We’ve all met the queen, but very few the person. She was a country woman, with a great sense of humor and ‘with little ego’. As a mother, however, she was not particularly warm or loving.
Reserved, always perfect in her public face, always queen, Elizabeth II barely hinted at the woman under the crown. The enigma and mystery that surrounded her person were part of the work, and she understood it very well from the start: without the mysticism, the monarchy falters.
The queen never ceased to be the queen. But out of the limelight, in private, those who got to know her more closely paint the portrait of a simple, practical woman, wife, mother and grandmother, an animal lover, with a well-developed sense of humor.
Richard Griffin, one of the agents responsible for his protection for many years, recently shared a revealing anecdote in this regard. One day, walking the dogs around Balmoral Castle, where she died yesterday, she met some American tourists who didn’t recognize her and who even asked her if she’d ever met the Queen. “I don’t, but Dick (from Griffin) sees her often,” she said. “And how are you?” they asked curious people. “He can be a little grumpy at times, but he has a great sense of humor,” the officer replied.
In addition to jokes, Elizabeth II had a great talent for imitating accents and public figures she had met, such as Boris Yeltsin or Margaret Thatcher, although always within her most intimate circle.
Despite this, the people who worked with her describe a shy woman, who used tricks, such as always carrying her bag, even though she didn’t need it, as part of her armor to cope with official acts. “He was very normal, the most normal of the non-normal people I’ve ever met. He was very humble, he had no ego, he was quite shy,” Samantha Cohen, who was his press secretary for 17 years, told The Telegraph newspaper.
They say opposite personalities attract, and it may be that shyness that led her to fall in love with that handsome naval officer who was so sure of herself. Isabel met Felipe when she was 13 and he 18. She fell in love instantly and, despite the ups and downs of each marriage, her devotion to him lasted a lifetime. “She never looked at anyone else,” her cousin Margaret Rhodes says in one of the many biographies written about her.
As a mother, however, she was not particularly warm or caring. Famous is the reunion in 1952 with his children Carlos and Ana, then 5 and 3 years old, after a six-month tour that took him halfway around the world. There were no kisses or hugs. The monarch shook hands with her children, which surprised even some of the most recalcitrant members of high society.
His biographers say, however, that this lack of affection was due more to his education and the rigidity of the British upper class, at least in those days, than to a cold feeling.
Isabel and Felipe barely saw their children twice a day, after breakfast and tea. The little ones were raised with nannies, and according to historian Sally Bedell Smith, family decisions benefited her husband, especially since she ascended the throne as a young mother of just 25 years.
Although her children have always understood that her mother, as a monarch, was not a mother to use, but that affective detachment seemed to have consequences for her children, at least in Carlos. As a child, the now king was sent to a strict boarding school in Scotland where his parents hardly visited him. When he caught the flu in 1957, Isabel sent him away with a letter before traveling to Canada. In the biographies written about him, there is always a resentment about that lonely childhood.
In spite of everything, Isabel enjoyed motherhood and even decided to breastfeed her four children, just as her mother did with her and as was the custom in the royal family until the 19th century, the motherless Queen Victoria changed that trend.
Her two young children, Andrés and Eduardo, who have been with their older brothers for almost ten years, were able to enjoy their mother in a different way. Isabel had been on the throne for years, feeling more comfortable as a mother and as a queen and decided to extend her maternity leave to take care of the little ones. The British press has always said that Andrés has been his favorite son, supporting even the most difficult moments. The time they enjoyed together helped forge the bond.
However, his grandchildren paint a different portrait than Carlos. The now Prince of Wales, William, has come to say that to him his grandmother was always first, and then the Queen. But Elizabeth Windsor won’t be the only or last strict mother to soften with her grandchildren.
Horses and corgi dogs were his other passion, perhaps the best known of them all. The ‘Racing Post’, a publication about horse and greyhound racing, was the first newspaper I read every morning, and it was in horse racing where the British could see a queen without masks enjoying the show without restraint.
Deep down, some who knew her say, Isabel was a country woman. Balmoral was always his favorite place. The green of his heather has remained under his eyelids forever.
Source: La Verdad
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