I’m Alice Loxton, and I present documentaries over on History Hit TV. If you’re passionate about all things royal history, sign up to History Hit TV. It’s like Netflix, but just for history. You’ve got hours of ad-free documentaries about all aspects of the past. You can get a huge discount for History Hit TV.
Make sure you check out the details in the video description and use the code Real Royalty, all one word, when you sign up. Now, on with the show. Duke of York, PRINCE OF WALES. WHEN BRITAIN’S FUTURE KING, EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES, fell for a twice-married American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, their secret affair caused a constitutional crisis that would cost him his crown.
On this day, the decision of King Edward was awaited with anxiety throughout the empire. He became the first monarch in British history to voluntarily give up his throne. A man who gave up what many other men have ever done for the love of a woman. Linking him forever to one of the world’s most enduring love stories. I view it as the greatest romance of the 20th century.
I have found it impossible to discharge my duties as king without the help and support of the woman I love. It’s been 80 years since Edward quit his throne for Wallis Simpson. The people are still fascinated by their love story and what happened to them after he was no longer king. At 10,000 pounds. 10,000. Sold.
Many of the items under the hammer today have been sold at auction twice before, attracting record-breaking prices. 1,500,000 pounds. That they’re still pulling in the bids for a third time shows how fascinated people still are with this remarkable story. One of the most precious and perhaps the most beautiful is a 1952 onyx and diamond bracelet.
It’s shaped like a stalking panther, and it just became the star of the night. So, 4 million pounds. Edward Windsor was the eldest of six children fathered by George, the Duke of York, later King George V. He was born on the 23rd of June, 1894, when his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, ruled the British Empire.
He was christened with seven names: Edward, Albert, Christian, George, Andrew, Patrick, David. He chose David as his Christian name, and that’s what the family and close friends called him for the rest of his days. Life was not easy for David. His father was determined to prepare his son for the job he would one day inherit.
His childhood was along military lines. Stand up straight, be on time, dress properly, giving the young prince a strong sense of duty. When his father became king, one of his first acts was to make Edward, now 17, the Prince of Wales. A lavish mini coronation in a medieval Welsh fortress, Caernarfon Castle. This grainy film of the ceremony shows King George personally crowning his teenage son, who from then on would be known as Edward, Prince of Wales.
When the First World War broke out in July 1914, Edward was among the first to sign up. Keen to see active service, he joined the Grenadier Guards and became a staff officer. But the Prince of Wales was not allowed anywhere near the front line. The Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, feared not only that he might be killed, but also that the Germans might capture him alive.
Edward pleaded to be allowed to fight with the men he was training with. He argued that he had three other brothers able to become heirs to the throne. Despite the ban on him fighting, Edward visited the trenches whenever he could, and newsreel cameramen went with him to show the British people that their heir to the throne was at the very heart of the battle.
They didn’t know that the prince stayed behind when the men went over the top to take on the German machine guns. Edward was even given a Military Cross, one of the highest army awards for valor. At the time, few knew that he had not fired a single shot in anger. The public image of the future king was being carefully managed, handsome, brave, and heroic.
When the Great War ended, Edward became a roving ambassador. He could do no wrong, able to experience things that lesser mortals could only dream of. From the Austrian Tyrol, we have secured the latest pictures of the Prince of Wales’ early attempts at skiing. The Prince’s aptitude for all sports is well known, and it will not be long before he has found his snow legs, so to speak.
If there was something that had never been done before, he was the royal to try it. Here is the first flight of the Prince of Wales over London. The Prince sat next to the pilot in the giant bomber and flew for an hour over the capital. At the end of the flight, the Prince said it was a glorious stunt, a phrase which caught the fancy of the world’s journalists.
Edward had become the pin-up of his day. Women adored him, men envied him. The ultimate bachelor. But his family wanted him to settle down, find a wife, and produce an heir to the throne. But Edward wasn’t interested. Married women were more his style. And one in particular had his eye, the American socialite Wallis Simpson.
He first met her in 1931, when he was 36 and she 41. It wasn’t love at first sight. He already had a married girlfriend, Thelma Furness. But there was something about Wallis that intrigued him. By 1935, it was clear that Edward and Mrs. Simpson had become an item, albeit a discreet one. They were regulars of London’s high society social scene, and the government of the day was concerned. Mrs.
Simpson was not only married, she was an American. How would that sit with the general public? When Edward tried to officially introduce Wallis to his parents, they refused. The concern was so great that the government ordered Scotland Yard’s Special Branch to spy on the couple. The surveillance was kept under wraps for more than 60 years.
It only came to light when the government decided to declassify some royal documents in 2003. Sensitive papers concerning the royal family are usually kept secret for 100 years. But these were released 36 years early. Revealing police reports from 1935, which alleged that during her first year with Edward, Mrs.
Simpson was also seeing another man. The mystery man, according to the Special Branch officer, was a car salesman from Yorkshire. He was also married. His name was Guy Marcus Trundle. Staff working at the National Archives are far from sure that the 1935 reports are to be believed. Now, I’m not saying that Mrs. Simpson did not have an affair with Guy Trundle.
I just don’t know. The doubts have crept in because the reports have been spiced up by the undercover policeman who spied on Mrs. Simpson. He writes that Wallis Simpson and her husband, Ernest, were Jews, an incorrect rumor that was doing the rounds at the time. I won’t say I won’t believe it, but I have not been convinced that it’s true, especially in the light of the other pieces of information in these reports.
The police interest in Edward and Mrs. Simpson came to an abrupt end in January 1936 with the death of George V. Shortly after midnight, the world heard the broadcast announcement, death has come peacefully to the king at 11:55 on Monday, the 20th of January, 1936. Britain had a new king, Edward. To my mother and to us, his children, the vast crowds assembled reverently at the funeral, the homage to the late king’s memory is a thing that we will never forget.
The way was now clear for him to pursue his affair with Mrs. Simpson, whatever the cost to the country or his family. Guns boomed out in the distance as a new chapter of English history was unfolded by the Garter King of Arms. The Garter King of Arms were unfolding a new king and ruler of the then British Empire.
The high and mighty prince, Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, is now Edward VIII. The people had high hopes for Edward, even braving driving rain to see him in action. Bad weather spoiled the king’s drive for the state opening of Parliament as a pageant and a spectacle, but it did not deter the crowds who lined the route to cheer His Majesty as he went to his first meeting with Parliament since his accession.
He spoke optimistically of the future of industry and trade and of shipping, and of the strengthening of Britain’s defense forces. While they are essential for the defense of the empire, no opportunity will be lost for the promotion of peace throughout the world. It was not peace, but work which was challenging the UK at the time.
And the former Prince of Wales found disastrous levels of unemployment amongst the Welsh. The grimmest phase of all this tour came at Dowlais. The King inspected what had once been a busy and prosperous steelworks. 9,000 men lost their jobs when this works closed down. The King left South Wales with the determination that something must be done.
His determination put him at odds with the government of the day. He was supposed to stay out of political issues. But it wasn’t only his politics that worried the government. His relationship with Wallis Simpson was becoming ever more intense. He was showering her with jewelry and taking her on luxury holidays.
Edward had been on the throne for less than 6 months when his reign almost came to an end. A right-wing Irish extremist tried to shoot him in Hyde Park during the Trooping of the Colour. Here at Buckingham Palace, a man jumps out, pistol in hand as the King passes. A mounted policeman plunges from his horse.
There’s a short scuffle, and the pistol falls near the King’s horse. And before anyone knows what’s happened, George Andrew McMahon is hurried off in custody and later taken to Bow Street. Mr. Bush, will you tell us exactly what happened? I noticed a disturbance in the crowd. And I saw three policemen arresting a man.
Did it look like an actual attempt on the King’s life? Well, it all happened so quickly, and was all over in a few seconds, one could not possibly form an opinion. But the most remarkable thing of all was the way in which the King continued on his way at the head of his troops, as if nothing had happened. As he continued to carry out his duties, Edward the VIII was also still courting Mrs.
Simpson out of the public eye. When news of it broke in the press, the government gave him an ultimatum. Give up Wallis, or renounce the throne. Quite apart from the fact that she isn’t of noble blood, Mrs. Simpson has twice been in the divorce courts. To my mind, that completely rules her out as Queen of England.
I don’t think anybody for a moment, with the single exception of the King himself, thought that there was ever a chance of her being Queen. Ever. And I’m sure she didn’t. She was much too sensible. Because he was a very stupid man, you see, and she was a very intelligent woman. As the political debate raged, the people joined in, too. I think the King should marry the woman he loves.
I think the King should please himself who he marries. Cuz he knows he’s got everybody behind him. Despite the public support, Edward’s throne was now on the line. The nation is behind him, and we must not lose him. On this day, the decision of King Edward the VIII was awaited with anxiety throughout the Empire. And the decision was not what the people wanted to hear.
Few hours ago, I discharged my last duty as King and Emperor. Edward’s reason for abdicating was not political. For 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. Edward became the Duke of Windsor, and his younger brother, Bertie, King George the VI.
The news sent shockwaves around the world. He had been King for just 325 days, the third shortest reign in history. Wallis Simpson divorced her husband, Ernest, and 6 months after giving up the throne, Edward quietly and privately married the woman he loved in the South of France. She became the Duchess of Windsor, but Edward’s brother, the new King, banned members of the royal household from attending the wedding.
Edward was now in exile, banished by his own family. Within months, the pair were in Germany, being fêted by Adolf Hitler and his henchmen. A huge crowd greeted the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The purpose of the visit was to study social institutions and welfare. Edward and Wallis studied Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda boss, and had tea with Hermann Göring, commander of the Luftwaffe and mastermind of the Holocaust.
But the most important meeting of the lot was with the man who personally invited the Duke and DUCHESS TO GERMANY. IT IS MARCH 2016. A rare photo album containing images of Edward and Mrs. Simpson from that 1937 visit is being sold to a private buyer. Someone who doesn’t want to be identified or have the pictures seen.
There are several pictures showing the Duke of Windsor with Nazi officers. But pictures like this led to complaints that the Duke was fraternizing too openly with the Nazis. The album was sold for 5,600 pounds. But the photographs are not the only record of Edward and Mrs. Simpson’s trip to see Hitler.
German newsreel cameramen were there and filmed extensively for propaganda purposes. The official visit gave weight to the allegations that Edward was a Nazi sympathizer and a traitor king in the making. The album doesn’t contain one of the most infamous images from the visit, one which shows the Duke giving what looks like a Nazi salute.
It was quietly sold for 1,800 pounds at another auction in Wales in July 2015. Modern historians have uncovered evidence that Hitler intended putting Edward on the throne again if Germany succeeded in conquering Britain. In 1940, there was a plot in Germany to put him back onto the British throne, and he ended his life in 1970 saying, “Hitler wasn’t a bad chap, and the Second World War was the responsibility of the Jews and the Reds.
” Edward was no stranger to German culture. His family had strong German connections, and he spoke the language fluently. One of his best friends was Diana Mosley, wife of the fascist leader, Sir Oswald Mosley. Even though it disapproved of his German connections, the then British government found jobs for Edward as far away from the UK as possible.
On the way to take up his appointment as Governor of the Bahamas, the Duke of Windsor called at Bermuda. A guard of honor was formed by Navy, Army, and Home Guard. But the allegations of Nazi collaboration were always there. The royal outcast’s flirtation with Nazism is well known. He and his wife visited Germany in 1937 and met Adolf Hitler.
But was he a traitor, prepared to see a Nazi victory in Britain in order to regain the throne with his wife, Wallis Simpson, as Queen? I think that um he will come over as a fool, as um a man whose idiotic vanity and egotism drove him down a path that was extremely injudicious. However, I do not think that there’s going to be anything to um suggest that he actually actively helped Britain’s enemies during the war.
After the war, Edward and Wallis effectively retired to Paris, where the French gave them a palatial mansion. Edward’s family did not really want to see them, but they did return to the UK occasionally. Arriving at Hendon Airport, the Duke of Windsor returns to England for the first time since 1940 to visit his mother.
In the grounds of Marlborough House, the Duke was welcomed by Queen Mary, whom he had not seen for 9 years. The liner Queen Elizabeth is ready to sail as the Duke of Windsor prepares to return to New York. He hopes to come back to Britain shortly. Wherever else they went, the Duke and Duchess were treated like royalty.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, in happy mood, arrive in the United States for the first time in 18 months. They particularly enjoyed American presidents and Hollywood stars. As the ’60s became the ’70s, Edward’s health began to fail, prompting the royal family to begin the process of ending his exile. His doctors wouldn’t let him take tea with his visitors, so the Duchess took them upstairs afterwards to see him.
The visit was arranged at the Queen’s request. She spent 37 minutes there, rather longer than planned. This was the first time that she’d received the Queen in her own home. 10 days later, Edward died, less than a month short of his 78th birthday. His body was flown back to Britain for burial at Windsor Castle.
There was no state funeral, no pomp and circumstance. This was a simple service, a private act of remembrance by a small congregation of mourners. On top of the coffin, there was no crown, but a wreath from the Duchess of Windsor. Outside, the public had gathered once again, still wanting to pay their respects even after 2 days of lying in state.
The service lasted half an hour. Then, with the Queen, the Duchess of Windsor left the chapel. The service also finally laid to rest 36 years of feuding. Edward was back in the fold, as was the love of his life, Wallis. This afternoon, the Duchess attended the last and completely private act of remembrance for her husband, his burial at the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore, within the grounds of Windsor Castle.
And after that service, the Duchess left immediately for her home in Paris. She leaves with the memory that this past week thousands have shown their affection to the last for her husband. Wallis spent her final years in isolation in Paris, suffering from increasing dementia. The mansion which the city gave to her and her husband so many years ago stood forlorn today.
The body of the Duchess still lying inside. The chimneys are corroded, the roof has not withstood the weather, and the boundary fence lies unrepaired. On Monday evening, the Duchess’s condition suddenly deteriorated. Her staff called her doctor. He in turn summoned a Paris specialist who diagnosed pneumonia.
This morning, the Duchess woke up feeling considerably better. But then the fever quickly worsened, and within 2 hours, she was dead. And so the drama which rocked Britain to its core 50 years ago ended here in the Bois de Boulogne this morning. She died 14 years after Edward and was buried next to him at Windsor Castle.
The Windsors have left a lasting legacy. Their love story has become the stuff of TV and movie legend. Many famous names have played the couple. Edward Fox played him in the TV series Edward and Mrs. Simpson. Do you think history treated him fairly? Life treats us all more or less as we deserve to be. And Madonna wrote a Hollywood film about her.
I viewed it as the greatest romance of the 20th century. Called W.E. as in Wallis and Edward. Well, I think it’s a complex story, and I don’t think there’s any real There’s no black and white. There’s no real clear-cut villains, good guys, or bad guys. It was important for me to portray everyone in the film as a human being. Even the actors chosen to play the couple bought into their story.
He didn’t try and hide his life behind closed doors. He just enjoyed everything. Uh and it became It was much more public and much more troublesome, I think, to the rest of the royal family than anybody really wanted it to be. After all these years, what Edward really wanted is hard to tell. But one thing is clear.
He really was the king who gave up his throne for the woman he loved until death did part them. It’s 1936, and Europe is in the grip of Adolf Hitler. An emerging dictator who will soon have the world at war. In the UK, the royal family is also in turmoil. The king, Edward the VIII, is in love with a married woman.
And it’s said he’s sympathetic to the Nazi cause. His brother, the Duke of York, will soon inherit the throne and a nation in crisis. But he has little ambition and a stutter which made speaking in public terrifying. I have the greatest pleasure in in declaring it open. Can the Duke conquer his demons and overcome his timidity to take on the Third Reich as Britain’s wartime king? For the second time in the lives of most of us, we are at war.
The exhibition is an empire undertaking. The man who was soon to become King George the VI had a problem which was worrying his advisers. small mark of the Commonwealth of nations. They called it the king’s speech. I have the greatest pleasure in Because he stuttered badly. it open. A result of a hidden childhood trauma which meant the pre-war battle of rhetoric was being won BY HITLER.
MILLIONS FLOCKED TO SEE HIM, AND RADIO and newsreel footage carried his messages of hate around the world. The power of speech had become a vital part of the propaganda war. George could not compete, but his stammer could be tamed by this man, Lionel Logue, an unorthodox Australian speech therapist. Logue took George under his wing and subjected him to a tough regime of intensive vocal therapy.
We’ve had a very good show here tonight, and I thank you all very much, and I wish you good night. Few knew about it at the time. It was a well-kept secret. But 90 years later, Logue’s efforts were revealed in the hit movie The King’s Speech, which won four Oscars and many other awards. The fundamentals of Lionel’s technique was no matter who you are from what station of life, because he was also working with World War I returned soldiers with what we would now call post-traumatic distress syndrome.
Uh particularly uh for that generation of men in 1937 and the obstacles and their suspicion of therapy and they they’re suspicious of all psychology, really. Lionel Logue died in 1952, but left behind a legacy. His transformation of a stuttering George into a regal king. Possibly the most startling piece of evidence which Logue died a year after the king, but his diaries helped his grandson write a book about the relationship.
It was his grandfather’s own words that helped Colin Firth learn about the nature of the king’s stammer. He says, “Contracts teeth and mouth and mechanically closes throat, gets chin down and closes throat at times.” And so, you know, an extraordinary habit of clipping small words and in on and of saying the first syllable of one word and the last of another.
So, this all helped inform It had been very useful for Colin Firth. Yeah. The real George the VI never expected to be giving speeches as king. That was his elder brother’s job. I have determined to renounce the throne to which I succeeded on the death of my father. And I am now communicating this, my final and irrevocable decision. When Edward quit his throne to be with the woman he loved, America’s Wallis Simpson, George was suddenly thrust into the harsh glare of the royal limelight.
No one was less suited to be a monarch than the then Duke of York. His brother had previously captured the headlines. A dashing figure, while George led a relatively quiet life, preferring to spend his time at a modest London home with his young daughters. When he did have to appear in public, he relied heavily on his wife, Elizabeth.
No way was he classic king material. He was born Albert Frederick Arthur George on the 14th of December, 1895, at Sandringham in Norfolk. A huge estate that had been a royal retreat since 1862. It was the age of the Victorians. His great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, would reign for another 5 years. He was christened Albert, but the family shortened this to Bertie, a nickname that stuck with him for life.
Bertie had four brothers and a sister. The eldest, Edward, being third in line to the throne. They all lived in a mansion called York Cottage, where Bertie was born. It became their prison, controlled by their father, who would become King George the V on the death of his father, Edward the VII. He treated his five sons like lower-ranking naval officers and was obsessed with discipline, punctuality, and obedience.
At the age of 13, Bertie, who had developed a stutter because of his father’s abuse, was sent to naval college. It turned out to be the making of him. He was put under the care of the school doctor, Louis Greig, a former captain of the Scottish rugby team. Greig was physically imposing and tough, but unlike the king, he did not bully Bertie.
For 20 years, Greig guided Bertie through life. After college, they both joined the navy and fought alongside each other in the Great War. This is rare footage of the Battle of Jutland, the only significant naval battle of the war between Britain and Germany. The result was inconclusive. Bertie was in the thick of the action, manning a gun turret.
After the war, Bertie turned to the air force and quickly qualified as a pilot. But the risks associated with flying were too much for the royal family, and he was persuaded to pursue a less dangerous life. Cambridge University, where Louis Greig continued to keep an eye on him. Cambridge provided Bertie with a golden opportunity to indulge his passion for sport, mostly as a spectator.
But he did become a fine golfer. He also played tennis at the highest level. In 1926, at the age of 30, Bertie became the first member of Britain’s royal family to take part in Wimbledon. Partnered by Greg, he played in the first round of the doubles. It didn’t go well. He and Louis were trounced in straight sets by British opponents who had previously won the championships.
Greg’s influence on Bertie extended beyond the military and sport. He helped turn the Duke into one of the world’s most eligible bachelors. The Roaring Twenties brought a huge sexual revolution. Women got the vote on both sides of the Atlantic, becoming mistress of their own destiny. And that included overturning the traditional battle of the sexes.
Once a year, the bathing belles take a sweet revenge. All the other 364 days, they spend their time parading in front of a lot of men to be judged for beauty or something. Now they’re in the judges’ place, and the beach lifeguards are being judged. Aren’t they cute? Baby, take a bow. They like that one. The winner is a man named Ken Griffith.
They call him up and then hot him up. Music heated things up, too. Jazz crossed the pond to London, and fun-loving women became flapper girls as they did the Charleston. In the middle of it all was Bertie, single and fancy free. As was his brother, the Prince of Wales. The pair had become inseparable and equally outrageous.
They took up with a pair of married women and called themselves the Four Dudes because they could do whatever they wanted. This photograph shows the carefree, casual side of the gang. It was how they really saw themselves. Bertie was smitten by his dude, an Australian socialite, Sheila Chisholm. But the affair was doomed.
His father, the king, demanded an end to it, offering Bertie the title the Duke of York, provided he gave up Sheila. He chose royal duty over love, but admitted to being heartbroken. But not for long. Within weeks, another young woman had come into his life, a member of the British aristocracy who would turn his world upside down.
Bertie’s new girlfriend was 19-year-old Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the ninth child of the Earl of Strathmore, a noble line that stretched back to the 14th century. Elizabeth had been raised in Glamis Castle, an ancient pile in the Scottish Lowlands. In 1920, she moved to London to become part of the royal society scene.
She became a debutante and caught Bertie’s eye. It wasn’t love at first sight as far as Elizabeth was concerned, but she did become his tennis partner. They became a regular fixture on the double circuit. It took Bertie 2 years and two goes at proposing to her before she finally agreed to marry him. She later told a friend that she married Bertie out of duty.
Only later did she fall in love. At their wedding in Westminster Abbey, huge crowds gathered. It was the first royal wedding to be turned into a spectacle and to be substantially filmed. Previously, the royals had been married quietly in private chapels. But the ravages of the Great War had left Britain battered and depressed.
It was thought a bit of pomp would cheer things up. The black and white newsreel doesn’t do justice to the colorful turnout. Bertie cut a dashing figure in his air force blue dress uniform. His new wife wore a medieval-style lace dress. In 1923, radio was king in Britain. But the BBC was prevented from relaying the ceremony because the then Archbishop of Canterbury feared it might be listened to in disreputable pubs and bars.
It was to be 3 years before the royal couple had their first child. During that time, Bertie’s wife became hugely popular and earned herself a nickname, the Smiling Duchess. The Yorks were a happy family. Their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, grew up with only minimal press intrusion. Movie newsreels were few and far between.
But all that was about to change. The king’s life was moving peacefully towards its close. The reign of George V had come to an end. Death has come peacefully to the king at 11:55. Edward, Prince of Wales, was now king, and his younger brother next in line. 326 days later, unexpectedly, Bertie became king. He chose the name George rather than Albert.
By his side sat his faithful wife, now Queen Elizabeth. Their daughters were now heirs to the throne. In Europe, war was on the cards. The Hitler Youth were holding training and recruiting camps in Germany, preaching intolerance and Aryan values. Britain’s king, meanwhile, was organizing a very different rallying call.
To galvanize the nation’s workers, Bertie had set up summer camps to help boost morale and the virtues of equality. Alongside him in this newsreel footage are his wife and daughters, Princess Margaret and the future Queen of England, Princess Elizabeth. In Germany, Hitler’s words were also seducing members of George’s family, in particular his brother Edward, now known as the Duke of Windsor.
Much to the annoyance of the British government, he and Wallis Simpson visited Hitler, and the Führer vowed to return him to his throne if Germany succeeded in conquering Britain. Edward wasn’t the only one who thought Hitler could be a friend. Here in Bavaria, Mr. Chamberlain was accorded a roar of hails from the crowd.
His mission of peace was greeted with enthusiasm by the people of Germany. When I come back, I hope I may be able to say, as Hotspur says in Henry IV, out of this nettle danger, we pluck this flower, safety. Appeasement, of course, didn’t work, and Britain needed an ally, one with power and influence. The new king found himself in America at the White House, charming President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Recently, our nation has had the pleasure of a visit from King George VI. As a courteous recognition of the cordiality and the goodwill that prevails between two great peoples. Its significance lay in the fact that friendship could exist between the two countries without fear of any act of aggression by the one against the other.
Hitler was now the aggressor, and the king and the president formed a lasting friendship. But their joy was short-lived. First, the French premier, then Mr. Chamberlain for Britain, rejected Hitler’s so-called peace offer because it was based on the old recipe of the burglar making friends with the police after he’d got what he wanted.
We know now what Nazi promises are worth. War brought a new friendship for the king. Winston Churchill had replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister. The fate of Holland and Belgium, like that of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria, will be decided by the victory of the British Empire and the French Republic. The whole world is against Hitler and Hitlerism.
Churchill became the voice of Britain. But if anybody likes to play rough, we can play rough, too. Taking the war of words to the heart of the Nazi hierarchy. When I warned them that Britain would fight on alone, whatever they did, their general told our prime minister and his divided cabinet, “In 3 weeks, England will have her neck wrung like a chicken.
” Some chicken. Some neck. While Churchill led from the front, the king led by example by subjecting his family and the staff in Buckingham Palace to food rationing, turning off the central heating. Royal parks were dug up and planted with much-needed crops. And And king saved water, too. No bath in the palace could have more than 5 in of hot water.
Bertie moved his daughters to the relative safety of Windsor Castle. But he and his Queen remained in Buckingham Palace to face the German Blitz with the rest of London. It wasn’t long before it became a target. And they had a close call. This was the effect of a time bomb that exploded in the grounds of the King’s London home.
It fell only a few feet from the palace building, close to the King’s sitting room. The King and Queen were in the sitting room with the windows open when the bomb went off. Had they been closed, the royal couple would have been shredded by flying glass. Truly, this is a war of all the people. We’re all in it.
The attack, while shaking the royals, proved a massive propaganda boost. Not even a direct hit on the palace could bring down the monarchy. And in the Queen’s words, they could now look the East End in the eye. Which is exactly what they did. The morning after the night before often saw the King and Queen in East London amongst the devastation.
Bertie’s wife became more than just a symbol of the bravery of the people in the face of Hitler’s onslaught. She became a champion for the women of Britain who she felt were often underrated by the war effort. Many of you have had to see your family life broken up. Your husband going off to his allotted task.
Your children evacuating to places of greater safety. We, no less than men, have real and vital work to do. To us, also, is given the proud privilege of serving our country in her hour of need. The hour of need also meant her husband wearing military uniform for almost 6 years. When war broke out, he vowed not to wear civilian clothes in public again until the fight was over.
Bertie relentlessly toured the battle lines and garrisons to personally thank his men to show he was right behind them. He known me all his life. The mood of the country about its King was captured by the singer Vera Lynn who had become the forces’ sweetheart. She sang about the day she met the King. He talked and we spoke just like two ordinary folk the day I met His Majesty the King.
When Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker on April the 30th, 1945, the war was all but over. A week later, Bertie and his family were able to take to the balcony of Buckingham Palace to lead a nation’s rejoicing. Five years ago, I promised you blood, toil, tears, and sweat. And your untiring response brought us in the end victory over Germany.
Even though it was very much Churchill’s hour, the crowds who flocked to Buckingham Palace made it clear who they wanted. The people of Britain had spent a long time fighting for their King and country. Seven years later, Bertie was dead at the age of 56. A 40-year smoking habit had helped kill him. But it was the long years of war that were most to blame.
His devotion to duty almost certainly cost him his life. His 14 years on the throne coincided with the most destructive war in history. The end of an empire which once covered a quarter of the Earth’s surface and a third of its population. When he was born, there were few cars on the road. Man had yet to fly. Homes were lit by candles or gas.
At his death, there were more than 4 million cars in Britain. The world’s first commercial jet airliner, the Comet, was in service. And over 20 million people would tune in to watch his personal legacy on television. The coronation of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. It’s 1982. It really is the beginning of a new era.
Time magazine votes the personal computer man of the year. Children are highly receptive to the new gadgets. It’s adults who are computer shy. While the world’s press chase Princess Diana who is a mother for the first time. Giving birth to a boy, William, who will one day be King. I’m ready now to to get out and and do different stuff.
There’s so much I want to do. A prince who will become as popular as the people’s princess. The adulation that the young prince receives during official engagements has in the past appeared to embarrass him. The people of Britain want William as their monarch sooner rather than later. They will be King and Queen. New surveys show that more than half would prefer William as the next monarch.
Prince William was born at St. Mary’s Hospital in West London. May we see your son, Your Royal Highness? And the nation celebrated. It’s a new prince. With confirmation of the birth, the celebrations began. And all best health to OUR ROYAL PRINCE. WILLIAM IS THE FIRST HEIR TO THE British throne to be born in a public hospital.
Just like his mother, Diana, he became a target for the press from the day he could walk. His first day at school at the age of three was a major event. It seemed half of Fleet Street were there to record this small moment of history. There were no worries about leaving his parents, the prince set off to meet his new classmates with a determined swagger.
The prince was introduced to his classmates simply as William. As he left school at the end of his first morning, Prince William proudly held up a paper mouse. He’d made it himself and was taking it home to show mum and dad. When he was eight, William was sent to a private boarding school. The boarding fees are more than 7,000 pounds a year.
Prince William is guarded here by 17 members of the royal protection squad. Despite the close protection squad, William soon made headlines when a fellow pupil whacked him on the side of the head with a golf club. And the heir to the throne found himself heading for hospital with a fractured skull just weeks before his ninth birthday.
Up in his private ward D7, Prince William said to be comfortable and well on his way to a full recovery. Get well presents have been arriving, among them a well-wrapped teddy bear balloon. When it was time to send William to secondary school, his mother and father decided to send their eldest son to one of the country’s top schools, Eton.
His father, the Prince of Wales, went to Gordonstoun and said it was like serving a prison sentence. He’s determined that Prince William’s school days should be happy ones. Eton is famous for educating kings and political leaders who end up running the world. Now, he is, of course, not a normal schoolboy, nor indeed is Eton a normal school.
Will he fit in easily, or will he face extra pressure because of who he is? It’s not as though they’re unused to celebrity or or royalty, even. They’re royalty from all around the world who go to the school. So, of course, he’ll be special in one one sort of way, but I doubt boys in the school, or even masters, will make much of it. But the press did.
The new boy was under siege. Something had to be done. Time for the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, Lord Wakeham, to step in. Lord Wakeham took the opportunity of an engagement at the London Press Club to appeal to editors to respect the complete privacy of Princes William and Harry. For 2 years, the media has agreed not to intrude on the princes while they’re in school, but Lord Wakeham wants the truce expanded and extended until they’re grown up.
I think it should cover the whole time that they’re having education. There should be no intrusion into their privacy. William was nicknamed Wills at Eton, and for 2 years, he was able to make his mistakes behind the school’s closed doors. The death of his mother changed everything and thrust him back into the limelight. When disaster struck, the royal family were on holiday in Scotland.
For the past 5 days, most of the royal family, including the Queen, have been 521 miles away at Balmoral, leaving the palace empty with no flag flying. William was also at Balmoral as his father tried to protect him from the outpouring of grief going on in London. Opinion here is divided, but increasingly today, much of the anger which was at first directed at the paparazzi has been focused on the Royals themselves.
Well, they must be very, very cold-hearted not to have a flag up. I think it’s a disgrace on the whole Royal family. As the family’s popularity plummeted, the Queen tried to head off the growing criticism. The Queen has asked me to say that the Royal family have been hurt by suggestions that they are indifferent to the country’s sorrow at the tragic death of the Princess of Wales.
The Princess was a much-loved national figure, but she was also a mother whose sons miss her deeply. The sons helped save the day by spending time with those grieving for their mother. William. William. Thank you so much. Thank you. It was a masterstroke and cemented William’s place as the successor to his mother’s position as the people’s Royal.
William achieved good grades at Eton, enough to guarantee him a place at university, but he surprised everyone by deciding to take a gap year. He’s chosen to spend most of it in Chile with the youth charity Raleigh International working on environmental and community projects. I wanted to do something constructive.
I thought this is a a bit more of a way of um making uh trying to help people out and um meet a whole range of other different people from um different countries. And at the same time uh helping people in remote areas of Chile. I raised myself about 5 1/2 thousand pounds. Did your father chip in as well? Um he might have helped slightly, not very much so.
William was now 18 and for the first time he began to reveal his true feelings towards the press corps that was now reporting his every move. I think Prince William has a great number of reasons for disliking the media in general. Um most particularly, of course, when you think of what they did to his mother, the Princess of Wales.
Matters came to a head when Princess Diana’s former private secretary, Patrick Jephson, decided to write a book about life inside the Royal household. Patrick Jephson, seen here being handed a card by Diana, was a senior aide for 8 years. In his book, already being serialized in The Sunday Times, he portrays her as a schemer and a liar.
Well, of course, um Harry and I are both quite upset about her that our mother’s trust has been betrayed and that um even now she’s still being exploited. But um I don’t really want to say anymore on that. It’s all right. Tonight, Patrick Jephson defended his decision to go ahead with the book. I’m sure that when the whole book is read, it will eventually be seen to be truthful and sympathetic to the memory of the late Princess.
This is the first time that Prince William has spoken publicly about his mother since her death. It’s a sign of the deep hurt that he and Prince Harry clearly feel at the continuing press coverage over Diana. Prince William, for one, now seems determined to put a stop to it. I think we’ve very much seen a Royal for the new century.
Very relaxed, not stage managed, um happy to Josh a bit uh with his father in an informal way, but not scared to say exactly what he’s feeling and uh certainly not prepared to dodge the difficult issues. The difficult issues included having a private life at St. Andrews University, where he enrolled under the name William Wales. Even before he’d attended a single lecture of his art history course, he spent several minutes greeting the crowds, some of whom had waited hours for the chance to wish him well.
This time the media played ball and backed off, gaining a Royal seal of approval. I’ve been left alone by the media um in a big way since um for that I am very grateful. It’s been 3 and 1/2 years also since so far where um I’ve been very independent and and been left alone to sort of study and do my own thing, really.
Doing his own thing meant not thinking too much about the throne he would one day inherit. You must have your thoughts in a quiet moment about a day when you would be king. I look on the bright side of everything. Um there’s no point being pessimistic or being worried about too many things because, frankly, life’s too short.
Looking on the brighter side included having a love life. William was now a sex symbol, adored by women of all ages. I’ve had um lots of kids come up and ask for my autograph. Um I’ve had grandmothers stop me and ask me um if they knew any good places to buy underwear. Um I’ve had Uh no, actually. I was a bit stumped by that one and actually that was the first one I I didn’t mind being proposed to, but that one really caught me out.
Like most university students, William wanted to have fun, but being a future king meant keeping a low profile. His friends coined a code name, Steve, which enabled them to talk openly about him and his exploits without anyone else knowing who they were referring to. To begin with, obviously, uh his fellow students were very aware, you know, this is Prince William.
And now he’s to all intents and purposes a very regular student, lives an ordinary student life. He’s worked really hard not to let his presence disrupt his fellow students’ existence. Being called Steve also helped when it came to dating the young woman who had first caught his eye as he arrived at St.
Andrews, 18-year-old Kate Middleton. Prince William and Kate Middleton met as teenagers during their first year at university. Their rooms in the St. Andrews Hall of Residence were close to each other. They became friends, but it wasn’t true love at first sight. It took this costume and charity modeling show for William’s head to be well and truly turned.
He paid 200 pounds for her to take to the catwalk. She sort of she wore something that was a bit risky with such dignity you couldn’t help but notice her. Um and so yes, so that that was perhaps the time when he really sort of saw her as something a little bit special. It was to be 2 more years before the press got something to really get their teeth into.
William and Kate together on a Swiss ski slope. 3 months later, they both graduated. William’s grandmother, the Queen, was there as he collected a geography degree and Kate one in history. In his own words, it is time now for the big wide world, but today William’s family, like any other, well, almost, came to say a proud farewell to a place that has allowed him a more normal life than any Royal in history.
And partly, of course, it’s been about this woman. Catherine Middleton. Very soon, Kate Middleton could be one of the most famous women in the world. And yet, she must try to forge a career on her own terms. This was a proud day for the family and an occasion with its own quirky traditions, like being patted on the head with a leather pouch containing a fragment of the trousers of a 16th century preacher. Peculiar? You said it.
For 2 years, Kate tried to forge a career on her own terms, but the media wouldn’t leave her alone. Before Kate Middleton had even got engaged, the media fascination was evident. Little wonder that the Palace has today compared her experience to that of Diana. Lessons were learned from the tragic end of the Diana story, but clearly not by everyone.
It wasn’t long before Kate had had enough. Her solicitors wrote to the Press Complaints Commission saying she was being continually harassed. Probably the biggest difficulty the Royal family has in fulfilling its role these days is the fact that there is a sort of 24/7 global media. But William and Kate didn’t shut the media out altogether.
They were photographed hugging in public for the first time in Switzerland. Speculation about engagements and marriage stopped when William followed Royal tradition and joined Britain’s armed forces. 12 grueling months of training go into making an officer and being second in line to the throne doesn’t entitle you to an easy ride.
And this counterinsurgency training with William taking part in a hostage dilemma at a vehicle checkpoint. Before cadets can graduate, they must take part in Operation Winter Victory, a tough 10-day exercise in Cyprus. A traditional ceremony at the end sees the recruits putting on their regimental berets for the first time.
When William made the grade, Kate was there to watch his passing-out parade. It was her first official Royal engagement and the rumor mill went into overdrive. Talk of a wedding has always been pooh-poohed by the Prince himself. Uh no, I don’t think so. Royal watchers say Palace officials are equally dismissive today.
Despite the denials, some retailers jumped on a Royal bandwagon to William and Kate’s dismay. They were utterly astonished that Woolworths had done this and they say there is nothing on the cards at the moment of an engagement announcement. Behind the scenes, the relationship had become strained and the couple had agreed to split.
They looked so good together. Who didn’t think that in Kate, William had found the perfect future bride? ITV News has learned that Kate and William had in fact split before and that this time it’s final. He has the feeling that, you know, with his parents’ marriage breaking up that he he just doesn’t want to make a mistake, but I think it’s more the fact that he just cannot make the commitment right now in his life.
Now that they were both single, William and Kate were regularly photographed out and about, apparently enjoying themselves separately. It was William who blinked first. William suddenly saw these pictures in the newspapers of her leaving nightclubs with quite eligible young men and thought, “I’ve made a bit of a mistake here.
” But William couldn’t do much to rectify the mistake, even if he wanted to. His royal duties were gathering pace as he picked up qualifications fit for a future king. Flying officer William Wales, graduating with number 227 and number 97 courses. When the moment arrived, the Prince of Wales was simply beaming with delight.
He was here in his dual role of Air Chief Marshal and of course proud dad. William was now a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot with something to win over the woman he now realized he loved. If you want a sure fire way to impress the girlfriend, then landing your helicopter in her back garden might be hard to beat.
William, who was recently awarded his RAF wings, touched down in a field in the grounds of Kate Middleton’s family home earlier this month. The prince was flying a Chinook helicopter similar to this one. It was the same aircraft he used on a separate occasion to pick up brother Harry on route to a stag party. William’s military graduation coincided with wars being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Like his brother Harry, he yearned for action on the front line. I didn’t join the forces to be, like I said in the last five before, mollycoddled or treated any different. And I think as a future head of the armed forces, it’s really important that I was get get get at least get the opportunity uh to be credible and to do the job that I signed up for uh and to do the best I can.
For William, there was to be no opportunity to do the best he could. But Harry was able to do two tours in Afghanistan. The guys who are doing the same job as us are being shot at on the ground. And I don’t I don’t think there’s anything wrong with us being shot at as well. Um and yeah, people back home might have issues with that, but we’re not special.
Um the guys out there are. Simple as that. William was special. And the closest he got to action was as an Air Force search and rescue pilot. It was totally apparent to me straight away how important the job is. Every day you come in to work and you don’t quite know what’s going to happen. It’s quite exciting in that sense, some predictable.
But at the same time, it’s great that you get to go out and actually save someone’s life or at least make a difference to someone, you know, when you know that they’re in trouble. That difference was soon clear. On his very first mission, William was the co-pilot in the rescue of a heart attack victim from an offshore oil rig. As Britain struggled to recover from the Great Recession caused by the collapse of the banking system, the royal family broke the news everyone was waiting for.
I think it’s the best news we heard for a long, long time. After recession, now is depression. At least we’ll have something to celebrate. To have a royal wedding next year is so important for the tourist trade. Not everybody was happy. Britain was still in austerity mode. Every penny was being counted.
If it’s anything like Charles and Di’s, next year’s wedding is going to be a huge event. And huge royal events mean huge security bills. So who exactly is going to pay for all this? Here’s a clue. It starts with a T and it ends with axe payer. It would be really inappropriate for them to have a lavish ceremony at a time like this when there’s such huge pressure on public finances.
“Shall we?” he said. William and Kate married in Westminster Abbey on April the 29th, 2011. And with that, the most anticipated moment of the most watched event ever, fleeting and like the best of shows, leaving the audience wanting more. Almost immediately, they got more. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I NOW ANNOUNCE THAT THE PRINCESS CATHERINE DOLL IS NOW ON SALE. Thank you.
Royal memorabilia by the truckload, from coins to condoms. Value of this royal wedding to the economy is 620 million pounds in extra spending by tourists and Brits alike. But William is more than a money maker. Being an heir to the throne usually means your life is not your own. Prince William is now at a crossroads in his military career.
He must decide whether or not to stay in uniform. The alternative, of course, is to follow his father’s footsteps from the military to full-time royal duties. William didn’t follow, but he did leave the military to become a full-time air ambulance pilot as part of a trauma rescue team in East Anglia. Starting a new job can be intimidating, even for a future king.
Just want to say very, very happy to be here. First day, nerves. William is the first royal in direct line to the throne to take on a paid and taxable job in civilian life. He’s earning 40,000 pounds a year here. He doesn’t need the money and will give it all to charity. The move drew criticism from those who believed he was avoiding his duties as future king.
Full-time royal role is bandied around quite a lot and no one actually really knows what that means, but I think I can still manage to do my commitments and my responsibilities um as well as I can, but equally do something that I think is incredibly important and that will, you know, prove me hopefully in good stead for the future.
The future for William is uncertain. Apart from his grandmother, the Queen, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, he has become the most popular member of the royal family. I think William’s got it in him to be a good king. Many people in Britain now believe the long-term prospects for the monarchy would be improved if William and Kate were next in line.
They will be king and queen. New surveys show that more than half would prefer William as the next monarch. In the meantime, William and Kate must get used to being international superstars, photographed and fêted wherever they go. I think they’re quite a nice role model for the for the younger generation. But William’s personal battle with the media is far from over.
His children have become targets and he wants it stopped. The paparazzi pursuit of Prince George amounts to stalking, raising questions of not just harassment, but child protection and security. Would you be happy if there was a series of photographers who were always following you around taking pictures of your children who are as young as two and as babies? Last week, police found a photographer using the boot of his car as a hide to keep the prince under surveillance.
And it’s claimed other children have been used to lure George into view. If you can’t have any privacy in the world, um I can’t see anybody wanting to be a member of the royal family. It’s not worth it. Your soul gets destroyed. 2011. Britain is in the grip of a coalition government. We’ve seen a quarter of a million march as one against the coalition’s cuts.
The country has just lived through the worst recession in living memory. I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left. But not everyone is unhappy. We’re getting married in the morning. Hundreds of thousands more will join this crowd. Many are already settling down for the night. You’ve even got monarchist socks on.
And and the pants to go with it. Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married. I now announce that the Princess Catherine doll is now on sale. Thank you. Royal collectibles are selling like hotcakes. Even stars and celebrities are joining in. What would I buy them? I would send them some some congratulatory marijuana.
What would I buy him? A toaster, obviously. I would send them a beautifully handcrafted jewel-encrusted bong. Kate’s life is about to change forever. The fairy tale wedding of a commoner marrying her prince very much a reality. When Kate Middleton married Prince William, she became the most famous royal wife on the planet and a future queen of England.
Her profile was so great that she transcended Britain’s previous most popular royal wives, her husband’s mother, Princess Diana. She was the people’s princess and that’s how she will stay in our hearts and in our memories. And her late great grandmother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mum.
Cheers for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. HIP HIP AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY, the future kings of England had little choice in their partners. Despite their status, they had less control over their future than most of their subjects. Future wives were often picked by royal parents from a pool of eligible princesses from across Europe.
Each royal marriage was forged to strengthen alliances and allegiances, ensuring peace and trade across the continent. Queen Victoria was the master of this real game of thrones. Her nine children were married off to the royal families of Germany, Denmark, and Russia. When Edward VII died in 1910, his funeral was attended by dozens of royal heads of state, most of whom were his relatives.
But these family ties would be of little use when, four years later, war broke out across Europe. The marriage between the new king, George V, and the German-born Mary of Teck could not hold Europe together. King George V visited Berlin with the present Queen Mary. Far more vividly than the colorless sentences of history books, these earlier pictures convey the untiring efforts of the English royal house to wed the nations of Europe into a peace-loving family.
The peace-loving family was torn apart, and royal marriage-making was never the same again. By the 1920s, Britain’s royal men had graduated to choosing their own women. How times had changed. Class and previous relationships were not the biggest considerations. When the heir to the British throne, Edward Prince of Wales, and his younger brother Albert, started to hang out with married women who were also Australian and American, the establishment and their royal family was in uproar.
Edward lost his throne when he refused to give up his American divorcee. But Albert chose more wisely and became king. Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was to become the most popular royal wife of modern times, though no one knew it then. Elizabeth was the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, from a noble line of Scots that stretched back to the 14th century.
She was raised with nine siblings in their ancestral home of Glamis Castle, a huge medieval pile in the Scottish Lowlands. Her upbringing was religious with a focus on the responsibility that came with wealth. But that didn’t stop her from regularly indulging in parties, cocktails, and wicked humor. At one party in 1910, a fortune-teller is said to have given Elizabeth a prediction.
“You will live to be a queen and the mother of a queen.” When the Great War maimed and injured thousands of soldiers, Glamis was turned into a nursing home, and a teenage Elizabeth became the life and soul of the carers. She also showed a cool head. When fire broke out in the castle, she was the only member of the family at home. She took control and set up a human chain that saved many of the family’s priceless antiques.
Elizabeth started dating her royal husband-to-be when she moved south to London and attended one of the great high society balls of the age. She was just 19, and it wasn’t love at first sight. Catherine Middleton Britain’s latest royal wife first met her husband-to-be when they both signed up for the University of St. Andrews.
Unlike Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Kate had not come from a line of aristocrats. She doesn’t have a drop of royal blood in her. Her ancestors include coal miners and laborers, and her second cousin twice removed is a current burlesque dancer and former Playboy model. However, her parents, former airline cabin crew, became multimillionaires after starting a successful party business.
They live in a Georgian mansion in the quaint village of Bucklebury in Berkshire. Kate, whose younger sister Pippa was later to cause a huge stir at the royal wedding, attended one of the best schools in Britain, Marlborough College. Popular, intelligent, and good at sports, Kate holds the school’s high jump record to this day.
We played hockey together and tennis. Um she was an incredible swimmer, but um she was also quite famous for being um a cricketer as well and a bit of a touch rugby player. She was pretty good. Kate was also pretty good at acting. In school, she played a woman who receives a prediction that echoed that given to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon 80 years earlier.
This YouTube video becomes even more amazing when you hear the name of the man Kate falls in love with. Yes, dear. Yes, dear William. The fictional prediction started to come true at the university charity fashion show when William paid £200 to see Kate walk down the catwalk in this outfit. There was one in particular sort of um semi-transparent, very nice, very flattering dress.
You couldn’t help but notice her. Um that was perhaps the time when he really saw her as something a little bit special. Prince William was smitten. Soon William and Kate had started a love affair, and in their second year, like millions of other students, they shared a flat with two friends in a terraced house in a St. Andrews street renowned for its parties.
The parties might have been fun, but Kate would soon find that as with any royal romance, the course of true love rarely runs smooth. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon also had an unusual start to her relationship with her future king. At first, she and Prince Albert were more tennis partners than lovers. Elizabeth, who valued her freedom, saw the life of a royal wife as far too restrictive and twice turned down Albert’s marriage proposals.
His brother Edward met with Elizabeth to try and persuade her to marry Albert, and at least one newspaper of the day got the wrong end of the stick, reporting that Elizabeth was to wed the Prince of Wales. When it was finally announced that Elizabeth was to marry the Duke of York, she agreed to talk to the press, giving a candid interview in which she revealed the true story of their courtship.
Multiple proposals, no engagement ring, and worst of all, Albert’s private nickname was Bertie. Her new in-laws-to-be responded quickly by banning her from speaking directly to the press again, a royal edict she was to follow for the rest of her life. In the 1920s, there was no such thing as a press pack or 24/7 news. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was left alone, unlike Kate Middleton in 2007, more of a hunted animal than a potential fiancee of a future king.
Britain’s paparazzi were now hounding Kate around the clock. Even a fairly average photo of her made the cover of this magazine, and she’s not just there through being Prince William’s girlfriend. She’s there as a fashion icon, as gossip column fodder, even as a role model. It means people are interested in her, and it means people can make money off her.
While at official engagements, Kate was to some extent protected from press intrusion, there was suddenly interest in every aspect of her life. Her treatment drew parallels with the way William’s mother, Lady Diana, was treated when she became engaged to Prince Charles. Oh, William, coping with all the press attention? Well, as you can you can see, you can tell.
Are you bearing up with it quite well though, cuz it must be quite a strain with all of us after you. Well, it is, now. Prince William would tell her about the life his mother had. The the trauma she had, the the stress she had. The one thing that you could say about Kate that she would think things through for herself. We don’t know a lot about Kate.
She’s kept herself quite protected. She’s given no interviews. She’s said nothing, and it’s all a model of discretion. But even the model of discretion couldn’t second-guess the tactics of the press. When she wouldn’t talk, they read her lips. It was at Sandhurst, at William’s passing-out parade, that Kate made her first official appearance as Prince William’s girlfriend.
While William pounded the parade ground in front of his grandmother, a lip-reader revealed her innermost thoughts to be, “I love him in uniform. He’s so, so sexy.” Not a remark cute often heard in royal circles. The constant attention of the cameras eventually took its toll, and Kate tried to put a stop to it by complaining officially to Britain’s Press Complaints Commission.
The photograph in today’s Daily Mirror shows Kate Middleton just walking down the street carrying a cup of coffee. But alongside, they say she looks stony-faced. Perhaps they say it’s because she’s fed up with Prince William. Today’s complaint to the Press Complaints Commission suggests if she’s fed up with anyone, it’s with photographers.
She’s got to expect some photos to be taken if she’s out in public. She’s got to expect us to be there. Royal weddings are now multimillion-pound events, no matter who the bride is or how rich or poor her family really are. For these lavish occasions, the father of the bride cannot possibly afford to pick up the tab.
For the newly betrothed couple, the estimates are coming thick and fast. The actual cost between 20 and 40 million with a potential security bill in the tens of millions. They do say organizing a wedding can be the most stressful time of your life. In 1923, when Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and Prince Albert got married, there was far less stress.
And they didn’t have to pay for the wedding cake. A famous cake and biscuit maker came up with one of the biggest ever made, a 300-lb, 10-ft-tall cake with icing miniatures of Glamis and Windsor Castle. They charged sixpence a time to see it, and thousands stood in line for hours. For the actual wedding, seats were sold at between 250 and 5,000 pounds at today’s prices.
The streets of London were filled with people eager to catch a glimpse of the beautiful bride, who chose an unusual medieval-style wedding dress. Her groom wore the uniform of a Royal Air Force Group Captain, complete with a chest full of medals. When it came to Kate Middleton’s wedding, her in-laws-to-be in the new age of austerity made sure costs were kept within reason.
Reining in some of the grandeur of when Prince Charles married Diana. At that time, 3 million people were unemployed, but the event reportedly cost as much as 30 million pounds, and they invited 3 and 1/2 thousand guests. By comparison, Princess Elizabeth in 1947 saved up ration cards to purchase the fabric needed for her dress. There were 2,000 invited guests.
Kate and William’s wedding was mostly funded by the Queen and Prince Charles with the UK taxpayer picking up the security bill. Security for the royal wedding will involve thousands of extra police officers, many of them lining the route between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. Problem is paying those officers for the day will actually cost the Met millions of extra pounds worth of overtime.
Kate and William also had a giant cake, eight tiers of it, not a freebie this time, but one paid for personally by her mom and dad. They also bought her wedding dress. It was in this that the woman who never looks bad had never looked better. Her dress had come from the fashion house of the late great Alexander McQueen designed by his successor Sarah Burton.
Demure long lace sleeves, a corset satin top which flared from the waist, her lace veil sheer enough to show her every expression. Expressions are an important part of being a successful royal wife. In the 1920s, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was so radiant she became known as the smiling Duchess. When she unexpectedly found herself Queen alongside her husband King George VI, she continued to smile and won even more hearts.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth receives the crown of glory, honor, and joy. May God enrich your royal heart with his abundant grace and with everlasting gladness in the life that is to come. The new Queen’s crown of glory was specially made for her, platinum with 2,800 diamonds. As the threat of war with Germany depressed Europe, Britain’s King and Queen made a state visit to France.
It was expected to be a somber in black affair because Elizabeth’s mother had died 3 weeks earlier. Elizabeth got her favorite fashion designer Norman Hartnell to create an entire white wardrobe. It caused a sensation and won her a legion of fans. The quiet dignity of the King gracious and unfailing charm of the Queen have won the respect and affection of the whole French people.
One diplomat said, “We have taken your Queen to our hearts. From now on, she rules over two nations.” 50 years later, Princess Diana assumed Elizabeth’s role as the royal fashion icon. Whatever she wore became a must-have. And that included the styles and customs she adopted when on royal visits. Elizabeth’s influence was still being felt in 2015 when the President of China, Xi Jinping, made his first state visit to Britain.
Kate wore a diamond-studded tiara passed down from Elizabeth’s collection. Her sparkling designer gown matched the Chinese flag. How charming the Queen looks. She is wearing a crinoline gown of silver and gold with white furs and a glittering tiara. In the late ’30s, Elizabeth’s wardrobe cheered a nation being dragged into war, one that would put her husband in the front line.
And without freedom there can be no enduring peace. And without peace no enduring freedom. And she firmly by his side. The King’s speech made it difficult for him to communicate, but he made up for it by personally supporting the armed forces while Elizabeth became the royal face on the home front. When Hitler’s bombs destroyed the East End of London during the night, she was there the next day dressed in pastel shades to show compassion and hope.
Britain’s wartime leaders noticed that when Elizabeth visited munitions factories, productivity shot up. She also became the champion of the women who now manned the factories. In a hundred ways, you have filled the places of the men who’ve gone away to fight. Your work, whatever it may be, is just as valuable, just as much war work as that which is done by the bravest soldier, sailor, or airman who actually meets the enemy in battle.
The enemy had already noticed the woman who had never been taught how to be a Queen. Adolf Hitler dubbed her the most dangerous woman in Europe. And the guard of honor of the Royal Navy, the Army, and the Royal Air Force dip their colors in reverent homage to a King leaving his capital forever. After the death of her husband in 1952, Elizabeth became the Queen Mother as her daughter took the throne.
She quickly became the nation’s favorite granny as the new Queen’s children were born and raised. And she made sure that the entire family followed her devotion to royal duty and service to the country. Later in life, the Queen Mum became a media personality in her own right. The satirical puppet show Spitting Image characterized her as a gin-drinking royal matriarch who just loved to have a good time.
In the year 2000, it was as she celebrated her 100th birthday, the first British royal to do so. It wasn’t only her family who turned out to wish her well. 40,000 members of the British public were there, too. Apart from being Britain’s favorite royal for most of the 50 years she was the Queen Mum, Elizabeth was a guiding light for her daughter the Queen.
According to royal insiders, they spoke every single day of their lives. When the Queen Mother died at the age of 101, everyone mourned the loss of a national treasure. When the Queen Mother first became a royal wife, women were still campaigning for equal voting rights. During her lifetime, in bad times and good, she saw massive change.
As a royal, Elizabeth was never able to exert political influence. However, she became patron of more than 350 charities, many of them connected to disability or social injustice. Even when homosexuality was illegal, she surrounded herself with gay staff and friends. When a conservative government minister admonished her for recruiting gay people, the Queen Mother replied, “Without them, we’d have to go self-service.
” It was her daughter Elizabeth who signed into British law the Equal Marriage Act of 2013. The royal wives who followed her broke many of the royal traditions and protocols she had held dear. Diana caught the mood of 1980s feminism when she refused to vow to obey when she married Prince Charles. And her subsequent public feud with the family and divorce from the heir to the throne was not what royal wives were supposed to do.
Kate Middleton has also changed the way the House of Windsor is perceived by being commonly known as Kate rather than the Duchess of Cambridge or Princess Kate. She is very much one of us, the genuine people’s princesses. Everything to like and nothing to dislike. How great is that? Kate has caused a stir by using her royal status to bring mental health issues amongst children into the forefront of her charitable work.
I often get asked why I decided to spend time highlighting the mental health of children. Since beginning my work in areas like addiction, for example, I have seen time and time again that the roots of poor mental health in adulthood are almost always present in unresolved childhood challenges. This was the Duchess doing what she does best, making herself at home among the children at the Harlem-based mental health center.
Immediately making one new friend who then introduced her to all his friends. The staff were more than impressed. It was awesome. She got on her knees to play with them, which was great. I mean, she’s pregnant and she got on her knees to play with my children. If it all looked a little familiar, there’s a good reason. 25 years ago, Princess Diana visited Harlem.
The similarities are striking and not lost on the American media. Following in the footsteps of royal wives before her, Kate has put her huge popularity to good use bringing light to taboo subjects around the world. They are fascinated with William and Kate and in particular the Duchess whose every public move is accompanied by the clicking of countless cameras.
In that spotlight, it was again towards the children that she was drawn. She feels comfortable with them, it’s clearly reciprocated. Look at the face of the little boy shaking her hand who can now tell his friends he’s met the future Queen of England. May 2015, the world is in chaos. France is now on its highest level of alert against another terrorist attack.
The so-called Islamic State is waging war. In Britain, the Prime Minister is fighting to stay in power. Don’t you ever dare lecture us about how to help the needy in our country. And a royal event is capturing the headlines. We welcome with humble duty the second born of their royal highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are celebrating the birth of their second child, Princess Charlotte. Oh, it’s fantastic. Little baby girl, well done. Little princess, good on her. Her brother George, just 2 years old, will one day, like his father, be king. But Charlotte is almost certain never to be queen.
One of a growing number of the royal family who are destined to serve, but never inherit. They are the spare heirs. So, the new princess will be fourth in line to the throne, and she doesn’t know it yet, of course, but this little one already occupies a unique place in British constitutional history.
She is the first female royal heir who cannot be superseded by a male heir born after her. Charlotte is unique in more ways than one. Her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, is Britain’s longest and oldest serving monarch. Her grandfather, Prince Charles, will one day become king. Her father will also become king, as will her brother George.
But she, unless something tragic happens to all of them, will always be a princess. Her official position puts her fourth in line to the throne. But that doesn’t mean Charlotte will be able to live a normal life free from the burdens of royal duties and cameras. The House of Windsor doesn’t work like that.
Charlotte, like all spare heirs within what the royal family call the firm, will be groomed from the moment she toddles to step into the breach should the unthinkable happen. And there is precedent for this, close to home. When Elizabeth was born, she was never expected to become queen. Not only was she female at a time when male heirs were given priority over their elder sisters, but also her father wasn’t a direct heir.
His brother Edward was. Spare heir Elizabeth’s destiny was changed only because her uncle chose love over duty. And Queen Elizabeth isn’t the only one. Kings such as William II through to Henry VIII were also spares. Perhaps the most famous and tragic spare heirs are known as the princes in the tower. Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, the Duke of York.
When their father, Edward IV, died, his brother Richard took his young sons, aged 12 and 9, to the Tower of London for safekeeping. They were never seen again. And their uncle became Richard Prince Charles’ namesake ancestor, Charles I, was also a spare heir who inherited when his older brother died of typhoid.
But he made a hash of it, starting a civil war with his own parliament and having his head chopped off in 1649. Modern spare heirs don’t get beheaded, but their every move is now scrutinized and followed by the media. As Elizabeth’s younger sister, Princess Margaret, discovered. I think that Princess Margaret did find that it at times quite frustrating because I remember her saying once, you know, nobody ever asked her opinion about anything.
She was just told when to turn up and told what to do. Princess Margaret was 10th in line to the throne when she was first told to wave to the British people. She and her sister both expected to remain spare heirs, enjoying a childhood under the radar. How wrong they were. Nobody thought she would ever be heiress to the throne. Her parents were the Duke and Duchess of York.
Then suddenly her father became king. The royal family at the coronation, and the 11-year-old princess was next in line to become queen. During World War II, Elizabeth, as a potential future queen, was in the forefront of the war effort. While Margaret was filmed as a fun-loving civilian, leading to a view within royal circles that she was a spoiled child.
But the public liked her, and she became popular. When she mingled with the crowds outside Buckingham Palace as the war in Europe ended, instead of appearing on the famous balcony with the rest of the royals, that popularity grew. As her sister gave birth to children, Margaret was pushed further down the pecking order.
But when Elizabeth became queen, Margaret found herself the center of attention. Despite her royal upbringing, she was unprepared for the social world that was to follow. As the post-war years became the ’50s and then the swinging ’60s, Margaret found herself at the heart of high society and a fashion icon.
Princess Margaret retains her place as an outstanding leader of fashion, with the charm so much her own. That charm made her the most photographed woman of her day, but her love life remained largely private. Britain’s press was nowhere near as tabloid as today. The wheels came off her bandwagon when news leaked out that she was in a close relationship with her father’s former equerry, Captain Peter Townsend.
Equerries are officers of the royal household who are supposed to assist members of the family, not date them. Peter Townsend was 16 years Margaret’s senior, with two children from a previous marriage. The romance became as controversial as the one that had caused her uncle, Edward to abdicate.
Matters went from bad to worse when Townsend divorced his wife and asked the princess to marry him. Upon Princess Margaret, center of worldwide interest, and sharing the spotlight is Group Captain Peter Townsend. The group captain accompanied the late king and his family on their South African tour. He and the then very young princess were forming a friendship.
Two years ago, he left the royal household and was posted to Brussels. Rumor that they had been long in love seemed confirmed. At this stage, it was still asked, will they become engaged? Millions all over the world impatiently wonder. A female in the milk business was the only one not curious. Margaret accepted and informed her sister, whose consent was required.
It was now understood that there could not be any news until the prime minister had had audience with her majesty after her return to London. Queen Elizabeth was in a bind. As monarch, she could not say yes without the support of her government and the Church of England. And they were both saying no. Even though the general public supported Margaret, behind the scenes, she was facing bitter opposition.
Her royal family feared a repeat of the Edward controversy. On October 31, 1955, Margaret issued a statement saying she had decided not to marry Peter Townsend. Now she has put her royal duty first. The hearts of all in turn and the Commonwealth are with the young princess who has chosen not self, but country.
But Margaret showed no sign of not enjoying herself as she rejoined the nightlife of London. Her close circle of friends became known as the Margaret set, and her life became a succession of fast cars, clubs, and all-night parties. She also found a new beau, Billy Wallace, the son of a government minister.
But their planned marriage was cut short when he was caught having an affair whilst on a visit to the Bahamas. Margaret eventually fell for one of Britain’s top photographers, Antony Armstrong Jones. He had taken the official portraits for the Queen and Prince Philip’s royal tour of Canada in 1957. When they married in Westminster Abbey, it became the first royal wedding to be broadcast on television.
300 million watched worldwide. Because he was a commoner, and in those days it was unthinkable that they might have children without a royal title, Armstrong Jones was made the first Earl of Snowdon, and Margaret became the Countess of Snowdon. Even though the wedding captured the imagination of television viewers, it did not meet with everyone’s approval.
Antony was, after all, a photographer without royal blood. It was Antony’s day job as a photographer that first brought tensions to the marriage. He spent long periods abroad for his work, often with attractive models. Margaret expanded her social set to include showbiz celebrities. She spent time with Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and comic actor Peter Sellers, who was smitten by the princess he called “Ma’am Darling”.
By 1973, the Snowdons were separated in all but name. But Margaret really caused an upset when she began a relationship with this man, Sir Roddy Llewellyn. A baronet and TV gardening expert, he was 17 years younger. The son of a former Olympic equestrian gold medalist and a member of the British aristocracy. The papers dubbed him Margaret’s toy boy.
As the princess enjoyed the high life, Britain’s politicians criticized her, saying she wasn’t worth the 55,000 pounds she received from the public purse every year. Although she remained on good terms with Armstrong Jones, in 1976, they formally separated. Margaret became the first senior member of the royal family to divorce since Henry VIII, who ended his marriage to Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn.
Margaret never remarried. In her later years, her health declined. She’d always been a chain smoker and drank heavily. She died in 2002 at the age of 71. The princess died here at 6:30 this morning after suffering a stroke. Confirmation of Princess Margaret’s death came in a printed statement posted outside Buckingham Palace.
And we’ve just read the notice just now. You know, nothing went quite right for her, did it? And never portrayed very well with the press, I don’t think. They always They always were a bit cruel to her, I think. Margaret isn’t the only spare heir the press has been cruel to. That’s what he’s been up to. Is that really him? That’s really him.
Ever since he could walk, Prince Harry, the younger son of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, has kept Britain’s tabloids busy. As the brother of a future king, he is the ultimate spare heir. Growing up in the harsh glare of his parents’ acrimonious split and divorce, and the tragic death of his mother in Paris.
There was a hug for one well-wisher. Otherwise, it was hard to believe Princes Harry and William are just 12 and 15. Harry won the nation’s heart at his mother’s funeral as the loneliest boy in Britain. But it wasn’t long before he began to show a rebellious streak. He was caught smoking cannabis and under age when he was 17. It was in this pub that the 17-year-old is said to have been drinking and smoking cannabis.
They’re serious allegations, and one of the newspapers has actually said that they’re prepared to offer us what they describe as the dossier. Well, I’d like to see what’s in that because if there is evidence on which we can act, we’ll do so. Prince Harry wasn’t punished by his father. Instead, Charles discussed Harry’s problem with him and his brother William before sending him to this rehabilitation clinic in Peckham, South London, where he heard from a recovering heroin addict about the effects of drug taking.
But the young Harry continued to create headlines. He got into brawls with the paparazzi outside London nightclubs. His wild days as a drinker and smoker of exotic substances might be behind him. But then, just a week ago, allegations that he cheated to pass an art exam, strenuously denied by Clarence House, and now, last night’s fisticuffs.
We know that Prince Harry is a bit of a wild card. He seems to enjoy the the nightlife, and no one’s having a go at him for that. I mean, he he he seems to like a a night out drinking and dancing with pretty girls. Well, thank goodness he does. But the reality here um is that it’s gone beyond that. The reality went even further when Harry was photographed wearing a Nazi uniform at a fancy dress party.
Brother William was there, too, and the overall theme was colonials and natives. All the focus has been on Jewish hurt and the old veterans who fought the Second World War. And of course, that is deeply important because it’s the month of Auschwitz. But actually, I’m deeply offended, too, by the very theme of the party that both William and Harry went to get their costumes for.
What kind of a theme is colonials and natives in the 21st 21st century? These, you know, what kind of message are they giving about themselves, these aristocrats, these aristocrats, actually? That’s the culture of the British ruling class. It is a colonial culture. For us as Africans, that’s our experience of the British monarchy.
I think the difficulty is just that one thing that you never quite know if you’re going to be called upon, as it were, to become king or instead have what you, if you’re being really cynical, could say a relatively pointless life. Harry next caused an internet sensation when he played strip poker in Las Vegas, leaving little to the imagination.
But in the UK, newspapers were constrained by privacy laws. But like the rest of the British media, we can’t show you them because to do that would be a breach of his privacy, even though they’re plastered all over the internet and you’ve probably seen them already. You know, it’s almost like we’re going back to the days of Edward and Mrs.
Simpson when the whole of the world knew about their affair, but it wasn’t reported in the UK. Despite all this, Harry remained one of the most popular royals. Two helicopter combat tours in Afghanistan helped. They made him a hero. Second Lieutenant Wales is back in England, a country which he said he didn’t like very much in a recent TV interview.
Such a sentiment coming from a member of the royal family would normally generate deeply unflashing headlines, but not now. Not in the week of Harry’s tabloid reincarnation as the hero soldier prince. And the question now for Prince Harry is whether he can show the same discipline in the rest of his life now he’s back home as he did during the time that he was in the front line on the front line in in Afghanistan.
If he falls out of a nightclub drunk in 2 weeks’ time, a lot of the good that’s been done over the last few days will be undone again very quickly. The good wasn’t undone. Harry’s next step was to champion an Olympic-style competition for disabled and wounded servicemen and women. It won him the hearts of the nation.
400 wounded service personnel from 13 countries are competing in the games, and Harry believes their determination is a lesson to us all. Prosthetics, dogs, wheelchairs, high-performance cars, 4x4s, tattoos, we’ve got everything here. It could only be the Invictus Games. Um No blowing from the left, thank you. The birth of his nephew, Prince George, pushed Harry further down the royal order, but it hasn’t bothered him.
It’s fantastic to have a another addition to the family. Only hope my brother knows how expensive my babysitting charges are. Harry seems content in his new role as Britain’s favorite spare heir. He has his faults, but by God, he’s got his good points, and and you know, when I go on tour with Harry, it’s a joy because every day he puts 110% into it.
He might be the spare to the heir, but he’s made himself very relevant. The same cannot be said for Harry’s uncle, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, once second in line to his elder brother, Charles, when their mother became Queen Elizabeth. A succession of royal births pushed him down the inheritance list, and his reputation has suffered, despite being, like Prince Harry, a real war hero.
In the ’80s, he flew helicopters in the Falklands War and was in the thick of the action. His Royal Highness, Prince Andrew, a lieutenant who calls himself simply the driver, was punctual for his briefing. And for the first time, he were allowed to film what is to him simply routine search and surveillance. By the end of the ’90s, his love of flying had earned him another nickname, Air Miles Andy, even though he was an official UK trade and investment ambassador.
The life of a working royal, Prince Andrew’s civil list salary is a quarter of a million pounds. None of the prince’s trips broke the rules agreed between the Treasury, the Department of Transport, and the Royal Household. Security, journey length, effective use of royal time, and yes, value for money are considered, but a tight schedule, the household argues, is reason enough for flying.
Yet other royals are more circumspect. While the Duke of York never took a train or even a scheduled flight for journeys under 2,500 pounds, the Princess Royal did so nearly half the time. Prince Edward and his wife, a quarter of the time. If it’s good enough for us, why isn’t it good enough for members of our royal family? Certain individuals in the royal family may need to be reminded on occasions that we are spending public money.
It’s not only air miles that have got the Duke into trouble. His love life has been littered with controversy, too. First, there was Koo Stark, an actress from New York. Then came Sarah Ferguson, better known as Fergie. He married her, and they had two children, the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Fergie became a figure of fun, ridiculed for her weight issues, and labeled the Duchess of Pork by a satirical TV show, Spitting Image.
Media once dubbed me Great Fun Fergie. She was the breath of fresh air. And then it was just round, and then it was Fat Fergie, which gave way to Fat and Appalling Fergie, and ultimately, my favorite and the best one of all, whoever thought it up, Fergie, the Duchess of Pork. Yes. Come on, Porky Sod.
We’re supposed to be entertaining. Can’t you forget about money? Oh, sorry. I um you’re right. I can stand up here, and I can laugh. But boy, did it hurt. Prince Andrew was also hurt by the tabloid headlines alleging his wife’s extramarital indiscretions. The main man was John Bryan, a Texan multimillionaire. John Bryan, the Texas businessman in the pictures with the Duchess of York, was saying nothing in public this morning.
No, I’m sorry, I can’t. But in separate legal moves, he took out two court injunctions in an attempt to suppress their publication. Andrew and Fergie divorced in 1996, but his world came crashing down again when Fergie was caught by a journalist from the News of the World trying to sell access to him.
She was asking for half a million pounds. What’s a hard-up Duchess to do when a businessman you hardly know offers cash in return for meeting your ex? Her former husband, Prince Andrew, is the UK’s special representative for trade and investment. As such, he has access to some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world.
That seems to be why his former wife thought she could sell access to him. Sarah Ferguson told the undercover reporter she only gets 15,000 pounds a year from her divorce settlement. So, the guardians of the firm that’s based here must now decide whether to push her further from the spheres of royal patronage or whether that runs the risk of her doing something even more embarrassing in future.
Prince Andrew continued to draw criticism for his globe-trotting, and he was seen in the company of numerous controversial figures. Colonel Gaddafi in Libya, and Jeffrey Epstein in New York, a convicted sex offender. Prince Andrew was later forced to stand down as the UK’s special trade emissary after it was revealed he’d visited Epstein on his release.
Now the Duke is named in court documents filed this week by a woman claiming she was repeatedly forced to have sexual relations with him. The uncharacteristically forceful statements from officials here are being driven by Prince Andrew himself. He’ll be kicking anything that comes in sight uh because he knows he’s innocent and because he knows he’s innocent he’s not going to be pushed around and he’s not going to be lying low.
And officials are letting it be known that palace lawyers are watching how the story is being reported. Cuz Prince Andrew’s only referred to in passing in the American proceedings. There’s nothing he can do over there. So, he has to wait for someone to say something over here that could justify a legal action and unless they do he has no way to clear his name.
Britain’s royal spare heirs have always had more than their fair share of controversy and no doubt in the years to come more skeletons will emerge to further embarrass those who sit on the House of Windsor throne. It’s incredibly difficult for the the younger sibling to a to a future monarch because they are in the public eye but they don’t have the protection perhaps and they don’t have the advice and and they don’t have the role of king or queen.
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
