NOTHING in the Queen’s life had ever prepared her for the decade portrayed in the latest series of The Crown.
The years in question – 1990 to 1999 – were the most exacting, difficult and draining of Her Majesty‘s reign for many reasons, including the crumbling marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage breakdown sparked the most difficult years of the Queen’s reign
The doomed relationship is controversially featured in the new series of The Crown
In one episode of the Netflix show, an entirely fictitious scenario shows the Sunday Times publishing a poll that says half of Britain agrees the Queen should abdicate.
Prince Charles – played by Dominic West – then uses this to voice his ambitions to the newly elected Prime Minister, John Major, over a stilted meeting.
Sir John has already angrily denied the meeting ever took place, saying it was a “barrel load of nonsense”.
The Crown takes threads of truths and turns them into fact. In doing so, it misses out on the reality, which was often more dramatic.
MONARCHY MAYHEM
When was the Queen's annus horribilis year and what happened?
Charles and Queen at odds
The truth is that at this time, the last thing the Queen would have ever considered was abdicating in Charles’s favour.
Well intentioned, hard working and dutiful he might have been, but the future king was not getting along with his mother.
The Queen felt he was shirking his duty by becoming too involved in his personal problems and ignoring the bigger picture.
She felt, as did the Queen Mother, that had he been possessed of a little more strength of character and emotional compassion for Diana he could have steered her out of her traumas.
Then the relationship and eventually the marriage might have been saved – and along with it, the reputation of the Royal Family.
It was a task that proved beyond him – as Diana proved to be a woman beyond his understanding.
There was a great deal of tension among the Royal Family, with the Queen feeling Charles could have steered Diana out of trouble
Showdown in tense phone call
Charles had tried to explain to his mother many times how impossible Diana could be.
She would follow Charles into a room screaming. She would slam the door, open it and slam it shut again.
On one occasion Diana walked the length of a bookshelf, punching the carefully organised books to the back of the shelf and shouting at the top of her voice, ‘No Charles, no no no!’
The Queen seemed impervious to his distress.
Frustrated beyond his limit of patience, Charles telephoned his mother. He told her: “Don’t you realise she’s mad? She’s mad!”
Then in violation of everything he had ever been taught, he lost his temper and hung up the telephone.
The Nineties were a difficult time for Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s struggling marriage
Abdication speculation
While The Crown’s scenes of a meeting between Charles and Sir John have been angrily denied, there is some truth in the murmurings around abdication.
A few commentators had predicted that the Queen would use her Christmas Broadcast of 1991 to declare her intention to abdicate in favour of her eldest son.
The previous April, she had reached the age of 65 and questions were being asked of the monarchy’s modern purpose.
Many felt the House of Windsor was “an expensive luxury” and the issue became more prominent because of the short-lived Gulf War.
The media said the Royal Family should be setting a better example.
They objected to Sarah Ferguson “spending £5 million on a house that’s always empty” and Prince Andrew playing golf on “sunny Spanish links”.
The last thing the Queen would have ever considered was abdicating in Charles’s favour
However, instead of announcing an abdication in her broadcast, the Queen assured people she would remain true to her early promise to devote her life to duty.
To emphasise this, she finished with the words: “With your prayers and your help and with the help and with the love and support of my family I shall try and serve you in the years to come.”
HEAT HACK
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Luckily, she did so for another thirty-one years.
Ingrid Seward is Editor in Chief of Majesty magazine and author of The Queens Speech.
Series five of The Crown is now available to stream on Netflix
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https://thecelebreport.com/royalty/royals-bracing-for-more-unpleasant-mike-tindall-revelations-on-im-a-celeb-says-expert-who-branded-him-desperate
