Part 1 (1/2)

THE QUEEN MOTHER.

William Shawcross.

PREFACE.

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN did me the signal honour, in July 2003, of inviting me to write the official biography of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. I was given unrestricted access both to Queen Elizabeth's papers and to members of her family, Household and staff. I am deeply grateful to The Queen for the help I have received, and I thank The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of York, The Earl of Wess.e.x, The Princess Royal, The Duke of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra, The d.u.c.h.ess of Cornwall, Viscount Linley, Lady Sarah Chatto and The Earl of Snowdon for their invaluable a.s.sistance. I thank The Queen for permission to quote from material in the Royal Archives, as well as from letters in other collections subject to her copyright, and, above all, I thank Her Majesty for giving me absolute freedom to write as I wished.

The Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, where Queen Elizabeth's private and official papers are housed, are at the top of a long steep staircase in the Round Tower. I have rarely worked in a more delightful place. During my numerous visits there I was treated with the greatest patience by the Registrar, Pam Clark, and her staff, including Jill Kelsey, Allison Derrett and Angie Barker, and by the former Curator of the Royal Photograph Collection, Frances Dimond. The present Curator, Sophie Gordon, and the a.s.sistant Curator, Lisa Heighway, with Paul Stonell and Alessandro Nasini have done sterling work providing ill.u.s.trations from Queen Elizabeth's photograph collection.

Among the papers to which I was given access in the Royal Archives were the transcripts of conversations which Queen Elizabeth had in 1994 and 1995 with Eric Anderson, who had just retired as head master of Eton College. These, together with Queen Elizabeth's letters to her family and friends,* were vitally important in providing her own commentary on her life.

At Glamis Castle, ancestral home of the Bowes Lyon family, by kindness of the eighteenth Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne I was able to read more of Queen Elizabeth's letters among her parents' papers, as well as other family correspondence which shed light on her early life. I was greatly a.s.sisted in my research there by the Archivist, Jane Anderson, who also provided valuable help with picture research. My thanks are due to Lord Strathmore for permission to quote from papers at Glamis and to reproduce photographs from his family alb.u.ms. Many members of his family were very kind to me; they include his mother Mary, Dowager Countess of Strathmore, who answered my innumerable questions about the family, and his sister Lady Elizabeth Leeming, to whom I am deeply indebted. On my behalf she carried out superb research in the archives at Glamis and elsewhere, interviewed members of her family, and compiled a series of richly informative notes on the family and its homes. Her expertise as both a researcher and an editor was invaluable throughout.

At St Paul's Walden Bury, the Queen Mother's other childhood home, Sir Simon and Lady Bowes Lyon kindly allowed me access to yet more family letters and papers. Among other members of the Bowes Lyon family, I am grateful to Queen Elizabeth's nieces Lady Mary Clayton, Lady Mary Colman and the Hon. Mrs Rhodes (nee Margaret Elphinstone), whose help I have greatly appreciated, and also to Queen Elizabeth's nephew the Hon. Albemarle Bowes Lyon, to her cousin John Bowes Lyon, and to Rosie Stancer, her great-niece, and her husband William.

I thank Her Majesty Queen Fabiola of the Belgians for permission to quote a letter she wrote to Queen Elizabeth, Her Majesty The Queen of Denmark for permission to quote from a letter from the late Queen Ingrid, Her Majesty The Queen of the Netherlands for permission to quote from a letter from the late Princess Juliana, and His Majesty The King of Norway for permission to quote from a letter from the late Queen Maud.

I am indebted to all those who have allowed me to read, and to quote from, their family papers; some of them I have to thank also for permission to quote from letters in which they own the copyright among Queen Elizabeth's papers at Windsor. They include: the Earl of Airlie, Anne, Countess Attlee, John Dalrymple Hamilton, Viscount Davidson, Eric and Sir Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Lady Katharine Farrell, George Fergusson, Sir Edmund Grove, the Earl of Halifax, Kate Hall, Richard Hall, Mrs David Hankinson and the Hon. Mrs David Erskine, Lord Hardinge of Penshurst and the Hon. Lady Murray, Mrs Sylvia Hudson, Carol Hughes, Lady May, David Micklethwait, Viscount Norwich, Wilfred Notley, Rev. Jonathan Peel, Lady Penn, the Earl of Rosslyn, the Marquess of Salisbury (whose archivist, Robin Harcourt-Smith, I wish also to thank for his help), Susannah Sitwell, Earl Spencer (whose archivist, Bruce Bailey, I thank likewise), Margaret Vyner and her daughter Violet, Robert Woods and the Earl of Woolton.

I wish also to express my thanks to those who have given me permission to quote from their letters, or letters from their forebears, among Queen Elizabeth's papers or in other collections I have consulted. They include Lord Annaly, Sir Toby Anstruther, Bt, Bryan Ba.s.set, Winston Churchill, Mrs Alan Clark, the Duke of Devons.h.i.+re, the Rev. Canon Dendle French, Lord Gage, Lord Gladwyn, Sir Carron Greig and Geordie Greig, James Joicey-Cecil, Candida Lycett Green, Sir Ian Rankin, Sir Adam Ridley, Lady Elizabeth Shakerley, the Earl of Stockton, Sir Tom Stoppard, Viscount Stuart of Findhorn and Baroness Thatcher.

My thanks are due for a.s.sistance with my research and, where appropriate, permission to publish material from the collections in their care, to Allen Packwood and Andrew Riley at the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge (Churchill Papers, Lascelles Papers, Lloyd Papers, Norwich Papers), Helen Langley and her staff at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Attlee Papers, Beck Papers, Isaiah Berlin Papers, Monckton Papers, Bonham Carter Papers, Violet Milner Papers, Woolton Papers), Dr Frances Harris and William Frame at the British Library (Airlie Papers), the staff of The National Archives (Foreign Office Papers), the staff of the National Library of Scotland (Ballantrae Papers), Christine Penney and her staff at Birmingham University Archives (Chamberlain Papers), Michael Meredith at Eton College Library (Diana Cooper Papers), the staff of the Borthwick Inst.i.tute, University of York (Hickleton Papers), Dr Richard Palmer and his staff at Lambeth Palace Library (Lang Papers, Alan Don Papers), the staff of the Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (Hardinge of Penshurst Papers), the staff of Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, in particular Denis Boule, Bill Russell, Paulette Dozois and Jennifer Mueller, and the staff of the Archives Nationales du Quebec, especially Louis Fournier, Pierre Rainville, Jacques Morin and Renald Lessard. I gratefully acknowledge the permission of Balliol College, Oxford to publish an extract from the Monckton Papers, and that of the Isaiah Berlin Literary Trust to quote from a letter from Sir Isaiah Berlin.

Many people in the Royal Household, past and present, have helped me in different ways. They include Sir Robin (now Lord) Janvrin, the Queen's Private Secretary when I was invited to write this book, and his successor, Christopher Geidt. I have benefited greatly from their encouragement. I am also indebted to the Royal Librarian, the Hon. Lady Roberts, for her constant support, her invaluable knowledge and her eye for detail; she and her colleagues, Bridget Wright, Emma Stuart and Paul Carter, helped with enquiries about Queen Elizabeth's extensive book collection. Sir Hugh Roberts, Director of the Royal Collection, provided much useful information and kind guidance throughout. Shruti Patel, Karen Lawson, Daniel Partridge and Eva Zielinska Millar of the Royal Collection Photographic Services a.s.sisted with ill.u.s.trations. In the office of The Duke of Edinburgh, Brigadier Sir Miles Hunt Davis, the Duke's Private Secretary, and Dame Anne Griffiths were most helpful. At Clarence House I was greatly helped by Sir Stephen Lamport, Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales, and his successor Sir Michael Peat, as well as by David Hutson, Virginia Carington and Paddy Harverson.

I thank Penny Russell Smith, Press Secretary to the Queen when I began this book, for her help. In the later stages, her successor, Samantha Cohen, was impeccably wise and kind; I am very grateful to her. In her office several others, in particular Ailsa Anderson, were of great a.s.sistance. I am also grateful to others at Buckingham Palace, including Helen Cross, Doug King and Mrs Margaret Mattocks and her fine team on the Buckingham Palace switchboard.

Other members or former members of the Royal Household to whom I owe my thanks include the late Sir Richard Bayliss, Dr Ian Campbell, Lord Fellowes, the late Sir Edward Ford, Sister Gillian Frampton, Dr Jonathan Holliday, the late Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Johnston, the late Sir Oliver and Lady Millar, Peter Ord, Canon John Ovenden, Sir Richard Thompson and Mr Roger Vickers.

Among the members of The Queen Mother's Household to whom I am greatly indebted are Sir Alastair Aird, her last Private Secretary, and Lady Aird, who were unfailingly helpful; I was also given much a.s.sistance by the Hon. Nicholas a.s.sheton, Dame Frances Campbell-Preston, the late Lady Margaret Colville, Fiona Fletcher, Mrs Michael Gordon-Lennox, the late Sir John and Lady Griffin, Elizabeth, Lady Grimthorpe, Martin and Catriona Leslie, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, Jeremy Mainwaring Burton, Lucy Murphy and Major Raymond Seymour. Sir Michael and Lady Angela Oswald gave me enormous a.s.sistance, especially in regard to Queen Elizabeth's pa.s.sion for steeplechasing. Ashe Windham, former equerry and friend of Queen Elizabeth, was my delightful guide to the Castle of Mey and much more. Lady Penn, former lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth, has given me consistent and excellent advice.

Many former members of Queen Elizabeth's staff helped me with obvious delight in the subject; they include Leslie Chappell, Sadie Ewen, Nancy McCarthy, Danny and Sandy McCarthy, Jacqui Meakin, Michael Sealey, the late Clifford Skeet, the late William Tallon, June Webster, Ron Wellbelove and the late Charlie Wright.

A mult.i.tude of other people, some of them friends of Queen Elizabeth, a.s.sisted me. They included the Countess of Airlie, Christiane Besse, Lord and Lady Brabourne, John Bridcut, Donald Cameron, George Carey, Lord and the late Lady Carrington, Sir Edward Cazalet and Mrs Peter Cazalet, Rev. Professor Dr Owen Chadwick, Lady Charteris, Rosemary Coleman, Sir Timothy Colman, Dr Anita Davies, Deborah, d.u.c.h.ess of Devons.h.i.+re, Annabel Eliot, Alwyne Farqharson, Julian Fellowes, Andrew Festing, Lord and Lady Nicholas Gordon-Lennox, the Earl and Countess of Gowrie, the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Grafton, Dame Drue Heinz, Heather Henderson, Nigel Jaques, Lady Sarah Keswick, Sarah Key, Patricia, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, Mrs Timmy Munro, James Murray, Lady Rupert Nevill, Patty Palmer Tomkinson, Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, Major Johnny Perkins, Johnny Robertson, Leo Rothschild, Clare and Oliver Russell, Lord and Lady Sainsbury, the late Bruce Shand, Christine Shearer, Anne Sloman, Lizzie Spender, Betty Berkeley Stafford, Margaret, Dowager Viscountess Thurso, the d.u.c.h.ess of Westminster, Galen and Hilary Weston, Lynne Wilson and the late Lord Wyatt and Lady Wyatt.

I benefited from valuable insights into Queen Elizabeth's private visits to France and Italy provided by the Marquise de Ravenel, daughter of Prince Jean-Louis de Faucigny-Lucinge, the orchestrator of many of the tours, Bertrand du Vignaud de Villefort, the Prince's successor as tour organizer, Laure, Princesse de Beauvau-Craon, Queen Elizabeth's hostess in Lorraine, and Madame Servagnat, survivor of Ravensbruck, whom she met during her visit to Epernay in 1983. I thank them all for their kind help. In Australia, Sir James Scholtens reminisced with great charm about Queen Elizabeth's tours there in which he was involved.

In Canada, where my research was conducted by Sheila de Bellaigue, I thank: at Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Rosemary Doyle-Morier for valuable contacts and information, and Patricia McRae for arranging access to Governor Generals' papers; also in Ottawa, Martin and Louise Tetreault and Roger and Huguette Potvin; in Montreal, Robin Quinlan, for kind hospitality and introductions to Mrs Tom Price, Colonel Bruce Bolton, Colonel Victor Chartier, Tom Bourne and Elspeth Straker, all of whom provided useful information about Queen Elizabeth's links with The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, and Mrs Alan Gordon, in whose house Queen Elizabeth stayed in 1987; in Toronto, Walter Borosa, former Chief of Protocol for Ontario, who was involved with many of her visits, Colonel Hugh Stewart, former Colonel of The Toronto Scottish (The Queen Mother's Own) Regiment, and David Willmot, who supplied tales of Queen Elizabeth's visits to the Woodbine races; also Harris Boyd, Federal Co-ordinator of Queen Elizabeth's later tours, and Jean-Paul Roy, his deputy, both of whom provided further enlightenment about her visits and her occasionally wilful, but highly popular, deviations from the official programme; and Beverly McLaughlin, Chief Justice of Canada, who drew my attention to Queen Elizabeth's speech on laying the foundation stone of the Supreme Court building in Ottawa in 1939.

Others to whom I owe warm thanks for advice, information or help in many different ways are Dr Joanna Marschner of Historic Royal Palaces and Joanna Has.h.a.gen of the Bowes Museum, for information on Queen Elizabeth's clothes; Lucia van der Post, for an a.s.sessment of Queen Elizabeth's style of dress; Wendy Moore, for information on Mary Eleanor Bowes; Donald Gillies, for information on Archie Clark Kerr; Clare Elmquist, for information on Lydie Lachaise; Dr Christina de Bellaigue, for information on private education for girls; Gladys n.o.ble, for information on Lord Roberts Memorial Workshops; Ian Shapiro, for kindly showing me a letter from King George VI in his collection; Bob Steward, for research on Catherine Maclean; Charles Sumner, for information regarding his aunt, Beryl Poignand.

All writers owe debts to other writers. As well as those already mentioned, many eminent historians a.s.sisted me with great kindness; they include my old friend Kenneth Rose, author of, inter alia, an authoritative biography of King George V, and Philip Ziegler, a particular source of wisdom on the role of the official biographer. I am grateful also for the most generous advice of Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill, and I thank D. R. Thorpe, official biographer of Lord Home. Sir Eric Anderson and his wife Poppy gave me wonderful support. Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government at Oxford University and author, among other distinguished works, of The British Const.i.tution, was a peerless guide to me throughout the writing of this book.

Much has already been written about Queen Elizabeth. The first biography of the then d.u.c.h.ess of York was written by Lady Cynthia Asquith with the d.u.c.h.ess's a.s.sistance, and was published in 1927. In the 1960s Dorothy Laird was given official a.s.sistance to prepare what was called the 'first authorised biographical study of Her Majesty'. Queen Elizabeth was such a compelling subject that these books were followed by many more, including The Queen Mother (1981), by Elizabeth Longford, a great historian whom I was fortunate to know from my childhood, My Darling Buffy (1997) in which Grania Forbes explored Elizabeth Bowes Lyon's youth and, especially, Queen Elizabeth, by Hugo Vickers (2005). In her George VI (1989) Sarah Bradford naturally wrote at length about Queen Elizabeth too. All of these books contain valuable original material which I have used and credited and I am grateful to the authors for their help.

I had an exceptional group of people helping me with my research Patricia Lennox-Boyd, Douglas Murray and Rachel Smith delved in various archives and libraries and on the internet; Julia Melvin and Gill Middleburgh chronicled particular areas of Queen Elizabeth's life from the records in the Royal Archives and elsewhere, and helped in many other ways; Lucy Murphy, after serving for thirty-four years in Queen Elizabeth's office, brought her invaluable knowledge to my aid. The person who helped me most throughout these six years was Sheila de Bellaigue, former Registrar of the Royal Archives. I am deeply indebted to her for her diligent research, her wit, her meticulous attention to detail and her scholarly advice. I could never have written this book without her.

My literary agents Carol Heaton in London and Lynn Nesbit in New York have both been, as usual, immensely supportive; and my publishers, Macmillan in London and Knopf in New York, have been most forbearing and helpful. In particular Georgina Morley, and her colleagues at Macmillan, guided me and the book to publication with skill and fort.i.tude. In New York, Sonny Mehta displayed his usual elan, kindness and judgement. In London I was given excellent advice by Charles Elliott and towards the end I was wonderfully a.s.sisted by Peter James, the doyen of copyeditors. I count myself very fortunate to have persuaded the legendary Douglas Matthews to compile the index.

My family has had to live with my work on this book for a long time and I thank especially my wife Olga for her understanding, and Conrad, Ellie, Alex and Charlie for their tolerance. My sister Joanna and my brother Hume have also helped me kindly. And I thank my late parents, Hartley and Joan, for years of encouragement. One of my earliest memories, from February 1952, is of my mother weeping in our garden; when I asked her why, she replied, 'The King has died.'

The nature of official biography inevitably changes over time. In his inaugural lecture as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Professor of British History at the University of London, David Cannadine remarked that until the end of the 1950s, royal biographers 'were specifically instructed to write nothing that was embarra.s.sing to the inst.i.tution of monarchy, or critical of the particular individual who was being thus commemorated and memorialised'. By Harold Nicolson's account, such strictures were indeed placed upon him when he began work on King George V's biography. John Wheeler-Bennett, official biographer of Queen Elizabeth's husband, King George VI, thought that royal biography was almost a sacred enterprise which, like matrimony, ought 'not to be entered into inadvisedly, or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly and in the fear of G.o.d'.

No such instructions were issued and no such fears were instilled in me; on the contrary, I was encouraged to write what I wished. When I showed members of Queen Elizabeth's family, Household and staff sections of the ma.n.u.script, they offered many helpful suggestions to ensure accuracy and completeness, but the decision on what to publish remained mine alone. I have been guided by the advice of Hamlet 'Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor.'

Any biography, even one as long as this, is selective; the writer has to choose which aspects of the subject to concentrate upon. I have quoted at length from Queen Elizabeth's private letters because few of them have been seen before and because I found them remarkable from childhood to old age she wrote with a rare clarity and verve. Her letters illuminate sides of her character which were not always clear to people beyond her immediate family. Not all her letters, written or received, survive; sadly I was able to find few between her and her mother, Lady Strathmore. As happens in any family, other letters have been lost or thrown away over the years. Nevertheless, I have sought wherever possible to use the primary sources uniquely available to me when narrating the trajectory of Queen Elizabeth's life.

The English philosopher Roger Scruton has, in a happy phrase, described the British monarchy as 'the light above politics'. It is the light that Queen Elizabeth cast over the life of the nation that I have tried to describe.

WILLIAM SHAWCROSS.

July 2009.

* In this book the misspellings of Queen Elizabeth's childhood letters have been left as written, but her occasional mistakes as an adult have been corrected (as have those of a few other writers) on the grounds that they are an unnecessary distraction from the sense of the letters. She herself was well aware that spelling was not her strong point. 'It all smacks to me of BUREAUCRACY!!!' she once wrote in a note inveighing against that particular bugbear. 'How fortunate that I have just learnt to spell this valuable word!' (RA QEQM/PRIV/MISCOFF)

PROLOGUE.

WEDNESDAY 19 JULY 2000 was the day chosen for the pageant celebrating the hundredth birthday of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. In London, the day did not begin well. There were bomb scares, the controlled explosion of a suspicious bag, and many trains were cancelled. Senior police officers considered whether the whole event should be abandoned. It was not.

The celebration, on Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall, had been designed as a joyful tribute to Queen Elizabeth and the hundreds of organizations with which she was connected. In warm afternoon suns.h.i.+ne, as the National Anthem was performed by ma.s.sed military bands, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a choir of a thousand singers, Queen Elizabeth, dressed in pink, arrived with her grandson the Prince of Wales in a landau escorted by the Household Cavalry.

After she had inspected the troops, she and the Prince sat on a flower-bedecked dais (though she stood much of the time) to watch the parade together. It began with a march-past of the regiments of which she was colonel-in-chief, followed by the King's Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery and the Mounted Bands of the Household Cavalry. One hundred homing doves were released as a young boy sang 'Oh for the Wings of a Dove'.

Then came a cavalcade of the century, a light-hearted look at the hundred years she had lived through; more of a circus than a parade, it included 450 children and adults, with a variety of stars. Among the scenes and players who pa.s.sed in front of her were soldiers of the First World War, ballroom dancers from the 1920s, a Second World War fire engine and ambulance, Pearly Kings and Queens from the East End of London, and people in 1940s dress celebrating victory in 1945. Then came a series of post-war cars Enid Blyton's Noddy in his yellow car, the first Mini Minor, James Bond's Aston Martin, an E-type Jaguar. More recent and perhaps more surprising twentieth-century memories were recalled by h.e.l.l's Angels on their bikes, punk-rock youths in black and the television characters, the Wombles.

After this eclectic depiction of the previous ten decades, representatives of 170 of the more than 300 civil organizations, charities and other groups with which Queen Elizabeth was a.s.sociated marched past her. This part of the parade began with Queen Elizabeth's page leading two of her corgis, the breed of dog which had for so long shared her life. There were more animals: camels (ridden by members of the Wors.h.i.+pful Company of Grocers, whose emblem is a camel), horses, an Aberdeen Angus bull, North Country Cheviot sheep, chickens, racehorses. The groups waving gaily as they pa.s.sed included the Girls' Brigade, Queen Elizabeth's Overseas Nursing Services a.s.sociation, the Cookery and Food a.s.sociation (a hundred chefs all in their whites), the Mothers' Union, the Poultry Club of Great Britain, the Royal National Lifeboat Inst.i.tution, the National Trust, the Royal College of Midwives, St John Ambulance Brigade, the Royal School of Needlework, the Colditz a.s.sociation, the Battle of Britain Fighter a.s.sociation, the Bomber Command a.s.sociation and, bringing up the rear, twenty-two holders of the Victoria and George Crosses, Britain's highest awards for heroism, followed by the venerable Chelsea Pensioners marching stiffly but proudly in their bright red uniforms. Everyone in the stands stood up as these brave men and women pa.s.sed.

RAF planes from the Second World War a Spitfire, a Hurricane, a Lancaster bomber, a Bristol Blenheim flew overhead, followed by the Red Arrows trailing red, white and blue vapour trails. And all the while the bands and the orchestra played on and the choirs sang. Hubert Parry's glorious anthem 'I Was Glad', which had been sung at King George VI and Queen Elizabeth's Coronation in 1937, was followed by First World War music-hall favourites such as 'Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag', 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' and (nicely vulgar) 'My Old Man Said Follow the Van'. Three hundred children from the Chicken Shed Company danced. Altogether some 2,000 military personnel and more than 5,000 civilians celebrated on Horse Guards Parade.

The whole event lasted an hour and a half, and at the end the Queen Mother made a short speech of thanks saying it had been a wonderful afternoon and 'a great joy to me'. The crowd cheered, the National Anthem was sung again, and Queen Elizabeth got into her car to make a lap of honour past thousands of happy, cheering people before driving off to St James's Palace, where she climbed the stairs to the State Rooms and spent the next hour and a half at a reception, sitting down only to talk to the singer Dame Vera Lynn.

Two weeks later, on the morning of her actual hundredth birthday, 4 August, a large crowd gathered outside her London home, Clarence House. The gates were opened and Queen Elizabeth came out to take the salute when the King's Troop, the Royal Horse Artillery, marched past. In front of the crowd the royal postman, Tony Nicholls, delivered her the traditional message sent by the Queen to all her subjects who reach their hundredth birthday. The Queen Mother started to open it and then pa.s.sed it to her equerry. 'Come on, use your sword,' she said. Captain William de Rouet unsheathed his ceremonial blade and slit the envelope open. The message was written in the Queen's own hand and read, 'On your 100th birthday all the family join with me in sending you our loving best wishes for this special day. Lilibet'.1 Then, with the Prince of Wales, Queen Elizabeth climbed into a landau decked with flowers in her racing colours of blue and gold, and was driven to Buckingham Palace past the large crowds lining the Mall. The Prince was deeply moved by the rapturous reception for his beloved grandmother. It was, he thought, 'the British at their best and you always manage to bring the best out in people!'2 At the Palace, Queen Elizabeth appeared alone on the balcony. She waved to the crowds as she had first waved after her marriage in 1923 and, most famously, on Victory in Europe (VE) Day in May 1945. As the Band of the Coldstream Guards played Happy Birthday and the crowd roared its approval, she was joined by twenty-seven of her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews, nieces and many of their spouses.

In her long life the world had undergone technological change with unprecedented speed, and political transformations of exceptional violence. It had moved from the age of travel by horse to that of travel through s.p.a.ce. The First World War and the Russian Revolution had toppled the emperors of Austria, Germany and Russia. Many other European kings and queens had subsequently departed their thrones. The United Kingdom had suffered the trauma of the Great War and then faced almost continuous challenge from economic and political turmoil, from war and the threat of war through a world slump, the abdication of King Edward VIII, the Second World War, the Cold War. Queen Elizabeth had come to terms with ma.s.sive changes loss of empire, the growth of a modern multi-racial Commonwealth of newly independent states in Asia and Africa, and a social revolution in Britain itself which had begun with the first majority Labour government elected in 1945.

The British monarchy was not isolated from the political and social changes. Indeed the abdication in 1936 was a self-inflicted wound from which it might not have recovered. It had adapted itself, and it had survived; more than that, it had retained the consent of the people essential to const.i.tutional monarchy. This adaptation was largely due to the efforts of successive sovereigns and their advisers. But a key question, explored in this book, is the extent to which the consent necessary for its survival was generated by the woman who was for almost eighty years at its heart as d.u.c.h.ess of York, Queen and Queen Mother.