The royals - Kitty Kelley [299]
† As Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Dwight D. Eisenhower enjoyed a special relationship with the British royal family, fostered during the Second World War.
* Each of the three children of Henry VIII became sovereign (King Edward VI, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth I) and each died childless.
* In 1995 anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer wrote a book, Exploring English Character, in which he questioned the beliefs, prejudices, and habits of mind of large numbers of the English middle class. He found that the English people as a whole are deeply obsessed with restraining any element of violence and rate gentleness very high as a virtue. They regard impatience and loss of temper as major sins. Being considered a gentleman means everything.
* The Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme is operated in more than fifty-five countries, but under a variety of names: the Benelux Award in Belgium; the Crown Prince Award in Jordan; the Gold Shield Award in South Africa. In Australia, Jamaica, and New Zealand, it is called the “Dee of Ee.” Prince Philip says, “I don’t give a damn what they call it as long as it is compatible with the one that runs here.”
* In later years the Lord Chamberlain’s duties were modified so the Queen could visit her divorced cousins, her divorced sister, her divorced daughter, and her two divorced sons, including the heir to the throne.
† The restrictions on divorced persons being allowed to share the same air as royalty were relaxed slightly after Peter Townsend’s divorce. Only those divorced persons who were legally blameless for their divorce were admitted into the company of royalty. This policy allowed Townsend, who was wronged by an adulterous wife, to continue in royal service. From 1950 to 1953 he acted as head of the Queen Mother’s household. For the rest of his life, even in exile, his name was listed in Whitaker’s Almanack as an extra equerry to Her Majesty the Queen.
* Years later Princess Margaret said, “I have only twice ever had a row with the Queen. These were probably both about men.” She explained to the historian Elizabeth Longford, “In our family we do not have rifts—a very occasional row, but never a rift.”
† In his discreet autobiography Townsend wrote that he had been prepared to like Philip but… “When I went into exile in 1953, he did not exactly walk me to the door and say goodbye…. He is a German but he does not look very German. He is certainly trenchant and his views are trenchant. I would say he is intelligent without being an intellectual… he could be abrupt and he has this staccato way of talking, although he will often end things up with a joke or a quip.”
* “That particular hour was chosen more for the corgis than for the children,” said the Queen’s footman, explaining the Queen’s daily ritual of feeding her dogs dinner in her sitting room. “One of us brings a tray of bowls to Her Majesty every evening at that time, and the tray contains the individual diets prepared by the kitchen for the Queen’s seven corgis.” The silver bowls were placed on a plastic sheet on the floor, and the Queen mixed each portion with a silver knife and fork.
* Unhappy with so many homosexuals in the royal household, Philip cheered the footman who had been caught in flagrante delicto with a housemaid. “They sacked him,” said the Duke of Edinburgh. “He should have been given a medal.”
* Charles, eleven, stunned his history teacher at Cheam by not knowing that Britain once had a Prince of Wales who became King Edward VIII and then abdicated to become the Duke of Windsor. Years later Charles shocked another history teacher by defending King George III, who suffered attacks of insanity because of the rare and incurable ailment of porphyria. “I happen to admire, appreciate