Why The Queen Mother Disliked Princess Diana | A Century In 100 Minutes | Absolute History

queen elizabeth the queen mother is the popular face of british royalty for nearly a hundred years she has dedicated herself unselfishly to her family her friends and her duties despite her age she stands out well in the company of younger members of the royal family with her two daughters on the balcony of buckingham palace the two generations of royalty command a powerful audience when the queen mother steps out she's always a picture of gracious smiles and floating summery frogs flower shows are her forte with cameras present her natural charm and elegant shines through as far as the press are concerned she's the most professional of all the royals and they admit that she is quite delightful according to the queen she has always been a marvelous mother standing back and never interfering ever mobile the queen mother openly admits that she likes to enjoy herself have fun and a good time but behind this image there is a tough charming public relations genius who believes deeply in the enduring institutions of the state privately she is ultra conservative and in fact very politically incorrect born at the turn of the century she's one of the last grand edwardian ladies from the privileged days of the nobility she can exercise control by her very presence yet the public image of this grand old lady transcends all the class barriers she admits privately that a glass of champagne is one of my little treats for nearly a century the queen mother's presence has graced the balcony at buckingham palace as london's most famous building the palace has become the trademark of the british monarchy and home of the royal family firm an endearing term coined by the late king george vi the queen mother first stepped out on this famous balcony when she married her husband in 1923 25 years later in 1948 they drove out of the gates of buckingham palace to the sound of cheers from the crowd to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary queen victoria was the reigning monarch when elizabeth was born in 1900 she had been on the throne for 63 years and had had nine children in 1901 she died and her eldest son acceded to the throne as king edward vii with his beautiful wife queen alexandra their son became king george v in 1910 against this background of royal history elizabeth angela marguerite bose lyon was born on the 4th of august 1900 into an aristocratic family her father the 14th earl of strathmore who was descended from king robert ii of scotland inherited a small fortune in 1904 making him a multi-millionaire by today's standards those lions were a very old family going back to god knows whom in scotland and they were also very rich they'd come into money rather fortunately as well as having a lot of land and they owned several castles a huge house in james's square in london her father didn't really think much of the royal family so at the time that there were thoughts 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 really very very grand firm educated at home elizabeth grew up at graham's castle one of scotland's most impressive ancient buildings set in a park modeled in the fashion of landscape gardener capability brown it's been in the strathmore family since 1372 the young elizabeth was closest to her brother david they were fun-loving and together they enjoyed dressing up for dancing lessons they were like a sort of extra little family at the end of the line and she was very very close with him she was very very fond of him both of them were charming uh children in a very natural way i think their mother used to call them the two little benjamins the strathmore's first daughter had died so their new little girl was especially adored with eight older brothers and sisters not surprisingly elizabeth was the apple of her mother's eye she was very close to her mother and i think perhaps she was a bit spoiled because she was a very charming child and all the servants adored her she used 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 elizabeth had an idyllic childhood at glam's castle and she grew into an attractive young girl with a gentle manner she was very petite and small and she had a pretty heart-shaped face beautiful blue eyes and a lovely complexion and dark hair which she wore a rather old-fashioned way for those days with a fringe but she had this sort of radiant attraction she had this great power even then of making people feel that she was concentrating on them she was only interested in them which is one of the most attractive qualities you can have the first world war broke out in august 1914 on elizabeth's 14th birthday king george v led the nation's war effort by example as well as by position he was photographed visiting the trenches in france but the news from the front was gloomy back in scotland at glam's castle the strathmore family opened their home to wounded officers young elizabeth was always there to make them feel comfortable after their convalescence was over the officers would write to elizabeth always caring and considerate she took time to reply dear harding thank you so much for your letter i'm sorry that you can't find a job it seems to be very difficult now she saw if not the actual business of war she saw the results of it and she was a sort of partner part companion part younger sister she used to read to them she should write letters for them and she was with with these wounded soldiers and one of them said at the time that something's been noticed about her often since then that when she spoke to you it was as if you were the only person in the world king george v and queen mary had six children he believed that fear should govern his offspring all of whom were terrified of him bertie on the left was their second son his oldest brother david on the right was always singled out for particularly unpleasant treatment pre-mary believed it looked like well she believed that it was more important that her husband was the king of her her children rather than their father he was rather bad tempered and grouchy old codger at the time and he once said that i was terrified of my father that is the very genial apparently edward vii and i'm going to make bloody sure that my children are afraid of me now i don't know if this is um exactly what he did but he was a bad tempered old grouch and they were frightened of him and all of them were highly nervous many of them suffered from digestive troubles which is a sign of extreme nervousness the young princes had a sister mary the only daughter of the king and queen during the first world war she worked as a nurse she remained close to her mother for the rest of her life through her involvement with the girl guide movement princess mary met the teenager elizabeth bose lyon who was also a girl guide it was through this connection that elizabeth was introduced into the royal family elizabeth boslands and princess mary were friends and they became more involved through the girl guides because elizabeth ran the four fire branch of the girl guys which is up in glams and princess mary had to come inspect them occasionally and they use us as an excuse to see each other they became quite good friends they corresponded and of course both mothers encouraged this lady strathmore because elizabeth was one of ten children and basically she needed to find suitable marriage for her and queen mary needed her sons married off and there was elizabeth a very suitable girl so the relationship was encouraged in 1922 princess mary married vice countless cells who became the sixth earl of harwood their son george would be the first royal to divorce the laselle's wedding was a sober affair and the young elizabeth by now a trusted friend was a bridesmaid by the standards of that time she didn't look that wonderful because they had sort of almost like very tight veils on with i think silver leaf headbands so and very low slung wastes i mean if you look by today they looked rather frumpy but i'm sure at the time everyone thought they looked absolutely wonderful and elizabeth was very stunning photographed at the races the young royal princes david henry and bertie made a dashing picture in contrast to their sons king george and queen mary were more regal there were strict rules of royal protocol that had to be respected when women like elizabeth were introduced into the royal family the height of this was being presented at court and elizabeth was presented at court to queen mary and king george v and as the daughter of an earl she would have been quite high up the pecking list and of course that all helped cement the royal relations it was also a round of parties but not to be judged by the standards of today the these young girls were never ever left unchaperoned elizabeth was either chaperoned by her sister or one of her cousins or indeed her mother lady strathmore she would never really have been left alone with a young man so you have to judge it by the standards of the time elizabeth's mother described her daughter as a shy little person under an ebullient exterior and wanted her to marry an heir to a british dukedom elizabeth took a fancy to the handsome james stewart son of the earl of moray who'd returned from the war with the military cross james stewart was very handsome and a wonderful dancer and very sophisticated and according to popular myth which has actually now been proven that elizabeth bosland was in love with him but queen mary and lady strathmore saw that he was actually going to be an obstacle in the way of their two offspring forming any kind of a relationship so he was dispatched to the oil fields of oklahoma he was almost exiled elizabeth bosland met prince albert bertied to his family at a mayfair ball in 1920 shortly after he was made the duke of york and three months later he was invited to glam's castle while his brother quoted elizabeth david now the prince of wales fell for mrs freda dudley ward a married woman with two children he was after all the prince of wales and he was off on his own uh demi mold which was not the royal sort of social circle i don't i don't think that she ever seriously considered him because at one time when the press got them together as the press does they both made a hell of a fuss about it denying it like mad bertie fell for elizabeth's exceptional charms and wrote to a friend my dream has at last been realized it seems so marvelous to me to know that my darling elizabeth will one day be my wife she was really the center of masculine attention a lot of men were in love with her she was a great deb in her day and he when he met her he fell in love with her absolutely instantly and he was with all his failings because he was a very diffident 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 so he 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 she agreed she really loved him um 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 danced very well he was very athletic he dressed very well and he was a really a good guy it was a really very popular marriage because the prince of wales his brother wasn't married at the time so there was rather pressure really on on the duke of york to marry so when they're married it was a great a great public occasion the public were very taken with her because she was very very beautiful he was a good-looking man it was a kind of romantic romantic wedding and uh very very popular she was so good for bertie um she brought him out she supported him she made his life fun she made everything go around him and i suppose they must have been a bit worried because he'd had history of bad health because he stammered and was very shy and so nobody could have been more ideal at 23 elizabeth was beautiful described by one unsuccessful sutras having an indescribable and indefinable atmosphere on her wedding day the bride stepped out of the family home in brewton street accompanied by her father on that cold damp thursday in april 1923 eager eyes in the crowd caught their first sight of the royal couple and millions of people lined the roads to cheer them her presence came pouring in king george gave her a suite of diamonds and queen mary's sapphires and diamonds from her own collection her wedding dress was described as the simplest wedding dress ever made for a royal wedding wedding dresses were very fashionable then i mean they reflected absolutely the period of fashion of 1923. um it was made of an extraordinary fabric which i must say puzzles me enormously which is chiffon moire which is almost a contradiction in terms and it was it was not a regal wedding dress it was not a royal bride's wedding dress but it was a sort of a fashionable aristocratic young i mean it was perfect for her for exactly who she was it was the right dress but i mean looking back it was a very curious shape but all dresses at that time were curious shapes and it was a medieval shape with a square neck and these bands of silver llamas that seeded with pearls going this way and then a long band going to the floor so it had this odd medieval look mixed with the 20s sort of straight shape it's very difficult for us looking back now to have these veils which were in fact instead of just being kind of clouds of misty tulle which the queen mother went into later in her life they were rather oppressive almost claustrophobic cloches sort of ribboned down and she's kept that element later in her life with her hats but that in private too the couple took their wedding vows at westminster abbey the archbishop of york preaching the sermon assured them that the warm and generous heart of the people takes you today into itself the newlyweds returned to buckingham palace in the state glass coach with its imposing escort of cavalry [Applause] elizabeth was now her royal highness the duchess of york as fourth royal lady in the land she was now entitled to curtsies and all the other royal tributes the procession swept down constitution hill and into the palace there was something very appealing about the bridal couple his clean cut good looks complemented her wistful beauty and they both looked radiant the bride and bridegroom appeared on the balcony to acknowledge the cheers from the crowds the wedding breakfast was held in the state dining room for 123 people with 66 of the closest relatives seated at tables prettily decorated with elizabeth's favorite pink tulips and white lilacs the young couple left on their honeymoon from waterloo station destined for scotland the new royal bride had agreed to give an interview to a magazine much to the chagrin of her royal in-laws the interviews she gave um which she sort of did because she was a nice outgoing newly married young woman was to a magazine and she was giving away a few of what king george v father-in-law considered to be royal secrets like what they had for breakfast and what the color the furniture was and he told her please don't do that he daughter actually so he wasn't grouchy with her and i think she took the lesson to heart and although the royal families have been more sort of forthcoming since then and we know more about them or think we do i think that rule stuck what her father-in-law told her has lasted for a lifetime on the 21st of april 1926 after a difficult labor the duchess of york gave birth to a girl queen mary wrote in her diary a little darling with a lovely complexion and pretty fair hair she was christened elizabeth alexandra mary giving her the same initials as her mother the duchess gave birth to a second daughter princess margaret rose in august 1930 the king and queen were delighted with their little granddaughters marriage transformed bertie's life most of all elizabeth gave him the stability of a happy home and a precious family in private they say that he was a man who could be quite easy quite amusing quite quite at ease with himself in private but in public he had none of this she was exactly the opposite she had all the strengths where he had the weaknesses and as she wasn't anywhere a domineering woman she wasn't anyway a hard woman she knew exactly how to handle him she knew exactly how to bring out his strengths so we're very very good together it was a very very successful marriage he said many years later when uh queen elizabeth when his daughter elizabeth married prince philip he said your mother is the most wonderful woman in the world i think this is perfectly true they were a devoted couple the duke and duchess of york were the rising stars of the new house of windsor elizabeth known as the smiling duchess was her husband's mainstay attention now turned to the marriage of his brother george duke of kent despite a playboy reputation he married princess marina of greece in 1934 the granddaughter of grand duchess vladimir of russia george duke of kent was extremely handsome and he made a very very good marriage in princess mourinho of greece not only was she beautiful she was elegant sophisticated and very rich and they became the sort of charles and diana of the day there were huge photographs of them hoardings in the street and their marriage in westminster abbey was a very swell and elegant affair and she was dressed by molyneux and he was very handsome but behind their facade of being the super elegant handsome couple that there were difficulties he had a lot of problems which his brother david had helped him with david really adored george and they were very close and when george became involved in a slightly darker side of life and dabbled with drugs and homosexuality it was david that helped him then the great tragedy was that in 1942 he was on a air mission in scotland and it was a very foggy day and the plane actually flew into the side of a mountain and crashed and everybody on board was killed and for many years there were stories circulating that this perhaps was some plot but there's no evidence and to this day there's been no evidence that it was anything other than a very tragic accident princess marina was understandably totally distraught she she had a a baby son um she suddenly was on her own she she then um sought refuge perhaps in the world of show business and eventually went on to to have an affair with nell card which is well documented henry duke of gloucester in the middle was the next royal brother to find a wife in november 1935 he married lady alice daughter of the seventh duke of berklee and queensbury in the chapel in buckingham palace the little princesses elizabeth and margaret were bridesmaids her wedding dress was designed by norman hartnell who was making his debut as a designer of royal wedding dresses lady alice was a contemporary of elizabeth and the two women have been friends all their lives when they were both young girls they were on the party circuit in london together and they did form a friendship but it really became more when princess alice asked princess elizabeth and princess margaret to be bridesmaids at her wedding to the duke of gloucester and the queen mother went to see norman hartnell who was making the bride's dress and the bridesmaids dresses and that was her first introduction to hartnell and he instructed all his staff to curtsy to her like a swan he said not like a starling and that was the beginning of the queen mother's association with norman hartnell which lasted for the rest of his life the only remaining unmarried royal brother david prince of wales heir to the throne was enjoying himself mingling with london's society set he enjoyed close relationships with some of the most beautiful women of his day including lady thelma finesse in 1933 there was a new love in david's life mrs wallis simpson an american divorcee already into her second marriage the couple were brought together after he invited wallis and her husband to join his party of royal friends for a cruising holiday off barrett's wallis and her husband ernest and her then husband were social climbers and you can't get hired in the prince of wales i mean they weren't going to sail the very top of the tower and get the king and queen but the prince of wales would do very nicely um i think actually the social climbing aspect was more important to her if she fell in love with him which i think i'm sure she did at some time what got her there was the um efforts at social climbing which were of course highly successful the duchess of york did not approve of her brother-in-law's philandering although his shenanigans went by unreported in the british press they did not escape the attention of his family the duchess of york disapproved strongly of david's lifestyle she didn't think it was dignified he used to do he used to walk around paying bagpipes he was very eccentric he used to be inconsiderate to his staff i think she didn't like that he would wouldn't tell his chauffeur he was going to go from his office in saint james's to the duchy of cornwall office he would just walk down the street and not tell his chauffeur he would make his own phone calls which puts put the switchboard in a terrible flurry and he would do exactly what he wanted and in particular reference to the duke and duchess of york he was meant to be opening a hospital in scotland during the summer period and he said to them i can't do it you'll have to do it so bertie and elizabeth went up and opened the hospital and they discovered much to their horror that david was actually there but he was at the station wearing a pair of goggles as a disguise and waiting for wallace to come up on the train to balmoral and the duchess was very annoyed about that i don't think she approved of mrs wallace simpson at all in fact i don't think she ever really liked her um she was perfectly happy about some of the prince of wales's mistresses like thelma lady finesse who was an american divorcee she looked perfectly happy with her but there was something about wallace that she didn't like and i think she did not like the way that wallace took over david's life entirely and separated him from his brothers meanwhile at royal lodge windsor the duke and duchess of york had created a haven of peace and tranquility for their family they furnished the beautiful pink walled lodge in the informal style of a typical english country house with views over the garden which elizabeth and bertie had created together in the gardens bertie derived particular pleasure from the huge grounds which developed his interest as a keen amateur gardener by the time of his jubilee celebrations in 1935 the old king was a very sick man while george v was alive the issue of david's love life could be avoided [Applause] at 70 the king's health was fading by january 1936 he was dying following bulletin was issued at 9 25. king's life is moving peacefully towards its clothes following his coffin were his sons led by david now king edward viii having succeeded his father to the throne the old king had prophesied from his death bed that my son will ruin himself within 12 months his warning had a certain knowing tone in fact it took only 11. our late sovereign lord to king george the fifth of blessed and glorious memory that the high and mighty prince edward albert christian george andrew patrick david is now become our only [Music] lawful king by the gods of great britain ireland and the british dominions beyond the sea defender of the faith emperor of india god save the king elizabeth the duchess of york avoided the new king's mistress there was a story about one occasion when he had then become king he was then king edward viii and gave a dinner party at balmoral to which the duke and duchess of york as they then were were invited and wanda simpson behaved like the hostess she came forward to welcome to balmoral and um the queen mother then the duchess walker had nothing to do with simply walked past her and so i've come to have dinner with a king and simply walked past walter simpson absolutely ignored her never never never liked her at all outwardly edward viii followed his father's traditions he kept up the ceremonial side of his role but he was a king in conflict with his government church and family the british public had been kept in the dark about his activities with a married woman but on a trip abroad he and mrs simpson were received by adolf hitler wallace was kept very much under wraps at first i mean the family were aware of her but she was sort of a person in a non grata and edward had to go through david had to go through all sorts of devices to get her even to through the gates of the buckingham palace and i don't think elizabeth knew her until she suddenly reared her head as the great obstacle to edwards remaining king that of course meant that her husband was going to become king in his and at that point i don't think she thought very fondly of wallace they were very different people i mean wallace was hard shiny bright typically brash american cool cold and elizabeth was um aristocratic but relaxed in the nice english aristocratic way i don't think they would have got on together at all anyway david's love for wallace now twice divorced caused a constitutional crisis after the bishop of norwich spoke out the king abdicated the press reported that mrs simpson had sailed to france and for the first time in britain their king's relationship with a married woman was out in the open you all know the reasons which have have impelled me to renounce the throne believe me when i tell you that i have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as i would wish to do without the help and support of the woman i love crowds stunned by the announcement gathered outside buckingham palace in june 1937 david now the duke of windsor and wallace were married in france at the chateau de conde near tour [Music] in spite of the duke's requests no member of his family attended the wedding and the marriage gained no official recognition the church of england wanted nothing to do with it the day before his brother bertie sent a message wallace would not share her husband's royal status she could call herself the duchess of windsor but she was not to be addressed as her royal highness bertie became king george vi he was totally unprepared for the role of king and commented with my wife and helpmate by my side i take up the heavy burden which lies before me he was highly nervous he had an ulcer he had a stammer i mean the fella should have been in a monastery it would have done him far better no he wasn't prepared uh he was absolutely terrified i mean he burst into tears when he realized what was happening and cried on his mother's shoulder now that monuments to duty probity and self-control couldn't have been very pleased at this uh but that's what he didn't i mean he was running around muttering about a lamb to the slaughter he was totally unprepared completely untrained it was completely unexpected from the start when um the prince of wales wasn't married and got old and old and still wasn't married there was also thought that um her husband that the duke of york might become king so there he was a thought in the back of her mind but even so it came as a great shock when actually the when the abdication happened and they were called upon to be king queen on coronation day in may 1937 crowds lined the route to catch a glimpse of king george vi and queen elizabeth after the shock of the abdication the british people had taken their new sovereigns into their hearts the king chose the date already arranged for his brother's coronation saying sardonically same date different king his mother queen mary watched the ceremony with his two young daughters elizabeth and margaret [Music] in westminster abbey he wore a heavy white satin robe embroidered with shimmering emblems of the empire he looked ghost white to many of the guests at the thousand-year-old sacred ritual the moment before bertie was anointed and droved for the crowning is the most touching of all a symbol perhaps of the loneliness of the monarchy after the coronation there seemed to be a distinct change in him he suddenly acquired the regal poise of a king beside him elizabeth rose to her new responsibilities she knew her husband very well she knew his frailties she knew that he was terribly shy that he had in fact crowd phobia he really didn't like that and um so she could see the enormous burden that would be placed on this not very strong man on one of their first official trips abroad a state visit to france in july 1938 the republican country fell to the charms of the royal couple headlines proclaimed we have taken the queen to our hearts she rules over two nations france is a monarchy again the king and queen breathed fresh life into the antonte cordial between britain and france french newsreels recorded their visit and were enthralled by the spectacular dresses created for the queen by norman hartnell norman hartnell started making clothes for queen mary um and then he moved on to other members of the royal family but it was rarely for the queen mother that he's best known and when lady strathmore died the queen mother was going on a big state visit to paris and she suddenly had to wear mourning and heartless came up with the idea instead of having black to have white and the queen mother took paris totally by storm in these beautiful white dresses created by heartless which she had to make up very very quickly in about a fortnight remember he had 400 people working for him in those days every single one of those 30 outfits that hartnell made for that visit was white i mean the parasols of white the gloves the shoes everything everything was white um and they were all long which is interesting to know i mean even if you did it today even today it would be sensational and the french it took france by storm i mean they're not monarchists by nature but apparently they said france has lost its heart it has a new queen people cheered people queued and the fabrics and the the sketches of the dresses they make me want to cry even today i mean great garlands of camellias lace cobweb lace tulle silk organza i mean this was you know the the queen mother has something about herself which is unique and it was uniquely translated by norman hartnell for the french visit i mean i can remember a friend of my mother saying that no one will ever repeat that success even even now it probably was the greatest fashion statement made by a royal person in the last century the french visit was a personal triumph for the queen norman hartnell continued to make her clothes until the end of his life the queen mother was very much to do with couture she's nothing to do with ready to wear at all and he was the man in the right place at the right time who fully sympathetically and joyfully accepted to dress this extraordinary woman with this very strong taste of her own which she's never wavered from never ever all the craft all the kind of skill of couture could be lavished both money-wise and occasion-wise on on his work for her on official visits queen elizabeth was often accompanied by her two daughters princess elizabeth and princess margaret the family life of elizabeth and margaret or was of course known as mary rose seems to have been as near idyllic as it was possible to be their father was incredibly soft tender indulgent particularly with the younger daughter with princess margaret their mother in many ways seems to have been by the standards of the 20s or 30s almost more of a friend to them than either a formal mother a great lady a royal duchess finally a queen empress herself after their marriage david and wallace now the duke and duchess of windsor settled in france they were photographed at a gala in cannes close to the location of one of their homes at cape dante [Music] the duke considered his exile to be only a temporary affair and he assumed that it was only a matter of time before they were accepted back in britain this was never to be reports of a tour the duke and duchess of windsor made to germany was headline news in britain and america this upset the royal family and the british government who were concerned that germany was re-arming its war machine [Applause] on a lighter note for the royal family the united states were captivated by the royal couple when in 1939 the king and queen embarked on a six-week royal tour of the continent the first reigning monarchs to set foot in north america on the 8th of june 1939 they were greeted in washington by president roosevelt huge crowds turned out to welcome them the king reveled at this chance to meet the world leader queen elizabeth and the president's wife eleanor roosevelt struck up an instant friendship as did their husbands on this trip they won a crucial ally for britain their visit was a triumph which was to have far-reaching effects for britain in the darkest days of world war ii this relationship would prove invaluable here as in france a year before the american people were captivated by elizabeth's dignity and grace and particularly charmed by norman hartnell's elegant creations their tour included a visit to canada despite initial apprehensions they received a warm welcome even among the french-speaking population in performing his public duties the king was regularly called upon to make speeches but his speech impediment which he had had since his childhood made this a grueling experience for a man with a stammer a speech in french to the people of quebec was a particularly terrifying experience [Music] extra [Music] the king and queen were thrown into a ceaseless round of work elizabeth did all she could to lighten her husband's burden and make his official duties and public appearances easier for him in 1939 with the war clouds looming over europe the royal family were filmed by the newsreels attending a scout camp is [Applause] [Applause] [Music] shortly before the war queen elizabeth launched the ship named after her the queen elizabeth was the largest ocean-going liner ever built for the cunard line the event was recorded by the film cameras the occasion offers a rare opportunity to hear her speaking this ceremony to which many thousands have looked forward so eagerly must now take place in circumstances far different from those for which they had hoped i have however a message for you from the king he bids the people of this country to be of good cheer in spite of the dark clouds hanging over them and indeed over the whole world as war was declared with germany everyone looked to the royal family for morale and leadership in 1940 buckingham palace suffered a direct hit queen mary had been sent to badminton a safe house elizabeth wrote to her my darling mama i hardly know how to begin to tell you of the horrible attack on buckingham palace this morning bertie and i arrived there at a quarter to 11 and he and i went up to our poor windowless rooms when the royal couple inspected the damage the queen said i'm glad we've been bombed now we can look the east end in the face there were lighter moments when an explosion hit the drainage systems the garden was flooded with rats which everyone had great fun chasing by the end of the war the queen recalled there were no windows left at all poor old house while the king believed victory would eventually come the strain of the war took its toll on him he was a heavy smoker i don't think she tried to stop him smoking very much and i don't think she realized probably how bad it was for him when it came to the drinking the drinking didn't affect his daily life didn't affect his work he used to like a good hearty swig out of the whiskey to canter in the evening particularly at regimental dinners when it came to his temper she was one of the few people who could calm him whenever he was in the temper they say that she would teasingly take his pulse and go tick tick tick tick tick just to make him laugh at himself he took himself very seriously he took everything extremely seriously she's got a more buoyant nade she tends to throw things off so they really they complement each other wonderfully well when he was short-tempered she really was kind of as calm as the day was long she's a very easy woman i think to live with and this is exactly the kind of person he needed he was a tremendous warrior she's a woman who simply had a way of casting off her worries a very equitable tim queen elizabeth was a constant visitor to the wounded her wartime morale boosting efforts were unequaled hitler regarded her as the most dangerous woman in europe he felt that she had the king by then king george's six under her thumb he thought that she was as indeed she was a very strong-minded woman and that that her husband though king george six was a rather weak-minded weak-minded man and so um hitler was very conscious of the fact that she might have been the power behind the throne which i don't think she really was i think she was a tremendous help to king george's six but i wouldn't say that she was actually the power behind the threat but hitler was very conscious that she was a woman of considerable strength of character which indeed she was despite the dangers the king and queen refused to leave their country like everyone in wartime britain they had a ration book and clothing coupons whenever possible the king and queen shared the deprivations of their subjects elizabeth joined the war effort in a knitting campaign with other ladies at buckingham palace despite the circumstances and the gloom of war the queen always made an effort to look her regal best she said quite honestly if if if the poor people were coming to see me they would certainly look their best and i should look my best for them and i think that's a genuine thing of how she she likes to look her best she does to this day she always has and she always will hats became the queen's trademark as a member of the royal family firm her face had to be visible to the public she incorporated in their design emblems that reflected the war effort like the winged insignia of the royal air force she liked to say she only got normal rations but in fact she did get more clothing coupons than most by a large large chalk but the fact is she still wore she would always wear a hat i mean it was unacceptable i think for her not to wear a hat she couldn't have born to go out she would not have been dressed but i mean obviously it reflected the sacrifices people were having to make the hats were much smaller and they were made of much much sturdier more useful i mean cheaper really i suppose less fancy fabric felts and wools and tweeds and a lot of felt because felt works very well for a hat during the war the teenage princesses spent time at windsor and princess elizabeth was often seen in uniform finally when the king and queen were utterly exhausted by the riggers they and their country had been through the long years of war drew to a close queen elizabeth's wartime efforts were rewarded when nazi germany surrendered to the allies in 1945. hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight tuesday the 8th of may but in the interest of saving lives the ceasefire began yesterday to be sounded along all the fronts the german war is therefore at an end we may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing today is victory in europe day [Applause] the king queen and their daughters appeared on the palace balcony with prime minister winston churchill to deafening cheers thousands of people yelled below the balcony as victory in europe was celebrated in 1947 the royal family left britain aboard the battleship hms vanguard for a state visit to south africa the three-week voyage gave them time to relax and unwind after the ordeals of [Music] war everywhere they went enthusiastic crowds greeted the royal family the two-month tour in south africa then a british dominion would prove very demanding for the king the pressures of war had badly affected his health and he had lost a lot of weight he was on a mission to stop the nationalist government from winning an election and imposing apartheid on the country his mission failed however despite the heat and long distances the queen always managed to look her best as a young man theo aronson recalls one particular occasion we drove there through heat and the dust one day to this terrible railway siding not a blade of grass not a tree just this desolate country all around and about 20 of us waited there for the train to come in the king got out wearing an ordinary little little summer suit and the princesses got out just wearing all new little cotton or linen dresses but the queen dresses up a garden party tremendous ostrich feather hat and floating panels of ostrich feathers and pearls and jewels and high-heeled shoes and quite right too she had come 6000 miles to be on that very spot on that very day 32 years later i met her and i tell this little story and i said the first time i'd seen you i said you step off that train and i thought you looked like a million dollars and she fell about she laughed and laughed at mr aaronson you're so seldom here that kind of spontaneous remark makes all our efforts seem worthwhile princess elizabeth celebrated her 21st birthday in south africa in a speech she acknowledged that her coming of age was also a moment of we self-dedication before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong princess elizabeth had fallen in love with prince philip of greece their engagement was announced on their return from south africa princess elizabeth fell in love with the exiled and penniless prince philip of greece then a serving officer in the royal navy for elizabeth it was love at first sight prince philip's parents were divorced and it fell upon his ambitious uncle louis mountbatten to steer the young prince in the direction of a royal marriage at the beginning they weren't too eager i think they thought that um that uh the president queen was too young really she should really have met some other men but but but the president queen i mean their daughter elizabeth was absolutely determined to marry philip and so in the end they they liked him he was a kind of he was kind of man's man that king george vi liked louis man baton known as dicky was married to one of the world's richest heiresses edwina ashley the queen sought them rather presumptuous i had certain reservations about his uncle louie and his aunt edwina mountbatten she thought that dicky mountbatten was pushy and ambitious and tried to get perhaps too much advantage out of bertie who was very fond of him and she disapproved very much of edwina who she thought was a champagne socialist and rather fast on november the 20th 1947 princess elizabeth and prince philip were married in westminster abbey it was a spectacular wedding which symbolized the end of an era of austerity for the nation and prompted fresh happiness for the royal family the bride wore a fabulous embroidered gown and the queen lent her a royal heirloom of course there is a strong tradition for a bride to wear something borrowed on her wedding day and for princess elizabeth's wedding she she was lent a fabulous diamond sunray fringe tiara that was originally set with diamonds in 1830s the hanoverian tiara and that was handed down to queen victoria and through the royal family it's very bridal it does frame the face beautifully and is a very fitting ornament to a wedding day i mean of all the weddings this one touches my heart the most i have to say it was so beautiful it meant so much it was the end of post-war austerity it was embroidered with love it was crafted with love i mean they say that people sent in their clothing ration coupons and i'm sure that's true everybody wanted their dream princess to have it all and the dress reflected that it was designed by norman hartnell it was inspired by botticelli apparently and it had you know york roses and things of huge significance which actually can die of death but on this dress they really didn't they looked absolutely wonderful every single seamstress and i'm not sure how many there were some talk of hundreds uh did in fact so stitch a hair from her own head in into the lining of the dress and the veil i think it was the veil to end all veils it was fine ivory silk tulle and it was embroidered almost spangled with stars and light and very very beautiful she adored the man she was going to marry and who wouldn't he was devastatingly handsome and she loved her father who was this shy man you know with the stutter who'd come to the throne unexpectedly she adored him and you can get a little feeling of what what she and he must have felt like in that the letter is preserved uh that he wrote to her about the wedding after the occasion in which he told her how incredibly moved he was and how full of love he was as they walked together down the aisle it was it's a wonderful letter and should be read because it's it shows something very special about a father and a daughter the queen knew that the family firm of us four must now include philip at 47 she would never have a son of her own princess elizabeth would succeed the king as monarch queen mary was aware that thanks to bertie and elizabeth the monarchy was secure three generations of royalty acknowledged the crowds on the same spot where princess elizabeth's parents had stood 24 years before scenes of her daughter's wedding must have brought back memories of her own marriage in 1923 to the shy young man bertie duke of york prince charles was born in 1948 and christened at buckingham palace in december as queen elizabeth's first grandchild charles was destined to become the apple of her eye he became the son she never had two years later his sister princess anne was born spontaneous moments of love and affection for his grandmother were captured on many public occasions it was to her that he turned when his father sent him away to boarding school when he was at school at gordenstein which he detested he was terribly lonely he was bullied he was absolutely miserable and 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 great favorite with her and i think she encouraged me in many ways that his parents didn't they were rather conventional that the queen and prince philip uh had very conventional tastes on what young men should be the queen mother appreciated his softer more artistic side i think she certainly encouraged him as a young man in 1948 the king and queen celebrated their silver wedding anniversary king george only 53 and already suffering the early symptoms of his final illness bravely made a speech has been made the occasion of a worldwide expression of kindly will towards us which has greatly moved us it has been an unforgettable experience to realize how many thousands of people there are in this world who wish to join in the thankfulness we feel for the 25 years of supremely so happy married life which have been granted to us the king and queen often attended glamorous film galas outshining stage and screen stars at premieres came effortlessly to queen elizabeth this was the kind of event she always enjoyed she loved mixing with theatrical people who found her enchanting with her easy going manners and famous charm while the world of entertainment celebrated its glamour icons the queen had her own signature style in january 1952 princess elizabeth flew to kenya on behalf of her sick father she would never see him again the king died in his sleep at sandringham just six days later it was announced from sandringham at 10 45 today february the 6th 1952 that the king who retired to rest last night in his usual health passed peacefully away in his sleep earlier this morning a week after leaving for kenya princess elizabeth returned to britain as queen elizabeth ii her government's ministers waited to receive her on the tarmac the statesman who had served her father would now serve her her father's forced kingship and the rigors of war had finally taken their toll he was only 57. i don't think george vi would have had a long life anyway he smoked too much his health was bad uh and i don't think being forced into the role of king was all there was to it i mean it was obviously a great shock to the system but what i think what really did it mean was the second world war coming so soon afterwards only three years after he became king that was a tremendous strain on him but um in his state of health in state of nerves i don't think he'd have lasted long anyway [Music] queen elizabeth and her two daughters were completely shattered by his untimely death on the day of his funeral the coffin was covered with the royal standard and a wreath bearing the message darling bertie from his loving elizabeth [Music] following behind the coffin was his eldest brother david whose abdication in 1936 had forced the crown onto his brother david followed as a member of the royal family although his wife wallis who had never been accepted as one of them was not invited the queen mother blamed the duchess and most of all the duke of windsor for the king's early death i think she certainly believed that the duke of windsor by his irresponsibility in abdicating and leaving the throne to george vi had shortened our husband's life she absolutely seriously believed this and there's a certain element of truth in it because of the strain he went through particularly during the war when he was informed by churchill of exactly what was happening i think this worry and the excessive smoking this kind of thing did shorten his life he was a tremendous warrior and borne down by the whole responsibility of being keen i'm absolutely sure it shortened his life yes it was for a man of his nature who had the stammer who was very shy it was a tremendous responsibility and although she did absolutely everything to ease his path i'm absolutely sure that being king shortened his life and she knew this i think always bore grudge against the then duke and duchess of windsor because they had shortened the life of her husband on june 2nd 1953 the world witnessed elizabeth's eldest daughter crowned queen elizabeth ii it was the first televised coronation elizabeth now officially known as the queen mother guided her four-year-old grandson charles throughout the long service she was only the second queen in british history to watch the crown being placed on the head of her child much was expected of the young queen only 26 at her coronation she would need the experience and support of her mother the queen mother still young at 51 requested that she'd be allowed to continue the work that she and her husband had sought to do together family unity so much on display that day would soon be tested by the time of the 1947 voyage to south africa princess margaret was falling in love with her father's equity group captain peter townsend a married man after the king's death townsend divorced his wife working for the queen mother at her new home clarence house he was now closely involved with margaret it all came as a great surprise to the royal family really because it had been i mean a secret love affair between princess margaret and and peter townsend and the queen mother really had no idea the beginning of this was going on under her very nose because they were all together there in karen's house he was the controller the queen mother's controller in karen's house so it came as a complete surprise and what the queen mother did which she does on many occasions is simply turn her back on the whole she simply put it out of her mind i think this is one of her great secrets of her tremendous tranquility that she doesn't let things bother her the queen mother has always had her eye on history and has always wanted it to be known that she is above reproach and to have involved herself in a scandal which it was at that time which was likely to bring down the royal family or at least certainly severely damaged the royal family if margaret had married tanzan i think she wanted to stay as clear from it as possible in 1953 peter townsend divorced his wife he was now free to marry princess margaret but rather than face up to the situation the queen mother avoided her daughter's problems peter townsend and princess margaret separated only to be reunited two years later but margaret crushed by the disapproval of the establishment decided not to marry him the queen mother was relieved princess margaret was determined really to marry peter townsend at an early stage she felt it just wasn't right for all sorts of reasons and in the end of course they prevailed upon princess margaret and and she gave him up her sister the queen didn't put any pressure on her at all um princess margaret's actual own christian faith and i think sense of her royal position were the facts that decided her i don't think she wanted to become a housewife townsend never had any money very soon after her husband's death the queen mother established a pattern for her widowhood a life that was as busy as possible constantly in the public eye the queen mother commented on the presence of photographers it's so distressing for me that i always photographed so badly the new queen found her mother's advice and good humor was just the strength and support she needed in her new and difficult role once when the queen mother arrived late from buckingham palace she commented please excuse me for being late but i've just been up the road having coffee with my daughter 1959 she visited nairobi to open a new dam [Music] although the queen mother often thought of retiring her daughter would remind her of her message to the nation on the death of her husband my only wish now is that i may be allowed to continue the work we sought to do together everyone who met the queen mother on her royal duties fell under her spell she became patron of over 300 organizations and charities and became the chancellor of london university the queen mother is sophisticated yet she also loves country pursuits salmon fishing has been her lifelong hobby [Music] she loved fishing fishing was one of her great things and right up to extreme old age there she would be standing in some scottish burn with these waders on fishing she loved fishing she loved racing of course she's very knowledgeable about racing so she had all this kind of these kind of county interests the queen mother was overjoyed when margaret then almost 30 fell in love with society photographer anthony armstrong jones he was an artistic man but caused concern in some quarters because besides being a commoner he was considered to be part of the fast london set they were married in may 1960. princess margaret's exquisite silk wedding dress was made by her mother's favorite designer norman hartnell who also designed the outfit the queen mother wore for princess margaret's wedding he made her wonderful sort of gold dress and the hat was made by madame sancia who was one of the top millions in paris and madame sanchez bought the hat over and hartnell showed it to the queen mother she sat in front of her dressing table and then he thought i must mention to her the terrifying price which i think for the feathers alone was a hundred pounds which is a lot of money in the sixties and he looked at the queen mother and she looked at herself in the in the mirror and she said yes and i think i'll have one in white too on that sunny day in may 1960 the royal wedding was greeted with great optimism everybody wanted the fairy tale princess to be happy it was the first royal wedding to be broadcast on television and the wedding dress caused quite a stir princess margaret's wedding dress was a triumph of of a fashion statement if you like i mean it couldn't have been more different from her sisters it wasn't just 13 years in time it was a whole different era i mean princess elizabeth's reflected the end of a period in a way the end of post-war austerity but princess margaret's reflected the beginning of the 60s the beginning of the kind of more confident britain and the more successful britain and she had the courage and indeed normal heartless it wasn't a very typical heartenal dress to put it mildly they both had the courage to to use something totally different it was innovative it was courageous it was absolutely perfect for the person wearing it and it was very much away from royal tradition there was no embroidery whatsoever there wasn't a stitch of embroidery it was this wonderful double silk organza with a high neck and a deep v at the front going to the tiniest waste in the land i i suspect you'd never find a tinier waist and all the temptations to load it with fuss or frill or clutter were all avoided it was a very courageous and totally totally successful design as with most royal brides the crowning glory had to be the tiara margaret's was extremely unusual and broke with royal tradition princess margaret's tiara was interesting because it wasn't a piece of jewelry that had sort of been handed down from generation or mother to daughter or anything like that it was a tiara which actually had been bought at sotheby's by the royal family for 5 500 pounds for those who want to know um from lord baltimore and it was it was it is i'm sure still a very very beautiful tiara totally different from the hanoverian tiara which is quite spiky and quite almost graphic looking curiously this was delicate and pretty it was a pretty piece with dangling wonderful great diamonds the bridegroom was created earl of snowden they had two children david and sarah sadly the snowden's divorced after 18 years of marriage but the queen mother always retained affection for her son-in-law the queen mother always adored him and because he was fun because he's artistic she likes people with taste and so much did she like him that when things were going badly and i think after they were even divorced and princess margaret used to get quite cross because her mother went on entertaining um after the song changed and said nothing had happened as the young duchess of york elizabeth once said i always like the term family circle it sounds so close and safe and happy the queen mother treasures pictures of her own family growing up and a flip through the family album triggers memories of her husband's childhood and a reminder of his brothers and sisters who for nearly a century have been part of her family's circle bertie's brother george was born in 1902 he was created duke of kent when in 1934 he married princess marina daughter of prince nicholas of greece tragically he was killed in an air crash in 1942 leaving a wife and three children [Music] his eldest son edward was a shy and sensitive teenager who bore the title duke of kent from a very young age [Music] in 1961 age 25 edward duke of kent became engaged to miss catherine worsley in the grounds of kensington palace catherine showed off her engagement ring in preparation for their marriage at york minster in june the first royal wedding to be held there since edward iii married queen philippa in 1338 she was well connected to the royal family as her father sir william wersley was the lord lieutenant of yorkshire an office created by henry viii the ceremony at york minster rivaled any of the more traditional venues for royal weddings catherine's gown was made of shimmering white raw silk with a round neck emphasized by a plain row of pearls the duke of kent's wedding to catherine woolsey in 1961 was a fantastic affair but it was the first royal wedding to be held in york minster for over 700 years so it was something of a move away from the traditional westminster abbey weddings but catherine was a yorkshire girl and they thought it would be a wonderful idea to hold it in york minster and basically their marriage was extremely happy they had to wait a long time before they were allowed to get engaged and then in the later years of their marriage with her ill health and her stress problems um it's slightly fallen apart the duke of ken's sister princess alexandra was born in 1936 within three years world war ii began during which her father was killed on alexandra's wedding day in 1963 it was her brother edward the duke of kent who gave her away the 26 year old bride had driven from kensington palace to westminster abbey amidst cheers and greetings from tens of thousands of people who lined the route the queen mother was present with prince charles and other members of the royal family and the bridesmaids included lady sarah armstrong jones princess margaret's daughter princess anne was a maid of honor the bridegroom angus ogilvy came from one of the noblest scottish families with a long and very close association with the british royal family princess alexandra's marriage to angus ogilvy was always considered extremely successful they had their problems he had a lot of financial problems but she has stood by him and they've produced some very nice children and they're absolutely adored by all members of the royal family and they are constant guests at balmoral and constant guests of the queen mother they're always there they've done their duty they're quiet and they get on with it designer john cavanaugh used 82 yards of material for the wedding dress [Music] from the headdress flowed a magnificent 20-foot long veil of magnolia tinted cotton lace edged with a wide border of the lancian lace which belonged to princess nicholas of greece the dress had to be gently squeezed into the carriage [Music] dub the royal wedding of the year alexandra's mother princess marina of greece was accompanied by her relations including king frederick of denmark and queen frederica of greece the crowds cheered the new mr mrs angus ogilvy who rode across in james's palace in a glass coat lent by the queen the bride would be known as her royal highness for princess alexandra the honorable mrs angus ogilvy which rather displeased her mother princess marina anger sogovy had to settle for an honourable the wedding group posed for formal photographs in the throne room alexandra always cheerfully performed her royal duties while she and anger struggled to keep their private life private they had two children who kept the family in the spotlight one thing about marina's children they were all very talented musically and with languages and princess alexandra plays the piano beautifully in 1973 this was the family on the stepsister george's chapel in windsor alexandra's youngest daughter marina named after her grandmother didn't always meet with family approval and developed her own sense of style marina merit turned out to be a bit of a wild child and broke free of the role protocol and married someone called paul murat who was a photographer but before she married him she became pregnant and then she told the world that her mother didn't approve of the pregnancy and wanted her to terminate it it was a very very unhappy period and she made her parents look unpleasant and foolish publicly and the queen did not forgive her she's prince charles's god child and she was totally ostracized she was actually literally off the queen's christmas card list but then in the last 18 months she's been re-accepted she has two children and she's divorced paul murat and she's now back in the royal fault princess marina's youngest son prince michael second from the right was born in 1942 three weeks before his father died in the plane crash in 1978 when prince michael was 35 he gave up his right of accession to the throne to marry the woman he loved baroness married christine von ribnitz who was a catholic and had been married before murray christine had her heart set on a church wedding but the vatican said no when prince michael insisted that his children would be brought up as protestants they became the first royal couple apart from the duke and duchess of windsor to be married in a registry office five years later they had their marriage recognized in a roman catholic ceremony in 1981 at st james's palace in london their daughter lady gabriella windsor was christened her older brother is lord frederick windsor on many occasions princess michael has attracted bad publicity princess michael of kent has overcome all the problems in her marriage and actually handled it extremely well she had a lot of blips for a start she felt the royal family didn't like it because she was a catholic and divorced then she got involved in various scandals her father was accused of being a nazi she had a very bad time but when you look at their marriage it seems to be very successful and they have two beautiful children and i think princess michael is once again deeply in favor with the queen she gets on with her life does what she's supposed to do and does it without a fuss the queen mother's other brother-in-law was henry duke of gloucester born in 1900 the same year as elizabeth in 1935 he married lady alice montague douglas scott daughter of the duke of the clue they had two sons william and richard william their eldest was a daredevil in 1972 he was tragically killed in an air race when his plane crashed and exploded he was 31 years old a month before william's death his brother richard married biagit van durs the daughter of a danish lawyer their wedding day in july 1972 was a wet affair accompanied by her father the couple were married modestly in the village church close to the family home in northamptonshire richard met his bride at a tea party on his second day at cambridge university where he was studying architecture she was working at the danish embassy in london and they went on to have three children alexander davina and rose among the wedding guests were prince charles and the queen mother who is almost the same age as richard's mother princess alice of gloucester by royal standards the marriage was very discreet the only unusual thing about their wedding was it was very low-key it was in the country and they had no bridesmaids no pages and no press which must have been rather nice for them princess alice and the queen mother are only 18 months apart in age but whereas the queen mother is vibrant and lively poor princess alice is really confined to her apartment in kensington palace she wanders around the garden does a few little things um it's she was incredibly active until a few years ago but the move from balmor manor where she lived most of her married life sort of spiraled her down and she needs a very quiet life now meanwhile the duke and duchess of windsor lived in grand style and travelled the world they eventually made their permanent home in paris on the fashionable avenue fosh close to the border boulogne they wrote their memoirs and were photographed on rare visits to britain where they were still not officially welcomed by the royal family in may 1972 the duke of windsor died he was 77. [Music] in death he returned to the royal family but nothing could reverse the fact that he had been estranged from his family only 18 months had separated him in age from his younger brother but he outlived bertie by 20 years he was buried in royal ground at frogmore near windsor castle according to his wishes some blame the queen mother for the long rift between the royal brothers i think she certainly had a certain amount of influence in keeping the duke of windsor out of england she mistakenly believed that he was still would attract people and would make her husband less popular than he was in comparison scene seemingly dull and this sort of thing i think she miscalculated in november 1973 princess anne was married in westminster abbey her wedding dress made by maureen baker was a heavy white silk outlined with pearls and silver thread in 1923 her grandmother had made a similar journey to westminster abbey and 50 years later she lent her granddaughter her own diamond tiara for her special day princess anne married captain mark phillips an army officer and a show jumper but sadly their marriage ended in divorce 14 years later her grandmother's tiara was the same tiara that her mother had worn at her wedding in 1947. the tiara that princess elizabeth wore was is known as the hanoverian tiara and it was in fact designed and made in 1830 for queen victoria it was made of old diamonds from the time of george the third and it was creating this wonderful quite spiky tiara quite high which can also be worn as a necklace interestingly enough the royal family are very very very good with their jewelry they can be worn for lots of different things anyway queen victoria had it made in 1830 and left it to the crown and queen mary there are pictures of queen mary wearing it and then um princess elizabeth wore it for her wedding because it was lent to her by her mother uh queen elizabeth the queen mother's principal trademark uh is her her love of pearls um and you have to remember that she was a 1920s bride she was she was brought up in that era when pearls were the most important accessory for a young girl and for any ladies of style and society and she's remained true to that wonderful formal and traditional look she still wears the most exquisite strands of pearls the queen mother is a perfectionist and no appearance is achieved without great attention to detail touching here it's too full touching here something wrong with the shoulder line here the neckline and then the the fitter will suggest perhaps mom if we alter that we make the neckline a little higher would you feel yes i think that would be very nice and touching the hat here it's got to come up and we all the like the little bits and pieces and the little band that goes underneath you don't get complaints but you know that if it isn't you just keep on doing it until it's right she was a fashion icon in the kind of way that people liked the fluff and the crinolines and the hats with the ostrich feather and the soft turquoise blue and the high heels you know with this rather minnie mouse look um to say that she was a fashion icon like jackie kennedy would be of course not true wilt thou love her comfort her honor and keep her in sickness and in health and forsaking all other prince charles's choice of bride was closely observed by his grandmother after she had watched the young lady diana spencer grow up on the sandringham estate the rest is history [Music] eleven months after their wedding the twenty-year-old diana gave birth to her first child prince william he was christened at buckingham palace [Music] on formal royal occasions the queen mother and princess diana made a pretty picture but behind these images the experienced elizabeth did not approve of diana's unpredictability diana turned out to be quite a different woman what they thought they thought she would have county girl would fit in the royal family very well but as diana developed and started behaving in this rather unpredictable kind of fashion then the queen mother turned against her certainly that she thought she was really behaving in the kind of right royal way at all so by by the end by the end of diana's life they certainly resented her they hated all this kind of washing of dirty linen in public that both diana and charles did the queen mother belongs to generation fears the royal family should keep their secrets secret and simply present a kind of united and smiling facade to the public which neither diana or certainly diana nor charles is really prepared to do the queen mother is very fond of her eldest grandson many of prince charles's opinions and interests spring from his grandmother she was influential in his choice of bride she knew lady diana spencer through her family's aristocratic connections diana had grown up in her father's care but no one knew how much her parents divorce had affected her diana's mother mrs chandkid had lost custody of her children through the testimony of her own mother lady famous a long time friend and lady in waiting to the queen mother any misgivings which he may have had about her granddaughter's suitability as a bride for prince charles were kept to herself duty to the royal family meant more than anything else to lady ruth for moy photographed regularly escorting the queen mother on her royal duties she was her constant companion the marriage was quietly promoted by the queen mother i do know that the queen mother said um to prince charles well you know you're not to mess her about and if you don't grab her somebody else will she's so attractive she certainly said that but i rather was told but again you how far you can believe people that um that lady female really didn't think it was a good idea but then again you see you have to understand how quarters are they don't tell the boss anything the boss might not want to hear so how much she may have said afterwards oh god oh god i don't think she went along and said to the royal family listen i'm not sure this is going to be a good idea i'm sure she didn't ruth for moy supported prince charles against her granddaughter the queen mother's presence at lady for moye's funeral in 1993 was the final honor for the courtier who had put royalty before her own family but had let down both her daughter and her granddaughter perhaps influenced by lady famous the queen mother came to see diana as frivolous with little sense of duty diana considered the queen mother as the source of negative comment i don't think that there was much of a relationship there between the queen mother and the princess of wales and of course as things started to go wrong the queen mother was ferociously loyal to charles always took his side when the marriage with diana started to go wrong obviously the queen mother's affections remained with prince charles and she became angry with diana because she saw that the havoc that diana was wreaking with the monarchy which is something the queen mother's given duty to all her life diana and the queen mother often had to meet in public on these occasions they had to hide the suspicion and growing coolness between them 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 green mother perhaps unfairly perhaps unfortunately but it's true that that was the case balmoral was used to conceal prince charles's affair with another woman at burke hall the queen mother's house on the scottish royal estate he frequently entertained mrs camilla parker-bowles i don't think we'll ever know whether the queen mother encouraged charles relationship with camilla but i suspect not because she would see it being trouble and also i don't think charles would ever discuss his personal relationship with another woman with his grandmother because of her great age however much he loves her he's not going to want to burden her with his intimate problems but of course the queen mother likes camilla but i don't think she would be outwardly seen to be encouraging the relationship as long as diana was alive the queen mother had a number of close friends um most of them courtiers but occasionally people who were outside the royal court and possibly the closest of all those was derek parker bowles whose son andrew finally married camilla parker-bowles and uh i think that the queen mother from the outset because of her close friendship uh with that family um saw that one of us was having a relationship with the with the prince of wales when it came down to it when uh prince charles needed somewhere to go with camilla burke hall the queen mother's house at balmoral was made available always with her knowledge because prince charles is a dutiful grandson he knows everything about keeping in touch with the queen mother letting her know what's going on and has always dedicated himself to that idea and in return the queen mother rather enjoying the secret nature of this relationship between charles and the adulteress mrs parker-bowles was quite prepared to smile on it and lend her house to them recovering from the death of her husband elizabeth bought a castle the queen mother actually only owns one home the castle of may right perched on the tip of scotland she bought that after the death of george vi she saw this derelict castle and she said i'm having it and it became a symbol of her restoration to life really because she was bereft after he died she wrote do we just sit well the um the poet said that her heart had shriveled and she saw this ruined castle and she restored it and it's her holiday home and she spends the late summer there and other times every year for more than 30 years the queen on her way to balmoral has stopped to say hello to her mother on holiday at the castle of may the queen mother is always the life and soul of the party wherever she is she just makes things go she likes to have people playing the piano and singing and when she's racing her enthusiasm is always there she's planned with her basic manager all the mating of her horses up to the year 2003 so i think she intends to be around for a while yet the queen mother's love of horse racing is legendary and an annual visit to ascot races is foremost in her social calendar she's national hunt racing's most respected owner this very expensive hobby has given rise to questions about where she gets her money from to support her racing habits king george the six um didn't pay income tax somehow the monarchy range they wouldn't pay income tax so of course this vast fortune that they'd all inherited and they they owned a lot of properties and so on all this untaxed money simply built up and of course they had the most wonderful financial advice so really a great fortune was built up and she having always had as much money as she wanted never learned to economize she simply spent and spent and spent she loves clothes she loves jewelry she loves luxurious kind of life she spends money on the races she's got her own race horses she's never really wanted for anything and i think she's always open why should she all this money is there i may as well spend it in the end she really she has i believe something like a four million pound overdraft the queen mother has an olympian view about money it's there and it's there to be spent and life is to be lived her money helps she doesn't concern herself with money the queen lobster the odd amount of money so often i mean she does um i think she rather despairs of the queen mothers and extravagances not another new dress mummy and the queen mother would say well i have to dress up for them don't i the queen mother's father the earl of strathmore inherited a quarter of a million pounds a multi-millionaire by today's standards once a rich woman with a royal fortune she's now reported to be heavily in debt well she's inherited some money from her father but much more so from her husband king george vi 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 her fortune five years ago the queen mother put 19 million pounds in trust for mostly her great-grandchildren and a good deal of that is to go to princess 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 um the royal family who have to pick up the bills after all for the queen mother um do slightly worry that she keeps on the central heating at her house the castle of may in north 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 uh that nasty damp stains appear anywhere she will keep that central heating on the bills are colossal on a trip to venice in 1984 the queen mother found her gondola ride magnifico magnifico for her it was the fulfillment of a long-held ambition to revisit the glorious city and to indulge yet again in one of her favorite pastimes dressing up i mean she loves clothes she absolutely adores them she's excited about new clothes still it doesn't matter if she has six blue coats if there's a new blue coat it she's excited about it and how wonderful that is her most noticeable trademark her hats gradually evolved to become the gracious and unmistakable image of her years as queen mother she grew up at a time when you did always wear a hat you wore a hat as a little girl to school to church you always wore a hat you weren't dressed outside outside your front door without a hat no matter how ornate how what an amazing confection her hat may be she will always even if it has a big brim it will always be turned up and soft and feminine i mean feminine is the key to everything the queen mother's london home is clarence house a modest place by royal standards but is it big enough to store all those clothes all her clothes which are in racks and polythene bags beautifully kept all on rail was sort of in her dressing room which i think gathered they've spilled out all along corridors and everything else she will not throw anything away clarence house where the queen mother lives just off the mall is littered with works of art modern impressionist i think some classic stuff too sculptures and it has a wonderful comfortable clutter too very much a home lots of photographs lots of mementos a reflection of a hundred years she loves to entertain loves to have people with her loves to eat in the open air and they set up the table in the garden of clarence house in what she calls my green rooms under the trees and the tape was laid with the most wonderful china and glass 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 uh she invites people to lunch at clarence house and says we'll have a little picnic and uh you will go out uh on the lawns and there will be an array of silver and gold and plate on on the table there will be footman behind every chair and you will be served the finest wines and champagne and that to her is a picnic outside clarence house the queen mother is celebrating her 99th birthday she's surrounded by four generations of monarchy a moment perhaps for her to ponder the past and to reflect on her own family's unhappiness the queen mother is of a different era and i think she finds it very hard to accept that so many of her grandchildren have had unhappy marriages and have not said this is my duty i'm going to put up with it instead they said i'm unhappy and i want out and that is not the way she ever led her life so i think she finds it difficult to understand but once again there's nothing she can do about it so she just lets it glide over her the queen mother has been a widow now for longer than she was a wife but she's created for herself exactly the kind of life bertie would have wanted for her she openly admits that the only regret she has as she grows older is that things do not matter so strongly by dedicating herself unselfishly to her duties her family and friends she's veiled her loneliness as a major power behind the throne the queen mother is one of the main reasons why great britain still has a monarchy i think the queen mother's being the linchpin of the royal family throughout the last hundred years she's the continuity she's always there as long as most people can remember she's been there smiling and waving and the older generation will remember her during the war and they will remember her devotion to duty as long as she is alive there'll be many things that don't change within the royal family because she doesn't dislike change but she doesn't like the order of things being changed and i think that after her death there will be a lot of trimming down of the monarchy that the queen has preferred to wait and as long as mommy's alive leave things as they are queen elizabeth the queen mother this has been your life and your century [Music] hmm [Music] ah

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 364,408

Rating: 4.5278244 out of 5

Keywords: history documentaries, quirky history, world history, ridiculous history, british royalty, royalty around the world, royal history, princess alice of battenberg documentary, the crown season 3, the crown trailer, prince philip interview, queen elizabeth ii coronation, queen elizabeth ii and prince philip, prince charles, prince andrew, the queens mother-in-law, world war ii, queen elizabeth, royal family, queen elizabeth ii, queen mother

Id: YOyYUG-qCJU

Length: 99min 53sec (5993 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 01 2020