The royals - Kitty Kelley [216]
“The Queen is devastated, absolutely devastated,” Andrew told CNN television shortly after his mother arrived from London. “She is helping to take stuff out of the castle—works of art. She has been in there for thirty minutes.”
Charles arrived the next day to survey the damage. He called it “a tragedy,” then left for a shooting party at Sandringham. The Queen’s other children, Princess Anne and Prince Edward, did not show up at all.
The sixty-six-year-old monarch looked worn and beleaguered as she tramped through the charred remains. Of all her royal residences, Windsor Castle, the symbol of her dynasty, was her favorite. It was where she had lived as a child during World War II. It also was the main repository of her art, considered the most important private collection in the world. Her holdings included works by Rembrandt, da Vinci, Holbein, Rubens, and Vermeer, as well as priceless porcelain, tapestries, furniture, and armor from William the Conqueror.
In her hooded slicker and rubber boots, she bleakly surveyed the tangle of fire trucks, hoses, and ladders. It was her forty-fifth wedding anniversary, and her husband was in Argentina—with another woman. “Philip was traveling with us as president of the World Wildlife Fund,” a member of his group reported, “and while I don’t recall seeing him with Susan Barrantes [as her daughter, Sarah Ferguson, later alleged], there was talk about him and his secretary…. What I remember most is the board of directors meeting the morning after the fire…. We were all talking about the television coverage of the Queen and Prince Andrew at Windsor Castle, hauling out the debris. Philip walked into the room [in Buenos Aires] and started the meeting without mentioning a word about the fire, about his wife, or his son. We couldn’t believe it. Not one word.”
Britain’s heritage secretary declared the fire a national disaster and expressed the nation’s sympathy. He promised the Queen the government would restore her castle. But with no fire insurance, he said the cost to taxpayers would be about $80 million. He said people would be “proud” to carry the burden. England, though, was mired in a recession, and Her Majesty’s subjects resented the implication that they should pay for the restoration.
“While the castle stands, it is theirs,” wrote Janet Daley in the Times, “but when it burns down, it is ours.”
The Palace argued that it was the government’s responsibility to purchase the Queen’s fire insurance.
“For the richest woman in the world?” boomed a Member of Parliament.
“She’s not the richest,” retorted a courtier. He flashed a recently published list of the country’s wealthiest women, showing the Queen ranked tenth, with assets of about $150 million, which disputed previous estimates of her wealth at $7.5 billion. The Palace recognized the line between the “haves” and the “have nots”; and to some of her subjects, Her Majesty just had too much. So when Business Age magazine said she was the wealthiest person in Britain, the Palace protested to the Press Complaints Commission. The Queen’s courtiers said it wasn’t fair to lump in royal residences, art treasures, and crown jewels with her personal wealth. The commission agreed and said the evaluation should be lowered from billions to millions.
“I’m sure that will be immensely comforting to my unemployed constituents,” said the MP.
The country’s largest-selling tabloid, the News of the World, asked its readers to vote on the issue. Providing two telephone numbers, the paper said to call one number if “we should pay” and another if “she should pay.” There were sixteen thousand calls, and fifteen thousand said “she should pay.”
“She” struck a profitable pose. Like a business tycoon who recognizes there’s money to be made in changing with the times, the Queen saw