proceedings and the duke of engineer had just had to sort of call people to water from time to time one of the issues the group looked at was the itinerary for the queen's public engagements the way ahead group suggested that she made her visits edgier and more inclusive we needed to look at the way the royal program was made up and modernize it a bit and make sure that the monarchy reflected society more accurately i mean there were lots of visits around the home counties because of the proximity of windsor and buckingham palace should there be a greater geographical spread making sure that you know different parts of the country saw all this happening when she visited industry she tended to go to factories when actually the way the economy had moved was that there were far more service companies for instance in the entertainment sector it's easier to get a little bit stuck in your ways this was a deliberate attempt to just nudge things forward a bit the queen is very pragmatic she's willing to look at the pros and cons of her of an argument and then go from something that's you know the modern way of doing things that's another feature of her character 2002 would be the queen's golden jubilee year marking 50 years on the throne but had the queen done enough to reach out to her people had the way ahead group's planning been successful i remember the silver jubilee of 1977 and what a huge event it was how exciting it was the street parties and then as we came up to the golden jubilee 25 years later 50 years of elizabeth ii on the throne i sensed oh goodness it's not going to be as big an event somehow this last decade has been too troubled for the royal family it's going to be a bit muted and i think there was apprehension within buckingham palace as well critics questioned whether the general public would organize any events at all to celebrate 50 years on the throne in 2001 the palace website included a snooker tournament and a tree planting as some of the few events being planned the guardian ran with the headline palace plays down fear of jubilee flop the palace asked lord sterling who had organized the silver jubilee whether he could once again put together a program of celebrations but even he had his reservations i said i need about 48 hours to find out as to whether or not there will be the appetite because so much had happened it's whether people even wanted to celebrate lord sterling called his friends in big business to try and secure funding and the responses i got was we get support of about close to three million pounds he now needed to get the public on side i remember asking murdoch and crowd how they would feel about supporting it and uh rupert in particular is hugely supportive of the queen etc rupert murdoch's newspapers began to get behind the golden jubilee the sun tried to encourage its readers with the headline have a bash for her match it would not have been sensible to have spent a lot of time saying this is going to be the greatest event in british history i think one of the great insights was don't set expectations too high and that would have come from the queen herself who doesn't like a fuss the queen's golden jubilee celebrations kicked off with a nationwide tour but would the public turn out to greet her some were fearful that the queen might turn up and there wouldn't be a particularly warm welcome or would there be a welcome at all beyond the mayor turning after the civic dignitaries in fact it was a huge success and from people being apprehensive about it it turned into a huge triumph and she said what's this and i said um that it was a picture and i drew it for her and she said thank you i thought she was gonna be quite nice that she was the golden jubilee was a great opportunity to put further into practice some of the initiatives that have been trialled in the previous year so i think that was a really good year and people were genuinely surprised that the queen was out and about in the way that she was visiting in the cities disadvantaged people showing britain for better and also the areas that needed to have light shone in it in her golden jubilee year the queen also visited the industrial town of scanthorn and her first british mosque to engage with the muslim community in this way was one of the most mould-breaking decisions she'd ever made and one of the most inclusive the idea came after 9 11 when the terrorists attack in twin towers and i said to them that i need to send the letter to a majesty queen to invite her we got the top class mask in london in all this area and she decided to not go there but decided to come in small tiny town north lincolnshire which was great 9 11 just happened there was a lot of anxiety amongst the muslim community on both sides actually and it was a great gesture from her majesty of queen to come to the mosque at that time to show that doesn't matter what happened nobody can divide us and we are one nation and one people and we i personally really appreciate that she took the shoes off and she come into the mask we were all lining up everybody to meet her we're all anxious and not really prepared but when we met her majesty it was like meeting someone that we knew from our childhood she was such a nice down-to-earth person queen takes a huge interest in people when she meets them i mean she doesn't just shake hands and turn away she really wants to talk to them and to know what they're doing and what their interests are she was very interesting in the history of islam especially the makkah because we had all the pictures here you see and she was she was asking about that and i was lucky enough to give her a quran myself which he accepted and i think he's still somewhere kept in a safe place maybe in buckingham palace i don't know and she might read it she's going for all of us and it is fantastic that we made the history the rest of my life and other people's life it will stay with us you know what she did was really she won heart of millions of muslims [Music] at the start of the century the queen had been unpopular and out of touch in her golden jubilee year she showed that she was prepared to evolve as she met different kinds of people and went to new places change has become a constant managing it has become an expanding discipline the way we embrace it defines our future her jubilee parade in june 2002 was the ultimate example of this relaunch this was a new more inclusive kind of monarchy twenty thousand people marched down the mall including firemen circus performers bollywood dancers and even hells angels [Music] how far have you come to be here today half hours australia ten thousand miles oh well i'm a true royalist i just think it's wonderful you

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Length: 20min 12sec (1212 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 07 2021