The Queen Mother (114 page)

On 7 July 1947 the Queen wrote to her sister May to tell her ‘
very secretly
’ (underlined in black and red) that Lilibet had ‘made up her mind’ to become engaged to Philip Mountbatten. While they were abroad Prince Philip had become a naturalized British citizen (as he was entitled to do, having served in the Royal Navy) and had taken his uncle’s name, Mountbatten. ‘As you know,’ the Queen continued, ‘she has known him ever since she was 12, & I think that she is
really
fond of him, & I do pray that she will be very happy.’ They were keeping it all ‘a deadly secret’ because if the press found out ‘they are likely to ruin everything.’
¹²
She wrote also to Arthur Penn, saying that she knew he would understand the emotion she was feeling. Her daughter, she wrote, ‘has thought about it a great deal, and had made up her mind some time ago’. At the end of the letter she added, ‘I say, Arthur, how annoyed the Grenadiers will be!’
¹³

Penn was devoted to the Princess, whom he invariably called ‘The Colonel’ – ‘In the last 18 months,’ he wrote to the Queen, ‘she has clothed herself with a new beauty of character – & of appearance, if I may say so.’
¹⁴
He thought that history was repeating itself, at least with regard to the press: he still had a letter from the Queen about her own engagement in 1923 in which she had written, ‘Aren’t the papers awful?’ Nonetheless, he thought that ‘their columns only reflect the intense interest & goodwill felt by thousands who don’t know the Colonel … 
What
a daughter to have.’ Penn realized how torn the Queen must be at the prospect of her daughter leaving home.
¹⁵

The announcement of the engagement on 10 July was a rare shaft of happiness at a grim time both at home and abroad. The independence and partition of India was only weeks away and the sub-continent was already riven by bloody rioting. In Palestine Britain found herself caught between the Zionist Jews who, after the Nazi Holocaust, were
even more determined to create a Jewish national home, and the settled Arab population who wanted no such thing. Some Zionists resorted to terrorism against British forces in Palestine in protest against Britain’s failure to do more for their cause. Two British sergeants were captured and hanged by Jewish terrorists, and 4,500 European Jewish refugees on board the ship
Exodus
were prevented by the British from landing. The Russian Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov had denounced the offer by the US Secretary of State, George Marshall, to mount the financial rescue of Europe. This Soviet rejection was seen as a serious blow to the recovery of the continent.

Victorious Britain seemed to be on her knees. As well as bread rationing, controls on the imports of petrol, tobacco and paper were imposed. The Dominions began to send food parcels to the mother country. In New Zealand, branches of the Women’s Institute decided to adopt and sustain their English counterparts. The Treasury was drawing up a secret ‘famine food programme’. Clement Attlee announced a crisis austerity plan for the British economy, food rations were cut further, foreign travel allowances for British citizens were abolished, a coal strike in Yorkshire closed the Sheffield steelworks. The King was appalled by all that was happening to the country; in many ways he thought the situation even worse than in wartime. ‘One feels so powerless to do anything to help,’ he confessed to his mother.
¹⁶

In such austere conditions, news of Princess Elizabeth’s engagement brought widespread happiness and many letters of congratulation to the Queen. Queen Ingrid of Denmark wrote asking for advice on clothes for the wedding and opined that the Queen must be happy about the marriage – ‘You couldn’t have a more good-looking son-in-law’.
¹⁷
D’Arcy Osborne wrote that she would have to make difficult decisions for the wedding; faced with the choice between austerity and traditional pageantry, he thought most people would prefer the latter. Tongue firmly in cheek, he wondered if she would invite Stalin.
¹⁸

The press became more and more demanding – at least by the standards of the day. Norman Hartnell begged the King and Queen for help, declaring that he was being persecuted by reporters for refusing to reveal details of the Princess’s wedding dress. With this plea the Palace Press Secretary, Commander Richard Colville, sent a note to the Queen suggesting a formal statement to the press that it was the Princess’s wish that the details of her dress be kept secret.
¹⁹
Colville also reported to the Queen that members of the Women’s Press Club
of London had asked him such questions as what cosmetics the Princess would wear on her wedding day; whether her mother and sister would help her to dress; whether the bridegroom would kiss the bridesmaids. He had asked whether journalists thought such details worthy of publication. They had said yes. He had then made it clear to them that he, the Press Secretary, ‘was not prepared to publicise the private lives of the Royal Family’. He was, however, prepared to provide details of the family’s charitable and welfare works.
²⁰

The King decided to invest the Princess with the Order of the Garter on 11 November; he did the same for Prince Philip on 19 November so that the Princess would be senior to her husband in the Order. His future son-in-law was to be created a royal highness and the titles of his peerage would be Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich. He told Queen Mary that he knew this was a lot to take on all at once, ‘but I know Philip understands his new responsibilities on his marriage to Lilibet.’
²¹
More than 3,000 presents came from all over the world. They were unpacked, put on display by men from the Grenadier Guards, and catalogued by Beryl Poignand.

In straitened times, the question of what allowance the Princess and her new husband should receive from the Civil List to cover the official expenses of their Households was problematic. The King asked for £50,000 for the couple. He found the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Dalton, difficult on the matter. Dalton suggested £30,000, some of which would be taxable. But on 13 November Dalton had to resign after revealing details of his new budget to a journalist just before he informed the House of Commons itself. The new Chancellor, Stafford Cripps, accepted the royal request for £50,000 for the young couple.

Among the celebrations, the King and Queen gave a dance at the Palace on the evening of 18 November. Duff Cooper, now ambassador to France, and Lady Diana came on the Golden Arrow from Paris. They talked to the King and Queen, and Duff recorded in his diary, ‘She has grown very large, but she looked queenly and was very well dressed. They were both very friendly. The King was most outspoken, first aside to me and then aside to Diana, in his criticism of his ministers … Princess Elizabeth was looking really charming – everything that a princess in a fairy tale ought to look like on the eve of her wedding.’
²²

Two days later, on 20 November, the wedding took place in
Westminster Abbey. It was an emotional occasion for the whole family. When the Princess and her husband left by carriage from the Palace for their honeymoon, she was concerned that she had not said proper goodbyes. She wrote to her mother, ‘My mouth, my eyes, everything was jammed with rose petals and I felt as if I might cry if there was any more delay!’
²³

The young couple spent the first part of their honeymoon at Broadlands, the Mountbatten home in Hampshire. There the Princess received a loving letter from her father: ‘I was so proud of you & thrilled at having you so close to me on our long walk in Westminster Abbey,’ he wrote, ‘but when I handed your hand to the Archbishop I felt that I had lost something very precious. You were so calm & composed during the Service & said your words with such conviction, that I knew everything was all right.’ He was relieved that she had told her mother that the delay they had imposed on her engagement and marriage was for the best.

From Broadlands, the Princess wrote equally loving letters to her parents. To her mother she said, ‘Darling Mummy, I don’t know where to begin this letter, or what to say, but I know I must write it somehow, as I feel so much about it. First of all, to say thank you … I tried to say the other evening how much I appreciated all you have done for me, but somehow it wouldn’t come. It’s been such fun being together – all four of us – and I hope that we shall have just as much fun, now that you have got a son-in-law!’ She hoped her mother had
not been too miserable at the wedding. ‘I was so happy and enjoying myself so much, that I became completely selfish and forgot about your feelings or anyone else’s!’

She thought her mother had looked wonderful: ‘Not just “the bride’s mother” but
you
– and in the middle of all the fuss and bustle, you were as helpful and wonderful as ever. (I do hope this doesn’t sound sentimental, because it isn’t meant to be – just the truth). I think I’ve got the best mother and father in the world, and I only hope that I can bring up my children in the happy atmosphere of love and fairness which Margaret and I have grown up in. I feel it will be easier for me with such a vivid example and personal experience to guide me!’ The Princess went on to say that she and Prince Philip felt completely at ease together – ‘we behave as though we had belonged to each other for years! Philip is an angel – he is so kind and thoughtful, and living with him and having him around all the time is just perfect.’
²⁵

The Queen loved this letter; she re-read it many times, she told the Princess – ‘and each time I feel more thankful for our darling little daughter!’ She assured Princess Elizabeth that her parents were ‘so happy in your happiness’, having always hoped that she would be able to make a marriage of the heart as well as the head. ‘We both love Philip already as a son.’ She looked forward to having just as much fun as before now that ‘we four’ had become ‘we five’. She wrote that she had thought about her daughter ‘for nearly every minute’ since she had driven away. ‘Darling Lilibet, no parents ever had a better daughter, you are always such an unselfish & thoughtful angel to Papa & me, & we are so thankful for all your goodness and sweetness … That you & Philip should be blissfully happy & love each other through good days and bad or depressing days is my one wish – a thousand blessings to you both from your very very loving Mummy.’
²⁶

From Hampshire the newlyweds travelled, with corgis, to Birkhall; the Princess, used to the Highlands in the summer, found the November corridors cold and draughty but the rooms were wonderfully warmed by large log fires. She wrote again to her mother to tell her how ‘blissfully happy’ she was, but she was beginning to realize what terrific changes marriage brought to life. She did want to ask her mother’s advice, in particular about how to square her husband’s feelings with the formalities of the Court. ‘Philip is terribly independent, and I quite understand the poor darling wanting to start off
properly, without everything being
done
for us.’ She hoped to enable her husband to be ‘boss in his own home’ and she knew how difficult this would be, living in her old rooms at Buckingham Palace and subject to endless protocol. She was right – it was indeed hard for the Prince to remain his own man. He considered some of the courtiers to be overly conservative and stuffy; they found him abrasive and were unsympathetic. But it was essential for him to strive to maintain his independence and authority over the years ahead.

The Princess ended her letter by writing, ‘It is so lovely and peaceful just now – Philip is reading full length on the sofa, Susan is stretched out before the fire, Rummy is fast asleep in his box beside the fire, and I am busy writing this in one of the arm chairs near the fire (you see how important the fire is!). It’s heaven up here!’
²⁷

The new Duke of Edinburgh also wrote deeply affectionate letters in which he poured out his love for his new wife to his new mother-in-law. In one he said:

*

T
HE NEXT GREAT
family celebration was of the King and Queen’s Silver Wedding anniversary. It was an important and emotional moment for both of them – and for the country. The King’s biographer rightly quoted Walter Bagehot, who had stated, ‘A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and as such it rivets mankind.’ Eighty years before, with the happy marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert very much in mind, he had written, ‘We have come to believe that it is natural to have a virtuous sovereign, and that domestic virtues are as likely to be found on thrones as they are eminent when there.’
²⁹

The marriage, at the threshold of which Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon had hesitated so long, had been a triumph. Both had brought
great love, support and happiness to the other. Their evidently happy life together with their daughters had given great joy and a sense of confidence in the monarchy, particularly during the war. The family’s happiness was itself an object of national celebration.