Amazing & Extraordinary Facts About Kings & Queens (19 page)

E
lizabeth’s first address to the nation came at the tender age of 14 when her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, asked her to broadcast to the children during the Blitz of 1940.

This propulsion of Elizabeth into the public eye at such a young age had the effect of generating a large, almost cult following. At every opportunity the Press would eagerly snap pictures of this pretty, vivacious princess who was eminently photogenic. She fast became a fashion icon. Parents copied her styles in their own daughters, and well into the 1960s girls were habitually dressed in full-skirted frocks with puffed sleeves, lace collar and a sash round the waist. In her many activities too the Princess was emulated, in sports, horse riding, and the Girl Guides. Elizabeth became the emblem of a happy, outdoor royal family life – a welcome distraction from the social and economic problems of the 1930s.

But this all changed quite quickly once her ‘Uncle David’ (Edward VIII) abdicated and her father became king in 1936. Gone was the carefree joie de vivre. Relations at home became much more formal. Elizabeth was expected to curtsy to her father every time he came into the room. Rather suddenly, at the age of ten, she was next in line to the throne, and so had to take on state responsibility. While her general education continued apace, much more of her time was now devoted to training to be queen of Britain and the empire.

Though duty came to dominate the Princess’s life, she was by all accounts a natural. From an early age Elizabeth had an imperious nature. Once, aged three, when tired of her mother’s visitor, she rang for the footman and said, ‘Kindly ring for a taxi. Our guest is leaving.’ She knew her own mind even in love. From the moment she set eyes on Prince Philip of Greece at the age of 13, she fell madly in love; only her father’s iron will persuaded her to delay the wedding until she was 21.

In becoming the nation’s sovereign in 1952 Elizabeth naturally threw all her energies into monarchical duties. Far behind her were the days of being a fashion queen. She had a four-year-old son, Charles, and a two-year-old daughter, Anne. After taking a period off childbearing, she resumed with the births of Andrew and Edward in the 1960s. It has been suggested that Elizabeth may have found running the monarchy more to her liking than running a family, that she was intolerant of those who did not match up to her own high standards, and that perhaps her children did not receive as much emotional support as they needed while growing through the tender years of childhood.

Certainly, three divorces out of four marriages, including that of the heir to the throne, has not brought a happy complexion to the House of Windsor. The similarity between her own exuberant youth and that of the person who derailed the monarchy is striking. Like Elizabeth, Diana, Princess of Wales, became the glamorous photogenic captive of the paparazzi; the essential difference that Elizabeth put duty first, Diana her personal happiness.

As the monarchy’s sacrificial victim, Diana was able to exploit public sympathies in her favour. In contrast, the Queen appeared cold, frumpy and distinctly out of touch with her people – perhaps for the first time in her life. It took some time after the death of Diana before the Queen was back on good terms with her subjects. This marked a rare misjudgement in the career of an inspirational head of state whose own record is otherwise without blemish. As bearer of the royal standard, guardian of all the cherished traditions that represent the British monarchy today, Elizabeth II is said never to have made a faux pas in all the long years of her reign.

A DAVID & CHARLES BOOK

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