The royals - Kitty Kelley [303]
* Former MP Willie Hamilton told the author in 1993: “I was subjected to assassination threats when I demanded an investigation of royal finances…. The Queen’s advisers arrogantly told us to give them the money. ‘Never mind what the Queen is worth,’ they said. ‘Never mind how rich she is. We want more money. You give us the money.’ And we very tamely did. They knew they had a subservient government and that we were afraid of doing anything to offend the monarchy—then.”
† The more socially elevated position is held by Ladies of the Bedchamber, who are married to peers. The Ladies are chosen for purely personal qualities and attend to the Queen Mother on specific public occasions. The Women of the Bedchamber work full-time shifts of two weeks at a time and attend to personal needs such as shopping and answering letters.
* “The Duke of Edinburgh is a useless, reactionary, arrogant parasite,” said Arthur Latham, a Labor MP. “He’s the most well-paid social security claimant in Britain simply for being his wife’s husband.”
† The Queen also used the word “common” as an indictment. She applied it with disdain to the actor who had played the role of King George VI in Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson, the television series. “Andrew Ray,” said Her Majesty, “is far too common to have played my father.”
* The Queen and Prince Philip refer to the six-foot blond Princess as “Our Val” because of her strong resemblance to the Valkyries, warrior maidens of German myth.
When asked by a magazine what he would give his worst enemy for Christmas, Viscount Linley (son of Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret) quipped, “Dinner with Princess Michael.”
* In 1994 the Queen’s footman was paid $12,000 a year, plus a two-room apartment.
* Historians praised the Queen for her progressive “pee” signs, pointing out that her predecessor Queen Elizabeth I had been so backward that she’d refused to grant a patent for a water closet because she felt it would encourage impropriety.
* Mountbatten fretted about the negative impression forming over the Queen’s fortune. In 1972 he wrote to Prince Philip: “Unless you can get an informed reply published [in an establishment paper like the Times ] making just one point, the image of the monarchy will be gravely damaged. It is true that there is a fortune, which is very big, but the overwhelming proportion (85%?) is in pictures, objets d’art, furniture, etc. in the three State-owned palaces. The Queen can’t sell any of them, they bring in no income. So will you both please believe a loving old uncle and NOT your constitutional advisers, and do it.” He did not do it.
* So great was fear of public anger over the abdication that on the night of King Edward VIII’s farewell address to the nation in 1936, the sentries guarding Buckingham Palace were issued live ammunition for the first time in history.
* The separation statement was issued from Kensington Palace because it is Princess Margaret’s home, and according to royal protocol, she is the head of her family.
* Although relations between the Queen and Mountbatten had always been warm, one subject caused them to cool: Japan. In 1971 Her Majesty invited Emperor Hirohito to Britain for a state visit. And she restored the seventy-four-year-old Mikado to the Order of the Garter. He had been stripped of it after Japanese forces attacked the Allies in 1941. His visit made Mountbatten furious. He was further enraged in 1975 when the Queen made a state visit to Japan. “You should have waited until I was dead,” he told her.
Mountbatten, who had fought the Japanese for more than three years and served as Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia, never forgave Japan its wartime savagery. But the Queen pointed to the passage of time since hostilities ended and what she saw as the need for reconciliation. “The Emperor is an old man now, Dickie,” she said. Mountbatten snorted. “He’s a doddering, incompetent old fascist.”
* Raine’s husband, Gerald Dartmouth, filed for divorce