The Remarkable Life Of The Queen Mother | An Affectionate Tribute | Timeline

[Music] [Laughter] [Music] it's August the fourth a special royal day the birthday of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother she usually appears soon after eleven o'clock slowly walking out to acknowledge the cheers of her devoted admirers [Music] everyone wants to toast her health including Iver Spencer and his colleagues from the guild of professional Toastmasters [Music] the band of the Grenadier Guards pays a specialty a march past playing happy birthday to you [Music] [Music] upstairs the Queen Mother's house maids have a bird's-eye view now children under the age of 12 are invited to come forward to offer their birthday greetings and a long queue of youngsters laden with card for Kay's and balloons soon forms all the Queen mother's household including her lady-in-waiting lady angela oswald scene on the left are kept busy carrying the blooms and gifts into her home on the right her chief steward William Talon lends a hand no one is left out not even her favorite Corgi [Applause] the midsummer Sun beats down making people half-hour 95 years begin to wilt but there is never a sign that the Queen Mother is even slightly affected all the way to the mouth she continues on a stroll that sometimes lasts more than half an hour for an elderly lady who finds walking a trifle difficult this could be an ordeal but no one would ever guess come rain or come shine she has never let her people down after a brief rest the family begins to arrive Zara Phillips her mother Princess Anne and along comes a husband commander Tim Lawrence the Queen mother's grandson by count Lindley drives in with his wife Serena and soon they all walk out to join in this happy occasion [Applause] [Applause] then it's time to say goodbye as they go inside for a birthday lunch usually held in the garden Winchester said Patrick's Day the queen-mother arrives to present shamrocks to the Irish Guards as she does every year it is one of the happiest engagements on her calendar [Music] reviewing the troops is more of a pleasure than a duty the Queen Mother has always had a soft spot for military men in World War one three of her brothers served in the Black Watch and another with the Royal Scots Grey's the Queen Mother wears her shamrocks on her lapel officers pinned them on their caps blue is her favorite color and there is always a matching hat created by her milena joy quested Noah clothes are the Queen Mother's weakness she was a fashion icon in the kind of way that people like the fluff and the crinolines and the hats with the ostrich feather and the soft turquoise blue and the high heels you knew with a sort of other Minnie Mouse look to say that she was a fashion icon like Jackie Kennedy it would be of course not true the Queen Mother was born a commoner the Honourable Elizabeth bowes-lyon ninth child of a Scottish Pierre Lord lambs the Bears lands were a very old family going back to God knows whom in Scotland and they were also very rich they had come into money rather fortunately as well as having a lot of land and they owned several castles a huge house in some James's square in London interesting enough they weren't terribly impressed by the royal family her father didn't really think much of the royal family so at the time that they were thought that she might marry in the royal family he wasn't especially impressed by that because they were really aristocrats in their own right and had come down they were descended from King Bruce of the Scots and so on so really very very grand fair yet her birth is shrouded in secrecy it occurred somewhere in London but she refuses to say where there is one theory that she was born in an ambulance while her mother was enroute to hospital her father finally registered her arrival at Hitchin in Hertfordshire near the family home it's in Walden berry where he claimed she was born no one learned the truth for 80 years you all very close to her mother and I think perhaps she was a bit spoiled because she was a very charming child and all that servants adored her she was to go into the kitchen and beg for extra jellies and cream and things like that I think because of her great charm she could get away with anything on April 26 1923 the Lady Elizabeth bowes-lyon married Albert Duke of York she was very petite and small and she had a pretty heart-shaped face beautiful blue eyes and a lovely complexion dark hair which she Ward a rather old fashioned way for those days with a fringe but she had this sort of rage into traction she had this great power even then of making people feel that she was concentrating on them but she was only interested in them which is one of the most attractive qualities you can have she was really the center of masculine attention a lot of men were in love with her she was a great Debian in a day when he met her fell in love with her absolutely instantly and he was with all his failings because he was a very different very shy very reserved man but he was always a very determined man and once having fallen in love with her he was determined to marry her they asked her three times and for the first two occasions she refused she didn't really want to be caught in this kind of royal cage she was a woman who was used to her independence she didn't really want to lead the restricted kind of life which marrying into the royal family would mean but he was very persistent the Duke of York and he simply kept at her and kept at her and kept at her and in the end cheap she agreed she rarely loved him he had a very vulnerable quality which is very appealing to some women and he did really need her and then he was physically attractive he had a very good figure he dances very well he was athletic he dressed very well and he was a really a good guy after the abdication of his older brother Edward in 1936 they became Queen Elizabeth and King George the sixth the new Queen became the savior of the nation during World War two as a result Adolf Hitler called her the most dangerous woman in Europe he felt that she had the king by then King George Essex under her thumb he thought that she was as indeed she was a very strong-minded woman and that her husband the King George 6 was a rather weak minded weak-minded man and so he was very conscious of the fact that she might have been the power behind the throne Hitler was very conscious that she was a woman of considerable strength of character which indeed she was another day another arrival after a lifetime of flags flying in her honor and bands playing she is enormous ly thrilled by at all [Music] it may be just another working day for the Queen Mother but she knows it's very special for those she meets she takes her duties seriously work is the rent you pay for life she tells her family [Music] yeah ex-servicemen with medals glinting in the Sun get a special word 50 years of par since World War two but she remembers it as our finest hour one of the Queen Mother's great achievements was to bring America into the war on Britain side when she charmed Americans on a tour of the United States in 1939 all isolationist talk of America staying out of the war disappeared overnight the royal couple formed a bond of friendship with President Roosevelt which it is said directly led to American support for Britain during the war by choosing to remain in London throughout the Blitz and sharing the hardships of their people the royal couple became symbols of Britain's fighting spirit Elizabeth was even crowd when Buckingham Palace received a direct hit now we can look the East End in the face was the Queen's famous comment King George died in 1952 and the Queen Mother has now been a widow far longer than she was a wife Remembrance Sunday the Cenotaph Whitehall the Queen leads the nation's homage to the fallen the Queen Mother watches from the balcony of the Foreign Office above below three royal princes stand to attention just before Big Ben strikes eleven o'clock [Music] with her husband King George the sixth the Queen Mother was an unfailing symbol of courage in World War two now she has only memories the solemnity and significance ends with the national anthem [Music] it may be the November chill but is there a trace of a tear and the Queen Mother's eye [Music] a more joyous occasion is the trooping the colour ceremony which takes place in June on route to Horse Guards Parade she has joined by Princess Diana and her younger son Harry the swaying carriage is not the most comfortable way to travel especially for an elegant lady who takes helicopters like taxis [Applause] the nation's best-loved lady may be as old as the century but her eternal zest for life never changes in public life the Queen Mother never admits to feeling cold or tired illness is a bore she says afterwards the whole family and their guests including some Mountbatten cousins line up on the Buckingham Palace balcony to acknowledge the cheers of crowds in the mouth grandson Edward the television producer Prince often arranges to video the event so they can enjoy it all over again afterwards [Music] Princess Margaret looks topping in a vivid hat [Music] down below the band plays in the palace forecourt to keep everyone entertained [Music] then it's all eyes on the skies as the RAF stages of fly past with smoke trails of red white and blue [Applause] [Music] Derby day at Epsom in the Royal Box the Queen and her mother are being filmed for television documentary but who cares about cameras when the best starters and riders in Britain are taking to the track any familiar faces down below in the penet suddenly something important catches the Queen's eye she points and says that's mine that's my horse if there is one thing these royal ladies share it's a passion for the sport of kings and queens but while the Queen Mother's horses are all steeple chases her daughter prefers racing on the flat the Queen has won four of the five English classics the Oaks the 2000 guineas descent ledger and the King George the sixth and Queen Elizabeth Diamond stakes her racing colors are a purple body with gold braid scarlet sleeves and black velvet cap with gold fringe the Queen Mother's are blue with buff stripes blue sleeves and black cap with gold tassel when she's racing to her enthusiasms always that his plan with basic manager all the mating of her horses up to the year 2003 so I think she intends to be around for a while yes I think she got a core of Steel I think that she is a woman he is very conscious of what she's able to do she is very feminine in some ways she is almost a flirt almost at ease and I think she's been that all her life the crowds love the procession lay down the track every chance she gets the Queen takes to the saddle herself with a groom for company at Windsor later she rides through the park in a carriage on route to Ascot every day the race meeting is on crowds gather at water splash lane to see the Royal party arrive I know lady can enter the race course without a hat and there is every kind from caps to cartwheels Rima Aberdeenshire the royal family arrives for the Highland Games held on the first Saturday in September [Music] [Applause] [Applause] children present poses of Heather then the games begin [Applause] in the autumn chill it's best to sit in the cozy pavilion [Music] [Music] the Klansmen meet to test their physical strength and to salute the Queen their chieftain [Music] a huge crowd always a samples hence the name the Braemar gathering and that went over so well indeed that is the ultimate in kpop tossing that required everybody experience of ali gun then it's back to Bulma home at the end of the day [Music] once the Royal gatherer was much larger the Princess of Wales was a popular addition sadly she no longer attends she'll was turned up in a stylish played to please the crowd and match the men and kilts [Music] [Applause] [Music] things started to go wrong the Queen Mother was ferociously loyal to Charles always took his side diana decided to do her own thing the Queen Mother could never really work out how Diana could do it and get away with it and of course the more Diana did and the more Diana got away with it the bigger the breach between the two of them and it was never going to be resolved and in the end it's my belief that Diana absolutely hated the Queen Mother perhaps unfairly perhaps unfortunately but it's true that that wasn't you [Music] Kranthi Church Belmont and the congregation overflows when the royal family arrives all they do like to be beside the D side [Music] she's inherited some money from her father but much more so from her husband King George and six who died back in 1952 and at that time the Queen Mother was considered a very wealthy woman in her own right but since then her lifestyle has been very very extravagant and that's really it seems eaten into fortune five years ago the Queen Mother puts her 19 million pounds in trust for mostly her great-grandchildren and a good deal of that is to go to Princes William and Harry in two installments 4.9 million when they're 21 and another 8 million to be shared between them when they're 40 so the reason why she may not have a lot of money today is because it's being shunted to one side to avoid inheritance tax I do think that the royal family who have to pick up the bills after all for the Queen Mother do slightly worry that she keeps on the central heating at her house the castle of Mahlon north of Scotland all year round and she only visits it from time to time but in order to be able to make sure that the woodwork doesn't contract or that that nasty damp stains appear anywhere she will keep that central heating on the bills are colossal I think the the Queen Mother is wonderfully extravagant she's living in a different age she is an Edwardian and she lives in an Edwardian way she has more servants than any other member of the royal family she invites people to lunch at Karen's house and says we'll have a little picnic and you will go out on the lawns and there will be an array of silver and gold and plate on the table there will be footmen behind every chair and you will be served finest wines and champagne and that to her as a picnic [Music] britannia arrives off scraps turn the Queen and a family are stopping off on the Western Isles cruise to visit the Queen Mother the royal barge brings them ashore just as her car draws up at the dock [Music] there is always a good turnout of locals and tourists to provide a warm Scottish welcome the Queen reet her mother with a kiss followed by Prince Philip and principle they all drive off to the castle of mey for lunch the castle was bought and restored by the Queen Mother in 1952 all too soon they returned to scrap stir and say farewell but they will all meet up again soon at Balmoral the Queen Mother stays at her most northerly home for the last three weeks of August then she moves to Burke Hall near the Queen's Highland home Britannia sails on to Aberdeen where the Queen and the princess disembark and drive on to Balmoral as a last farewell the Queen mother orders rockets fired from the shore which can clearly be seen at sea the 16th century castles jutting towers and corbelled turrets give it a fairytale appearance a last view then with flags flying Britannia disappears around a headland [Music] the sanding and flower shows on a warm day in early August the Queen Mother never misses it and is always escorted by her eldest grandson he would go and stay with her at Burke hall and she would encourage him and encourage his taste in music and generally cherish him and I think she saw in him the same sort of vulnerability that her husband had had and they were very close he was a very favorite with her and I think she in character in many ways that his parents didn't they were rather conventional that the Queen and Prince Philip had very conventional tastes on her what young men should be the Queen Mother appreciated his softer more artistic side I think he she certainly encouraged him as as a young man despite the rough ground the Queen Mother manages to inspect most of the exhibits in the marquees many people in the crowd present early birthday gifts to their favorite lady [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm ready to kill a little move [Music] [Applause] then it's time to take the short drive back to Sandringham house [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] back in London at caritas where we began the crowd serenades this very special lady some admirers come here after year often from distant parts of the country and there is always a heavy contingent of tourists there are always enough flowers to fill several florist shops and of course the press are always on hand [Music] [Applause] [Music] for a brief while it's goodbye but 90 minutes later the gates will open again [Music] it's a rare chance to see the Queen Mother surrounded by her children and grandchildren Prince Charles and Prince Andrew are alone sadly their wives no longer joined the party walking may not be easy these days but after 70 years of public duties it's not surprising [Music] another big day the marriage of a granddaughter Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones to Daniel chatter to avoid slip-ups the frail Queen Mother enters and leaves the church via a side door dodging the steep front steps [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Green Park London where a memorial to Canadian servicemen is being unveiled under gray skies the little lady in pink adds a rosy glow to the occasion on the dais the Prime Minister is waiting and there is time for a chat [Music] Royal Navy commander Prince Andrew is in uniform sitting beside his sister-in-law [Music] Portsmouth and the 50th anniversary celebrations of d-day are underway heads of state have gathered from all the Allied nations members of the royal family have front-row seats at an open air service to remember the sacrifice made by so many half a century has passed since the great Armada left this Shore to liberate Europe but the world has not forgotten in the background warships slide by as they make their way across the channel in the wake of the d-day veterans [Music] President Clinton has come to represent the United States forces who played such an important part as the service ends he and the first lady could go on walkabout hers has been a life of pomp and circumstance always in the spotlight with no thought of retirement no matter how many birthdays come and go [Music] what would such grand occassions be without her this frail figure remains an enduring symbol of what the monarchy should represent she is a living link with the Victorian era and has always retained the grace and charm of a bygone age down the decades she has held a unique place in the royal family and in the heart of the nation long may it always be so [Music] you you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 79,685

Keywords: British courage in war, British figurehead, British history channel, British icon, British monarchy history, British resilience, British wartime biography, British wartime courage, British wartime figure, British wartime icon, Buckingham Palace, Courage, Discount code, Historical figure biography, Historical significance, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II biography, Queen Mother history, Royal family, Second World War history, Timeline - World History Documentaries

Id: 5IU7msnmeWQ

Length: 42min 49sec (2569 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 16 2019