Posted by Radu
on 27/9/2009, 1:35:04, in reply to "Re: A different view on "eveyone's favourite granny""
89.136.181.58
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: --Previous Message--
: The idea that Queen Elizabeth’s dislike of
: the
: Windsors was somehow caused by her obsess
: ional love of Edward VIII is instantly
: debunked by the simple fact that throughout
: the 1920s and 1930s she was indeed quite
: tolerant of Edward’s many married
: mistresses, socialising with them both
: privately and publicly.
:
: But as none was his official wife,
: Elizabeth's position as the second ranked
: lady in the land (right behind her
: mother-in-law, the formidable Queen Mary)
: was not threatened.
:
: I suspect Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was quite
: comfortable with men having dalliances and
: indeed even the women they had dalliances
: with, provided those women always knew their
: place. Wallis Simpson was a mistress who
: aspired to be a royal bride, to someone like
: Queen Elizabeth I suspect that was
: staggering.
:
: This only underscores my point above:
: Elizabeth MUST have felt a certain
: possessiveness toward Edward -- as sort of
: an unofficial consort to him, as the wife he
: should have (in her mind) married him but
: didn't.
Oh dear, you know these people so well.
:
: Queen Mary was horrified that her son could
: give up his throne for Wallis Simpson, she
: placed duty above all else, including
: personal happiness and presumably Queen
: Elizabeth felt likewise.
:
: Edward would not have had to give up his
: throne to marry Wallis, had the
: establishment been willing to accept her as
: queen. The fact is that he wanted BOTH to
: be king AND have Wallis as his official wife
: (not just a mistress). If he could have had
: his way, he would have entered into a
: morganatic marriage with Wallis -- meaning
: that she would not have been crowned as
: queen, despite his being king.
:
: As it was, because morganaticism was illegal
: in the UK -- meaning that any legal wife of
: a king had to be acknowledged as queen
: (something that could not be countenanced,
: for a twice-divorced American commoner) --
: Edward was obliged to abdicate his throne.
:
: If it were simply a matter of blaming
: something or somebody, for the circumstances
: that placed her beloved husband (the Duke of
: York) on a throne he didn't want, then
: Elizabeth might have seen fit to blame the
: Establishment. After all: there should, in
: principle, have been nothing to stop them
: from approving Wallis as official queen
: (although practically speaking, it was
: hardly a feasibility, given the times.
: While a highborn titled British commoner,
: never divorced, might have been an
: acceptable wife for a royal after World War
: I, not the likes of Wallis).
:
: What is also
: overlooked is that the Duke and Duchess of
: Windsor’s conduct in the years immediately
: after their marriage was not necessarily
: helpful, becoming international jetsetters,
: socialising with Hitler etc were not things
: which would look good or help the badly
: damaged image of the British monarchy while
: it was trying to recover from one of its
: most shocking moments.
:
: I find this explanation revisionistic with
: respect to the British royal family -- i.e.
: the family of King George VI. The image of
: it being anti-German, anti-Nazi, and
: anti-Hitler is highly suspect: that may well
: have been the case OVER TIME -- as the years
: passed, World War II broke out, and Great
: Britain fought in the Allied cause.
:
: It's difficult to see this being the case
: before Germany's invasion of Poland. One
: should realize that durin the worldwide
: depression of the 1930's, most people were
: struggling to survive a daily existence --
: and hence were unaware of the goings on in
: the Nazi regime. In particular, Hitler was
: a master deceiver who fooled MANY people --
: the British royals being no exception. As
: such, there were many non-Nazis who actually
: admired him -- unaware of his atrocious
: policies as head of the Third Reich.
:
: I can't see that King George VI was THAT
: significantly different from his older
: brother, in his perception of Der Fuehrer --
: at least prior to the war.
:
: I’ve never recalled any suggesstion that
: Queen Elizabeth was personally ambitious for
: the throne, she came to love the role and
: position of Queen but it was not one for
: which she hankered for or actively pursued,
: given she had married a second son its not
: really something one can actively campaign
: for.
:
: This is highly debatable: there is good
: evidence that at least at an early point in
: her life, Elizabeth DID harbor ambitions for
: the throne. Why else was she so slow and
: relucant to accept the proposal of the Duke
: of York (twice, in fact, "the third
: time being a charm") -- when there was
: a much more eligible royal bachelor in the
: person of the Prince of Wales?
:
: I believe that the POW did, in fact, say
: that "it was me she wanted to
: marry" -- a view shared by the Duchess.
: As no proposal came from the better catch,
: Elizabeth really had no choice but to accept
: the lesser catch -- as some sort of
: consolation prize. One can rationalize
: things in many ways (she would be better off
: married to the Duke of York than not, she
: would upgrade her status to royalty, she
: would be the second officially ranked lady
: in the land as long as the Prince of Wales
: remained unmarried, the Duke was a fine man
: with admirable qualities she had previously
: overlooked, etc).
:
: There are plenty of cases in royal history
: where a woman who aspired to something
: higher learned to gracefully accept
: something lower. In this case, as I
: suggested, Elizabeth (ironically enough)
: never experienced a demotion in rank --
: despite marrying into a position where this
: was a liability.
:
: I've always suspected a strong attraction
: between her and the Prince of Wales (without
: doubting the sincerity of love she
: eventually came to harbor for her husband)
: -- and that she was deeply resentful and
: jealous that someone so lowborn and
: disreputable as Wallis had managed to
: acquire a "hold" on him that was
: more than just fancy or infatuation (as in
: the case of his previous mistresses). That
: he was simply waiting for his sovereign
: father (King George V) to die, so as to make
: her into his wife.
:
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