Prince Philip may be the patriarch of the royal family today, but in his younger years he and the Queen Mother didn’t see eye-to-eye on many issues.
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A new documentary has revealed that the late Queen Mother disapproved of her son-in-law Prince Philip and saw him as a “dangerously progressive” man.
In the series The Private Lives of the Windsors, it’s revealed that the Queen Mother clashed with Prince Philip as she viewed him as someone who “challenged her authority as family matriarch”.
“The Queen Mother viewed him as rather an enemy and in fact one would see those early years as being a tug-of-war and a tussle for the ear of the Queen,” historian and biographer Professor Jane Ridley says in the documentary.
Even before Philip became an official member of the Firm, the Queen Mother had issues with her soon-to-be son-in-law.
Despite being a great-great-great grandchild of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (like the Queen and her sister Princess Margaret), Philip’s in-laws disapproved of him as he had no financial standing and was considered a foreigner.
What’s more, Philip’s sisters had married German noblemen who were thought to have Nazi links – another no-no for the royals since Elizabeth and Philip’s wedding came shortly after World War Two.
“Philip may have served in the British army, but his four sisters had married Germans, who fought for the Nazis,’ historian Professor Kate Williams says in the documentary.
Once Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952, the Queen Mother then became jealous of her daughter because of all of the “power and privilege” that came from being the monarch.
“With the death of King George, we have to remember how young they were. The King was 56, the Queen Mother was 51,” royal biographer Christopher Warwick explains on the documentary.
“So she felt they’d been cut off in her prime, she loved the position of being Queen and suddenly all that was taken from her. The Queen mother minded very much being Queen Mother, and she was jealous of her daughter having become Queen.”
Whilst the Queen Mother was old-fashioned and traditional with her approaches, Prince Philip was seen as more “progressive” and their disagreements continued, especially in regards over the direction of the royal family and Prince Charles’ education.
Historian Piers Brendan says in the documentary that Philip was “determined to make a man of his first born son” but never seemed to understand Charles who was considered a “wimp.”
“Indeed, his son became a source of considerable irritation to him as he grew up, whereas the Queen Mother reported what she needed was delicate nurturing, sympathy and understanding,” he explained.
Whilst Philip wanted to send the young Charles his “tough” alma mater Gordonstoun in Scotland, the Queen Mother wanted him to attend Eton, just around the corner from her then-home at Windsor’s Royal Lodge.
Charles ended up attending his father’s school in Scotland, but despite his negative experience, he always had a close relationship with his maternal grandmother.
“Charles had a miserable time at Gordonstoun, he’s very heavily bullied, he struggles with the routine. The Queen Mother understood him like no other, and this is so important, she really has a viral role in shaping the future king,” Kate Williams added.
The Queen Mother and Prince Charles’ bond remained close until her death in 2002. She was 102-years-old.
“For me, she meant everything. And I had dreaded, dreaded, this moment, along with, I know, countless others. Somehow I never thought it would come,” Charles said at her funeral.
“She seemed gloriously unstoppable and, since I was a child, I adored her.”
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